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| re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' | |
| Posted by: broadwayjoey 07:43 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' - joegugs 07:15 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
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| If a black actor can play Pierre, why can't a white actress play Effie? Why should 'color-blind casting' only work in one direction? | |
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| re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' | |
| Posted by: Michael_212 09:34 am EST 02/08/18 | |
| In reply to: re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' - broadwayjoey 07:43 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
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| If a black actor can play Pierre, why can't a white actress play Effie? The Great Comet was written to be a show with a diverse cast. Though not plainly stated, the feel of the show is that we're watching a group of contemporary performers playing these characters in Russia. |
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| re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 08:07 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' - broadwayjoey 07:43 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
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| Because of history. Tolstoy's novel is now far enough in the past and so enshrined in the "eternity" of the canon that there is room for casting beyond the realistic. We aren't there yet with "Dreamgirls" and with race in the United States. We can't have a mixed race or white "Raisin in the Sun" yet (except, perhaps, in acting or other performance classes) because we are still too close to the segregation of the late 50s in Chicago (which still lingers in that city, alas) and to ask us to imagine the white actors in those roles, particularly with speech patterns of black vernacular English that Hansberry used, would feel like a minstrel show. I suppose if one wanted to do an avant-garde deconstruction of Hansberry's play, such casting could have a kind of Brechtian effect, but I need to be persuaded what would be gained from that. That's where I think Bruce Norris'"Clybourne Park" was such a useful play (whatever some think of him as a playwright--I happen to admire his work)--it engaged the play from a white person's perspective and made that conscious and apparent, without coopting the reality of Hansberry's own drama. So, in fifty years, maybe a white Effie would work. Not yet. |
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| re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' | |
| Posted by: WWriter 08:06 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
| In reply to: re: So Many Thoughts! Re: Woke Students Shut Down A High School Production Of 'Hunchback' - broadwayjoey 07:43 pm EST 02/06/18 | |
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| For me, it's a two-part answer. 1. In our world, being black affects one's life ENORMOUSLY, so in pretty much any show about African-Americans, the characters' being black is an important part of the show. In contrast, Pierre's race is not an issue, so any race will do. (I'm hearing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in my head now.) 2. People of color have way fewer roles to play, so giving one to a white person is just kinda mean. IMHO |
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