www.clydefitchreport.com: My first attempt at Rise lasted three minutes and 13 seconds. Familiar with the show’s straightwashing controversy, I watched with some skepticism. Still, I wasn’t ready for the train wreck that is Rise, an absurdly out-of-touch drama that treats its ostensible subject, high school theater, with a jaw-dropping lack of respect.
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I will preface this by saying that I have never seen Rise. I have only heard of it in passing, mostly because "that girl that voiced Moana is in it." I am sad to see that Auli'i Cravalho's mainstream television debut had to be with a show that is apparently so bad. We do not need another show about the blind confidence of straight white men (tm) being rewarded. Especially in the setting of a high school theatre, a place that is often the refuge on non- straight non- white non- men. I am tired of seeing shows where the stories of those non- straight non- white non- men are only used to further the plot or character development of a SWM (tm). All I want is to see an accurate representation of my generation playing my generation on screen. I want to see the stories that I encounter in real life on the silver screen. Every average high school theatre has enough drama to make your head spin. We do not need this Rise bullshit.
I don’t think I could put it any better than Sydney did. I have not seen Rise and after reading this review I don’t think I will. I don’t need to waste my time watching another high school drama show that in no way represents a majority of high school drama programs. The funding in my drama program came from fundraising. Selling wrapping paper at Christmas, candy at Easter, bake sales, candy bar sales, donations from parents. My drama teacher was a white middle aged single woman (who got married my junior year) who cared more about the lives of the students outside of the class than trying to be the hero of the story in the school. Our music and drama departments combined (including band) won more awards and recognitions than our football team ever did. And I do want to set the record straight, our theatre program was not filled with misfits, or outcasts, or the token football player who needs to get his grades up. No our program was filled with talented individuals who knew that the time spent in this program would be life changing. Our program was filled with the cool kids, the ones who had all the friends and it changed lives. Every program should change lives. Want to change you life because of Rise? Start by changing the channel.
This show absolutely seems to be capitalizing on the tired trope of the “drama” of high school theatre. From my own personal experience acting throughout high school, we put on small, largely unheard of shows and had only four straight white men in the entire department. Rise seemingly attempts to include diverse and meaningful storylines, having two actors of color in the center of the teenage storyline and two queer students (which, since there is only one gay kid and one trans kid in the theater department, makes them “token” characters). Yet these feeble attempts are overshadowed by putting a straight white male with no experience in theatre in charge of something allegedly very important to these kids’ lives. It’s unfortunate to see something that is such a big part of American high school culture be treated with staggering insensitivity. Lastly, it’s frustrating that even the idea of attempting to put on something like Hair or Spring Awakening in high school is in the storyline at all-- doing those shows at that age group for the sake of “edginess” is almost unheard of.
I am all for including women of colour and queer kids to today's media, but not when they are presented in this way. It is not enough simply to include them as token individuals; giving them a role which exists only to be exploited by a straight white central lead character is so counterproductive and makes me sad to hear that, in theory, sounds like it could have been a great show. I think this show also perpetuates that straight white male swooping in to save the day, painting all of the other characters as less than and inadequate. I have seen the brilliance over experience thing a lot and it only serves to make people think theatre can be done with no hard work or training, which is completely false. I was only slightly happier towards the end of the article, where the author mentions that the female theatre teacher starts to rise up a little bit and fight back in her own way.
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