Miscast: Who Owns the Story on Stage?

Miscast examines who has authority over character casting in American theatre: the playwright or the institution producing the work. David Boles traces non-traditional casting from fifth-century Athens through Shakespeare's boy actors, nineteenth-century blackface minstrelsy, the founding of the Non-Traditional Casting Project in 1986, and contemporary institutional practices. The book analyzes specific cases including Samuel Beckett's refusal to allow directorial changes to his stage directions, August Wilson's 1996statement that Black plays require Black actors, the casting of Hamilton and the 2022 revival of 1776, debates over casting Helen Keller, the removal of a white ASL interpreter from The Lion King, Ali Stroker's Tony-winning performance in Oklahoma!, and the Dramatists Guild's 2021 Inclusion Rider—the first theatre contract addendum asking playwrights to redirect copyright authority toward institutional demographic objectives. Boles, a Dramatists Guild member since 1984, argues that playwrights create and determine their characters' identities. When playwrights choose non-traditional casting, it constitutes artistic choice. When institutions impose such casting against a playwright's wishes or without their knowledge, it represents something different. The book includes fourteen chapters, a glossary, a timeline from 534 BCE to 2053, a comprehensive list of discussed plays and productions, and full source documentation.