College cancels ADDING MACHINE musical for being too "disturbing"- Page 2

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/2/19 at 12:08am

The Distinctive Baritone said: "...As young people who barely knew life before the US turned into a political dumpster fire, their entire world view has likely been colored by the craziness that’s been going on for the past five years. I can’t wait until he’s out of office and extremism on both the right and left dies down a bit."

(Emphasis added.)

I hope you don't pass on the false equivalence to your students. Nobody drove his car over any of the demonstrating white nationalists. Maybe you just meant the silly censorship like the cancellation of ADDING MACHINE, but even so that is hardly the equivalent of the hundreds of acts of violence by the Far Right during the period you define.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/2/19 at 12:37pm

Yeah, they should definitely cancel Parade if they're gonna act like that.

Also, I really hate when people conflate feeling discomfort or distress with experiencing trauma. They are absolutely not the same thing.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/2/19 at 12:37pm

edit: double post, sorry

Updated On: 12/2/19 at 12:37 PM

[FosseTharp]

Posted: 12/2/19 at 2:41pm

The fact that this happened at Point Park astounds me.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/2/19 at 7:52pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "...I can’t wait until he’s out of office and extremism on both the right and left dies down a bit."

Baritone, I agree with everything else in your excellent posts in this thread, but I wish you'd rethink the facile equivalence of the statement I quoted above.

With the dramatic increase in terroristic acts (not to mention lawlessness by the highest members of the GOP) by the Far Right in recent years, there really is no comparison to be made with the Far Left.

 

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 12/2/19 at 8:15pm

I have only seen THE ADDING MACHINE one time. In this production, I found their designer's concept for a portal to the afterlife to be interesting...



 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 1:00am

GavestonPS said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "...I can’t wait until he’s out of office and extremism on both the right and left dies down a bit."

Baritone, I agree with everything else in your excellent posts in this thread, but I wish you'd rethink the facile equivalence of the statement I quoted above.

With the dramatic increase in terroristic acts (not to mention lawlessness by the highest members of the GOP)by the Far Right in recent years, there really is no comparison to be made with the Far Left.

"

Unlike the far right, the far left is not dangerous...just sometimes pretty annoying in their amazing ability to find offense in almost anything and then “cancel” it (literally or figuratively)...even a brilliant, socially conscious musical.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 8:08pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "

Unlike the far right, the far left is not dangerous...just sometimes pretty annoying in their amazing ability to find offense in almost anything and then “cancel” it (literally or figuratively)...even a brilliant, socially conscious musical."

Fair enough. I share your annoyance. I just think the cancellation of a play by a virtually unknown college can't be compared to running your car over anti-racist demonstrators. (I spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh when my sister and her kids lived there and never heard of Point Park. I think it's telling that their website claims they are "the only college in downtown Pittsburgh", when U. of Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon and Duquesne are all within walking distance of downtown.)

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 8:36pm

GavestonPS said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "

Unlike the far right, the far left is not dangerous...just sometimes pretty annoying in their amazing ability to find offense in almost anything and then “cancel” it (literally or figuratively)...even a brilliant, socially conscious musical."

Fair enough. I share your annoyance. I just think the cancellation of a play by a virtually unknown college can't be compared to running your car over anti-racist demonstrators. (I spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh when my sister and her kids lived there and never heard of Point Park. I think it's telling that their website claims they are "the only college in downtown Pittsburgh", when U. of Pitt, Carnegie-Mellon and Duquesneare allwithin walking distance of downtown.)"

"Virtually unknown college"?  It regularly makes the top 10 list of graduates performing on Broadway.  Also, a Tony-winning director was coming to stage "Parade" for them.  So I'd hardly say they are unknown, at least in the theatre community.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 8:45pm

In fairness, this is true. It’s not Carnegie Mellon or U. Mich, but its BFA musical theatre program is relatively well know and respected. Just slightly less respected by me right now...and hopefully other people who find the only truly “disturbing” thing to be the behavior of some of these students and the faculty members and administrators who bent to their misguided mob mentality.

[Falsettolands]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 9:32pm

Oh, if you only knew half of it. The story is even more ridiculous than what is being reported.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 9:54pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "In fairness, this is true. It’s not Carnegie Mellon or U. Mich, but its BFA musical theatre program is relatively well know and respected. Just slightly less respected by me right now...and hopefully other people who find the only truly “disturbing” thing to be the behavior of some of these students and the faculty members and administrators who bent to their misguided mob mentality."

Oh, absolutely less respected now--if I was a director, it would certainly make me think twice before hiring someone from this school.  Just saying, the school does carry quite a bit of clout in the community, which makes it even more shocking frankly that this is coming from there.

[A Director]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 9:57pm

An update  https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/03/Point-Park-will-take-action-to-address-student-concerns-over-diversity-inclusivity-and-equity/stories/201912030162

 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 9:59pm

Broadway61004 said: 
"Virtually unknown college"? It regularly makes the top 10 list of graduates performing on Broadway. Also, a Tony-winning director was coming to stage "Parade" for them. So I'd hardly say they are unknown, at least in the theatre community."

Consider me educated by the posting of you and others. Thanks to all.

[Markecib]

Posted: 12/3/19 at 10:06pm

I still struggle to see what the real issue(s) was/were as they didn’t like something during the audition process, the casting and then it turned into the whole full time staff is white, and then demands that a woman a POC be on the creative team for every show. What is the core issue that started this?

[binau]

Posted: 12/4/19 at 3:30am

I just hope that these woke students will wake up, if only for their own mental health. This whole thing sounds like a parody.

[Boq101]

Posted: 12/4/19 at 4:15pm

I remember going to college at a pretty good BFA program with an entirely white faculty. For a lot of us students of color it was sometimes very difficult to do any show without the proper faculty support on some issues. I was told at a callback for Big River that I just didn't fit the look of the King or the Duke, the white teacher insinuating it was because I'm a light-skinned Latino. This was the same teacher who thought I should change my name to something less ethnic because I "didn't look like a gangbanger". This was also a school that kept saying things to me like "we should definitely do Evita while you're here" as if the only reason I wasn't getting some other roles was based on race. I even heard from my friends in Bag River that the teacher would talk about slavery in ways that made lots of black students uncomfortable. 

Censorship is a real problem, but I also know as someone who now teaches teens in the city and has students in many of the best schools in this country that there are still lots of tone-dead moments surrounding race and gender in most of our BFA programs. If the artists don't find a show like that possible without a safe space I'd have to agree with them. 

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/5/19 at 12:47pm

Oh, if you only knew half of it. The story is even more ridiculous than what is being reported.

Care to share any details?