Joseph, I read the article, and I disagree with much of it. That person is entitled to their opinion, however, their interpretation is not completely accurate. There are issues that need to be addressed, but almost every play has issues. Interpretation is in the hands of the director, and there are ways around some of the issues brought up. Consider WHEN this musical was written, it was certainly ahead of its time. If a director wants to do an older play, there will always be sensitive issues to deal with. It is important that students are guided through the troubled spots. These moments can provide a learning opportunity as they are discussed with students.
Jungle Book has been recently criticized because Kipling, a Brit, was writing about India (which was under British rule at the time). However, that does not necessarily taint the work. The recent film of the work seemed to do a wonderful job of making his characters come to life without harm.
I directed
South Pacific this past spring, as my final production after 19 years with the school. It was a great chance to deal with prejudice, which is clearly still an issue in this country. Certain racists have become embolden to speak out and protest recently, therefore I felt it time to tackle this issue. World War 2 is taught in the school, so this was an ideal play to use. We produced
The Diary of Anne Frank in the fall, which is a very moving drama. This musical was a good play to finish the year with. It appears to be an entertaining musical because the songs are catchy, however the serious and important lessons are there for the audience. To help my students understand the important social issues of the musical, they got to meet a survivor of a WW2 Japanese-American Internment Camp. All the native characters (including Bloody Mary) were portrayed with dignity and respect. The comic relief characters were Billis and his crew. In all, the students learned a great deal working on the show.
BTW: I would take intellectual criticism with a grain of salt. Holding up an older piece of literature to modern political correctness can be somewhat unfair. When I directed
Alice Through the Looking Glass I found critics who claimed that the writer (Lewis Carroll) was a pedophile, a view that was negated by Alice Liddell and her family. Since then, I have learned that not all critical reviews are valid or accurate.
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Valerie Farschman, Drama Director
MLS Theatre Company, Troupe 1422
Marion L Steele High School
Amherst, Ohio
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-01-2019 15:20
From: Joseph Gels
Subject: Rodgers-Hammerstein-Trouble getting rights
Why are so many people doing South Pacific? It's very problematic. https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/99550/amp
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Joseph Gels
Theatre Teacher
Boston Latin School
Boston MA
Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2019 13:33
From: Connie Voight
Subject: Rodgers-Hammerstein-Trouble getting rights
I'm directing South Pacific for a local community theatre and we've been waiting for 7 weeks to get rights to the show. We've emailed, called, filled out forms, and all we get told is that they're "having difficulties" and we "just have to wait."
This group only rehearsed on weekends and the show is slated to go up at the end of January. With two weeks off for holidays, we're quickly running out of time. We're about ready to cancel. We can't advertise at all, including placing ads in the programs of
others, which is a main source of our audiences.
Is anyone else have these issues? I thought I saw a post, but now I can't find it. π’
Thanks.
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Connie Voight
Theatre Artist
Huntsville AL
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