Recently, national media outlets have picked up a story from Ithaca High School regarding a casting of a white student in the role of Esmerelda in the intended production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The controversy that halted the production at the school stems from two beliefs: 1) that racial based casting is important to high school musical theater, and 2) that Esmerelda has to look a specific way.

I would like to dissect both premises independent of any personal biases of the director in this particular case. I do not have any personal experience with the specific program of the school or the program director, and I cannot say if there is any pattern of disenfranchisement or not.

Theater in general often plays with concepts of identity, particularly gender. Everything is an act, people are putting on a performance. There are costumes and makeup and accents, and as long as you aren’t stupid enough to think blackface is okay, pretty much anything goes. And, there, race is a different issue. Race cannot be impersonated. This aspect of identity, while is can be translated and related to, cannot be appropriated in the theater space.

That’s not what we do here. Race is inimitable.

Foremost I need to distinguish high school theater from Theater ™ as an industry. None of what I’m going to argue applies to Broadway and national theater companies. Theater as an industry has a much larger pool of people who audition; theater as an industry is not as limited as high school theater.

Miss Saigon needs to have a cast of Asians. Hairspray needs to have black people and white people. The Color Purple needs to have a black cast. In the Heights needs to include Hispanic people. These stories are about people of color, and should be told by people of color.

However, high school is different.

Esmerelda is the female lead. She also needs to be the best singer.

High school musicals should be based on TALENT. Audition pools may be small, and the number of potential singers for lead roles is minute. If you are going to pay 10 to 15 dollars to sit through a 2-hour show, you don’t want to run from the auditorium, crying and clutching your bleeding ears halfway through act 1.

Trust me.

I don’t think – and it is just my opinion – that race or ethnicity should be a large factor in casting high school productions. Of course, all shows should be diverse. But more importantly they need to represent the school, because that’s all they can do. A school shouldn’t be prevented from putting on a show based on the demographic of the cast, UNLESS it is a show about the oppression of an explicitly stated group AND it is relevant enough to the characters that the show won’t make sense.

For the love of God don’t do Hairspray if your demographic is 95% white. It won’t work.

My old high school recently put on In the Heights, and of course I couldn’t wait to see it. Our cast was diverse and reflected our school’s demographics, but there was only 1 Latinx cast member. Our casting was based on talent, and on our students. Our directors always try to do the best they can, knowing our students as well as they do. And given our theater community, the issue could not be helped.

In the Heights is more than about Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. It is about gentrification and the disenfranchisement of people of color. It’s about immigrants and family and community. These central themes are vastly larger and more important than one race.

Arguably the only important racial distinction in the production is between the Rosarios and Benny – as they explicitly state that he can’t be a part of their family because he doesn’t speak Spanish. His role of “other” is central to his development in relation to the Rosarios, but that also doesn’t dictate the characters’ races, just that they be different.

Additionally, people of color shouldn’t be relegated to roles written for their race. We need black Cinderellas and Asian Wednesday Adames. Following the lead of productions in the theater industry, like Hamilton, color-blind casting can have a positive impact on the audiences’ interpretation of the show. People of every race can find characters they can relate to.

Every production offers something new.

Stories about the struggles of people of color need to be told. Young people, people in theater and in high school, need the opportunity to learn and grow in these stories. The chance to tell these stories shouldn’t be inherently limited by the demographic of the school.

On to the second point: Esmerelda is a very specific character in this argument of racial casting. The character is Romani. The Romani people have been historically oppressed and persecuted like no other, across the globe. Although they originated around the Indian subcontinent, they have been pushed and pulled to every corner of the world.

As is the case, there is no one way that the Romani people look, at least not today. Just as being Hispanic is an ethnicity, meaning originating from Spanish speaking culture and does not indicate skin color, Romani people can be light and dark in complexion. There is no one Esmerelda.

There’s no one way to look Peurto Rican. There’s no one way to look black or white or Asian. Multiracial people exist. Casting based on how people look, especially in relation to an arbitrary stereotype of that race, erases the diversity of all ethnicities.

That being said, she has been an icon for young girls with darker skin because of Disney’s version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I understand wanting to see a person of color in this role. Even though the casting call, as described by the licensing company that owns the rights to the show, is for all ethnicities, our generation recognizes her as a darker woman of color.

It also seems disingenuous to say that any person of color would do. Not all people of color are the same, and people with dark skin tones often face colorism in addition to racism.

But Esmerelda is not just strong because she is Romani. She is admirable because she defends those who cannot defend themselves. She takes care of her community, and of strangers. She faces those who aim to degrade her with her wild courage and spirit.

I suppose the cast of any musical isn’t supposed to be mostly gay either… but have you been to the theater?

And even Lin Manuel Miranda casts himself as a Dominican in In the Heights, when he is Puerto Rican- where's the line? What is close enough?

As a disclaimer, there are things in this argumentative space that I did not touch on, for the simplicity of the point of the discussion, and my inability to comprehensively explain all the intricacies that this topic deserves, given my privileged and limited experience.

Also, it is worth noting that Ithaca High School students have faced severe public backlash for voicing their opinions. It is never okay to harass people online, especially students trying to express themselves and issues they have firsthand experience with.