A school district in the conservative town of Sherman, Texas, made national headlines last week when it put a stop to a high school production of the musical “Oklahoma!” after a transgender student was cast in a lead role.
The district’s administrators decided, and communicated to parents, that the school would cast only students “born as females in female roles and students born as males in male roles.” Not only did several transgender and nonbinary students lose their parts, but so, too, did cisgender girls cast in male roles. Publicly, the district said the problem was the profane and sexual content of the 1943 musical.
At one point, the theater teacher, who objected to the decision, was escorted out of the school by the principal. The set, a sturdy mock-up of a settler’s house that took students two months to build, was demolished.
But then something even more unusual happened in Sherman, a rural college town that has been rapidly drawn into the expanding orbit of Dallas to its south. The school district reversed course. In a late-night vote on Monday, the school board voted unanimously to restore the original casting.
After the vote, the school board announced a special meeting for Friday to open an investigation and to consider taking action against the district superintendent, Tyson Bennett, who oversaw the district’s handling of “Oklahoma!,” including “possible administrative leave.”
Shakespeare’s original productions in the Globe Theatre had men playing women. The ancient Greeks had men playing women. Granted that’s because of widespread cultural gender inequality, but the argument that people should only play roles that align with their gender assigned at birth because of “traditional values” is nonsense.
No theater in Japan had only male actors.
Japanese theater history is interesting! Kabuki (I assume you’re referring to this) started off as all women, then became all male. This created “onnagata,” actors playing female parts but in a constant state of method acting so they also appeared as women off stage. More recently there’s also the super-popular Takarazuka, an all-women musical troupe (basically Japan’s Broadway). I’m not sure how much those folks in Texas would consider Japanese theater part of their cultural heritage, but it’s another great example of queer theater in human history (that continues to this day!)
No, I meant noh. I just spelled it wrong.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense; I thought you were being sarcastic!
Nope. Just illiterate.
In recent days, the district’s administrators, seeking a compromise, offered to recast the students in a version of the musical meant for middle schoolers or younger that omitted solos and included roles as cattle and birds. Students balked.
Holy shit. Imagine how stupid you must be to try to offer that up as a “compromise”. What a fucking joke.
The hail mary “we fucked up and our bigotry made national news, so please bail us out” compromise move.
Im very glad no one was interested. Imagine going after the theater because of “the gays.” Get the fuck out here.
The students are better at this than the teachers (or, well, school administration).
Wait til they hear about Shakespeare, or basically all of the history of theatre.
They know. That’s why they hate theatre.
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The archived copy is missing all the photos. Here’s a gift link which includes them
Double-plus thanks for that. The photos add a lot. Wow, that’s one packed meeting room! I was in four different old-timey musicals (pit orchestra) in HS, including Ok!, and they were just the sweetest, most old-fashioned-values, romantic things you could imagine. When I read this article I couldn’t believe that anyone would make a fuss over something as stupid as casting choices, and then seek to deprive the kids of the unforgettable experience of putting on one of these shows. Just criminal. “The set, a sturdy mock-up of a settler’s house that took students two months to build, was demolished.” What bastards. I really feel for these poor kids and hope they can put all that Ugly behind them and give the town a beautiful show.
Stupid Philistines.Theater has a tradition going back thousands of years of using whatever gender actor for whatever gender part.
Usually men playing “whatever part”. But point made.
It’s weird seeing a town i grew up next to show up on the news. The context doesn’t surprise me at all though. Having it described as ‘a rural college town that has been rapidly drawn into the expanding orbit of Dallas to its south’ is even weirder. Sherman is 45 minutes away from mckinney, much less dallas. It’s more of it’s own town than anything else.
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