Spokane’s Civic Theatre makes commitment to change following casting backlash

The Spokane Civic Theatre has committed to expanding its board to create more positions for people of color and to slow the pace of its auditions in response to accusations of systemic racism in its casting process.

It remains to be seen what more steps will be taken or whether these actions will bridge the rift that recently cracked open in the local theater community.

For more than two and a half hours Saturday in front of the Civic Theatre’s mainstage, consultant and former NAACP Spokane President Kiantha Duncan guided a conversation between actors, community supporters, theater leadership and a handful of the local NAACP branch’s current top leadership.

For many in that room, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” had been the final straw. A key theme of the play is the oppression faced by Esmeralda and the Romani of Paris; when the Civic Theatre released its nearly all-white cast list for the production, several actors of color argued they were shut out of the production as Romani roles were given to white actors.

The cast of 24 is largely white, with the primary exception being Kaya Mallick, the South Asian actress cast in the lead role of Esmeralda. Amid the backlash, one white performer cast in a Romani role – Florika, the mother of Quasimodo, the disabled protagonist of the play – dropped out of the production amid what she has described as “death threats” against her.

Four days after posting the controversial cast list, the Civic Theatre announced it would pause the production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and host Saturday’s community forum.

Dana Sammond, a veteran performer at Civic and a part-time employee there, noted that 10 actors of color had been in the callbacks for the production, which they had been told would have 25 to 30 roles. The cast list ultimately included only 24 actors, of which Sammond said only one was an actor of color.

Duncan noted four actors of color were offered roles and two accepted.

Director Melody Deatherage was also accused of ableism by at least one audience member for not casting a disabled actor in the role of Quasimodo. Deatherage said she was not permitted to ask actors whether they were disabled and made her casting decision based on the actor’s ability to sing and climb around the stage.

“I don’t think that, from what you’re saying, that you have faith that disabled people can do those things,” one audience member said.

Matthew Pope, cast in the play as King Louis XI, noted at the forum that he has Tourette’s and other disabilities. He argued that it was unreasonable to expect the director to cast someone unable to meet the physical requirements of the role, nor appropriate to cast someone in the role purely because of the way they looked.

Dahveed Bullis, artistic director of the Stage Left Theater, suggested that the theater should have considered using a shadow actor, which is typically a nondisabled performer who performs in unison with a disabled actor. In the original novel, Quasimodo is deaf; notable performances in both Seattle and London have used shadow performers either to sing or perform sign language in tandem with the actor portraying Quasimodo.

Several actors of color with longstanding ties to the Spokane theater community argued that this production was only the latest confirmation of years of biased casting decisions that had fostered a culture of distrust.

Bullis noted that he had last auditioned for a Civic production in 2015. The child of one Black parent and one white parent, Bullis said he felt dismissed for the role for which he auditioned 11 years ago and instead was typecast as a Hispanic character.

“It ain’t about this show,” Bullis said. “I’ve been waiting for this day for 11 years. Thank God it’s here.”

Duncan, who performed in the Civic Theatre’s 2024 production of “A Christmas Carol,” expressed that she had felt othered by white actors and pushed the theater’s leadership to reconsider some of its casting criteria, particularly how well the actors get along offstage.

Bullis argued that the broader solution was not simply to cast more actors of color in Civic’s plays, but that the organization needed more marginalized people in positions of power. He challenged current board members to consider whether their love for the organization was “trumped by your love of power.”

Duncan pressed board members during the forum to consider creating more seats on the board of directors or creating advisory roles, possibly with direct oversight of the casting decisions. Board President Corey Kahler agreed.

The play’s music director, Ann Benson, argued that part of the production’s casting issues had stemmed from a frantic process with little time for reconsideration.

“I was rushing so hard … one thing I would just like to throw out there, that maybe would make auditions more equitable, is if there’s more than 50 people signed up, that we just push to an extra night of callbacks,” Benson said. “That would have made all the difference for me.”

Pressed by Duncan, the board also agreed at the forum to make sure there was more time during future auditions.

Duncan also emphasized that Saturday’s forum needed to be only the beginning of a process of healing a rift in the community that had been growing for years. The board, in a statement, appeared to agree.

“We acknowledge and apologize to those who have felt unwelcome or hurt within our space, both now and in the past,” the Civic Theatre wrote in a statement on the organization’s website.

“Many of the questions and statements shared at the Forum require ongoing dialogue, planning and strategy. We ask for patience as we continue these conversations and pursue meaningful long-term actions, to which we remain committed.”