Statement: Non-Traditional Casting

When it comes to the gender of the characters in Nagle Jackson’s The Quick-Change Room, it seems to me that most of their characters are best played by the genders they were originally scripted to be. There is in fact the deep rooted struggle for all the female characters like Nina, Marya, and Lena to succeed in their once “great” Communist society that treated women very poorly. If need be Lena’s character could be a portrayed as a male, but I think it gives these characters a stronger drive to change lifestyles(Lena), be respected(Marya), and be taken care of(Nina). Comically it works for Ludmilla to be a woman prima donna dealing with her female aging compared to male aging. Unless you wanted her to be a man playing drag queen in which you have to be careful that the actor doesn’t play it too over the top, especially at points in which the company’s serious up-coming problems are needing to be unveiled. Also, from my research of pre-1992 Russian theatre it doesn’t seem to have drag as a casting possibility as much as with some popular American shows such as Hairspray or Chicago. So, if it’s a concern, playing to an audience that’s in tune with the differences of the time/culture of this Russian theatre may make Ludmilla being a long-reigning drag actor in their company unlikely.
Now the characters of Anna and Nikolai make sense as they are both genders of the young/middle-aged leading actors, but the part of Timofey could become a female if you wanted to add a whole new twist as to why he follows along so easily with Boris in his plans to change the theatre they all loved. Instead of the character just being very military and a strong follower to protocol, she could also have an “interest” in Boris which could lead to more character development for that role. Then again, that interest could also be done with the male version depending on direction. What are Timofey’s motives?

Racially I feel that any of the characters could be played by an ethnic actor, whether they be of an Asian, African, or Hispanic background. If you’re concerned about possible misinterpretation of your cast then you should be aware that during the very abrupt fall of the Russian government during 1991-1992 (and continuing today) the safety of anyone not of Russian nationality was jeopardized. The Russian society has had an incredibly high increase in racist acts towards thoughs of African descent, a lot of which are violent attacks that the police don't even bother to stop. This is believed to be because of the need to place blame for thae collapse of the government/economy because before 1991 there wasn't as many or as severe a racial problem. Also bad media coverage on foreign students who, a long time ago, were discovered selling drugs to pay for school even though that situation has been resolved. All of these issues are mostly the same for Asians as well and it didn't help that the boundary line of China and Russia was moved over where China received more land in 1992. So again, depending on the audience, they might be aware of this struggle for foreigners to co-exists in Russia. Therefore if you made Sergey of an African ancestry it might be seen as his being taken over by Boris more about them not seing him as a "real" Russia, and Boris i trying to get him out. Or if you make Lena Chinese they wanted to fire her and instead of hiring her back later to help Marya, they just kept Ludmilla on as a seamtress/assistant to replace her. It could be misconstrude that way as well.