Out of town, on Broadway and on the road, the recent revival of “1776” was strategically cast in a nontraditional manner, with actors of diverse gender identities and racial backgrounds portraying the white, male Founding Fathers as they finalized the Declaration of Independence. “Putting history in the hands of the humans who were left out the first time around,” read the show’s marketing material.
But a lawsuit, filed earlier this week by actor Zuri Washington, alleges racial discrimination and retaliation on the show’s national tour. Washington hopes the complaint, which recounts producers’ dismissal of Washington’s hair preferences and alleges she was terminated after expressing an intent to submit a formal report of discrimination, reignites conversations about the industry’s inequitable treatment of Black hair and the harmful perpetuation of the “angry Black woman” stereotype.
“I was made to feel like I did something wrong in the course of this entire experience, and I know I didn’t do anything wrong,” Washington tells The Times. “I could have done things differently, perhaps. But what they did to me is like a legal version of tone-policing, and like I’m being constantly punished for existing and telling my truth.”
Washington filed the complaint against the tour’s production companies NETworks Presentations and 1776 Touring, and several of their employees. The tour’s production companies did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.
The article goes into more detail. Makes for interesting reading.
BroadwayWorld also covered this lawsuit in some detail a couple of days before the LA Times.