Musical theatre prize cancelled after diversity row

A $50,000 scholarship for Australia's best young musical theatre talent has been cancelled after organisers said nominees were "targeted and intimidated" in recent weeks.

The RGE was accused of subconscious prejudice after it chose an overwhelmingly white cast of 30 semi-finalists. The semi-finalist announcement last month was met with a chorus of criticism: it was called a "whitewash" in an open letter by performer Hayden Tee, who blamed a "total lack of diversity on your selection committee and board", adding this was no reflection on the talent of the semi-finalists.

But one of the semi-finalists, Tomas Parrish, said on social media they were “not bullied or harassed into making the decision to withdraw” from the competition, and stood “with the First Nations and POC community to create a more equitable and accessible industry”. They were meeting with the entertainment union’s Equity Diversity Committee before making a public statement., Amanda Harrison, welcomed the cancellation announcement.

The Rob Guest Endowment Award is a $50,000 cash prize to be used for professional development. The runner up receives $5000 and the remaining four finalists get $1500 each.

NickdMiller What an absolute joke. This is disgusting. What if the most talented just happened to be white. I don’t think colour/race would’ve come into the equation. This industry is very pro inclusion.

NickdMiller Yeah cancel em who cares they're WAAPA graduates the most they could hope for is a spot on the mask singer. Indigenous Australians would be wasting their intelligence and money on a dip in musical theatre; what joke 😂 Real musical theatre is in the US.

NickdMiller Pathetic..

NickdMiller It’t it racist to cancel a winner ( in this case a semi finalist) due to their race? Maybe better option was to go ahead with this year’s scholarship and work on improving inclusivity for the next round? I feel for those hardworking performers, who have now been cancelled.

NickdMiller Winners should be selected on TALENT not the colour of their skin, so if 30 semi finalists are white then that is OK. Why do the media always go overboard with skin colour. Get over it!

NickdMiller Merit is so last century

EGPtony -we choose based solely on their musical and theatrical talent -social media fury and outrage -ok, we agree to pick people based on their race & skin colour

NickdMiller Surely talent is the basis for the scholarship, not background, skin colour, gender or anything else for that matter. More effort should be done to promote the competition so artists of colour. Not many are aware that such a scholarship exists.

NickdMiller Wow, the Marxists of the Leftwaffe are telling other people what to do again.

NickdMiller So we are just going to have to cancel every competition that does not get the “correct” outcome I suppose. What could possibly go wrong 🤔

NickdMiller So we are just going to have to cancel every competition that does not get “correct” outcome I suppose. what could possibly go wrong 🤔

NickdMiller Black and/or Indigenous culture GOOD White people culture BAD Please repeat ad-infinitum

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