Teresa Gubbins says:
Huffington Post notices that Plano Children's Theatre version of "Hairspray" lacks one tiny little thing: black actors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/all-white-production-of-h_n_1244955.html
RV41, anonymous:
a race issue? on the huffington post? nooo waaay!
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
lisaltx, anonymous:
Apparently no black actors tried out. So were they supposed to cancel the production?
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, verified:
Elaine "Phantom Professor" Liner?
At a kids' theater??
North of Beltline???
That's GOT to be a typo....
I must alert the drawbridge to be more selective.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Teresa Gubbins, staff:
i would ordinarily say that it's exciting for Huffington Post to have noticed Plano TX - which is kinda why i posted it in the first place - except that i'm pretty sure the kid who wrote the item is FROM Plano, so that reduces the excitement factor a smidge.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
damn yankee, anonymous:
Lisa, I thought that they tried out, but then dropped out.
And honestly, were I putting the production on, I'd change it to a different show. How do you put on a show about racial tensions and struggles without actually having actors of different races?
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
lisaltx, anonymous:
According to the article none tried out. And there have been all white productions elsewhere according to the article. I personally would have considered another play, or advertised tryouts in some new places, but they had probably paid their license fee and may not have been able to get it back.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, verified:
It's not that good a reporting. The kid is an actor from here... that picked up the story from a Facebook firestorm that erupted over (Lord, I shudder to give them any traffic to that particular blog) an Observer blog posting that he parrots states:
Later, I spoke by phone with Hairspray's choreographer Darius-Anthony Robinson, an African-American who's well known in the DFW professional musical theater community. He's currently working in Casa Manana's upcoming production of Rent. Robinson said when he went into rehearsals for PCT's Hairspray, there were several black kids in the ensemble, but after a few days, they all dropped out for various reasons.
So yeah - there were. And Liner does her best thereafter to vilify all the native Plano folks... oh shock and surprise.
Happy Black History Month, everybody!
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
damn yankee, anonymous:
> they had probably paid their license fee and may not have been able to get it back.
That's a good point, I hadn't considered that.
> Happy Black History Month, everybody!
Oh god, the hilarious irony.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, verified:
irony.
Not if you know the blogger.
Link to this comment | Suggest removal
What do you think?
Faved or commented on by...
Related events
Latest Contests
Latest comments...
Creepy rendering of Big Tex shows he's almost ready for the State Fair
gosh some honest feed back finally, I thought I was in Detroit, with such appathy these past few mon
Album review: Cas Haley runs with rhythm and soul on La Si Dah
And as we all know, Germans love David Hasselhof.
Gov. Perry: "I am greatly disappointed" by Boy Scouts' decision to allow gay youths
Perry is undefendable. But political correctness is but the staging ground for the vulnerability of
Staff 1 year, 3 months ago