Concept Shirtlessness

This week a friend and IMS member has been sending me pictures of this man, model Miguel Iglesias, as an option for the blog while he procrastinates from studying for his final exams. I know good male shirtlessness always makes me do better on my exams! It has been a bit difficult to find a picture in which Mr. Iglesias is shirtless but also wearing pants, but here's a good one, I think. I told my friend that I was actually hoping to post some Latin shirtlessness today because of a bit of a Latin scandal that is storming the theater community.

A production of "Motherf***er with the Hat" was recently staged at Theaterworks in Hartford, CT, featuring two Caucasion actors in the leading roles that were written as Nuyoricans. The playwright expressed his outrage at the choice on Facebook which then resulted in a New York Times article. My friends in the New York theatrical community are outraged, even more so because it was revealed that the two roles were simply offered to the actors without auditions and no Latin actors were ever seen for the roles. This turn of events depresses me as an actor knowing that even when a role is written with my "type" in mind, I may not even get seen for it much less cast, and as a playwright knowing that when I write ethnically specific roles, a theater may still cast whomever they want. How will our theater ever change from the incredibly homogenous art form it has become?

What gives me comfort is the amount of discussion the event has spawned. And good shirtlessness. I'm just saying that I look forward to the day when men of all races are on the American stage taking their shirts off in front of their ethnically diverse female co-stars. Until then, I am...

Yours in shirtlessness,
Nandita
President
IMS