A local Minnesota theater has cancelled a production of Roger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella because its cast was ‘too white‘.
Chanhassen Dinner Theatres was scheduled to stage the show later this year before its artistic director stepped in to slam its lack of diversity.
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‘It was 98 percent white, ‘ the artistic director, Michael Brindisi, told the Pioneer Press on Wednesday after looking at who had been cast.
However, Chanhassen – located southwest of Minneapolis – has a population that is overwhelming white, and the racial demographics of the cast were not strikingly different from the city as a whole.
In a statement released on Monday, the theater stated: ‘After careful consideration and with our ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we have made the decision to cancel our upcoming production.
‘In addition to changing future programming, we are establishing new pre-production protocols. We will be inviting (and paying) BIPOC artists to analyze the production with our creative teams through a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lens… This conversation will happen before the design and casting process has begun.’
Meanwhile, the organization is current[ly putting together a production of The Music Man and has a ‘strong priority placed on casting BIPOC artists’.
