Ragtime without Race

Okay, I'm in charge of my school's drama departments as of right now (Our previous director quit, so it's up to a board of students and parent volunteers now) and one musical which keeps coming up is Ragtime. Now, as much as I love Ragtime, and believe some students could fit rather well into it, our drama program suffers from a lack of diversity. Aside from a very few kids of Asian or Hispanic descent, we have mainly caucasian students. As the appointed director, I had a concept of Ragtime being a vaudeville show with the various scenes being various acts (Fitting Evelyn Nesbit, Harry Houdini, and even Henry Ford into the story well) and using either the idea of blackface to create the African American characters, or by using puppets and masks. I know Minstrel today is considerred rather controversial, it would make sense in the context of the concept and time period, like Cabaret using swastikas. I also thought of puppets or masks, which would be used by each actor to portray one or more characters, thereby throwing race to the wind. Obviously this is not a show which works well in color-blind casting, and could become downright inappropriate at times, but it seems right now the most popular choice amongst the parents, students, even the faculty and as the director, I'm trying to find a way around such a barrier as race.

Updated On: 7/16/09 at 05:44 PM

Are you out of your mind? Blackface wasn't all that acceptable when it was the norm, and to even suggest it is repulsive. I don't know how you can do Ragtime without a racially diverse cast when the whole show is about race and tolerance.

I'd have to think the rights might be hard to get and/or too expensive due to the upcoming revival.

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You know, one show that has race as an issue but can be omitted is All Shook Up. If I'm not mistaken there is an alternate script which has Lorraine and her mother as being from "the other side of the tracks" rather than African-American. Your biggest problem would, probably, be finding someone who can hit the notes in "There's Always Me".

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ANNIE might be fun!

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Blackface is HIGHLY offensive. Truly.

Additionally, you really cannot DO a show about race when you have no diversity under MOST circumstances. (My school is in the same boat, there are MANY shows we cannot produce because of how darn lily white we are.)

Are there shows that address inequality that can be done with a mostly/all white cast? Sure. Once on This Island is lovely. While it was written to be the rich, white land owners vs the poor black natives.....there is no reference to being black so it's easy to just have it be the wealthy vs the poor, or even the white vs islanders.

I know you are TRYING to make this work, but Ragtime won't. Additionally, this is an extremely difficult show to produce and I wouldn't suggest there are too many HS kids that are truly adept to handle it.

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I can't believe that was even a question.

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He never said that any adult was backing his ideas....he said these were HIS thoughts about making the show a feasibility. And its a board of STUDENTS and Parents -- none that might have ANY clue to the subject at hand.

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Sorry, I misunderstood. I'm still bothered that a show which is obviously not appropriate for the student body is the popular choice amongst parents and faculty.

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Well, I was going to write about this high school I know of that did Ragtime with an almost completely white cast.... however, seeing as this discussion has gone somewhat "downhill," I should probably quit while I'm ahead.

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I don't think, in this day and age, that doing "yellow face" and false eyelids so a bunch of white kids can do The King and I should be any more acceptable than black face.

I find it as a different Matter. when I did the show we didn't use yellow face make up. we used cake face make up.

Now, insults aside, I think that this is a good springboard for the discussion of doing a show you like vs. the right show for your school/community theatre/whatever.

On the subject of color-blind casting: I think that shows should be cast in a colorblind fashion if race isn't really a central theme in the show. But for many popular musicals (Hairspray, Ragtime, South Pacific, etc.) race is a central theme, and colorblind casting could serve to confuse and/or offend the audience.

Unfortunately Jagfkb, Ragtime does not seem to be a reasonable option, and yo should look into other shows that could better highlight the strengths of your group, even if they might not be as popular.