I'm going to see The Nutcracker on Wednesday afternoon. As you may know, when I was a young child, I took ballet lessons, and I got to be in the local production of The Nutcracker (which was put on by the place where I took lessons) for many years. I was, as you can imagine, not a very good ballerina (okay, I sucked), but I did love getting to watch the other dancers who were actually good. I haven't seen The Nutcracker since I was a kid, so I'm very excited about it.
Speaking of which, I was reading a column in the Sunday NYT yesterday called "The Ethicist" where people write in with ethical dilemmas. A woman wrote in to say that she had just seen a production of The Nutcracker and that the Snow King, as well as one of the snowflakes, were played by black people, and that this had, for aesthetic reasons, ruined the entire production for her. (She compared it to casting a "one-legged midget" as Tarzan. Seriously. I can't make this shit up, people.) She wanted to know if this meant she was racist. My answer would have been "you're not racist, just retarded," but "the ethicist" was somewhat more tactful than that (I think he told her that she was exercising a sort of racism, but it was the preconceived attitudes sort rather than the virulent hatred sort). I don't think we had a Snow King or snowflakes in the Bakersfield production, so I can't speak on that point directly, but we did have an either black or biracial (I'm honestly not sure of her racial heritage) Sugar Plum Fairy, and no one seemed to mind that she wasn't purple. (Interesting but pointless side note: she later went on to date one of the housemates on an early season of The Real World, at which point I think she was a professional ballerina.) Regarding the offensively pigmented snow people, the ethicist pointed out that given that the "snowflakes" weren't made of frozen, crystaline water, the viewer was already being asked to suspend some level of disbelief, and that the woman just needed to learn to do a little better job of it. In some ways I feel for the woman, because clearly she places a high value on the continuity and sameness that the tradition of The Nutcracker represents to her, and I don't think there's anything inherently bad about that. But there's only so much continuity and sameness that a constantly-changing society can (or should, I think) maintain. And seriously, do "white" people really look that much more like snow? Wouldn't you really need to slap some white makeup on someone of any race to make them look like snow?
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That's a really interesting question about the snowflake people. Acting is one of the last areas of society where certain types of prejudice are considered acceptable (well, maybe not by everyone but go with me). I could see wanting to cast people with a specific look as specific characters... although as you point out, if you want your snowflakes to be *white* you'd need to use make-up on all but the very palest of people.
Presumably the Snowflake dancers were wearing snowflakey costumes though... and I think that should be enough for most people to suspend their disbelief.
I hope you have fun at the Nutcracker.
well, in addition to being socially acceptable, discrimination in this area is also legally sanctioned. when i worked for the oregon employment department, i did a stint at the job order desk, and we had to make sure that the job requirements didn't violate anti-discrimination laws. i remember that the way the law was stated was something to the effect that you couldn't discriminate on the basis of gender, race, etc, unless you could make a legitimate argument that a person of a particular race, gender, height, or whatever was necessary to fulfill the job requirements (actors and other performers being the most obvious example of when this would be the case).
and based on my experience at even the measly high school level of theater, it was pretty well accepted that physical characteristics played an extremely important role in casting choices, and i don't think anyone ever had a problem with that. of course, the thing about high school drama was that although my high school as a whole was quite racially diverse, the pool of people auditioning was not, so we couldn't really put on a plausible production of, say, west side story. and i remember in our production of fame (which i student directed, thank you very much), the feminist-black-pride character had to be turned into a feminist-chicana-pride character. i'll always remember it because for some reason we let the girl playing the role rename her character, and she named her "conchita", which i always thought sounded so stupid.
and speaking of that production of fame, the play was like the movie, only sanitized and stupid. in the movie there is a gay character. in the play he is replaced by a guy who--i kid you not--doesn't have any testicles (due to testicular cancer) and is therefore asexual. it was like the playwright was like, "hmmm...i need a character that's not attracted to women, but also not at all controversial..." the best part is that my best friend muffin was the one who played the role, so i spent the entire time we were rehearsing abusing my position as student director by telling him that i wasn't feeling enough impotent rage eminating from him.
ah, good times.
Impotent rage... lol. Poor Muffin.
they really should be played by albino's to make it really realistic.
I hope you have fun at the show. I'm jelous!
So how was The Nutcracker? I ask because pickles used to go with her family to see it in S.F., and misses it every year at this time.
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