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Thursday, March 15, 2018
Broadway Director Kenny Leon Talks Children of a Lesser God Revival and How Racism Reaches Broadway
www.theroot.com: When Kenny Leon’s production of Children of a Lesser God opens on Broadway next month, fans of the original production from 40 years ago will definitely notice a few changes. But according to the Tony Award-winning director, the changes in the racial and political messages will hopefully bring more people into the theater.
I really liked that this article brought up a story that highlights the opposite of what we have been hearing about Broadway's season this year: that it is not one full of a lot of diversity or inclusion. As highlighted in an article that I read earlier in the year, many musicals in particular have felt like old timey revivals that have nothing to do with the ever changing, diverse world that we see in the society around us today. However, Kenny Leon's production of "Children of a Lesser God" has done exactly the opposite, it has taken, as the article points out, a story that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with race and adds race into the issues of the play. This mirroring of a real world situation into the art that we will watch is so important because of the normalizing effect that it can have on things like interracial relationships. I hope that this productions accomplishes what it has set out to do, and I really hope that I have a chance to see it once it goes up on Broadway!
I wish I could see this revival of Children of a Lesser God on Broadway. I think that the stories of disabled people of color are so impactful because we are never really allowed to see that in mainstream culture. Portraying an interracial relationship onstage is also still important because a lot of people still aren't comfortable with it. Also a relationship can be so tumultuous between a hearing person and a person who is deaf so I think that the subject of the writing is already important on its own. This article really told it how it was and I think it's important that we remember that the person writing this article is black and that that adds to why they didn't try to portray Broadway as a happy and inclusive place where everyone just gets along and there is a ton of diversity. People who are actually diverse do not feel the need to inflate diversity that doesn't exist. This really helps portray a bias that lives and exists in reporting about diversity.
2 comments:
I really liked that this article brought up a story that highlights the opposite of what we have been hearing about Broadway's season this year: that it is not one full of a lot of diversity or inclusion. As highlighted in an article that I read earlier in the year, many musicals in particular have felt like old timey revivals that have nothing to do with the ever changing, diverse world that we see in the society around us today. However, Kenny Leon's production of "Children of a Lesser God" has done exactly the opposite, it has taken, as the article points out, a story that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with race and adds race into the issues of the play. This mirroring of a real world situation into the art that we will watch is so important because of the normalizing effect that it can have on things like interracial relationships. I hope that this productions accomplishes what it has set out to do, and I really hope that I have a chance to see it once it goes up on Broadway!
I wish I could see this revival of Children of a Lesser God on Broadway. I think that the stories of disabled people of color are so impactful because we are never really allowed to see that in mainstream culture. Portraying an interracial relationship onstage is also still important because a lot of people still aren't comfortable with it. Also a relationship can be so tumultuous between a hearing person and a person who is deaf so I think that the subject of the writing is already important on its own.
This article really told it how it was and I think it's important that we remember that the person writing this article is black and that that adds to why they didn't try to portray Broadway as a happy and inclusive place where everyone just gets along and there is a ton of diversity. People who are actually diverse do not feel the need to inflate diversity that doesn't exist. This really helps portray a bias that lives and exists in reporting about diversity.
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