This post is dedicated to the Year 11 kid who started the petition (Aaarrrggghhh! Another stupid whiny stone-cold motherless fucking petition!) calling for Brunswick Secondary College to scrap its plans to stage 'Hairspray' as their school musical. This post is also dedicated to those who signed said petition. Seriously, people: WTF?
Your concerns are that to stage this musical is racially insensitive because apparently there are not a great many POC among the student body to take on the roles of the POC. You are concerned the school will adapt the musical to suit the student body taking part, and that it is offensive to have students who are not POC to portray the POC in the show. Um, it would appear that to not stage a musical that deals with racism on the basis the production might be racially insensitive in its approach is about as stupid as staging an orgy to promote cause for celibacy.
I am aware it is offensive for a white actor to black up, which was a long tradition in the UK for productions of 'Othello'. Nowadays an actor who is a POC is cast, which is a good thing for actors who are POC as it assures them work. Personally, I don't what colour an actor is as long as they interpret and portray the bard's words with the sensitivity and meaning due them. But yeah, I do prefer an actor look like the character they are playing. In other words, don't cast some old breast-sucked sow with varicose veins like roadmaps to play Juliet, whom I understand is meant to be about fourteen years of age.
But anyway, here we go with someone getting offended and jumping on the bandwagon. Hey, don't get me wrong, Those-Who-Must-Be-Offended. I do know what it is like to be offended at something members of the school are planning. When I was in Year 11, I was in the art room at my school, and four of the male teachers came into practise something for a talent show somewhere. They were done up like a barbershop quartet, and they performed a number called 'Seven Day Adventist' to the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda'. This was just after the Lindy Chamberlain trial, and the ditty dealt with the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain at Uluru, and subsequent trial and conviction of Lindy Chamberlain. Objectively speaking, the teachers' performance was actually very good. But having been (and still am) a staunch believer in Lindy's innocence, and having been very disillusioned and sickened by the trial-by-media and conviction from evidence flimsier than a bride's nightie, I was offended to the point of nausea by that song! What could I do? I had no access to online petitions back then - shit, we were only just allowed to start using calculators in maths! And being sixteen, I'm hardly likely to tell a bunch of adults participating in something over which I had no control and was not my business that they couldn't do this performance. One of the teachers asked, 'What did you think, Simone?' I rather coldly replied that although I found the song distasteful, their performance had been fine. Wow, even back then I knew to judge art on it's own merit.
But back to this proposed production of 'Hairspray'. It is not impossible to stage a production and be sensitive. Speak to the art department at the school. When staging shows, you engage artistic teams to come up with creative solutions. A local high school - not the one my kid attends - staged this show last year. I had a chat with some of my friends whose children attend the school and asked how the problem of students not being POC for roles had been circumvented. The students did not black up, but wore costumes relevant to their character, and I guess the audience had to use their imagination. This can be done, people. Why can't the school do its musical, and let the kids perform and showcase their talents to the crowd of mums and dads and aunties and uncles and pops and nannas? Why spoil it? As I mentioned, this show has a very important message and by attempting to quash a proposed production, you are also stifling that message. It is common in New Zealand for Maori actors to play what would normally be to be 'white' roles, and nobody even notices. Can't we try that here?
Instead of banning everything, how about offering a more creative and educational solution?
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