TX school bans trans boy from playing "Oklahoma!" male lead, recasts with cisgender male student
Max Hightower, 17, had won the coveted role of Curly, but his school enacted a new anti-trans policy for this play
People playing genders they're not assigned at birth? In theater?!?
😮
Shakespeare never would have done this!
My first thought was "wait until they hear about Shakespeare". Literally every role filled by men, sometimes with the script explicitly calling for a man to play a female in full attire.
I'd also hate to see what policies they'll enact for their chorale program when performing historical hymns, where soprano parts specifically called for a male eunuch (castrato) to sing since females were not allowed to attend church services including choirs.
In my younger years I would have been absolutely vilified by these people. I'm probably vilified now, but I would've been then too. In all seriousness though, I cannot believe how far backwards we've gone in all this. I recognize that these thoughts and feelings have existed since before I was a kid but at least back then people seemed to have the decency to mind their own.
But to attack theatre of all things with this gender bullshit is attacking theatre itself. Crossdressing in theatre has existed for as long as theatre has existed. Cross-singing has existed for as long as singing has existed. If they're not teaching that stuff in their performing arts programs, they are denying young adults a quality education of the performing arts.
We banned ShakesSpear and hung him/her in effigy
—Texas, probably
There is a slight difference when we're talking about trans people.
I'd wager they would allow a man to play a woman's role and vice versa. I think this is purely the anti-trans agenda taking hold.
Gotta say, their obsession with children’s genitalia really weirds me out.
Always comes down to that why care if the person is trans it's like those laws that forbid trans people from hrt all bullshit
Shakespeare would be mortified!
Fucking outrageous thankfully there's no traditional Christmas theatre shows that involve drag coming up
Rock Hudson has entered the room
Rock Hard Hudson
This happened in Sherman TX, a city most famous for the Lynching of George Hughes and subsequent riot in 1930, commonly known as the Sherman Riot.
I was tempted to say, "New century, new target of bigotry," but who am I kidding? They never gave up the old target of bigotry, either.
Some of the very first people that the Brownshirts went after was transpeople, even completely destroying an institute that was studying gender in the 30’s.
It's not like the people involved in that lynching felt bad about it or regretted it. And then they passed that hate to their children who passed it on to their own children. Those people were the grandparents and great-grandparents of these kids. Some of them are still alive and still preaching their hate to the kid. Some of them were alive long enough to do it before they died.
I'm happy to say that after a whole bunch of people showed up at the school board meeting to speak on Max's behalf the school board fully reinstated the original play and it's actors including Max and issued a formal apology. Special thanks to Grayson Pride for leading the effort. https://www.kxii.com/2023/11/14/sherman-isd-board-trustees-votes-reinstate-original-cast-version-oklahoma/
Thanks for the update!
No problem!
Nice! If you didn’t already, you should make a post about it
Thank you, I'll check and see if anyone has. I am diligently learning Lemmy.
Just want to point out that this statement makes it very clear that the original decision was reactionary discrimination against a minority in the first place.
Following the closed meeting, a board member, Wendy Vellotti, put forward the motion to reinstate the original version and cast of the production as it was before the gender rule was created.
Edit: The school board is now launching an investigation into the actions of the superintendent.
https://www.kxii.com/2023/11/14/sherman-isd-board-trustees-discuss-superintendent-position/
They need to investigate him. There are images circulating of him harassing parents who spoke ill of him about the situation. Another board member was shown to be protesting the local pride problem that was held, yelling at children and taunting them.
I haven't seen Oklahoma! but is there a part where the lead whips out their dong and waves it in front of the audience?
If not, who cares what's in their pants?
Also, did they verify the new lead is cis? I know a lot of people who have been in theater, there is a surprisingly large percent who aren't cis.
You dont remember the classic line
“Ooooooooklamohma where my jizz coms seeping down my pants!”
I just wanted you to know, I actually giggled at this. Thank you for the laugh after a shitty weekend.
Texas, apparently...
They could have wrote that in. My junior high plays when I was in theatre were always just slightly different from the originals. 🤷🏻♂️
Shortly after Hightower’s casting, however, the student was replaced when the school’s principal, Scott Johnston, called Hightower’s father about a new gender policy for student performers.
“Actors and actresses could only play a role that was the same gender they were assigned at birth,” Hightower recounted the conversation.
This sounds like the kind of thing a school would do under the Nazis. I wonder why that is.
What the fuck?
“Actors and actresses could only play a role that was the same gender they were assigned at birth,” Hightower recounted the conversation.
When I was in school, they literally didn't have enough students who were good enough to act, so there was so much gender bending. What garbage
During shakespeares time, they did not allow female actors, so all women on stage were played by men.
Shakespeare had men acting in skirts and dresses. Juliet of Romeo and Juliet, a 14 year old girl was played by a man. The kissing between the Capulet heiress and the Montague boy were two men smooching on stage.
Repugnicans are a plague on both your houses (of Parliament)!
@Potatosarenotfriends @floofloof Um, Shakespeare.
“Actors and actresses could only play a role that was the same gender they were assigned at birth,” Hightower recounted the conversation.
These people are so fucking clueless. Men playing women in theatre is literally as old as theatre because women literally weren't allowed to.
These people would loose their mind if they ever saw a traditional British Christmas Pantomime
Also how that spits in the face of theatrical performances dating at least back to Shakespeare's time, if not further.
I never studied that stuff, but I did date a drama major back in the day.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3206851
It goes back to the ancient Greeks, at least.
They just don't care, as long as they are hurting someone, they are happy.
If I remember correctly back in the 18th century when only men were in plays they would also play women.
Actors and actresses could only play a role that was the same gender they were assigned at birth. Is just the next step, the Nazi's have been coming for us but they weren't you so you didn't stand up.
Over the last two years it was about fictional characters being played by people not of the characters race, and voice actors started losing work because they weren't the same race as the characters being voiced.
Before that it was wrong coloured fictional live action princesses.
Before that it was wrong coloured actors using disguises and make-up.
Before that it was black-face.
And everyone thought, I'm not racist maybe that should be wrong! And now you're racist, sexist, bigoted, for daring to have the admiration and respect to want to imitate 'those people'. This is part of the culture war, they want to make sure you stay within your lines, on your rung, and in your place.
FIRST THEY CAME
By Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
Not quite sure if I'm reading you right, but I'd say there's a relevant difference between those examples, like recommending white people don't act in blackface, which are about respecting the cultural sensitivities of a traditionally oppressed group, and those, like prohibiting trans kids from acting roles of their own gender, which are about enhancing the oppression of a traditionally oppressed group.
Because Max identifies as a transgender male, he could no longer be cast as the male lead.
I feel like the easy solution is to identify as a cis male...
It is concerning (but unsurprising) how obsessed conservatives are with childrens genitals.
You must cover your genitals at all times! But your coverings must clearly indicate which genitals you have! No one may see your genitals, but everyone needs to be clearly informed of your genitals at all times.
Also the gential signaling coves change over time, but wearing the wrong coverings in the wrong time period is unnatural and makes God mad!
You can't choose to identify as the cis version of your opposite sex.
That's literally why we have the term cis, to differentiate from those who keep their assigned gender from those who do not.
I feel awful for the involved kids, but look forward to what should be a slam dunk lawsuit.
I highly doubt any lawsuit of this nature would be anything close to a slam dunk, especially in Texas. I'm not finding any federal court cases that provide legal precedent on the topic, and Trump revoked the Obama administration guidance that trans people are protected under Title IX.
The cis kid who was cast to replace the trans kid should refuse on principle. the rest of the staff should, too.
Also conservatives can go fuck themselves.
The cis kid who was cast to replace the trans kid should refuse on principle.
The whole cast and backstage staff should pretend to go along with it until opening night, and then on opening night as the curtains open, they make a short statement about the injustice then walk off stage and go home.
Alternatively, the cast should covertly learn the role of an opposite gender cast member. Then on opening night, the cast members assume their opposite role and perform the whole play ignoring the costume inconsistencies.
As a former theater kid (and queer person) this is close to the right answer. The cis replacement should show up on day 1 and do the most over the top, flaming, fabulous Curly the world has ever seen.
damn, i feel really bad for the kid
The licensing organization should pull their approval.
You'd think they would ban Oklahoma! in Texas entirely for daring to be about a state other than Texas.
Oklahoma is a vassal state to Texas, so it's fine.
As a reluctant Texan, this is the comment I came here to make.
I hate conservative so much. This is a non issue. If they are the best for the part let them play the part.
This is the shit where they go, "Why not let the best person get the part?" And then when they aren't chosen, they start losing their shit.
This is absolutely against theatre traditions.
I was an angsty theatre kid. I would conspire to ruin every and any play for the remainder of my time at that school.
I literally did a monologue in drag and the school was fine with it. And this was the 90s. Things have gone backward, amazingly enough.
I went to school in West Texas (bigotry Central). In elementary school in the mid-80s, it was tradition that the 6th grade class always put on a performance of 'Guitarzan' for the annual talent show, and EVERY year it was tradition that Jane was played by a male student.
The main difference of course is that it was played as humorous. A joke with a ridiculous coconut bra.
So it's not that Texans have a problem with cross-dressing itself, but with taking seriously anyone who isn't ashamed of it.
Which to me seems to make it even worse. I hate this state.
They do know that acting is pretending to be someone other than yourself, right?
If Jared Leto (🤮) can win an Oscar for portraying a trans woman despite not being trans, then there is absolutely no reason that a trans boy can't play the male lead of a school play. It's acting.
Are you talking about Dallas buyers club or something else? I'm neither hip nor with it.
Yep, that's the one.
What’s most interesting to me is how Oklahoma! is an utterly poisonous production from the get-go. Every character is a self-absorbed jerk. Judd Fry asks a girl to a dance who only agrees as a ruse to punish the protagonist, who then literally tries to convince the dude to kill himself. The entire show is fucked up.
Any director who isn’t doing something subversive with the content has their head up their own ass. But hey, it’s Texas. 🙃
Eh. Just sounds like normal low-brow shit to me.
Low brow writers feel compelled to make things as clear and obvious as possible for their dim-witted audiences.
It's simple. It's straightforward. Everyone can understand what is going on without much thought.
I don't really think it's bad for that, just is what it is.
I think you mean it's old.
Before audiences had all the tropes figured out simple stories were amazing. All the contrivances we add today we only add to make bad movies seem more interesting or complicated.
It's why perfectly executed, simple stories are still compelling. But Oklahoma! certainly isn't one of them.
Edit: oh, and some people love the music
characters in stories are allowed to be bad people
Any director who isn’t doing something subversive with the content has their head up their own ass.
Its a school musical dude, calm down. If you want a subversive and thoughtful performance then don't go to a school production.
Oklahoma isn't "poisonous" its just weird. But, its fun for high school students to perform, and that's all it has to be. The purpose of a musical theater program in a school isn't to impress you with complex well written narratives, its to provide the students with an experience they wouldn't get otherwise.
They should play one of the female lead characters, but as male.
transphobia and an adult abusing his position of power to hurt a kid, two berserk buttons in one headline
Since the school is so up in arms about their production of Oklahoma, they should switch gears and do a production of Peter Pan. You know, where the lead is a young boy traditionally played by a female actor.
Or any Shakespeare where all of the characters are traditionally played by men.
Unfortunately these people are morons, pointing out their hypocrisy just makes them hate two things not like two things.
This is going to help with the School Shootings and Child Poverty and Pastors Raping Children!
I was sipping my coffee and looking out the window listening to the song birds, and then I worried about a trans kid in a school play, now I don't have to worry thanks for taking care of that. What is next.....men dressing up as women to play in Shakespearian plays??
They should change it to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but do it in furry.
I would sponsor a fur suit if this happened.
Good one. I literally snort-laughed and attracted everyone's attention in the restaurant where I'm eating
Cowards
Well this will fix the various social crises in that country for sure.
I'd laugh my butt off if somehow Oklahoma got cancelled after that backwards-ass school "reviewed" its suitability or something like they seemed to be threatening to do in that article...and then got replaced by Peter Pan.
Peter Pan with a trans man in the lead would be so damn good.
I was a tech theater kid and if this bull shit happened I would absolutely sabotage every show.
What? I don't get it
They didn’t want a tenor. What can they say?
