I just found out my school's doing Hairspray next year...WTF?!

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 6/11/10 at 7:51pm

My theatre teacher said we didn't have enough african-american kids to do Ragtime, but now we're the "2nd school in America to do a production of Hairspray"
could somebody help me make sense of this?

[jamoca5]

Posted: 6/12/10 at 8:18am

My condolences?

The kids at my school are trying to get our drama teacher to do Hairspray, but fortunately, she's not for it.

And as for not having enough black students for Ragtime but enough for Hairspray, it hardly makes any sense, I agree. The only reason I could think up of is that for Ragtime, you have four named black characters, five if you count Coalhouse III. For Hairspray, you just have three.

You should still try to convince your teacher to do Ragtime. It really is an amazing show. My school did it back in 2008 and (despite the fact that the school population is 49% black), we still managed even though we only had 14 African-American cast members.

[christian_drake]

Posted: 6/17/10 at 1:37am

My school is doing Hairspray this fall as well! Another school in my district is ALSO doing it. After MTI released the rights, we quickly signed up!

[alliez92092]

Posted: 6/20/10 at 1:02pm

My high school is doing it as well. Our teachers cut a deal with the gospel choir to get kids involved, but he thinks he's going to have to hire outside people to play Seaweed and Motormouth.

[BwayBaby2000]

Posted: 7/11/10 at 3:55am

This is tragic! Hiring kids outside to play the leads-- why not stick to something that fits your school? I'm doing AIDA right now in NYC and we have a HUGE Nubian Ensemble with tons of kids (even one who has been on Broadway!) two amazing Aidas and two amazing Merebs. Companies like this one should be doing Hairspray not schools who have to shop out black kids. It's actually offensive.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/11/10 at 6:38am

You have that right! Would a high school do "Hamlet" and then bring in a college kid to play the lead? You don't choose a show that you can't cast: regardless of the reason.

And really? NONE of the kids in your Gopsel Choir could handle Seaweed or Motormouth? HIGHLY doubtful.

[alliez92092]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 11:44pm

Oh I completely agree with you guys. The thought of picking a show for a high school where you have to hire outside actors really bothers me. They did "Proof" this year and the director felt that "no student actor could do the part of Robert justice" so he cast a teacher in the role. Absolutely ridiculous.

The problem with Hairspray is that there are kids at our school who could do it, but can't commit. In fact, it was chosen with this one guy in mind for Seaweed, but he was made track captain and can't do both things. Most of the kids in the gospel choir are part of this program that ships inner-city kids into the suburbs for school and they are really restricted time wise because of that.

Honestly, this is all about the theatre group trying to reinvent itself. We've had a rough past year because they hired a terrible director for Sweet Charity (it was one of the worst things I have ever been in), and the other high school in our town put on a professional quality production of Cabaret. The theatre director is trying to create an "event" to redeem ourselves, but choosing a show that we can't cast isn't the way to do it. I'm glad I won't be there this year (heading off to college).