Sitting in a coffee shop waiting to write my first article, "Anything Goes," from the 1934 musical of the same name, came on over the speakers. The history of theater is in this country, as it is any time that we create, view, listen to, and appreciate art new and old, was all around me. It was a backdrop all too fitting for my thoughts about today's theater- where it's been, where it is, and where it should go.

Theater is at a point now where it is more diverse than ever before. Plays like "Eclipsed" and "The Crucible" and musicals like "The Color Purple," "Shuffle Along," and, of course, "Hamilton," dominated this year's Tony Award nominations with a diversity of cast and creators that was celebrated with the hashtag #TonysSoDiverse in response to the lack of diversity in nominees at this year's Oscars. This celebration is absolutely deserved. I love that I am living and making theater in an age when a young Asian-American woman can play the powerhouse that is Eliza Hamilton. My face lit up when I saw "The Spongebob Musical" and discovered that both Sandy, Pearl, and Karen, three characters from my childhood who I never even realized I'd assumed would be white, were played by people of color. I think it’s amazing that a musical based on a children’s television show can thrive alongside a play written and directed by women that tells the stories of women living through wartime in Liberia. But this progress must continue beyond the largest stages and into theaters everywhere.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tony Award winner Leslie Odom, Jr., who originated the role of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton,” spoke about the strides that theater diversity is making and the bridges that Broadway has yet to cross. “If a white actor was having a similar situation as I’m having right now in this show,” he said, “there might be three or four offers a week for the next shows that you’re gonna do. There are no shows for me to do.” He addresses an important issue- Hamilton cannot exist in a vacuum where we congratulate ourselves on being diverse but do not work to expand that vision to include new stories, new spaces, and even more opportunities. And regional and community theaters should take a hint from their Broadway inspirations- people of color and other underrepresented communities must be accurately and fully given their rightful place in the world of theater.

Chicago theater has done great work to bring diversity into theatrical spaces, especially for young people creating and crafting art and forming the next generation of theater-makers. Albany Park Theater Project and The Yard are just two examples I’ve seen recently of groups that are working to bring authentic stories and young actors of different races and backgrounds to the theater community. But even in a city with so many vibrant, artistic young people and a population that is 36 percent black or African-American and 26 percent Hispanic or Latinx, two theaters have recently gotten heat for a lack of diversity in their casting. The Marriott and Porchlight Music Theatre’s productions of “Evita” and “In The Heights,” respectively, have each been criticized for their whitewashed portrayal of Latin characters. I am not here to discount the talent and hard work of the many people who work to make these and other productions possible. I am here to say, as a young person who loves theater and believes that Chicago is an incredible place to learn about and create it, that theaters must do better.

Whitewashing, or casting white actors as characters of color, is by no means a new practice. Patti LuPone played Eva Perón in 1979. I love Patti with all my heart, but she is a white woman who played an Argentine political leader. And many people, at least Tony Award voters, seemed to think this was OK. Sure, it was a different time. Yes, Patti is amazing. But it wasn’t OK then and theaters have a responsibility, as artists and change-makers in a world that are ever-evolving and diversifying, to maintain that it’s not OK now. The theater community does not need the same privileged stories, and it certainly doesn’t need non-white stories whitewashed.

Theater is moving forward, as theater, and the world does. The history and progress that have brought us to where we are, from Shakespeare to “Anything Goes” to “Hamilton,” are incredible and inspiring, but we cannot stop there. To me, what’s amazing about theater is the way it reveals and challenges the world around us in a genuine, beautiful, and uniquely human way. When theater does not accurately and equitably represent the world and the people who lead honest, courageous, and important lives in it, that progress cannot continue. 11 Tony Awards for Hamilton do not add up to a pat on the back and permission to stop actively working to expand the kind of stories we tell and the people who tell them. We must ride the momentum from the 2015-16 season like a wave that can encompass theater worldwide, from the Great “White” Way to the smallest community and school theaters. We need more casting choices like Philippa Soo as the kindhearted French Amélie or newcomer Ana Villafañe as Cuban-American superstar Gloria Estefan or Noma Dumezweni as beloved literary character Hermione Granger. We need for theater to reflect the reality and all its variations of the world in which it lives.

Theater has given me so much of what I have today. My best friends, my most cherished memories, and some of my greatest accomplishments and passions have all come from having amazing opportunities to create beautiful projects with incredible collaborators. Theater is a place that accepts people for who they are, opens their hearts, and lifts their voices. I believe that everyone deserves a chance to create art and tell their story in an accepting creative community, as I have. And those who don’t participate deserve to see their reality accurately and beautifully represented in a way that is moving, important, and wonderfully human. The theater community, in Chicago and across the world, has a responsibility to make its houses homes for everyone.

In the words of a wonderful musical that is revolutionary and beautiful and just not enough, “History has its eyes on you.”