Unkown to and yet intimately affected by the actions of Producer, Actor and Union in the Miss Saigon issue are the individuals involved in theatrical performances on college campuses throughout the country.

The questions of justice and fairness that arise whenever an actor is cast for a role are not limited to media sponges like Miss Saigon and Richard III. Student directors, actors and audiences are collectively responsible for much of the cross-casting experimentation that occurs in theatre today.

Many student directors emphasize that race and gender are not viable concerns. Talent is paramount. Student actors and directors interested in cross casting have discovered tat careful re-examination of classic roles played by white or male actors reveals that the conflicts and experiences of these characters are more distinctly human than particularly male or female, white or black.

Tufts' student director Sharon Cinnamon says that "all campus shows are cast with a policy of no discrimination." She is currently directing a version of West Side Story with women actors playing the parts of gang members in both the Sharks and the Jets.

Boston University graduate student director Marcus Hogan supports Cinnamon's Color-and sex-blind casting policies. "I need someone to get into the essence of the character," he says. "Color or gender is not important."

Hogan has been extensively involved in cross casting. He is currently directing a version of Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernada Alba in which a male actor is being used to play the part of a grandmother. In the past he has directed performances of The Elephant Man where he used a handsome male actor to play the role of John Merrick. Hogan says the actor was "representing what was inside the character rather than his outward appearance."

Un-Common Casting at Harvard?

The Harvard/Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) boasts a plethora of actors and directors who have been involved in performances which cross cast roles. HRDC President Mary Elizabeth Rieffel says the club's primary concern is to "encourage participation and get the best people possible involved in shows."

HRDC Campus Liaison Beth Norman traces the club's active commitment to cross racial casting a few years back. "In the past, shows were very white-bread," Norman says. "Now, no one is ever disqualified because of their color and there is a definite push for cross-casting."

In the past few years, performances like Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead as well as Black Community And Student Theatre's (C.A.S.T's) Trouble in Mind have explored the new perspectives and insights raised by untraditional casting.

Molly Bishop, director of this season's production of The Tempest has cast a woman in the traditionally male role of Ariel, finding tat the political tensions in the play are interestingly transformed into sexual tensions. Most of my shows are feminist oriented," Bishop explains. "I feel an obligation to find good roles for women."

Recognizing that cross casting changes the audience's perception of the performance is an interesting by-product of gender and racial role swapping. Director Jenny Gibbs offers last spring's all-female production of As You Like it as a prime example.

"By casting Orlando and Rosalind as women, the audience was deprived of hidden heterosexual tension, resulting in the actors being brought to the forefront rather than the characters," Gibbs says. "Belief was suspended but this resulted in a more intellectualized viewing position."

A Battle of Means and Ends

Does no-holds barred, cross-casting always work? College directors and actors fall on both sides of this issue. Harvard student director Jim Marino briefly considered cross-gender casting during auditions for this fall's production of Romeo and Juliet. "The play is largely about women being oppressed by a patriarchal society. I decided that having women carry the swords that force Juliet into marriage wouldn't be as plausible as having male actors in those roles," Marino says.