In my early 20s I moved to London like many Australians have tended to do as a rite of passage. I had a vague idea I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t know how I would pursue my dream or what sort of writing I would go on to do – but playwriting was certainly not on my agenda. Not long after moving to London however, I became aware of why the city is often called the , and why the theatre scene there is so important to the city.
Theatre in London drove conversation and was often where a number of writers got their first break. But for me, when I discovered London’s theatre scene I found diversity – something I had never seen before growing up in Sydney. I found that people who looked like me could be playwrights too, and that’s how I started my career in writing - by writing plays. It was something I would never have considered doing in Australia.
Cut to many years later, and I now find myself living back in Sydney, a mother, a writer in a number of fields, and still a little despondent about Australia’s theatre scene. As much as there has been a lot of talk about , it still remains largely white. And I, as many diverse theatre makers before me, had given up hope that things would change any time soon. But having seen Hamilton over the weekend I finally found a glimpse of hope that a production as mainstream and as important to the as that, could have a cast that was largely made up of people of colour.
As much as has been written about the show, seeing the extraordinary calibre of talent performing live on the stage was breathtaking for me to watch. But the whole time I kept thinking, why hadn't we seen such talent before? Why had Australia lagged so far behind in promoting POC theatre talent?
I never saw myself as a person of colour and I always thought I could play any role.
Musical theatre especially has been as well as largely white production crews. Last year performer Melanie Bird told The Age: "I never saw myself as a person of colour and I always thought I could play any role. It wasn’t until I entered the world of musical theatre that I became much more aware of it. It’s a systemic issue here because we’re used to seeing a certain look for lead roles but Australia is very diverse and that should be reflected in any media."
Having a diverse cast that reflected multicultural Australia was of utmost importance to Hamilton's Australian producer Michael Cassel. He : “The very first conversation we had was that this show has to reflect Australian society. It’s what the show demands and what was thrilling especially when a lot of people were saying, ‘Are we ever going to be able to cast that calibre of talent? Do we have the population in Australia?’ So to have all those people assembled onstage is extraordinary and I hope it provides the impetus for others to follow suit."
The creator of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, mentioned something similar. "It really is important to find local talents and homegrown talent – and with Hamilton, our goal was always to create the most diverse stage picture you can possibly see," . "I feel like what I do every time I sit at my computer is trying to get us on the boards — and by us, I mean black and brown bodies, on that stage and telling stories."
When you grow up in a cultural landscape that is almost completely white, you feel like you aren't being seen.
As a theatre maker and creative myself, I completely understood what Miranda was saying. When you grow up in a cultural landscape that is almost completely white, you feel like you aren't being seen, like your experience has not been validated by the society you're a part of. Telling stories that get more POC bodies seen is one of my primary drivers as a creative.
But while many people in this country have long spoken about the need for diversity on both our screen and stage, few have put their money where their mouth is. For those people it maybe heartening to know that in Australia, Hamilton before it had even begun, with over 250,000 tickets sold before the first preview. The ticket sales of the show eclipsed other popular productions such as The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, The Book of Mormon and Wicked.
, one of Hamilton's stars, Chloe Zuel, who plays Eliza, wrote: "I grew up thinking it was normal to not see anyone that looked like me on the T.V., in magazines, on posters, on stage. I thought that my skin was the wrong colour because there were no “skin colour” dance tights to match me at Bloch, no “skin colour” band-aids to cover my cuts."
To see her performing in Hamilton I had to reflect why Zuel wasn't a household name. I hope after this she will become one.
My hope is that ultimately the success of Hamilton persuades theatre producers and decision makers in this country that diversity can lead to commercial success, because we need more people in power investing in people from diverse backgrounds, so we can have our stories heard, and our experiences validated in the mainstream. And so all of us, no matter where we come from, can feel seen.
Saman Shad is a freelance writer and playwright. Follow her on Twitter
