Theater, like many storytelling spaces, has not historically been a welcoming place for Asian talent. That’s changing though, and with the increased visibility of and opportunities available to Asian playwrights, directors, creatives, and performers, theater is transforming into a medium full of potential for representation and empowerment.
Recently, we had the chance to talk with Carman Lacivita, currently starring as Mr. Knightley in the Guthrie Theater’s world-premiere production of playwright Kate Hamill’s Emma. The production, which is billed as “a playful twist” on Jane Austen’s beloved novel, is the latest in a long line of classic roles Carman has taken on. As a queer Asian man, Carman’s casting as these canon characters is within itself a welcome rejection of exclusionary norms. Going beyond that though, Carman is using his platform to advocate for an expansion of the voices, stories, and communities uplifted through theater. In our conversation below, Carman shares his experiences working on Emma and his hopes for the future of representation in theater.
Hello, my name is Carman Lacivita and he/him/his are my pronouns. I’m from Texas originally, but I live in the New York City area. I received my undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University and my MFA from Rutgers. And I’ve been acting since I was five; I got the bug early!
Well, my first production as an undergraduate was a Shakespearean play. My last production during undergrad was a Shakespearean play. My first role in graduate school was Shakespeare. My last role in graduate school was Shakespeare. My first professional job was Shakespeare. There’s just a lot of work in Shakespeare!
It was also Shakespeare that brought me to the New York City stage, so that role, as Henry VI, probably stands out the most to me. I did it in Chicago for six and a half months in Edward Hall’s Rose Rage, and that was just unbelievable. Then, we came to New York about seven months later and played at the Duke Theater on 42nd Street for a good twelve weeks. That’s when I got to meet and was introduced to a lot of people in the New York scene, so that role really changed my career.
Another experience that comes to mind is my Broadway debut with Kevin Kline in Cyrano de Bergerac. It was obviously a real joy to be a part of, but also a learning experience. I had to keep telling myself “I belong here on this stage with this unbelievable actor of our time!” Realizing that, understanding that, and believing that really defined my career in another way. It helped me gain confidence and the will to keep going, to keep trying for more.
It was really surreal, coming back after two and a half years. We completed a week of rehearsal the last time we were here in Minnesota, literally staged the first dance that opens the show and got through a few pages of blocking. Then, as things started to dissipate across the country, friends were calling us and saying “hey our show was just canceled,” but we thought we might be the lone ship out in the water, we might actually make it. We stayed for another week, but of course, we didn’t go forward that spring, and the rest is history.
Then, this year, we came back and started with that same dance scene again. For many of us, this was our first job back since the pandemic started, and by the end of rehearsing that scene again, most of us were in tears. We just hadn’t understood how much we needed theater, how much we had missed it. It was a real moment of human and artistic experience all wrapped into one.
Going forward, working on the play has been a real joy. I’ve done a few plays written by Kate Hamill before, but this is the first one I’m originating with her, it’s the world-premiere. It’s been really great to be able to collaborate with her, give my input and let her know where my point of view is to play a part in guiding the arc for Mr. Knightley. It was such a treat to have her in the room the whole time. And then our director Meredith McDonough, she’s just game for any kind of experience, so that’s been amazing.
Being in Minneapolis has also been a real treat. I didn’t realize how cool the city is, it’s just a very cool and accessible city. There’s a lot of open-minded people and it’s great to have a theater audience like that. People are so hungry, I feel, for the joy of having an experience in the moment, especially after the last two or three years we’ve had.
I think the production has a really nice way of maintaining the essence of what Jane Austen wrote, but throwing in modern references and dialogue to help make the story pop for today’s audiences. We’re still very much in Regency land, it still feels like a period piece in my opinion, but the modern devices woven in make it more accessible for a modern day audience. I also love what Kate Hamill has done with Emma, taking this very strong, confident, and independent young woman and bringing her into this century a bit more by showing what she could become if her original time period would have allowed her more freedom. This version is just very cool.
Being a queer Asian actor playing these classic roles, I’ve felt compelled to make representation more of an active part of my work as an actor as my career has progressed. When I was growing up, I never saw people like me in these kinds of roles. We were always the sidekicks on the sidelines, in the background. I never saw anything that made me go “Wow, I can be that too.” The other day though, I was talking to an MFA student who had just arrived for the Guthrie’s summer program, and he is also queer and Asian. He came to me and he said “I am just floored by seeing someone like you, like me, on stage in a role like this.” It makes me tear up just thinking about it, and that conversation made me go that’s right, this is what needs to happen in terms of continuing to expand representation.
During most of my career, I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t been pigeon-holed in the work I do. In fact, the previous play I was in before Emma, “To My Girls” at Second Stage directed by Stephen Brackett, was the first time I’ve played a queer character on stage in my whole career, which is just bananas to me. But as a mixed race Asian actor, I’ve gotten comments like “you’re not Asian enough,” “you’re not white enough,” and also “you’re not queer enough” from casting people. Casting people are often forced by directors or producers to think in a very binary way: black, white, or yellow, gay or straight, etc. But of course, the reality is the spectrum is so much wider and more complex than that, and I think what’s most important is having a good actor who can navigate that spectrum.
For all those reasons, representation, as an Asian man, as a queer man, is everything to me right now. That’s why I’m so glad that I’m here at the Guthrie, probably the pinnacle of regional theater, playing a leading role in a major play. I’m truly thrilled and beyond excited to be able to represent that for our people.
I would love to see more writing that represents a melting pot of people. Like I said, I feel like the spectrum of ethnicity and the spectrum of queerness is so wide, so I would love to see more stories that are less about imposing one idea of what a queer person is or what an Asian person looks like, and are more about opening up the possibility of something more wide, welcoming, and true.
I’m so glad to have this conversation with you because I really wanted an avenue to share this experience with the local Asian community and local queer community. I want to tell them, and everyone, to come and watch this play, come see representation on stage, live and in front of you. I believe that the more people see works like this, the more we’ll all realize that increasing diversity and representation completely works, and the more we do it, the better things will get in terms of creating great pieces of art.
Learn more about Carman and his work at carmanlacivita.com and follow him on Instagram @lacivitacarman.
& check out the Guthrie Theater’s Emma, playing now through August 21, 2022!: https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2021-2022-season/emma/