Note: the greater Fresno community spans some 100 miles and is vastly rich in multiracial families and individuals

Fresno's own acclaimed Oscar & Pulitzer

Prize winning author. William Saroyan

Fresno's own

Audra McDonald


Beautiful Audra
Dr. Naomi Bennett (Private Practice)

Located in the beautiful California Central Valley, Fresno California has many "Claims to Fame." William Saroyan, for one. Another is Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald A Delicate Balance
By Liesl Yamaguchi
Political correctness is dead and Mel Brooks is tap dancing on his grave. With his new megahit The Producers, Brooks burst that overblown bubble of euphemisms and shut the door on the 1990s. So now the question arises: what's next? A return to the stereotypes of the 1950s? Fifty years of history cannot be ignored. The challenge of the next decade is to retain a new cultural awareness without allowing it to blow out of proportion. Rather than highlight cultural differences with long-winded labels, the mission now is to look beyond the labels. But colorblindness does not provide the answer either, for it effaces cultures along with stereotypes. Audra McDonald, Broadway's first African American diva, lives the solution to this dilemma, gracefully embracing her race without allowing it to overshadow her talent.

Much of McDonald's poise in her battles against typecasting stems from the supportive theatrical family and community of her childhood. Throughout her youth in Fresno, California, McDonald performed at the local dinner theater, Roger Rocka's Good Company Players, and at her performing arts high school. Colorblind casting from a visionary director encouraged her talents in roles such as Eva Peron in Evita and Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. Today McDonald acknowledges this open-mindedness as very influential to her handling of race issues; she says, "I worked at a theater where people believed in non-traditional roles, so that was instilled in me from a very young age (Charleston). The road to success did not run entirely smooth, however, and typecasting confronted Audra even in Fresno. McDonald's mother Anna recounts tears over The Sound of Music, for which Audra "apparently didn't look Austrian enough" (Freudenheim). Even beyond the limitations that typecasting directors placed on McDonald were those of her parents. Born into a musical family, McDonald grew up under the careful guidance of two parents who steered her way from roles that denigrated her race. More tears were shed over Showboat and The Miracle Worker, two productions the McDonalds vetoes due to the negative stereotypes they perpetrated about blacks. Anna explains, "I didn't want my daughter seeing herself as a maid" (Freudenheim).

Though Audra balked at the time, she now acknowledges the wisdom of her parents' guidance. Throughout her career, McDonald has remained faithful to the guideline they laid out: never accept a role that degrades what you are, and never confuse what you are with who you are. The sacrifices along the way have only made McDonald's ascent even more incredible, for as the Los Angeles Times writes, "Perhaps what's most impressive about where McDonald is today is that she has gotten there very much on her own terms" (Freudenheim). From her early childhood, Audra McDonald learned to avoid stereotypical roles which emphasized her color above her talent.

From Fresno, McDonald moved to New York City where she studied at the famed Juilliard School. Upon graduating, she quickly discovered that she would have to work to prove her talent was large enough to overshadow her color; she was cut from the ensembles of both Beauty and the Beast and Les Miserables (Span). A small break finally came when a friend networked her into an audition for The Secret Garden and she was cast as Ayah. Although the job was a welcome opportunity, it did not signify any great strides in colorblind casting, as Ayah is a traditionally ethnic role. The real break came when Nicholas Hytner daringly cast McDonald in the traditionally caucasian role of the prim, New England millgirl Carrie Pipperidge in his revival of Carousel. The role had never been played by an African American before. McDonald modestly attributes this break to luck, recalling, "They were looking to cast Carousel colorblind, they just didn't know who or what. They wanted to make it a nonissue, and I just came along" (Freudenheim). Hytner's risk proved well-advised, as McDonald won rave reviews and her first Tony award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.

The struggle to overcome her color did not end with the Tony Award, however. Her next project, Terence McNally's Master Class, rose more questions of talent versus type. While singers such as Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price presented the possibility of a black singer in Maria Callas's master classes, McDonald's casting did not slip by unchallenged. Zoe Caldwell, who portrayed Callas in the production, "initially questioned the historical accuracy of casting a black in Terrence McNally's Master Class" (Freudenheim). Only after much persuasion by McNally was McDonald officially cast in the role of Sharon, one of Callas' Julliard students. Once again, she won a Tony for her performance, proving once again that talent can overcome type. Truly a pioneer in breaking the typecasting barriers of musical theater, McDonald believes change can only come through perseverance. She advises young ethnic actors to "Let people see how talented you are that you can take over a role and do it well. Put the responsibility in their hands. If you don't audition because you're sure they'll never cast a black person, then you'll never be able to help break down those barriers, or prove yourself" (Charleston). Already McDonald, only twenty-six at the time, was breaking down those barriers.

After two roles which pointedly ignored her race, McDonald turned in what seemed the reverse direction and embarked on two projects which specifically required a black actress. In Sarah (Ragtime) and Marie (Marie Christine), McDonald created "two fierce and decidedly memorable African American women on Broadway iconic roles for young black actresses, something rare until now in the theatrical canon" (Freudenheim). After establishing her talent independent of her race, McDonald returned to her roots and began to pave the way for future black actresses. What is remarkable about this transition, though, is the grace with which McDonald began to acknowledge her color. She managed to join a small political movement without retreating to a fringe. McDonald can embrace her race without alienating her mainstream audience, because her talent always comes before her political stance and her roles are never stereotypical. Only six years after her casting in Carousel was considered revolutionary, McDonald has helped make Broadway a place "where colorblind casting is common though hardly universal, [and] race may no longer make such a difference" (Span). McDonald has changed the way both casting directors and audiences view ethnic performers.

Following her six revolutionary years on Broadway, McDonald began to expand into the realm of film and television. Though she had already established herself on the New York stage, McDonald quickly discovered that racial barriers still blocked her way in Hollywood. Never one to back away from a challenge, McDonald won roles in Disney's Annie (Grace Farrell), HBO's Wit (Nurse, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award), and the documentary feature Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. But the breaks have been hard to come by. McDonald's path, like that of all trailblazers, has been tumultuous, "because I don't have any particular role model that I'm following. You have to trust your gut with what is offered to you and what feels right" (Freudenheim). McDonald has found the world of film much more difficult to break into, even after her incredible Broadway feats, "because there are a lot more stereotypes in film and t.v. Not to slam television or to slam film, but you don't see a huge variation of characters when it comes to African American women" (Freudenheim).

Colorblind casting has not yet become a reality in Hollywood, and when Disney cast McDonald against type in their primetime remake of Annie, hate mail poured into their offices (Givens). While Broadway theatergoers probably would have swallowed the interracial relationship between Grace Farrell and Daddy Warbucks without protests [as McDonald herself notes, when Annie was released, interracial couples headed the casts of such hits as Aida, Kiss Me, Kate and McDonald's own Marie Christine (Henderson)], television audiences balked. By its very nature, film depends much more on the visual look of a performer than does the stage, so change may not come as rapidly as it has in the theater. But McDonald's attitude is, as ever, hopeful; she believes that if "there's a role you think you can play, go for it. You don't need to put limitations on yourself. Lord knows everybody else will" (Freudenheim). This attitude has opened doors to McDonald; Annie's director Rob Marshall declares that she cannot be pigeonholed because "Audra is limitless" (Henderson). McDonald defies all boundaries, floating freely between opera, Broadway, television, white roles, black roles, and everything in between.

Audra McDonald symbolizes the changing face of entertainment and America's changing attitudes towards diversity. As a prominent African American actress, "she is a symbol of hope for a time when roles will be given out entirely for talent and not just type" (Freudenheim). McDonald acknowledges this movement, saying "Today, slowly, very slowly, others are starting to come around in this business" (Charleston). Now an established force on the Broadway stage, McDonald must face the knowledge that her decisions will impact the future of musical theater casting. As Playbill notes, Broadway is changing, and at "a time when American musical theater is at a crossroads, all eyes have turned to the prodigiously talented singer-actress named Audra McDonald"(Henderson). McDonald acknowledges the weight of her career decision, but says she tries not to think about it, focusing instead on how lucky she is to be doing what she loves. After all, she provides living inspiration for young performers like the little girl who, upon finding McDonald at the stage door, declared, "I always wanted to be on Broadway, and my mom said, "There're no blacks on Broadway; and then you came along and I said, "There's one!" (Charleston). By maintaining a delicate balance between her racial identity and her artistic identity, Audra McDonald spearheads the next step in America's coming to terms with its diversity.

Bibliography

Charleston, Rita. "Knocking Down Doors Got Her to Master Class" Philadelphia Tribune. February 24, 1995.
Freudenheim, Susan. "She's Free of All the Usual Limits" Los Angeles Times. April 9, 2001.
Givens, Ron. "A Killer Role for Audra McDonald" Daily News. December 1, 1999.
Henderson, Kathy. "Playbill Online's Brief Encounter with Audra" Playbill Online. December 28, 1999.
McNally, Terrence. "Introduction". Way Back to Paradise CD booklet. Nonesuch Records, 1998.
Span, Paula. "The Aura of Audra". The Washington Post. May 7, 2001.