Saving Ragtime Bravo to the
Wilmette Theatre, which has saved director
Ty Perry's production of
Ragtime from the ash heap created by
Wilmette (IL) Park District's Executive Director Tom Grisamore.
Last week, Grisamore abruptly canceled the park's upcoming scheduled performances of
Stephen Flaherty and
Lynn Ahrens' musical due to its use of the "n" word. No matter that, as Perry -- who happens to be African American --
rightly questioned, "How can we learn about our present if we don't educate people about what happened in our past?"
According to the Wilmette Theatre,
Ragtime will be presented "in concert" on July 10 and 11 at 8:00 p.m., with tickets selling for a mere $5. The performance is presented by the Wilmette Theatre Education Project (WTEP) and Wheels of a Dream Productions, which was formed by the actors over the last few days.
"The Wilmette Theatre is proud to support the voice of this cast," notes the Wilmette Theatre's
Web site. "In the spirit of our Village and those needing to be heard, let this production serve as a celebration and acknowledgment of it's [sic] powerful message of unity."
Nice to see freedom of speech prevailing -- just in time for the Fourth of July.
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Gagtime (June 27, 2008)
Labels: Concert, Lynn Ahrens, Musical, Ragtime, Revival, Stephen Flaherty, Ty Perry, Wilmette, Wilmette Theatre
GagtimeAt the intersection where freedom of speech crosses racial sensitivity, the
Wilmette (IL) Park District has abruptly canceled its scheduled performances of
Stephen Flaherty and
Lynn Ahrens' musical
Ragtime, due to its use of the "n" word at 12 different times.
While I profess to personally blanching anytime I've heard that awful, egregious epithet used, including in dramatic works, I have never heard anyone accuse
Terrence McNally (who wrote
Ragtime's book) or Ahrens of racial insensitivity or bigotry.
Reports of the cancellation have even speculated that the Wilmette Park District Executive Director Tom Grisamore may, in fact, have jumped the gun due to a "misunderstanding of the show's message and realistic look at race relations in the past century."
Grisamore has been quoted in the
Chicago Sun-Times defending the decision by stating:
We had grave concerns that people would take the language they heard over the amplified sound system out of context from a performance that was being held in the bowl.
***
I can tell you that this is not something that was done easily and this is not something we did lightly. My heart really goes out to all of the cast and crew that have worked on this for the last couple of months. This is something we very honestly should have known about and hopefully we could have acted on this sooner, but we did as soon as we found out what was there.
As regular readers know, I have always defended our most basic, intrinsic right to freedom of speech. I may not agree with anything that you have to say, but I'll defend your right to say it.
In this case, while I can sincerely appreciate Grisamore's noble intentions, I can't help but agree with the production's director
Ty Perry, who gets the last word here:
You take that word out of this story and you invalidate my history as an African-American male.... Do I like the word? No. But to pretend nobody said it is wrong. I wouldn't even consider doing that. Context is everything, and it's not gratuitous, it's not for shock value. How can we learn about our present if we don't educate people about what happened in our past?
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Cancellation, Chicago, Freedom Of Speech, Illinois, Lynn Ahrens, Musical, Ragtime, Revival, Stephen Flaherty, Terrence McNally, Ty Perry, Wilmette
