Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Thursday, February 01, 2018
The ‘Hamilton’ effect: how a musical changed three lives
The Seattle Times: “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s cultural and financial juggernaut of a musical, is coming to Seattle. But it has a deeply personal meaning for some people. Two teen fans and one cast member talk about how “Hamilton” changed their lives.
2 comments:
Lily Kincannon
said...
Hearing these people’s stories and how Hamilton influenced them sounds so familiar for me and my friends. I relate closest Gaebriel Min’s story, as a “late Hamilton adopter”. My friends were obsessed, and I have a tendency of rejecting things that are incredibly popular at the time. However, when the frenzy started to die down a bit, or I guess when my friends stopped talking about it as much, I listened to the whole musical. My mind was blown. I agree with Min in thinking that I didn’t know musicals could sound that way. I am also a history nerd and so hearing this new hip twist of a story on the founding fathers and the beginning nation, truly brought me a feeling of some pride for this country. A lot has been going on that in the United States that has made me disappointed and embarrassed to call myself an American. However, listening to the founding fathers and what they wanted for this country and knowing the roles of white privileged men were played by talented African American actors makes me excited for this country and the progress in our society.
That’s what I love about theater and performance art. It has the power to influence and change lives. Making art can change a persons life. Hamilton is an extremely powerful show that takes what is kind of a stormy path in American history dominated by the white man and created at a time in theater where it was trying to diversify casting, but any steps that were being made were slow and seamed like they would never really change the industry. Hamilton is a show that changes and inspired many people’s lives but it also changes and inspired and entire industry to think more critically about their casting decisions. On the side of changing individual lives this show is among many that have done that for people. But what is interesting about Hamilton is that it was able to make its way into the classrooms of students all across America and educate them about American History, expose students to the arts, and give the theater kids sitting in high school classrooms that get overlooked sometimes and outlet and a voice in the classroom.
2 comments:
Hearing these people’s stories and how Hamilton influenced them sounds so familiar for me and my friends. I relate closest Gaebriel Min’s story, as a “late Hamilton adopter”. My friends were obsessed, and I have a tendency of rejecting things that are incredibly popular at the time. However, when the frenzy started to die down a bit, or I guess when my friends stopped talking about it as much, I listened to the whole musical. My mind was blown. I agree with Min in thinking that I didn’t know musicals could sound that way. I am also a history nerd and so hearing this new hip twist of a story on the founding fathers and the beginning nation, truly brought me a feeling of some pride for this country. A lot has been going on that in the United States that has made me disappointed and embarrassed to call myself an American. However, listening to the founding fathers and what they wanted for this country and knowing the roles of white privileged men were played by talented African American actors makes me excited for this country and the progress in our society.
That’s what I love about theater and performance art. It has the power to influence and change lives. Making art can change a persons life. Hamilton is an extremely powerful show that takes what is kind of a stormy path in American history dominated by the white man and created at a time in theater where it was trying to diversify casting, but any steps that were being made were slow and seamed like they would never really change the industry.
Hamilton is a show that changes and inspired many people’s lives but it also changes and inspired and entire industry to think more critically about their casting decisions. On the side of changing individual lives this show is among many that have done that for people. But what is interesting about Hamilton is that it was able to make its way into the classrooms of students all across America and educate them about American History, expose students to the arts, and give the theater kids sitting in high school classrooms that get overlooked sometimes and outlet and a voice in the classroom.
Post a Comment