www.mediaite.com: A suburban Dallas school district claimed a state law that references “social transitioning” prompted it to cancel a high school production of Little Shop of Horrors after a female student was cast in the role of Seymour, the nerdy flower shop assistant at the center of the tale.
9 comments:
If there's one thing that theater is known for its the countless times people play a gender they are not because it's a performance. I remember doing high school theater and I have played my fair share of random men because we just didn't have the people to fill every role with their specifically gendered actor. Overall I think this is such a misconception and overstep by adults governing the lives of kids who should be exploring what it means to be human and tell different stories. Looking at the bill itself I'm sure they have deemed it unlawful due to the prohibition of “harmful gender ideology” but I can almost guarantee that this was a casting choice made out of a lack of boys in theater rather than someone questioning their gender. Then looking at the amount of bills that are being introduced it becomes more obvious that this bill is not really trying to protect young students but box them into a specific mold. I was excited to see the expansion of career training that is being added to school to in simpler terms diversify the trades but saddened to see that they are also increasing the ability to ban books and remove unwanted material from the library.
This is ridiculous. Social transitioning has nothing to do with performing in a play. It is choosing to present as an alternate gender in day to day life, completely separate from a performance. But to a degree I can empathize with the district officials. With this being a case of attempting to comply with federal law, trying to assume the best in people I can see a case where they truly are worried about a potential crackdown on their school because of this casting. And while I empathize with the student having been allowed to play male roles in the past, this law was not in effect at the time. This does not mean I agree with any of the choices made by the district, they are absurd, but I do understand that at times they have to make choices that hurt the students interests in order to keep the larger school functioning and safe from greater federal interference.
This is the sort of article that I just cannot comprehend. It's not even some poor trans kid trying to be in the musical, its just that a girl was cast in the part of a guy. If some parent is looking at this and thinking that this is going to be the straw that turns their kid gay, their kid is probably already gay. As the student points out, cross dressing is probably the only constant that theatre has. If every red state in this country decides that people can only be cast as the gender that they are, they are going to be subjecting so many parents to have to listen to some poor tone-deaf boy who landed the lead because he's the only one the drama teacher was allowed to cast. This is just kinda ridiculous, and I really hope everyone calms down, and once again focuses on the true star of Little Shop of Horrors, which is, of course, once again, getting to build a big fun puppet.
In my high school, we did the play “Peter and the Starcatcher.” In the show, the feminine nanny is played by a man to make the role funnier. It was in our production until our principal complained about it, and we had to change the way specific lines were delivered so that the character could be a masculine nanny, or recast the role, which removed the comedic aspect of the character. The same thing happened in our production of “Alice By Heart”: the Duchess is played by a male in drag to add comedy to the role, and it is played so much better when you stay true to the role. But the board at the school complained it would come off in a way that is against the school standard of excellence. Since the Duchess is important to the story, we couldn't change it to fit a duke, so we cast a female for the role. This suppression in these shows, even one of such a small capacity, is something that is outrageous in any sense. And now, with this national news for this production of “Little Shop of Horrors” all because a female student got cast in the role of Seymour, this kind of suppression shouldn't be tolerated. Especially in 2026, we have gotten so far as a society to still be held up by this.
This is also a crazy example of censorship from school boards. One of the most iconic themes of the youth theater experience is girls being cast in male roles due to a lack of boys auditioning for or interested in participating in productions. This is something that basically every school theater has done before, and no one has an issue with it. Something that sticks out to me is the side note thrown in the district’s explanation about “concerns with the portrayal of an abusive relationship.” It reminds me of a quote from a student in another show-getting-canceled article that was expressing that it would almost be better if the school boards just openly said the actual bigoted reason they want productions to be canceled rather than trying to hide behind milder reasons. This is a prime example of that. It’s annoying for the school board to claim that it is the dentist (an incredibly cartoony villain) who is causing the production to be pulled.
Censorship is on the rise again and it is something that we need to be paying close attention to and fighting back against. Especially given who is in charge of our country right now. I think it is incredibly silly and scary that they decided to cancel a show because of a gender-bent casting since that happens in theater all the time and oftentimes because, as the article said, there are not enough guys in departments. There is so much that is being done by our local and national governments to censor and fight “DEI”. It scares me how there are laws being put in place to justify censorship because people can just say that they are “abiding by the law” instead of taking responsibility and being honest about how they actually feel. When bigots can hide behind laws and regulations then it is easier them to do harm.
Casting roles through non gender specific casting has been a thing for as long as we have had theater. I can hear the frustration through the quotes said by Mota. No one, especially not a teenager, should have to fight to be able to produce art that is only being contested now due to backward progress in the cultural views surrounding identity. I feel like we as a society are trying to find reasons to be mad at each other and start fights due to personal views. Well, my personal views are that we shouldn’t let people decide what other people should do with their personal lives unless they are negatively impacting or harming others. I think that if people are upset about a girl being cast in a traditionally male role then they should just not purchase a ticket to see the production. You don’t have to go see the show, but your personal shrewishness shouldn’t impact the ability for others to see art.
This article is so insane to read. For as long as youth theater has existed, you have had genderbent roles in shows. And it's not even to make some ‘woke’ point about gender transitioning or whatever idiotic thing people are spying about. Every sound person in the theater knows that finding men and especially teenage boys who are brave enough to sing and dance, let alone have the ability to, is extremely rare. Especially in more conservative areas such as dallas. This argument truly makes no sense and is absurd. Ana mota, the girl who was cast as Seymour and is caught in the middle of this media web put it perfectly that for hundreds of years in Shakespearean theater there has always been cross gender casting. To make up an idiotic excuse to get this show cancelled is appalling. I hope that this school is able to continue their production, do it outside of school, or something that can make up for the loss of such an important creative space for young artists.
This really just gets me mad irritated because I think it is interesting to think about a law that is designed to support DEI policies reaching as far as determining which musical may be performed by a freaking school. Little Shop of Horrors is not a show that is typically associated with identity politics, which makes me question the extent of the reach of these laws in different contexts and whether legal needs are taken into account or just excessive caution is involved in turn negatively affecting our students. It is so painful to think about the fact that students lose most of all in these situations as they prepare for these productions for months on end only to see them being canceled for other reasons. It scares me to wonder about how much the scope of creative programming will keep shrinking as institutions try to avoid any possible exposure. I truly hope there is a way to treat this situation and stop things like this from continuing to happen.
Post a Comment