High school cancels ‘Hunchback’ over racial casting dispute

Well, it's a high school production, they tend to be uniformly terrible no matter what. I was in a few musicals when I was in high school, and the choicest parts invariably went to the drama teachers favourites, the prettiest, most popular girls that applied, and people that were actually enrolled in drama class. If they also happened to be talented, then that was a happy coincidence.

In other insanity today regarding plays:

Kenyon College Cancels Play About Immigration; Starts 'Whiteness Group'

Following the circulation of the play’s transcript, brigades of students, joined by some professors and campus administrators, pressured for the play to be censored. They justified such censorship on the grounds that it was “harmful on many levels.”

One student emailed the administration and faculty complaining about the race of MacLeod, the author: “I personally take issue with The Good Samaritan because it’s yet another narrative written about a person of color from the uninformed perspective of a white academic.” He claimed that the play was “an exercise in cultural hegemony with heavy notes of white savior complex.”

........

The Good Samaritan’s retraction comes serendipitously at the same moment as the creation of a new student group at Kenyon: “the whiteness group.”

The group was founded by a student, Juniper Cruz, and is notable not just for its name, but for its rules, which state that “no white person can ask a person of color questions; white people must try to answer their questions for themselves. And no spreading rumors about what people say during the meetings.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/kenyo...ration-starts-whiteness-group/article/2011470

Man we never had these issues in school. Roles were played by all different kinds of people that didn’t adhere to how it was written. It was just a non issue.

Not knowing or caring to look up the exact details, I can see the point of the student objecting. But I don't really care that it got shut down. Getting upset over this article seems weird to me. It's a high school, get over yourselves.

Amazing...
every single word you just tried to stuff in my mouth was wrong.
Not sure where the fuck you're going with black (or asian for that matter) getting a pass if the protest is to be logically consistent? Which is what I'm busting on the protesting over... Is it okay if the latina girl plays the role, or does the Armenian chick get to trump that? Either way, there's likely less than 50 girls in the one high school in Ithaca that'd fit the description.

Now if this was happening in a city the size of Toronto with half a dozen public high schools devoted to performing arts, then yeah, It wouldn't be unreasonable to be casting with an ethnic filter. But it's a small town in upstate New York.

The students objecting is no problem. The school caving in and not teaching the students a lesson is the problem. According to this school the students now believe that "Gypsies" are all non-white. The school is letting students learn this from of all places a Disney cartoon. How ridiculous is this?

I suppose the students also now believe that mermaids exist, toys can talk, animals can talk, insects can talk, and the Pirates of the Caribbean is a documentary. Thank you high school for not making the students learn about the real people who call themselves travelers, Romany, or Gypsy. Let's rely on a cartoon.

In the context of overall society it's also highlighting a problem. Political Correctness is infecting everything and way to many people are bending to it when they should be standing up to it. This character, Esmeralda, is not a real person nor is her story dependent on the color of her skin. She's just a dark skinned character in the cartoon. Other films have used white and Latina people. It's not that big of a deal.

And I posted another link to another play that was cancelled because the writer was white and wrote characters that were minorities. There is a point where the fury goes to far and reaches into absurdity. Has anything been accomplished? I can't see it given both plays were cancelled.

Yes it is indeed "mission accomplished" because misery loves company for the left. It's their way or the highway. They know what's good for you (and America) and someday you'll thank them.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” - CS Lewis

Man, I bet these kids would commit suicide if they ever saw the film with Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda.

This brings to mind the Miss Saigon kurfluffle many years ago. Self-appointed outragists made a huge fuss about white Jonathan Pryce playing the lead roll, which was, in fact, a half-European character. They wanted to close down the production, which would have actually put dozens of Asian actors out of work.

People seem to get hyper-focused on their own agenda and forget there are consequences.

What a bunch of fascists. If you don't like the play, then don't watch. There are MANY things on T.V or on the big screen I find offensive. Yet you don't see me demanding them to be shut down. Young kids today badly need to learn that living in a free society means you don't have the right to shut an opposing viewpoint up.

You obviously don't have an absolute right to shut down an opposing viewpoint, but you definitely have the freedom to complain about things you don't like, and to protest and boycott them. Remember when adults were smashing coffee makers a few months ago?

I totally agree....kind of like the people who want football players who "take a knee" to be fired because they're there to entertain me...not be political.

Your nihilism is refreshing.

Telling people from one race they are not allowed to question people, no matter how stupid, from another racism isn't racism. Nope, just ask leftforge, no racism there.

Yet we still hear the same fools lying and claiming this is about "privilege not racism". Fuck those true racists right up the ass.

Summary: "Excuses, excuses... Racism is ok in this case because... Reasons."

Wypipo.

Are you able to breathe without a reminder?

Oh, this is just stupid.

Some characters, both real and fictional, have traits that need to be kept. A production about Martin Luther King Jr. needs to star a black male. A production about Elizabeth I needs to star a white female. If local demographics won't allow that, lets pretend that it's a High School in Indonesia doing the Elizabeth I play, then the part should go to the best actress.

But, other characters aren't so rigidly defined. A Gypsy woman of French descent can be played by a female of any color. So, give it to the best actress and tell the whiners to boycott and refuse to attend if they feel so strongly about it.

Meh. English major. Drama courses were part of the curriculum. Plus I lived in NY, where theater and a knowledge of theater were a given.

Seriously. This is all common sense.

I have seen far more people use the word "boycott" rather than "fire" the NFL players .

I do think the NFL made a HUGE mistake allowing their players to protest in uniform on company time. There is a reason businesses don't allow that. It leaves the perception that the company endorses those views. Add in the fact that they didn't allow cowboy players to wear patches honoring a fallen Dallas officer and their refusal to allow a pro military commercial during the Super Bowl..

It's FAR more complex than you think.

Yeah, but I'm not talking about the ones who do boycotts. If you're offended by it, then by all means boycott it. I'm talking about the ones who want them fired.

It didn't start out complex. It was pretty much just one guy doing it and hardly anyone caring...until Trump chimed in. Then it spread like wildfire until entire teams were staying in their locker rooms.

I think Trump might be...a bit of a cock.

The complaint mainly stems from the kids expecting the play to conform to the Disney movie, where the character was darker skinned. Which is kind of reasonable, to the extent that people expect a production of The King And I to have a bald king, even though it's not in the original script.

Shutting down the production seems like a pissy overreaction. The school should have either clarified that the play is not at all inspired by the Disney movie (When my school did Robin Hood, he was neither a fox or Kevin Costner or Cary Elwes), or if they were going to model the thing after the Disney production, go all the way and cast a minority actress as well. When we did Little Shop of Horrors we were clearly going for the look and vibe of the 80's movie, and so the casting matched the film as closely as possible.

I get that. Their concerns should have been addressed and further complaints, along those same lines, ignored. Cancelling production was stupid.

That said, this quote:

Is so painfully stupid that it hurts.

Your loss for not using the superior Robin Hood.

FWIW, I think Idris Elba was freaking awesome as Heimdal. I don't care if his being black didn't make a lick of sense.

For that matter, Vin Diesel as a talking tree was pretty accurate....

Eh, like I said earlier, colorblind casting can be racist if the end result is always white people taking the "minority" roles and never minorities taking a *white" role. At that point it comes off as a fig leaf to justify whitewashing.