Open Forum

Hello! I am very interested in directing SpongeBob this year but we have a significant Asian population at my school and the scene in Act II with Sandy, right before "chop to the top" feels a bit cringey to me because of potential racially charged martial arts tropes. I know I can omit the "gong" sound. Has anyone else had difficulty with this part of the musical in their school communities?

I just saw this post.  We are starting our school day, and my first class today is a mix of Theatre 2, 3 and 4 students - sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  Asian and Pacific Islander students make up the single largest demographic at my school, outnumbering white students by several percentage points, and I have some of those students in this class.  And my troupe's co-director is doing the Youth Edition of SpongeBob next spring.

I read the post to my class verbatim, and asked for their opinions.  The first comment was, "I think she's reaching."  Students generally said that this is just Sandy's character, and that's all that they see in it.  They all said that they didn't sense anything specifically "Asian" about the martial-arts bit, and one of my Filipina students closed things off by saying, "It's not an issue."

Just sharing some unfiltered student voices, if it helps.

Hello! I am very interested in directing SpongeBob this year but we have a significant Asian population at my school and the scene in Act II with Sandy, right before "chop to the top" feels a bit cringey to me because of potential racially charged martial arts tropes. I know I can omit the "gong" sound. Has anyone else had difficulty with this part of the musical in their school communities?

Thank you, Jeff. I am referring to the full, more mature version. I am curious to know if you or your students read the scene and song mentioned?

I just saw this post.  We are starting our school day, and my first class today is a mix of Theatre 2, 3 and 4 students - sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  Asian and Pacific Islander students make up the single largest demographic at my school, outnumbering white students by several percentage points, and I have some of those students in this class.  And my troupe's co-director is doing the Youth Edition of SpongeBob next spring.

I read the post to my class verbatim, and asked for their opinions.  The first comment was, "I think she's reaching."  Students generally said that this is just Sandy's character, and that's all that they see in it.  They all said that they didn't sense anything specifically "Asian" about the martial-arts bit, and one of my Filipina students closed things off by saying, "It's not an issue."

Just sharing some unfiltered student voices, if it helps.

Hello! I am very interested in directing SpongeBob this year but we have a significant Asian population at my school and the scene in Act II with Sandy, right before "chop to the top" feels a bit cringey to me because of potential racially charged martial arts tropes. I know I can omit the "gong" sound. Has anyone else had difficulty with this part of the musical in their school communities?

Thank you, Jeff. I am referring to the full, more mature version. I am curious to know if you or your students read the scene and song mentioned?

I just saw this post.  We are starting our school day, and my first class today is a mix of Theatre 2, 3 and 4 students - sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  Asian and Pacific Islander students make up the single largest demographic at my school, outnumbering white students by several percentage points, and I have some of those students in this class.  And my troupe's co-director is doing the Youth Edition of SpongeBob next spring.

I read the post to my class verbatim, and asked for their opinions.  The first comment was, "I think she's reaching."  Students generally said that this is just Sandy's character, and that's all that they see in it.  They all said that they didn't sense anything specifically "Asian" about the martial-arts bit, and one of my Filipina students closed things off by saying, "It's not an issue."

Just sharing some unfiltered student voices, if it helps.

Hello! I am very interested in directing SpongeBob this year but we have a significant Asian population at my school and the scene in Act II with Sandy, right before "chop to the top" feels a bit cringey to me because of potential racially charged martial arts tropes. I know I can omit the "gong" sound. Has anyone else had difficulty with this part of the musical in their school communities?

I just had that class again, and asked them those questions.  With one exception, they said they weren't familiar with the whole show - they only responded based on my reading your post to them.  The one exception - one of my Asian students - said that she had seen the full version of the show online.  She said that it had been a while, so her memories weren't as sharp as if she had seen it yesterday, but she said that she didn't remember finding anything about that scene and number to be racist.

That said, I agree with Ashley-Elizabeth's post - no two schools' communities are alike, so it's always worth a conversation with students, and, if warranted, admin and/or parents in situ.

Best of luck to you!

Thank you, Jeff. I am referring to the full, more mature version. I am curious to know if you or your students read the scene and song mentioned?

I just saw this post.  We are starting our school day, and my first class today is a mix of Theatre 2, 3 and 4 students - sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  Asian and Pacific Islander students make up the single largest demographic at my school, outnumbering white students by several percentage points, and I have some of those students in this class.  And my troupe's co-director is doing the Youth Edition of SpongeBob next spring.

I read the post to my class verbatim, and asked for their opinions.  The first comment was, "I think she's reaching."  Students generally said that this is just Sandy's character, and that's all that they see in it.  They all said that they didn't sense anything specifically "Asian" about the martial-arts bit, and one of my Filipina students closed things off by saying, "It's not an issue."

Just sharing some unfiltered student voices, if it helps.

Hello! I am very interested in directing SpongeBob this year but we have a significant Asian population at my school and the scene in Act II with Sandy, right before "chop to the top" feels a bit cringey to me because of potential racially charged martial arts tropes. I know I can omit the "gong" sound. Has anyone else had difficulty with this part of the musical in their school communities?