Posted on 10/03/2018 4:04:48 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
Kent State University has cancelled its fall musical production of “West Side Story” following complaints that too many white students landed lead roles.
Bridgett Martinez, a musical theatre major who is of Puerto Rican descent, tried out for her “dream role” of Maria, but she said “it all just got screwed up” when “it was given to a white female,” KentWired.com reported.
Martinez was instead cast as her understudy, and the other three leads that portrayed Latino characters were given to non-Latino students.
The outrage to the casting led to a September schoolwide town hall meeting, in which Eric van Baars, Kent State’s School of Theatre and Dance director, decided to cancel the show as a substitute for recasting, and replaced it with a production of “Children of Eden,” a musical which he believes will regroup the divided school.
“The cancellation of West Side Story was in response to our community members’ voices and the national dialogue regarding the desire for authenticity on our stages,” van Baars told Fox News. “To be current and culturally engaged, the School of Theatre and Dance supports the progression of conscious casting in the American theatre today.”
Van Baars announced the move in a schoolwide email, writing “while not all will agree with this choice, I hope most everyone in the school supports a fresh start on the process.” He added that all the actors cast in West Side Story will also be in Children of Eden.
Students pointed, not to talent, but rather diversity and inclusion as their main focus.
“Something we would like to continue to push for is have a person of color in that room all the time – auditions, callbacks, cast lists being made – because we should have someone on our side in that room,” Martinez told KentWired.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
One word: “Hamilton “
Liberal identity politics is part of why they choose... poorly.
I want to move to an all White tropical island.
We are Balkanizing rapidly.
How about “Porgy and Bess” with an all white cast? ( cackle)
some call it groupthink ...
Yet celebrations when blacks play Hamilton
Skin color is more important than talent, it seems.
In this age of PC, nothing is fun anymore.
The war on whites marches on....
I hope all the white snowflakes picked to preform get a giant clue about what their future will be in an America that uses tribes to allocate everything instead of merit.
perform
The tyranny of “diversity.”
I have also thought that “West Side Story” led to a coarsening of our values. I was in Junior High in Reedsburg, WI when the movie came out and some of the guys in my class started carrying can openers (Church Keys), with electrical tape around the handles and the pointed end sharpened because it was cool and that is what the Jets carried.
Anything that glorifies urban depravity is disgusting.
Nobody interviewed the casts members that got the leads and will not be performing?
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I thought Natalie Wood did very nicely in that role.
“Cause every Puerto Rican’s a lousy chicken “
From West Side Story.
Sounds like paradise
Leonard Bernstein was responsible for this.
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