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.
Even if we engage in your transphobic rhetoric for a minute, that’s just not how theater works. People can be cast for different genders and have been for a loooong time
Don’t be rude.
Don’t be transphobic and I won’t call you transphobic. Deal?
Wow, I didn’t know Oklahoma had scenes with full nudity. Oh it doesn’t? Then what part of this requires that the actor be born with male genitals?
Well this will fix the various social crises in that country for sure.
damn, i feel really bad for the kid
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?
Also, did they verify the new lead is cis? I know a lot of people who have been in theater, there is a surprisingly large percent who aren’t cis.
Right? If you’re gonna try to get all the queer kids out of theater you’re gonna have a really hard time.
Has the school administration examined their penis yet?
Name literally one actor or theatre person who is gay!?
Pshh. Can’t be done.
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.
TIL that there’s a version of the Oklahoma! movie without exposed genitalia.
Texas, apparently…
They could have wrote that in. My junior high plays when I was in theatre were always just slightly different from the originals. 🤷🏻♂️
I just wanted you to know, I actually giggled at this. Thank you for the laugh after a shitty weekend.
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transphobia and an adult abusing his position of power to hurt a kid, two berserk buttons in one headline
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??
This happened in Sherman TX, a city most famous for the Lynching of George Hughes and subsequent riot in 1930, commonly known as the Sherman Riot.
I was tempted to say, “New century, new target of bigotry,” but who am I kidding? They never gave up the old target of bigotry, either.
Some of the very first people that the Brownshirts went after was transpeople, even completely destroying an institute that was studying gender in the 30’s.
It’s not like the people involved in that lynching felt bad about it or regretted it. And then they passed that hate to their children who passed it on to their own children. Those people were the grandparents and great-grandparents of these kids. Some of them are still alive and still preaching their hate to the kid. Some of them were alive long enough to do it before they died.
I was a tech theater kid and if this bull shit happened I would absolutely sabotage every show.
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/
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.
Thanks for the update!
No problem!
Nice! If you didn’t already, you should make a post about it
Thank you, I’ll check and see if anyone has. I am diligently learning Lemmy.
I’d laugh my butt off if somehow Oklahoma got cancelled after that backwards-ass school “reviewed” its suitability or something like they seemed to be threatening to do in that article…and then got replaced by Peter Pan.
Peter Pan with a trans man in the lead would be so damn good.
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.
Just because it doesn’t have an effect on you personally doesn’t mean it’s a speck. Other human beings exist and have feelings. Maybe stop being a narcissist.
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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?
A strong respect for bigoted authority???
No, not at all.
The cis kid who was cast to replace the trans kid should refuse on principle.
The whole cast and backstage staff should pretend to go along with it until opening night, and then on opening night as the curtains open, they make a short statement about the injustice then walk off stage and go home.
Alternatively, the cast should covertly learn the role of an opposite gender cast member. Then on opening night, the cast members assume their opposite role and perform the whole play ignoring the costume inconsistencies.
I’m guessing the drama teacher will not allow any of that in order to keep their job.
Who says the kids have to tell the drama teacher?
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.
People playing genders they’re not assigned at birth? In theater?!?
😮
There is a slight difference when we’re talking about trans people.
I’d wager they would allow a man to play a woman’s role and vice versa. I think this is purely the anti-trans agenda taking hold.
Gotta say, their obsession with children’s genitalia really weirds me out.
Always comes down to that why care if the person is trans it’s like those laws that forbid trans people from hrt all bullshit
Rock Hudson has entered the room
Rock Hard Hudson
Shakespeare would be mortified!
Shakespeare never would have done this!
We banned ShakesSpear and hung him/her in effigy
—Texas, probably
My first thought was “wait until they hear about Shakespeare”. Literally every role filled by men, sometimes with the script explicitly calling for a man to play a female in full attire.
I’d also hate to see what policies they’ll enact for their chorale program when performing historical hymns, where soprano parts specifically called for a male eunuch (castrato) to sing since females were not allowed to attend church services including choirs.
In my younger years I would have been absolutely vilified by these people. I’m probably vilified now, but I would’ve been then too. In all seriousness though, I cannot believe how far backwards we’ve gone in all this. I recognize that these thoughts and feelings have existed since before I was a kid but at least back then people seemed to have the decency to mind their own.
But to attack theatre of all things with this gender bullshit is attacking theatre itself. Crossdressing in theatre has existed for as long as theatre has existed. Cross-singing has existed for as long as singing has existed. If they’re not teaching that stuff in their performing arts programs, they are denying young adults a quality education of the performing arts.
they are denying young adults a quality education
I think you’re on to something there.
Trying to remember. Was it Taming of the Shrew where he mind fucks the audience with a male actor playing a male servant pretending to be a guy’s wife in drag?
I wonder who the first woman to play Juliet was, and if Shakespeare ever met her.
Fucking outrageous thankfully there’s no traditional Christmas theatre shows that involve drag coming up
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Rofl, I saw what you put there and it was hilariously incompetent.
yes thats why i deleted it
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.
Their point is it’s hypocritical to say a cis person can’t play a trans role.
I know what their point was.
Then why are you acting like they think a trans person can’t play a cis role?
Their point isn’t about this outcry, it’s about the reaction to the outcry.
Their anology is, if it’s wrong for a cis person to play a trans character then it’s also wrong for a trans person to play a cis character. They’re trying to criticize leftist hypocrisy.
Now, I think it was a minority of pro-trans people that criticize a cis person playing a trans character. But I guess their criticism of that minority is fair.
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.
Why can’t they be? Your issue is when it’s mocking trans women, but anyone could play the role and then mock trans women.
Are you aware that trans women are not physiologically the same as cis men? (If you weren’t, now you are.)
Now do you understand how casting a cis man in the role of a trans woman will emphasize masculine features of the character, and that it plays into a narrative that trans women are men? (if you weren’t, now you are.)
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.
Okay, so, addendum: if the story is set in a time or place where the character wouldn’t have access to hormones, then it’s fine.
There’s also a case to be made that if you have sufficient fuckery with CGI, you could make a story during an ongoing medical transition.
What I’m talking about is throwing a wig and some powder on some lantern jawed dude and calling it a day.
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.
I agree, but a key takeaway is to also ensure that trans actors aren’t discriminated against for any role so that they receive a fair chance.
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.
No actor of any gender now is lacking skill because of Shakespeare…
