Denise Kümm, a local actress, talks with Angela Astle, an independent director and producer, at a melting pot mixer event Monday evening May 21 at the Aurora Fox. Aurora Fox staff and crew organized the panel discussion and mixer as a way to address colorblind casting. Actors, directors, producers and filmmakers discussed the best ways to create more opportunities for actors, directors and crew members of all ethnic backgrounds. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

The calls come in like clockwork.

When a director, producer or artistic administrator from a theater company in the Denver metro area needs to cast a non-white actor of any kind, they’ll likely reach out to Donnie Betts. With his long history in the local theater scene, as well as his credits in film and television from his stint in L.A., Betts has become the unwilling point person for casting directors looking for a black actor, an Asian actor or any actor who doesn’t fit the standard profile.

Denise Kümm, a local actress, talks with Angela Astle, an independent director and producer, at a melting pot mixer event Monday evening May 21 at the Aurora Fox. Aurora Fox staff and crew organized the panel discussion and mixer as a way to address colorblind casting. Actors, directors, producers and filmmakers discussed the best ways to create more opportunities for actors, directors and crew members of all ethnic backgrounds. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Donnie Betts (center left) and Angela Astle (center right) discuss the importance of utilizing the community at a melting pot mixer event Monday evening May 21 at the Aurora Fox. Aurora Fox staff and crew organized the panel discussion and mixer as a way to address colorblind casting. Actors, directors, producers and filmmakers discussed the best ways to create more opportunities for actors, directors and crew members of all ethnic backgrounds. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Sheila Ivy, a local actor, director and writer, addresses the importance of colorblindness in casting at a melting pot mixer event Monday evening May 21 at the Aurora Fox. Aurora Fox staff and crew organized the panel discussion and mixer as a way to address colorblind casting. Actors, directors, producers and filmmakers discussed the best ways to create more opportunities for actors, directors and crew members of all ethnic backgrounds. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Shelley McMillion, a local actor, talks with Melissa Lucero, a freelance director, at a melting pot mixer event Monday evening May 21 at the Aurora Fox. Aurora Fox staff and crew organized the panel discussion and mixer as a way to address colorblind casting. Actors, directors, producers and filmmakers discussed the best ways to create more opportunities for actors, directors and crew members of all ethnic backgrounds. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)
Noah Lee Jordan, a local actor, asks the audience to consider productions as a whole and to seek out more than just lead roles at a melting pot mixer event Monday evening May 21 at the Aurora Fox. Aurora Fox staff and crew organized the panel discussion and mixer as a way to address colorblind casting. Actors, directors, producers and filmmakers discussed the best ways to create more opportunities for actors, directors and crew members of all ethnic backgrounds. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

It was a frustrating trend in a scene that touts plenty of eager and accomplished actors of all backgrounds and colors, Betts said, a symptom of a creative system that’s far from being colorblind.

“People were always calling me,” Betts said. “I said, what we need to do is have a dialogue about this issue. It’s not only black actors, it’s actors with disabilities as well … This issue is big. We’re still dealing with it, but it all starts with conversation, with dialogue.”

Betts spoke during a panel discussion held May 21 at the Aurora Fox theater, a panel forum designed to tackle difficult and persistent inequalities in the larger local theater scene. Betts and other veterans from the Aurora Fox — including Literary Manager Angela Astle, Executive Producer Charlie Packard and Marketing Director Patricia Wells — hosted more than 50 local actors in the Fox’s studio theater. The discussion and networking session came before a staged reading of “Nothing But Skin,” an original drama by local playwright Josh Hartwell. Troupe members from companies like Afterthought, PHAMALY and the Shadow Theatre Company packed the studio theater’s confined space.

The central question was how to create a truly colorblind approach to casting not only at the Fox, but in the wider sphere of Colorado’s tight-knit theater scene. Input from creative directors and administrators from other theaters in the metro area was lacking, but Packard detailed the Fox’s delicate balance between creative freedom and profitability.

Apart from season selection, those efforts include explicit explanations on the theater’s season announcements, assurances that actors of all ethnicities, body types and abilities will be considered. “This is my first chance to say ‘Trust us,’” Packard said.

But those messages can fall flat for actors used to getting passed over at audition after audition. For actors like Noah Lee Jordan and Tyrell Rae — performers who have appeared in several main stage productions at the Fox — such assurances can seem hollow when Equity theaters import talent from New York and Los Angeles for bit parts in main stage shows.

“Every theater company puts that in their notices. You go to audition after audition and you’re constantly getting turned down,” Rae said. “You get discouraged and you give up.”

Kim Yan, who starred in the Vintage Theatre Company’s recent production of “The Joy Luck Club” at the troupe’s new location in Aurora, said she’s felt a similar sense of futility when it comes to landing good parts.

“It’s nice that the theater is reaching out to a diverse community. As an actor, I do get discouraged,” said Yan, who also starred in last year’s production of “Rashomon” at the Aurora Fox. “I say, ‘It looks like another white cast and I’ll be wasting my time or I’ll just be on stage waiting a table.”

Changing those attitudes and double standards won’t come simply, Betts said.

“The Aurora Fox and Charlie have been proactive,” Betts said. “No other artistic director came to me with these questions, how can we bring in a more diverse group of actors … That passion shows you that people are going to take steps to start to solve this issue.”

Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707