| Arena Stage's 2010 'Oklahoma!' set the benchmark for diversity | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 07:09 pm EDT 08/27/19 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 06:57 pm EDT 08/27/19 | |
| In reply to: Cast a Native American as Jud - aleck 06:31 pm EDT 08/27/19 | |
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| In her director’s note, Molly Smith asserted that “Arena’s cast is an American tapestry, with all colors and types. African-Americans, Native Americans and Asian-Americans lived in Oklahoma at [the] beginning of the 20th century. They shared a territory but lived in separate communities. . . . Arena’s frontier is a fully cross-cultural one.” In an essay called ''Redefining America, Arena Stage & Territory Folks in a Multiracial 'Oklahoma!,''' Donatella Galella wrote: ''Team members were conscious of the multiracial implications of their [casting] decisions. … They decided that .. Jud should not be played by a black or Native American actor so as to avoid stereotypes of drunk, sexually threatening, working-class male villains of color. The creative team briefly considered casting a Native American actor as Jud because his outsider status and death would resonate with the violent treatment of indigenous peoples by the federal state. The team ultimately claimed that it did not find a suitable singing actor and expressed concerns about offending audiences with such a portrayal.'' By the way, Galella's essay also notes how ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' ends, as opposed to ''Oklahoma!'': White–Native American playwright Riggs was far more attentive to racial specificity and history in 'Green Grow the Lilacs' which has a significantly different ending from the musical version. In the play, after Curly and Jud fight and Jud dies by falling on his own knife, Curly goes to federal prison to await a formal trial. When the territory folks catch him escaping from prison, Aunt Eller persuades everyone to allow him to spend his wedding night with Laurey. She admonishes them, “[w]hy, the way you’re sidin’ with the federal mashal, you’d think us people out here lived in the United States!” They reply, “[n]ow, Aunt Eller, we hain’t furriners. My pappy and mammy was both borned in Indian Territory! Why, I’m jist plumb full of Indian blood myself.” Citing blood, which reduces race to biological essence, they claim to be part Indian and identify as Indian Territory folks, not as Americans, so they are willing to flout US federal law. To then Americanize the musical, Hammerstein erased this indigenous complexity, lightened Curly’s sentence, and celebrated the United States. In the musi- cal, Curly does not go to prison; instead, the ensemble immediately stages an informal trial and exonerates him, and they gleefully sing about the territory becoming a state.'' |
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