Well this will fix the various social crises in that country for sure.
I was sipping my coffee and looking out the window listening to the song birds, and then I worried about a trans kid in a school play, now I don’t have to worry thanks for taking care of that. What is next…men dressing up as women to play in Shakespearian plays??
Man, what a shitty thing to do. What a shitty person you have to be to do this.
They should change it to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but do it in furry.
I feel awful for the involved kids, but look forward to what should be a slam dunk lawsuit.
I don’t get it. Not male and the lead calls for a male so you can’t play the lead. So we’re going with an actual male instead. Seems reasonable.
Since the school is so up in arms about their production of Oklahoma, they should switch gears and do a production of Peter Pan. You know, where the lead is a young boy traditionally played by a female actor.
Or any Shakespeare where all of the characters are traditionally played by men.
transphobia and an adult abusing his position of power to hurt a kid, two berserk buttons in one headline
Shortly after Hightower’s casting, however, the student was replaced when the school’s principal, Scott Johnston, called Hightower’s father about a new gender policy for student performers.
“Actors and actresses could only play a role that was the same gender they were assigned at birth,” Hightower recounted the conversation.
This sounds like the kind of thing a school would do under the Nazis. Wonder why that is.
Also how that spits in the face of theatrical performances dating at least back to Shakespeare’s time, if not further.
I never studied that stuff, but I did date a drama major back in the day.
“Actors and actresses could only play a role that was the same gender they were assigned at birth,” Hightower recounted the conversation.
These people are so fucking clueless. Men playing women in theatre is literally as old as theatre because women literally weren’t allowed to.
LOL at MAGA trying to co-opt musical theater
I’m happy to say that after a whole bunch of people showed up at the school board meeting to speak on Max’s behalf the school board fully reinstated the original play and it’s actors including Max and issued a formal apology. Special thanks to Grayson Pride for leading the effort. https://www.kxii.com/2023/11/14/sherman-isd-board-trustees-votes-reinstate-original-cast-version-oklahoma/
Thanks for the update!
No problem!
Just want to point out that this statement makes it very clear that the original decision was reactionary discrimination against a minority in the first place.
Following the closed meeting, a board member, Wendy Vellotti, put forward the motion to reinstate the original version and cast of the production as it was before the gender rule was created.
Edit: The school board is now launching an investigation into the actions of the superintendent.
https://www.kxii.com/2023/11/14/sherman-isd-board-trustees-discuss-superintendent-position/
They need to investigate him. There are images circulating of him harassing parents who spoke ill of him about the situation. Another board member was shown to be protesting the local pride problem that was held, yelling at children and taunting them.
Yet when scarlet johanson (i think it was) played a trans character, OH NO, THE ROLE NEEDS TO BE PLAYED BY A TRANS PERSON. I support anybody playing characters of any race, gender, orientation, you name it. It’s acting, they aren’t superheroes, mafia bosses, powerful wizards either, and people make no fuss of that.
But for real the hypocresy of you people
You do realize that these aren’t the same people, right? They have like polar opposite beliefs on the subject.
Anyway, this kid was “banned” from playing the role, they didn’t lose the audition.
Same website, but still you are right that banning someone from performing based on anything outside their performance is outrageous.
So your suggestion is that the consistent view would to only allow trans kids to play trans roles? So a trans boy (assigned female at birth), who is literally indistinguishable from her male peers, is just shit out of luck? And trans girls are going to have to wait til their (obviously very open) school decides to do Rocky Horror Picture Show?
Fuck off and let kids be kids. Weird fuckers obsessed with children’s’ genitals.
Not only did they not lose the audition, they won the audition and then had it taken away from them. And therein lies the hate. It’s not a “no”, it’s a “yes but go fuck yourself”.
Honestly, as long as trans women aren’t played by cis dudes that’s an improvement over the past century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Danish_Girl_(film)
As long as they don’t go all Little Britain on it, I don’t see it as a problem.
Poont is, I don’t really care who plays who, I’m okay with a trans woman being played by a cis dude, and a cis dude being played by a trans woman, it should not matter as long as their acting is good.
What you are missing is a century plus of the thumb on the scale (much longer if you go back to Shakespeare where only men could play women). The world doesn’t suddenly become a complete meritocracy overnight (if ever), and striving for equal representation in the arts is very important.
Just look at how children of color have been inspired since Disney decided to start making protagonists that look like them and have similar backgrounds.
can you point out where www.salon.com complained about scarlet johanson playing a trans character
or was that not who you meant with that endlessly classy ‘you people’
Rofl, I saw what you put there and it was hilariously incompetent.
yes thats why i deleted it
I haven’t seen Oklahoma! but is there a part where the lead whips out their dong and waves it in front of the audience?
If not, who cares what’s in their pants?
They could have wrote that in. My junior high plays when I was in theatre were always just slightly different from the originals. 🤷🏻♂️
You dont remember the classic line
“Ooooooooklamohma where my jizz coms seeping down my pants!”
Also, prosthetic dongs are a thing, if you prefer to keep the original vision of Oklahoma! intact.
Wow, I guess the movie really deviated from the source material.
Texas, apparently…
The cis kid who was cast to replace the trans kid should refuse on principle. the rest of the staff should, too.
Also conservatives can go fuck themselves.
The world is large. This gender identity stuff is just a speck, relatively speaking. Get some perspective.
What are you even trying to communicate here?
You’re right, it is a speck, so why the fuck is the school board singling out a child to punish over something completely insignificant? Do you think that child is going to grow up with a strong respect for authority, knowing that they will ruin their prospects over trivial bullshit?
Do you think that a strong respect for authority is something that we want to instill in children?
As a former theater kid (and queer person) this is close to the right answer. The cis replacement should show up on day 1 and do the most over the top, flaming, fabulous Curly the world has ever seen.
What’s most interesting to me is how Oklahoma! is an utterly poisonous production from the get-go. Every character is a self-absorbed jerk. Judd Fry asks a girl to a dance who only agrees as a ruse to punish the protagonist, who then literally tries to convince the dude to kill himself. The entire show is fucked up.
Any director who isn’t doing something subversive with the content has their head up their own ass. But hey, it’s Texas. 🙃
characters in stories are allowed to be bad people
Any director who isn’t doing something subversive with the content has their head up their own ass.
Its a school musical dude, calm down. If you want a subversive and thoughtful performance then don’t go to a school production.
Oklahoma isn’t “poisonous” its just weird. But, its fun for high school students to perform, and that’s all it has to be. The purpose of a musical theater program in a school isn’t to impress you with complex well written narratives, its to provide the students with an experience they wouldn’t get otherwise.
