The Tricky Limits of Color-Blind and Gender-Blind Casting
From Art Times:Once upon a time, boys played the women's roles in Shakespeare's plays. Once upon a different time, Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor performed in blackface to great acclaim, and some brilliant black performers had to hide behind blackface to be accepted by white audiences. (African-American comedian-mime-singer Bert Williams, 1874-1922, once said, "A black face, run-down shoes and elbow-out make-up give me a…