The Fairy Princess would just like, first, before anything else, to wish Queen Lesli Margherita a fond farewell from Matilda and excited squeals of joy as she heads to The Broadway in DAMES AT SEA.
TFP saw Ms. Margherita in MATILDA and she was fabulous, so if you missed her in that, you should definitely try and catch her in DAMES. Because there will be nothing like Ms. Margherita for quite some time, she is a force of nature, everyone should witness it at least once in a lifetime.
Likewise, Billy Porter is leaving KINKY BOOTS for his new Broadway show – SHUFFLE ALONG, and TFP is very thrilled that he is going to shine his beautiful light on a new work.
Moving on – TFP is sorry to miss WILD RICE, the Theater company from Singapore which is adding an appearance at the Brisbane Festival (A Festival, A FESTival...) to their repertoire…
It’s the word “Festival”, TFP cannot help it.
ANYWAY….WILD RICE is bringing it’s landmark production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by OSCAR WILDE there this coming weekend – September 11, 12, and 13th, and one can find out all the relevant information here.
The show is being done with an All Male Cast, with stunning visuals and costuming – take a look:
Looks pretty great – and nice to see an All Asian Cast on the world stage.
Randy Rainbow took on Kim Davis and her refusal to recognize the law in a hilarious musical theater send up –
TFP has a particular fondness for parodies of CHICAGO…they are, indeed, her jam.
All right enough of theater for the moment – let’s move on to television…specifically ABC.
Y’all ABC is winning at Diversity.
Winning in a an “in your face’ kind of ‘take that other networks’ kind of way.
NOT ONLY did FRESH OFF THE BOAT get a Season 2 order…
They put THE MUPPETS on the same night!!! What does that mean? It means that when people of all colors tune in to see the amazingness that is the MUPPETS, on the same night, they will be seeing an Asian American Family acting just like any other family, and everything is copacetic.
FOTB had an AMAZING first season – but this means ABC is not going to sit around and stand back and see how Season 2 does – it is throwing programming support behind it. It means that Tuesday nights on ABC is going to define Children’s Evening Viewing and that means that API’s are going to become part of the American consciousness in a larger way than ever before – at least on television – and that’s F***ING Awesome.
But they did not stop there –
They have programmed the DR. KEN show for Friday Nights, again, showing Asian Americans as funny and smart in Prime Time hours on nights when young impressionable minds and their Parents, will be home – more APIs in the living room during Family time! YAY!
Not to MENTION – Not to MENTION…but TFP is OF COURSE going to mention this – for those later evening hour viewers, aka grown ups – they have cast in a LEAD ROLE – PRIYANKA CHOPRA!!!
http://abc.go.com/shows/quantico/video/abc-new-drama-trailers/VDKA0_vlxaawyg
(Click the above link for the trailer.)
In fact, TFP points out that the very description of the show is “A diverse group of recruits has arrived at the FBI Quantico base for training.”
TFP said “DIVERSE“…or rather, ABC said it, right in the description.
ABC is getting it – getting it quicker and smarter than quite a lot of the other networks – maybe their Diversity Department is better than everyone else’s?
I mean, actress Amy Okuda was ‘discovered‘ in ABC’s Diversity Showcase and is now going to have a recurring part on How To Get Away With Murder.
You cannot talk about Diversity without “Shonda Thursdays” (although…c’mon Ms. Rhimes…we need API season regulars in professions such as law, politics, and medicine set in cities like Washington D.C., Seattle, and Philadelphia), they are fantastic.
Great to hear about Amy Okuda!
She joins Conrad Ricamora
and Tamlyn Tomita
as a recurring on that show.
When was the last time you heard of someone going from a Diversity Showcase to a Network Show? In recent years?
Seriously – have you?
SIDEBAR:
Because having been a part of one of “A Network to be Unnamed”‘s Diversity Showcase, TFP can tell you the one she was in had some issues, but that may have been because that Head of Diversity told TFP, when TFP tried to give notes (written notes, handed in, not given to the Actors) that “Television is a Director’s Medium!” and “Writers do not give notes“.
TFP has to apologize to API Actresses in New York, because after that contretemps, her scene was pulled from consideration for the New York showcase – a scene that was specifically written FOR an API female. It was pulled because TFP gave notes and did ‘not seem grateful enough’ to the people in charge. TFP was also j’accused of quite a few things which include but are not limited to homophobia, racism, sexism…(there were a LOT of isms in there), for not knowing the difference between theater and television and best of all…this all occurred at the reception, in full view of about 100 people.
Awesome.
TFP had been under the assumption that it was a showcase for her as well, something that was later pointed out by a colleague to be untrue – it was not, actually a showcase for the writers per se, it could not be- because the shows were already staffed up by the time the showcase was presented. Thus it is truly a showcase for the Actors, which is great, but…let’s be honest about it, oh Unnamed Network. If a writer’s response was not wanted, then invitations to rehearsals should not have been issued. According to the Director of the scene, the scene was about collaboration – but only that between Director and Actors and TFP should ‘lower your expectations, in fact, you should have no expectations in a showcase, I don’t.”
TFP has to apologize to all the Actresses who submitted with that scene – if you were not in the NY Showcase of a specific Network, if you looked to that scene and it gave you hope, TFP is very sorry. She did ask the Head of Diversity to not yank it for all APIs just because that Head of Diversity did not like the API that wrote it. TFP even said that if they found the right actress for it – while she would appreciate them letting her know, she would not attend (in case her notes again were found to be too out of bounds of a writer’s purview) – but that has NOT been the case.
TFP apologizes.
SIDEBAR CONCLUDED:
So TFP would like to give ABC some fist pumps…
ABC…you are KILLIN’ IT!
Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going….
It’s about representation, everyone – not representation everyone is comfortable with – just Actors being able to tell interesting stories – and in television, you vote with your remote…hope you click it to the above mentioned shows and keep this trend going, for in television, where those who make money succeed, others are sure to follow.
These are but a few shows TFP mentioned, there are more, but we gotta keep the Networks on their toes, so we’ll get to the other stuff soon enough.
TFP out.
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