[Mb-hair] !!!!!!!ARGH

[Little Birdie]

Katie wrote:
>I'm going again tomorrow to the black community centres and housing 
>projects to put up signs with "people of colour especially encouraged to 
>reply".

Use this opportunity to talk with people, to explain your dilemma and ask 
advice on how to solve it. There must be a way to get black people in your 
community involved, to find black performers who want to help break down the 
barriers that exist in your community.

Personally, I think it would be hard to do Hair with no people of color in 
the cast. While masks have long been an interesting and symbolic theatrical 
device, I have trouble imagining any circumstance under which it would be OK 
to have a caucasian person singing Colored Spade. When sung by and African 
American that song is a vicious indictment of racism, but I fear that the 
interpretations possible if sung by a caucasian performer would be 
different. I know that some productions, desperate at not being able to cast 
Hud and Dionne with black performers, have resorted to casting them with 
white actors, saying that the character was a white person sensitive to the 
black cause.  However, I have had several black people tell me that they 
would find this offensive, and I am also unsure of how this sensitivity 
would be made clear to an audience. Some productions cut the number (along 
with White Boys) if they can't cast people of color. But this always saddens 
me as the theme of inter racial relations is a strong one in Hair, and I 
hate to lose it. Some productions cast these roles with people of other 
ethnicities. I have seen this be moderately successful with the song White 
Boys, but less so with the role of Hud, which is written to be played by a 
black man.

It is sad how often this situation comes up in contemporary productions 
outside of major urban areas. It would be wonderful to brainstorm this 
issue, as it comes up so regularly, and create a base of thought to share 
with people when this comes up for them.

Nina

The Hair Archives
http://www.michaelbutler.com/hair/holding/Hair.html



>From: "Katie Kasben" <katiekasben at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: mb-hair at islandlists.com
>To: mb-hair at islandlists.com
>Subject: Re: [Mb-hair] !!!!!!!ARGH
>Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 02:59:44 +0000
>
>Someone suggested that jokingly here, and then last night I thought about a 
>compromise.
>It might be another comment on the situation if we had "masks", like 
>pictures of real black faces attached to sticks that are held up in front 
>of white faces.  Maybe it would knock some out of complacency.  but i don't 
>want to alienate and create an even bigger rift...
>
>I'm going again tomorrow to the black community centres and housing 
>projects to put up signs with "people of colour especially encouraged to 
>reply".
>
>praying that something amazing will happen.
>
>Agape,
>Katie
>
>
>ALOHA NUI LOA!
>
>
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