How to do a sensitive Wan Tan Ye - Music Man

[Sarah Leigh Beason]

Posted: 1/14/20 at 12:31pm

Hello! I'm currently working on a production of The Music Man at a high school in the Midwest and we're struggling to find ideas of how to sensitively handle the Wan Tan Ye scene without changing the text.

Ideas? Please?

 

[sabrelady]

Posted: 1/14/20 at 10:20pm

 a talk back re the times the show was placed in (Remember how Tommy is sneered at for being I think Ukrainian/Slavic from the "wrong side of the tracks" rampant xenophobia  was the status quo. Native Americans ( while Native!) were seen as the same.

Mason City where Wilson grew up actually grew up and based the town on, had a service group w this name.

https://globegazette.com/news/local/mason-city-s-wa-tan-ye-disbands-after-more-than/article_28feff02-1670-5704-9a39-0878892694f7.html

While the Native American performance may be objectionable I think u have to base it around Mrs Shins limited understanding balanced by her overwhelming (if misplaced) sense of sophistication and authority.

My 2 cents

(Balzac!)

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 1/15/20 at 3:41am

The revival at the Goodman this summer actually used different text. I truly cannot recall what it was, but Eulalie led something completely unrelated and non-appropriative. Surely a theatre of their stature would have secured permission for such a change, so I would definitely contact the licensing agency and ask if there is any alternative text you can use, perhaps citing the Goodman's production as precedent. If it got approved once, surely it can get approved again.

[John Adams]

Posted: 2/1/20 at 10:26pm

https://www.schooltheatre.org/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=ad164026-11d1-4b8a-bf0d-32a8d1f5fa18