Marcy Park Should Always Be Played by Asian Performers
Deborah S. Craig in the original Broadway production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
by Clara Tan, Guest Editorial
"The superior man, in the world, does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow." – Confucius, Analects
Dear god, why are we still doing this? I ask you, in a day and age where racial consciousness is more prevalent than ever, why is it always theatre communities, the ostensibly most open and progressive spaces, that allow the proliferation of racism?
Strong words, to be sure. Let me explain. Up in the cold wastelands of Western New York, a local company is in the midst of ramping up the production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The story: A group of tweens have been assembled for the local spelling bee, the winner of which will go on to compete at the state level. Four audience members are called to join in the competition to add a little flavor. We do love some audience participation.
Pulling from the first paragraph of Musical Theatre International’s synopsis:
“In a high school gym, long time hostess, Rona Lisa Peretti, finalizes the preparations for the annual county spelling bee, reminiscing about her own spelling bee victory, many years prior. The current crop of spelling contenders arrives ("The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"). The contestants include last year's champ, Chip (a boy scout), Schwarzy (the youngest and most politically aware contestant), Coneybear (the somewhat wide-eyed offspring of hippie parents), Barfee (an allergy-plagued student), Marcy (an over-achieving Asian-American) and Olive (a tentative newcomer).”
Of the six named contestants, only one, Marcy Park, is specified as Asian-American. Park, specifically, is a surname associated most commonly with South Korea and the Korean diaspora. Why am I highlighting this? The reason is that the actor cast in the production mentioned above is most certainly not Korean, let alone Asian.
“WAIT!” I can hear you saying. “MTI has specifically stated in their licensing materials that it’s okay to have the character of Park played by an actor of any ethnicity!”
Well, I’m here to tell you that MTI and the creative team behind the show are wrong.
First, some statistics. According to a 2018 study by the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, only 4% of roles cast went to Asian American performers in the 2015-2016 season. That’s a shockingly low number, considering we comprise 7.1% of the US population—that’s 23.5 million people around the country. In New York State alone, Asian Americans comprise 10.8% of the population.
Statistically speaking, if you have ten friends and live in New York, odds are that one of them is some flavor of Asian. So why is it okay that when explicitly Asian representation is written for the stage, it’s okay for the race of that character to be changed? I will note that nobody would dare to hear the same thing being said for characters originated by performers of other ethnicities, such as Benny in In the Heights, either of the eponymous characters of Porgy and Bess, or Tiana of Princess and the Frog.
The United States has a long history of discriminating against Asians. The first-ever immigration law to ban a specific ethnic group was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Everyone is well aware of the Japanese Internment Camps set up during World War II. And, of course, who could forget the massive wave of anti-Asian hate spurred on during the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic? Kung-flu, anyone?
We live in an era marked by a second Cold War, dominated by the United States on one side, and the People’s Republic of China on the other. Anti-Asian rhetoric has been flourishing, spurred on by the last guy in office. And whenever rhetoric against a specific group exists, hate crimes soon follow. 49% of Asian Americans were victims of such in 2023.
We exist in the context of all we live and what came before.
So why the complaint? Because the ease with which MTI allows productions to change the race of Marcy Park is an act of erasure. Here’s MTI’s character description:
The ultimate over-achiever, Marcy has never been given another option. She comes from a family where excellence is expected and so simply produced. A parochial school student, she assumes God, too, expects perfection. She sees herself as a mass of problems but she keeps them to herself. Having moved often because of her parents' work, she knows she can beat the local competition. Her many talents include piano, dance, martial arts, baton twirling, and/or whatever special gifts you can find in your casting pool.
She speaks six languages, after all.
Playing on the stereotype of the overachieving Asian, to be sure, the character was clearly written to be seen as such. She was originated on Broadway by Korean American actor Deborah S. Craig. In the upcoming Kennedy Center production, Filipina-American actor Leana Rae Concepcion, will be playing the role. Her character song is an uptempo lament about the stress associated with the pressure from immigrant parents for their children to succeed. The character's race might change with the actor, but any intelligent audience member would be able to read the coding right away, from the surname right down to the exceling at mathematics and spelling.
Why is it so easy for these supposedly progressive theatre spaces to take that representation away? Again, I will reiterate that this would not even be thought of in any other context with characters of other ethnicities.
To pre-empt a contention, I hear you say, “Well, maybe they couldn’t find an Asian actor.”
Really? The Buffalo metro area has a population of approximately 1.2 million. If those statistics cited hold water, there would be around 120,000 Asians living in Buffalo. Even if we use the national stat of 7%, that still comes up to 84,000. Of all those folks living here, this local theatre couldn’t find a single one to fill the role?
No. They chose not to look. Knowing that MTI gave permission to change the race of the character, they happily went ahead, even casting several other Black actors. How very progressive of them.
They erased Marcy.
This is not a problem unique to Buffalo; theatre companies all across the country do it. They do it because they’re not interested in actually doing the work to engage in real representation. Sure, they’ll make vague gestures in that general direction, but at the end of the day, they don’t actually care.
Nobody’s holding them to account.
If you, as an actor, accept a role that was originally written for a minority other than your own, know that you are not only taking bread out of the mouth of one of your fellow actors but also contributing to the erasure and silencing we’ve been discussing throughout this piece.
In an era of increased hatred towards folks like me, the “most welcoming” of spaces is more than willing to sweep us under the rug when convenient.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail that;
“[The] white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice”
We see that in the empty platitudes of theatremakers who claim to care about justice, equity, and all that jazz. The pursuit of justice would be to cast shows as appropriately as possible. Justice would be ensuring that there are people who represent those communities in the room to provide perspective and guidance on portraying them. According to Second Generation’s own diversity and inclusion page:
“SGT seeks to promote diversity and inclusion in our organization through the following action items… Continue to build relationships with and hire BIPOC artists.”
Funny how that’s casually forgotten because MTI permitted you to do so because it’s a meaningless platitude.
I wish Second Generation all the luck in the world with their opening.
I hope that they and every other theatre company in the country considering doing the same would consider that by erasing Asian voices and Asian characters, they contribute to that very long, storied history of exclusion from the promise that the United States made. You can do better. You ought to do better. Better than empty words and statements. We need to take actual action to fix this. From those behind the table to those on the stage, you are the ones who purport to challenge and engage the hearts and minds of your audiences. I sincerely hope you can honestly say that you’ve achieved those goals.
Because we’ve always been here, no matter how much you try to erase us.
공연 잘 하세요
"Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.” – Confucius, Analects