There has always been wierd controversy over high school drama productions. In the mid-80’s, my HS drama coach wanted us to do more than the usual old standbys. So we put on Cabaret- oh my goodness, what a fuss! Didn’t the school know that there are- gasp!- prostitutes in that play? Yes, nitwit, and also some important things about racism, cultural issues, etc. Same with Guys & Dolls- gansters and dance hall girls and gambling, oh my!
There will always be people who will work very hard to be offended, and try to drag others along with them. It sounds like the principal has his/her head on straight, and I hope the superintendent does as well.
The whole thing is pathetic. It makes me so furious I can hardly type. The PC-racial sensitivity-find a victim at any cost-cry racism at the drop of a hat bandwagon has gotten so overloaded that it’s tearing up our society to the point where the GOOD guys are getting hurt.
That woman should be slapped into next year for doing more harm than good for her stupid inflammatory cause.
And kudos to all the other posters who said this much more eloquently than I did.
First, let’s deal with Yul. The IMDB clains that Mr. Brynner…
Despite the different stories of his ethnicity, the original point (he ain’t Siamese) still stands.
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In my (public) high school we did Grease with a Japanese Danny Zuko and a Vietnamese Sandy, even though our school had an abundance of blue-collar Italian kids. I seem to recall quite a few “Gleased Rightning” jokes by our own leading man.
For West Side Story, there were so many blonde people auditioning that pretty much anyone who was a brunette was a Puerto Rican by default.
The complaining teacher’s a loon. If she had her way, the choice of musical would have to be based on the ethnicity of the school’s most talented performers. Audition first, run a pedigree on your callbacks, then decide on the musical.
“In the mid-80’s, my HS drama coach wanted us to do more than the usual old standbys. So we put on Cabaret- oh my goodness what a fuss!”
—My high school did “Cabaret” in 1974, and there wasn’t much of a fuss. A couple people walked out on the “Two Ladies” number (which had reeeeelly lewd choreography), but we didn’t have to change or censor anything. Maybe the Seventies were a bit more lax than the Eighties.
Unrealistic demands: how can they both reserve the main parts for blacks AND not have a black Rafiki? IMHO, Rafiki IS a major character. Yes, he’s not one of the lions, but he’s part of the action and has a fair amount of lines.
I saw a professional production, by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, of “King Lear” recently, and Regan was played by a (very pretty) black woman. Nobody was visibly surprised to see her in the first scene, and certainly nobody commented on it.
In elementary school we did a play about Harriet Tubman. They tried to cast black kids in all the black roles, but they didn’t have enough, and they actually used makeup to make the white and Indian kids in their roles darker! This was in a small town in Oklahoma around 1980, though, times have changed.
I don’t think the administration was particularly racist, I think they were just trying to get the characters to look their role (ala Olivier in Othello). In another play they did (‘The Lone Stranger’) the female lead and romantic interest was played by a black girl opposite a white boy, and nobody complained. I think all the kids playing indians were actually white, though, which was weird considering we had plenty of native kids (I was ‘Indian #5’).
Speaking as a former theater education major with 20 years experience working in professional theater costume shops:
There is a name for what the teachers did. It’s color blind casting. For professionals, it’s the actor’s Equity (union) standard policy and if you don’t follow it, the actors can strike. You pay attention to talent, not skin color when casting, unless it is important to the role. A perdominently white high school should not do an August Wilson festival, since his plays are about the African American experience, but there’s no reason an all Black school can’t do Grease.
This has been an industry standard for all the time I’ve worked in theater, but wasn’t around in the 50’s, which explains the King and I, and Tea House of the August Moon, with Marlon Brando in slant-eye make-up (God help us all).
Most recent Kings from the King and I broadway revival were Lou Diamond Phillips, Jason Scott Lee, and some black guy whose name escapes me. I guess Equity declared this role generic ethnic. Don’t ask me why. They do make some allowances for ethic roles “created by” whites though, such as Yule Brenner in K&I or Jonathan Pryce in Miss Saigon.
The art teacher in this case is nuts. I bet the kid cast as Rafiki wasn’t thinking of the monkey/black stereotype until she brought it up and she deserves a kick in the ass for ruining things for him. That may not be THE lead, but it’s a principle part, not an insult.
The teachers who cast this deserve credit for a racially balanced cast, and for not killing the art teacher. Directors are God when it comes to casting, they don’t take kindly to being second guessed by the set designer. Theater is not a democracy, even if it’s high school theater.
I don’t think the Art teacher was right. I think she jumped to the defense of students who didn’t need her hysteric reaction.
Sometimes people get upset and see racism where there is none. School plays are not exempt from politics. Sometimes, it’s hard to see the diference. There have been some parts and solos I deserved that I did not get in highschool. Being Hispanic, my mother was quick to point out the racial implications. The children of school board members got those parts sometimes. But I remember my mother being very upset at my late elimination in a speech contest, saying the judges were racist. I heard the area winners speech. He was fabulous, much better than I was. I felt great that I had come so close to his score! Whoever deserves the part should get to have it, regardless of race, politics or anything else. But the world is not run by perfect people. I got over my disappointments, even learned something from them.
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For sheer idiocy, I’ve got that beat. My high school’s drama department put on a Western comedy called “Deadwood Dick.” Apparently, the drama teacher thought some people might have a problem with the word “dick,” even as a freakin’ name. We changed the character’s name to Deadwood Rick, and the title of the play to “Deadwood Gulch.”
This was in 1997.
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I think it was a two years ago a HS in the NYC area wanted to put on West Side Story. A parent complained because the play used terms like Spic and such. The show did not go on.
Rifiki is the high priest/shaman/wise man. He is one of the few characters who dosen’t have his head up his arse during some part of the play.