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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: den 07:54 pm EDT 05/17/23 | |
| In reply to: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - MockingbirdGirl 01:19 pm EDT 05/17/23 | |
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| I would love to see a production of Fiddler with someone like Norm Lewis playing Tevye. I think he’d be great. There is something universal about Tevye, he needn’t necessarily be played by someone who is Jewish. Though I was initially jarred by the casting, I’m excited that David Harewood, a Black actor, is cast as William F Buckley in The Best of Enemies (coming to a cinema near you, maybe, next weekend). Because Buckley, like Tevye, represents a type. The actor’s appearance is irrelevant. But in a play like A Raisin in the Sun, the actors playing Walter Lee Younger and his family kind of have to be Black … or at least played by members of an underrepresented, discriminated-against group. (Could Raisin work with an Hispanic cast or an Asian cast? I wonder.) I don’t know that a production of Raisin cast with white actors would make much sense. Most plays, I think, including Fiddler, can accommodate “diverse” non-traditional casting, and even benefit from it, but not all. | |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 12:36 am EDT 05/19/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - den 07:54 pm EDT 05/17/23 | |
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| Many years ago, I saw a photo from a Japanese production of ''Fiddler on the Roof,'' featuring Japanese actors as Tevye, etc. The Japanese reportedly love ''Fiddler'' and find its story of tradition and generational struggles so universal and ''Japanese.'' |
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| Link | Japanese 'Fiddler on the Roof': 'Tradition' |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: sf 04:39 pm EDT 05/19/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - WaymanWong 12:36 am EDT 05/19/23 | |
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| The revival a few years ago at the Everyman in Liverpool had a multicultural cast; the production's underlying idea was that somewhere in the world, at any given time, people are being forced by some regime or other to leave their homes to seek safety elsewhere. The final scene in that production was simply but brilliantly staged; as Tevye and his family started to push the cart out of Anatevka, the rest of the cast came on and started walking behind them - dressed in contemporary clothing and carrying improvised luggage, like the refugees we've all seen in the news over the last few years making their way across Europe after fleeing Syria/Libya/Afghanistan/South Sudan. There was a moment when you could feel the penny drop among the audience, and it was by some distance the most moving Fiddler I've seen. And the show always moves me. That production's Golde, incidentally - Melanie La Barrie - is currently appearing on Broadway. She was *very* good, but then she always is. |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 12:12 pm EDT 05/19/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - WaymanWong 12:36 am EDT 05/19/23 | |
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| Yes, it is an extremely popular show in Japan. I have a friend who lives in Japan and he's done multiple productions of it. | |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: ryhog 11:50 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - den 07:54 pm EDT 05/17/23 | |
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| Are we getting too far afield when we follow the pivot to discrimination/under-representation? The original question is about diversity, an institutional question in the theatre whereas the "pivot" takes us to societal questions. For example, there is no question that Jewish people are discriminated against and under-represented. But in terms of diversity in the theatre, can we say this? I am asking questions here that may (or may not) be worth discussing in this thread. | |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 06:37 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - den 07:54 pm EDT 05/17/23 | |
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| Carol Channing would’ve been a good Tevye. | |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: showtunesoprano 01:38 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - den 07:54 pm EDT 05/17/23 | |
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| Honest question: Do you think an all-Jewish production of Raisin in the Sun could work? It satisfies your criteria for its casting to be with "members of an underrepresented, discriminated-against group." But I don't know? | |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Posted by: den 07:40 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - showtunesoprano 01:38 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
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| Excellent question! I don’t know either. Perhaps as a period piece when Jews were more significantly underrepresented than they are today? (Which is not to say that Jews are no longer discriminated against.) Perhaps some context would be required to make it work? | |
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| re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 07:46 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:43 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
| In reply to: re: NYT's Ethicist column: "Our Theater is Fighting About Diversity. Who’s Right?" - den 07:40 pm EDT 05/18/23 | |
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| Linking article on hate crimes against Jews. | |
| Link | Hate crimes |
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