FRUSTRATED! WHERE'S THE COLOUR-BLIND CASTING IN THIS BLOODY COUNTRY!!!

I agree that this kind of thing can be very frustrating, but perhaps it should be looked at in the context of the demographic of auditionees? It's no good looking at the population of the country as a whole and deciding that casting decisions should reflect the ethnic make-up of that cohort - people can only cast based on who auditions and the relative merits of auditionees ON THE DAY OF AUDITION. Even NIDA grads can flunk auditions, with all respect. NIDA's not a golden ticket to fame and stardom, opening all doors. NIDA grads still have to work bloody hard to get jobs, regardless their skin colour. Coming from an amateur background, I can comment that there are some wonderfully colourblind casting decisions made by non-professional theatre companies. I was part of a Fiddler on the Roof production which featured two women of "Asian" appearance in the chorus (the only two such who auditioned). I've also seen a production of The Gondoliers in which one of the leads was black - played by a visiting international student!. In Brisbane right now, there's a production of Rent with a very diverse cast (as befits such a show) with a major solo sung by an extremely talented young lady "of Asian appearance". This same performer was also recently in the chorus for Les Mis with a different Brisbane theatre company. Talent speaks for itself. Unfortunately, for amateur and professional companies all across Australia, there is a dearth of non-white and non-English-speaking-background actors auditioning for roles. This makes it extremely difficult to put on certain shows, in spite of the enthusiasm of both performers and directors to see them done. What amateur group could possibly tackle Porgy and Bess, for example, when one rarely sees a black actor at an audition? Particularly in the amateur scene, my experience has shown that there is as much diversity as possible given the cohorts of auditionees seen and the relative talents of individual performers. What, then, is the answer? Should we discriminate against highly talented white English speaking actors solely to increase the range of skin colours we have in any given production? Does this kind of affirmative action make any difference other than to racistly discriminate against otherwise qualified performers? I make no judgement, but offer it as food for thought.