Ok, I have a lot to say, so I'm going to write two posts, one addressing the WHY of the language change, and one addressing the HOW. This is the WHY post, and it's long. It references several of the responses that have been made so far, so if you haven't read the whole thread you might miss some of the context.
The original article I linked to was about how white theater practitioners and especially all-white creative teams could make the rehearsal room more welcoming to non-white performers. That's my main concern here; in my situation the rehearsal room is also a classroom of 8th graders, required to be there – for some of them, it may be the only rehearsal room they'll ever be in. I hear what Don Zolidis is saying about words that sound like slurs, but there's no softening ending at work here -- it's the same word. (And, as I side note, I have zero concern about safeguarding the use of "niggardly" – why, as a white person, use that word when you can use another?) Yes, in the case of "chink," Shakespeare's meaning is different, and completely unrelated to the meaning of the slur, but it sounds exactly the same, not similar, even the same part of speech, and no amount of explaining the meaning or intent changes that, and neither does pantomime. After reading CJ's post, I think I'd like to start a separate thread about how we handle 'teachable moments' related to racially-charged language or images, but in this situation, I'm not comfortable with what I might be teaching by first explaining the racist use of the word to students who might not be familiar with it, including students from China, and then saying we're going to continue to use it anyway because we don't mean it THAT way.
In the rehearsal room, it's not just hearing it once, and possibly being taken out of the play, although that's relevant too. (And since my students will be performing it for their peers, it's certainly possible there will be audience members who are struck by the word and don't understand its context. Not that the performances I direct aren't all completely enthralling.) It's asking two actors to say that word in front of their parents and friends. It's my encouraging the actor playing Bottom to really project and ham it up when saying, "Show me thy chink!" Repeating that multiple times, because of the need to rehearse the physical business involved in that section. And OK, yes, let's think about how it looks in performance. There's an actor in a Wall costume, who sticks out their hand after Bottom's line, showing more of themselves at that cue. Even if the actor isn't Chinese or of Chinese descent (and I don't think I've ever cast it that way), I don't think it's a great look, perhaps especially with my multiracial and very diverse cast, but maybe not so especially. Just because I've never heard any of my students use the word outside of the script doesn't mean they're not doing so, or that I'm not making some of them uncomfortable, or that some of them may feel emboldened to make their own related jokes.
I'm not afraid of getting fired, at least not because of this, and I don't think theater should be inoffensive. I'm completely comfortable leading middle schoolers in parsing Shakespeare's references to testicles and holes, and for me "Midsummer" would not be the same without the Bottom/Ass/Donkey trio. I love teaching middle school and anticipate those snickers. But when they snicker at "chink," it's different. When offensiveness has a racial component, one that punches down in the power structure, I want to consider it very carefully, and not dismiss concerns simply by saying "that's not the intent" or justify my choices with tradition, entertainment value, or fairy magic. And as a white director, I want to hold myself to a higher standard than "nobody complained."
It may sound to some of you as if I should just stop using "Midsummer," and maybe I will someday, but at this point for me the pros outweigh the cons, especially when I'm fine with changing out this word. When I made my original post, I wasn't consciously trying to prompt this discussion – I was just seeing if anyone else had a clever, or even not-so-clever, language substitute. But I think this discussion is really valuable -- I've found it useful to clarify my own thoughts about it, and in some ways prompting this discussion might make a bigger difference than anything that I do at my own school.
I've been teaching and directing "Midsummer" with 8th graders every year for probably 15 years or so, and it took reading this article, written by a person of color, for me to really commit to making a change. I get the defensive reactions about what we may have done in the past. We've got a lot to think about when teaching and directing. There are other things in my directing and teaching past that make me cringe when I look back. I should and hope to consider bigger changes to my teaching related to the racial issues that are in the forefront at this moment. But I invite you to consider making this small change in the future, or mentioning the issue when you're adjacent to or involved in a production in the future. As many of you have pointed out, there's a freedom to directing Shakespeare that for many of us is part of the appeal. There are other words we can use, so let's use them.
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Cora Turlish
Metuchen NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-11-2020 16:01
From: Cora Turlish
Subject: Midsummer -- alternate language for the Wall speech
I'm not sure if this article has been posted here yet -- "Phrases we should work to avoid in the Rehearsal Room."
https://minnesotaplaylist.com/magazine/article/2020/phrases-we-should-work-to-eliminate-in-the-rehearsal-room?fbclid=IwAR3MhcIust1AmfbFlb5jg8rRNGi4Uk4otma9s-0IExzH1Np0-_znLMstAY8
But it briefly mentions something I've been uncomfortable with for a while -- the use of "chink" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which I teach and direct with 8th graders each year. Does anyone have alternate version of the Wall speech that they'd be willing to share?
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Cora Turlish
Metuchen NJ
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