Northeastern students, faculty call for racial diversity, inclusion in theatre department
Theatre department Chair Antonio Ocampo-Guzman wants to diversify curriculum. Photo courtesy of Ocampo-Guzman
January 26, 2022
In an effort to combat racism and create a more inclusive and diverse environment for students, Northeastern’s theatre department, under the leadership of department Chair Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, is beginning to revise the curriculum with the goal of enabling discussions about marginalized communities and their untold stories.
Ocampo-Guzman said the department will be partnering with artEquity, a national initiative that “provides tools, resources and training at the intersection of art and activism,” according to their website, to diversify the department’s curriculum and facilitate inclusion.
“I think the best antidotes to racism are active listening, conversations, study groups, affinity groups and to just keep going forward,” Ocampo-Guzman said.
Ocampo-Guzman explained in an email to The News that the department’s action plan includes the implementation of a new class called The American Black Theatre Experience to help students understand the wide range of non-white experiences within the theatre world.
These efforts will be reflected in the productions the department has to offer this semester. For instance, the department will be producing a new musical called “This is Treatment.” Composed and co-directed by Elizabeth Addison, an accomplished Black woman in the Boston theatre scene, this musical, based on the stories of Black and brown women recovering from substance abuse in a rehab facility, helps diversify the stories Northeastern tells on stage.
According to Northeastern’s Undergraduate Admissions website, the university’s student population consists of “12,098 international students coming from over 118 countries.” Despite Northeastern’s statistically diverse community, some students of color express concern about the lack of representation they feel on stage and in the theatre curriculum.
Second-year psychology major Eva Guo called on the theatre department to provide more opportunities for people of color to be able to tell their stories through productions and in the classroom.
“In text-based classes, instead of only studying materials written by playwrights from this country, the department should incorporate a canon of work written and performed by artists of different backgrounds and cultural experiences,” Guo said.
Ocampo-Guzman’s desire for a more equitable theatrical environment stems from his own experiences within the profession. Growing up in Colombia, theatre was not a well-respected profession and had to spend his childhood battling homophobia.
“The life that I had been designed for was not going to be possible because of the homophobia of that time,” Ocampo-Guzman said. “I knew I was going to have to invent a new life.”
The hardships Ocampo-Guzman faced as a young, gay adult in Colombia prepared him to have important conversations about race, inclusion and diversity at Northeastern.
“Overall, objectively, I consider myself to be an immigrant success story,” Ocampo-Guzman said. “But it’s weird because when you’re not a white, cisgender, heteronormative male in this country, everything is different.”
Ocampo-Guzman is not the only one in the Northeastern community who acknowledges the lack of equality in theatre. Guo, who is originally from Hong Kong, faces unique challenges as a student who immigrated to the United States in hopes of pursuing theatre, beginning at Northeastern.
“In the Asian community, theatre is known to be a job where you can’t earn money,” Guo said. “At my high school, many students were passionate about the arts, but by the end, I was the only person who decided to pursue theatre further because those kids knew that their parents wouldn’t support it. … My parents told me not to pursue theatre as well, but I applied without telling them, so I am here.”
Hong Kong is an ethnically homogeneous region of China, so Guo never noticed an issue with diversity on stage or in film. However, once she became acquainted with American entertainment, she witnessed a strong prevalence of racial stereotyping in casting.
“I’ve noticed that Asians tend to play the role of someone who is small and stepped on, whereas white actors play the dominant protagonist,” Guo said. “We’re casted to be bullied.”
Although she chose to attend Northeastern because of its large international student population, Guo was overcome with fear and doubt when she did not see diverse representation on the theatre department’s Instagram page.
“Everyone they advertised and promoted was white, and I asked myself, ‘Do I really want to be here?’” Guo said.
Feeling like she belonged to an environment that promoted whiteness over ethnic and cultural diversity, Guo wasn’t sure that her unique experiences as an Asian woman in theatre would spark the interest of her peers.
“I think the professors and students here are very understanding, but when I am in class speaking about how Asian women have been degraded in Hollywood, I don’t think it resonates with people,” Guo said. “I feel like one of those commercials that interrupts a TV show where people just listen but they actually want to press skip so that they can get back to the main program.”
Jada Saintlouis, a first-year theatre major, has had a slightly different experience while pursuing theatre as a young Black woman in Boston. While she hasn’t experienced racial stereotyping in casting, she received many of her roles from connections at her high school, Boston Arts Academy.
“Going to an arts high school filled with people who look just like me, I didn’t deal with much typecasting,” Saintlouis said. “But most of the opportunities I had received to showcase my talent and be seen was because I had connections to white people in power.”
Saintlouis believes that the university can take action by hiring more staff of color to teach theatre classes so students of color have professors that they can look up and relate to. She also feels that the department would effectively generate enthusiasm and engagement with students across the university if they portrayed stories about various identities and cultures.
“We need to be seen and heard. We need stories that many people can truly relate to,” she said.
Saintlouis has faith that the department will take the necessary actions to move forward.
“I feel like the work we do, the community we have and the one we can build, from here on, will be worthwhile … if we take the steps to get there,” Saintlouis said.
