After being told that it cannot make changes to the licensed script for a musical it plans to stage next week, The Grand theater in Ellsworth is making a last-ditch effort to add Black actors to the cast.
If it cannot find Black actors to play minor roles of two slaves in the musical, it will have to cancel the production, the opening of which has been delayed for a week, a theater official said.
But in Ellsworth and other rural parts of Maine, the population of which is more than 93 percent white, finding actors of different races to volunteer for small-town community theater productions is not an easy task.
The Grand is staging the musical “Big River,” an adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The prominent role of Jim, a runaway slave, is being played by a Black actor in The Grand’s production. But the theater initially was unable to get other Black actors to audition for the smaller roles of Alice and her daughter, who are slaves, said Nick Turner, The Grand’s executive director.
The Grand decided to alter the script so that instead of having Alice and her daughter appear onstage, they were going to be referred to in the third person by other characters, Turner said. But someone who Turner declined to identify reported the alteration to the licensing agency which, in turn, notified The Grand that script alterations are a violation of the contract it signed to stage the copyrighted material.
As a result, the characters of Alice and her daughter must appear on stage as they do in the original script, Turner said. And rather than cast white actors in those roles, The Grand again is seeking Black actors to fill them, he said.
The musical originally was scheduled to open Friday, April 4. But, because of the casting difficulty, opening night has been delayed a week, until Friday, April 11.
The Grand emailed an appeal to its supporters on Wednesday, asking for help in finding Black actors to play the two parts.
“We are specifically seeking additional talented African American actors to bring this story to life in a way that reflects its true spirit,” the theater said in the email, adding that prior acting experience was not necessary. “This is not just a show — it’s an opportunity to celebrate voices that have long been underrepresented.”
Turner said Friday that he thinks the musical’s director has since lined up two Black actors to play Alice and her daughter, and that he is confident the musical will open next Friday.
“We have had people reach out,” Turner said. “It looks promising.”
Turner, who has been a small theater administrator in Colorado and Maine for the past 25 years, said this experience of staging “Big River” has been eye-opening for him. He said last-minute changes are common in community theater, which depends on volunteer actors and crew, but this is the first time he’s faced the possibility of having to shut down a production because of a licensing agreement violation.
“I’ve never bumped into this before,” Turner said. “In our efforts [to stage a production about part of America’s racial history], we were perceived as being exclusive.”
Grand officials made the decision a year ago to stage “Big River,” he said, and in January went through the first round of casting. But the only Black actor who auditioned was cast as Jim.
“We really tried,” he said.
Turner was quick to add that he understands why licensing agreements exist, and it is important to be true to the original material. And he stressed that everyone involved in staging the production and following the licensed script has their hearts in the right place.
“Even the people who complained [to the licensing agency] are trying to do the right thing,” he said.
The Grand has staged “Big River” before, 25 years ago, and did not run into this same hurdle, he said. But he added that in the previous production, some Black roles were filled with white actors in blackface — something the theater would never do today.
The Grand likely will have to be more deliberate in considering how it will cast roles in licensed productions in the future, Turner said. The theater is considering staging a production of “The King & I,” in which the king of Thailand is a major character, and would be sure to cast Asian actors in appropriate roles well ahead of time, he said.
“We will follow contracts in exact detail,” Turner said. “We believe strongly in what we’re doing and we’re going to do it right.”
