“...own students...”
Yes- our daughter was Mrs. Potts her senior year last year in their high school play - she should have been Belle but it was truly politics - the girl they cast as Belle’s father was on the school board and a liberal lobbyist lawyer by profession. Somehow he managed to on the down low trade funds for a new stage for his daughter to get the lead - it wasn’t just me - many in the school (even within the music department) felt that our daughter ought to have been Belle (clearly I am not over it). Our daughter looks like the Broadway Belle - perfect features, soprano - perfect pitch with some professional training - a perfect score on her NYSSMA level 6 (highest level) solo as a freshman - violin training since the age of 6 so very savvy to scores, etc,; and some dance training - (this girl has an OK voice and that is it), slim, etc. And yet the other girl chosen was short and a bit overweight - the directors deliberately chose to cast against type. Our daughter is Christian, sweet and not full of herself at all. Trust me, this is not just parental bias, a teacher I am close to at the high school totally saw how incredibly unfair it was as well and her opinion is fairly unbiased.
Sorry to vent to a perfect stranger on a forum, but it was terrible.
On point: I agree that the stage version (we had a student and adult mixed pit orchestra that did a great job) is a great play based on a wonderful ancient tale and should not be ruined by Disney by a feminist liberal agenda. Too bad.
Sixteen years teaching voice and I have seen those kind of politics again and again.
And it was done to me so many times in school that I wrote my OWN opera, cast it, directed it and made all the costumes just to be free from political influence.
Fear not...Your daughter will rise to the top.
PS. Mrs. Potts is supposed to be a Contralto, so that is absolute PROOF that what you stated is the TRUTH.
It WAS “political”.
The same thing happened to one of my students, Liz, a Soprano, who was cast as Anita in West Side Story, while a wishy-washy lyric soprano was cast as Maria. It was ABSOLUTELY political, but I assured Liz that “Anita” was actually a better role. More Powerful, Interesting, and Exciting. Then I introduced her to the Opera “Carmen” where the Lyric Soprano (Micaela) was not nearly as interesting as the “Bad Girl Mezzo Soprano” (Carmen) and compared the roles.
She knocked ‘em dead as Anita!