Aida
Aida
gavrochegirl
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/16/05
aces25
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/13/04
#7re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 1:03amThat would be a great musical to do! Where i live, the two major high school rotate doing a big production. We only have one big theatre and it's always a pretty big deal when the musical is playing. When i was there, we did Beauty and the Beast. I would have adored to be in it but at that time i was a very, very self conscious person and wouldn't be caught dead singing in front of anyone. I regret it big time but no need to dwell in the past anymore.
One Song Glory
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/12/05
#9re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 7:48am
Woohoo! Aida is a great show, my favorite show until I saw Wicked actually.
Good luck with the show and have fun!
To Kill A Mockingbird
#10re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 8:38amAwesome! My town theater is doing Aida this winter which i really want to audition for. My school is doing 'the best christmas pagaent ever' and footloose this year. This will be a very interesting year.
#11re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 9:09amYou lucky ducks, you. My school is big on the whole 'let's do things no one in the district has ever done before'. Therefore we're doing The Outsiders and Pirates of Penzance. I'm the Production Assistant, yayness. Should be fun. G.l to you all!
TennesseeTwang
Broadway Star Joined: 6/26/05
#14re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 2:41pm
Aida was to be performed at Abeline Christian College with a white Aida. But that casting decision caused so much trouble, that the show was cancelled and replaced with another musical.
There were also conflicting stories as to exactly what happened to cause the controversy. Abeline has very small black student enrollment and since most people see the role of a Nubian princess as race-specific, lots of folks wondered why they'd even choose to do that project when they knew the pool of potential black Aida's was virtually non-existent. And if they insisted on doing the show, why not allow auditions to be open to actresses from a nearby predominately black school?
Only one black woman auditioned for the role and she and everyone else knew that she wasn't vocally strong. After the controversy started, the school told local newspapers that the young woman was sent to a singing teacher paid for by the theater department and called back for further auditions.
The actress said that when she lost the role to the white actress who was admittedly a better singer, she was told that the reason wasn't her singing, which had improved, so much as her lack of "chemistry " with the actor playing Radames.
Since Abeline Christian has had a very checkered past in race relations - they once excluded students based on race - many black community leaders saw this as nothing more than squemishness about showing an interracial love story on stage. The theater department was seen as having bowed to those in the community who were stuck in the 1950's.
But such a fuss was kicked up, that the show was cancelled and Suessical was chosen instead.
Despite some unnecessary nastiness on all sides of the controvery, it brought up some interesting discussions about race-specific roles verses non-tradition casting.
Btw, I've seen photos from a regional production of Aida in California and the lead actress was East Asian. The actress who is playing Aida in the Amarillo Texas Little Theatre production is South Asian.
So, when does non-traditional casting become silly? And why is casting a non-black Aida any more acceptable than it would be to cast an African American actress in the lead in Flower Drum Song?
Updated On: 9/17/05 at 02:41 PM
#15re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:01pmdon't forget that aida is sometimes played by an overweight white woman in the opera (correct???) so audiences are used to seeing white aidas I guess lol... I would imagine for our aida a lot of the harlem ensemble from ragtime will be back playing nubians... ha...
#16re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:20pmAida is one of my favorite shows but when I heard that the town was putting it on, I was wondering how they were going to pull it off because my town is predominatly(sp?) white. Then i realized that we have many actors from other towns. So I guess it won't be a problem.
TennesseeTwang
Broadway Star Joined: 6/26/05
#17re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:25pm
In opera, it's all about singing a classical role.
Theater is about inhabiting a character.
Anyway, I personally believe that high school productions can be cut some slack in casting when a role is race specific. They honestly may not have the appropriate pool of performers to cast strickly according to race. ( Although you really have to wonder why they choose such projects in the first place.)
But in professional theater there really is no excuse. I mean, in what parallel universe is there not enough black women who can sing and act this role? The number who can do it is staggering. And many black actresses see it as a bit of a holy grail of roles for black women.
Updated On: 9/17/05 at 03:25 PM
TennesseeTwang
Broadway Star Joined: 6/26/05
#20re: Aida
Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:39pm
That's the same thing that I wondered about Abeline Christian.
I once saw an all black version of The Sound of Music and it was surreal in a way that undermined the the show's essential sweetness. And not in a good way.
Because lets face it folks, 1930's Nazi era Austria would not have been filled with black people.
Updated On: 9/17/05 at 03:39 PM
TennesseeTwang
Broadway Star Joined: 6/26/05
BSoBW2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
TennesseeTwang
Broadway Star Joined: 6/26/05
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