On Jun 27, 4:00=A0pm, New****tsRe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Steve New****t) wrote:
> =A0
> By Kenneth Jones
>
> A free outdoor production of the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime in a
> suburban park in Wilmette, IL, was canceled by officials over concerns
> about the racially-charged language in the script and score.
>
> The staging, set to play the outdoor Wallace Bowl in Gillson Park, part
> of the Wilmette Park District in suburban Chicago, was already in
> rehearsals by the company of more than 40 when they got their notice.
> According to the Pioneer Press, on June 25 Wilmette Park District
> executive director Tom Grisamore canceled the show because he was
> concerned that passersby on the park grounds who did not know the
> context of the show would take offense to the word "nigger," which is
> used several times in the script and score of the history-steeped show
> about racism, community, family and justice.
>
> Opening night at the open-air Wallace Bowl in Gillson Park was set for
> July 10.
> "We had grave concerns that people would take the language they heard
> over the amplified sound system out of context from a performance that
> was being held in the bowl," Grisamore told the Pioneer Press.
>
> Grisamore took the heat for this decision, telling the paper, "This is
> something we very honestly should have known about and hopefully we
> could have acted on this sooner, but we did as soon as we found out what
> was there."
>
> The district got the rights to the show in January, but the content of
> the show was not examined until recent days.
>
> Playbill.com learned that a June 17 letter to the show's licensing
> agent, Music Theatre International, asked for changes in the script, and
> even included suggestions from Robert Bierie, performing arts supervisor
> of Wilmette Park District. MTI president Drew Cohen, who denied the
> right to change a word of the show, told Playbill.com that the
> Bierie-signed request suggested the no-less-offensive (out of context)
> words "darkie," "coon" and "boy" in lieu of the n word.
>
> *********************************
> "I find this sad and also hilarious," Ragtime lyricist Lynn Ahrens told
> Playbill.com June 27. "It seems to sum up the blind ignorance of people
> who sit busily cherry-picking bad words, while not even bothering to
> read the script they are producing to understand its ideas or the
> context in which these words are spoken. We authors have always said
> that if people were uncomfortable producing the show, they shouldn't
> produce it. We feel the language is accurate and honest in the context
> of the era, and im****tant to preserve. That hasn't stopped Ragtime from
> being produced in numerous theatres, high schools and colleges, where
> the heads of these institutions don't underestimate the intelligence of
> their audiences, whether comprised of children or adults, nor feel the
> need to censor and protect them from their own national history."
>
> Equity actor Ty Perry, who was directing the production, said in an
> earlier Pioneer Press interview, "You take that word out of this story
> and you invalidate my history as an African-American male. Do I like the
> word? No. But to pretend nobody said it is wrong. I wouldn't even
> consider [changing the script]. Context is everything, and it's not
> gratuitous, it's not for shock value."
> *****************************************
>
> Ahrens added, "My condolences to Mr. Perry, the artistic company, and to
> the citizens of Wilmette, who've been denied an op****tunity to
> experience an exciting and thought-provoking show."
>
> The actors of the Wilmette park production are not paid, but members of
> the creative team are.
>
> MTI licenses a full version of Ragtime and a shorter amended version,
> but the race-related language remains in both. If high schools attempt
> it, a study guide is sent along to help stimulate discussion in the
> community.
> =A0
This is one of the saddest and most disturbing things I've read about
theatre in a very long time.
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