I spent all day absorbing what people said about New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players’s now cancelled performance of The Mikado at NYU’s Skirball Center. I read blog posts, groaned at comment threads, and rolled my eyes when the Artistic Director of NYGASP posted that defensive statement on the organization’s...
A roundup of articles about the current and recent productions of The Mikado and the controversy surrounding them. Leah Nanako Winkler from Sept 2015: The Mikado in Yellowface is Coming to the Skirball Center of the Performing Arts and We Should Talk About It Howard Sherman from Sept 2015: Putting...
Why the Mikado is a No-No, and Other Painfully Obvious Realities About Race Representation in the Theatre Nearly 4 years ago, as a fresh face on New York’s scene, I attended the inaugural Asian American Performer’s Action Coalition (AAPAC) meeting held at Fordham University. A multicultural caucus of over five...
Let’s see if I have this straight. Women write about bias–unconscious or not–in an industry, they set up a group to support fellow women in said industry, men immediately comment on social media about how this isn’t really a problem, maybe these women are biased, because it damn well isn’t...
A production of the musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, slated for the South Williamsport Junior/Senior High School in Pennsylvania in 2015, was canceled by the school’s principal due to “homosexual themes.” In case you haven’t been following the story, you might check out Howard Sherman’s overview at Slate for background, Drew...
Every Little Bit by Jay McAdams (As Communications Director for 24th ST Theatre, I always search for how to relate impact and relevance through story. Along with my own inquiry, I want to start with a story our Executive Director felt after traveling to El Salvador. -Cindy Marie Jenkins) Every...
We’ve Named the Problem. Now what? Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last week (in which case, I hope it’s been warm!), if you’re in the theatermaking world, you are likely aware of the fallout from an event Twitter dubbed #thesummit. For the uninitiated, Brett Steven Abelman posted a...
Peter Marks (Washington Post) hosted a conversation with DC area artistic directors about representation of women and people of color on our stages. Participants: Paul Tetreault, Molly Smith, Eric Schaeffer, @ryanrilette, and Patta Tsikurishvili. (Details: http://goo.gl/d)
…Then ish got real.
If you have sat around a computer for any length of time over the last five years hashing out any of the ‘issues’ around (particularly) American Theatre you have found yourself invariably infuriated, sullen, and withdraw because the topics are circular and, because the answers are hard, evergreen. I swear...