This past weekend, The Fairy Princess was flown to Washington, D.C., to work on a journalism piece about the rise of Hate Crimes since the 2016 Election.

Whist TFP was in D.C., VP Elect, Mike Pence was in New York City going to see…

where the audience responded with some applause but also,

See for yourself…

This is not an unusual situation for VP Elect to find himself in – after all, he has been booed at baseball games and quite  a few other places.

VP Elect Mike Pence has been booed   for defending Military Moms, for complimenting the Governor of Ohio… heck those last two he was being booed by ‘his own people’  – he is a man that knows how to handle it. 

People, not just New Yorkers, do not like him.

At the conclusion of the show, the actor who plays Aaron Burr, Brandon Victor Dixon read a statement directly addressing VP Elect Pence, which was written by the show’s creator, Lin Manuel Miranda, the show’s Producer, Jeffrey Seller, and the show’s Director, Tommy Kail.

The rest of the Cast bore witness. 

There was booing from the audience, the Cast urged them to be quiet, so the statement could be read. 

The Cast did not boo.

Now, aside from the Orange Hate Pumpkin that is our President Elect who decided to tweet bad things about the show and demand an apology which is not warranted...

there are many, on both sides of this issue taking issue with the treatment of Mike Pence, saying the actors overstepped, that the show should be boycotted..

Like they could even get a TICKET? 

Like, you just casually turn down tickets to HAMILTON?

People who say that speaking truth to power is not the place of the theater – to them, TFP says – please brush up on your theatrical history – you are absolutely and categorically wrong.

What the Cast and Crew did was follow a long standing Irish tradition called “The Noble Call’.

Here is an actual Irish person from Ireland to explain it to you:

A Noble Call occurs after the show – an actor in the show, or an invited guest, is invited to address the crowd on matters of the day.

It is considered, in Irish storytelling and theater, that everyone has a song to sing or a tale to tell in a unique way, and it is one’s duty to share it, by the sharing of it – using it to ‘call’ to others there, that it is Noble. 

This is a tradition that is ingrained in the Irish storytelling tradition.

TFP knows this because…wait for it, she is Irish.

Ireland has, as do most other countries in the world, a much longer history than the United States.

As in, here is a ditty that is so old…they don’t even know how old it really is…but Ed Sheeran is singing it now –  low those hundreds of years later – that is what is so very awesome about Irish music and theatrical tradition.

(Yes, Ed Sheeran who wrote that Justin Bieber song)

Ireland has been an invaded country and a politically divided country since almost the beginning- but the plays and songs and stories and artists and actors and dancers from Ireland, or with Irish roots – have given us all hopes and dreams in some of the most brilliant words and music and performances of all time.

Since wandering players were brought before the Kings and Queens of Ancient Ireland, artists and musicians, fools and artisans, have been speaking truth on the matters of the day.

You may recall the absolutely captivating Noble Call done at The Abbey Theater by Drag Queen, Panti Bliss, on the oppression that LGBTQ people can be exposed on a daily basis by ‘nice’ people, the sort of people you would feel comfortable leaving your children with.

Panti Bliss’s Nobel Call was filmed in 2014.

In 2015, Ireland legalized marriage equality.

Theater can make a difference.

In fact, theater has always intended to make a difference, and it has always been used to speak truth to power – what is The Crucible if not an indictment of McCarthyism and it’s trials of Artists in America?

What is Angels in America if not a call to arms for LGBTQ activism?

Wise words by Playwright, John Patrick Shanley are assure us that it is right to ask the questions, it is just to find things immoral, it is powerful to look for honesty.

The Cast and Crew of Hamilton did what they were supposed to do, by long standing theatrical tradition.

The cast of Hamilton is inclusive – it has people of various backgrounds, various sexes, and sexual orientations.

The policies that Mike Pence has backed in his work – are not inclusive, we of the theater, and we of the world, should not forget this.

We cannot forget what Mike Pence has stood for.

We cannot forget the positions Mike Pence has taken towards our people.

Now, whilst the Orange Hate Pumpkin was dodging and tweeting about a Broadway show he has not seen , trying to take the spotlight off the fact that he admitted he was wrong and paid $25 Million in damages in the lawsuit filed by former students of Trump University -(and as a lawyer’s kid, may TFP just add) he does not want you to remember that people do not ‘settle’ because they are nice folks.

People settle  because if they go to trial and get a judgement against them, it is likely to be much larger than what they were willing to pay. They settle and get the other side to sign something saying they will not reveal what was revealed, or they will not write a check,  and then they walk away shouting that there were never any judgements against them.

So while that smoke and mirrors thing was happening – Mike Pence was being ‘the cool guy’ and announcing that what happened at HAMILTON did not offend him at all.

He liked the show, and that, since he is a ‘big history buff’- he had a great time and that he will encourage representation of all Americans when he sits at the hand of the Father.

This almost makes him appealing.

But we cannot forget what Mike Pence is.

The actor playing Hamilton is an Openly Gay, HIV Positive, Cancer Survivor who took care of both of his Parents when they were stricken with cancer.

VP Mike Pence would approve of electrocuting him to attempt to ‘make him straight’ – because that is a part of ‘conversion therapy‘, and Mike Pence is for conversion therapy. 

Mike Pence is also for denying services – like baking a cake – to someone if they are perceived to be Gay or if they state they are Gay. 

His is also, obviously, against marriage equality.

There are women in the cast. 

Women whom Mike Pence would deny access to health care, deny contraception, deny basic control over their own bodies.

There are People of Color in the cast. People whose lives matter – and the policies that Mike Pence has backed, marginalize those people. 

Policies that the Orange Hate Pumpkin has thought of as a good idea – such as stop and frisk, and torture – endanger us.

The GOP announced plans to de-fund Medicare and Social Security.

Mike Pence is anti-union. 

The people in that Cast are members of Actor’s Equity – which just won a decisive battle for them in the Off Broadway contracts.

The people in that cast  are under attack from the GOP in a way that has not been seen in this country in a very long time.

This Country is under attack from the GOP in a way that has not been seen in a long time.

Mike Pence is a step behind the man who has a short temper, a large business empire that he does not seem to be stepping away from, the man who has appointed hatemongers to positions of privilege – that man will make mistakes.

One or ten of them may become impeachable. (Conservatively)

Then we will be stuck with Mike Pence – and that is actually scarier.

The Orange Hate Pumpkin won because he was a ‘maverick’ and an ‘outsider’ – honestly, we do not know his record, because he does not have one.

Mike Pence is on record denying rights. Mike Pence is on record trying to control women’s bodies. Mike Pence is on record trying to bust up unions and saying that torture is within the realm of possibility.

TFP was just in Washington, D.C. this weekend, and it was tense. She talked to ordinary, non-show folk people, and people are scared of this new team coming in.

HAMILTON‘s Noble Call – it was warranted.

It was in the very best theatrical tradition.

It spoke truth to power.

TFP commends the Cast on their composure.

 They have a great deal to risk – they are comprised of marginalized groups – many may not acknowledge their claim on American rights, many may not choose to hear their plea for representation.

Mike Pence is pretending to, and that is not comforting at all. 

His record shows he cares very little for representing all the people, his record shows he only represents people who look like him, who think like him, who worship as he worships.

They have the Presidency, they have the House, they have the Senate.

We have the Theater. We have the Artists. We have the freedom to speak truth to power – until they take it away.

The Cast of HAMILTON spoke for all of us – even if you think they did not speak for you, they did.

TFP thanks them.

She thanks them as a minority, and she thanks them as a person whose Irish Grandparents came over on a boat, escaping oppression, because of their religion.

She knows her Grandparents would not even be able to comprehend what a ‘blog’ is – but she knows that they would definitely understand a “Noble Call’.

See you all at #BroadwayCon

 

The Fairy Princess is feeling this kind of way about the National Election

For those who may read this blog and who voted for the Orange Hate Pumpkin who is now putting a White Supremacist in the White House…which one supposes would make it the whitest of houses indeed, TFP has something to say – and this will not be long, and it will not be overly harsh and she has stated it on social media, so this is just an expanded version.

You may not consider yourself Racist.

You may not consider yourself a Misogynist.

You may not consider yourself a Homophobe.

However if you voted for the Orange Hate Pumpkin, TFP considers that you are.

Cuz you endorsed it – with your vote. You voted against reason and science and rational discourse – you voted for hatred.

Hatred did not bother you, it was not a deal breaker – and that is why you are a racist misogynistic homophobe.

Because you voted for it.  You endorsed it.

You have showed who you are, and TFP is doing you the courtesy of believing you.

You voted against TFP‘s Family and Friends, and their Families – you voted against Parents and their children and the kicker is – those who voted for HRC were voting FOR your Families – even if we disagreed, even if we didn’t know you. We were voting for you.

A vote is something that you exercise because you want the country to turn in a particular way – and the way you want it, Trump voter, is full of a lot of hate. You cannot dispute economic reasons – Nobel Prize winning Economists said it would be a disaster.

Before you get up in arms about how you voted and your reasons why – they don’t actually matter, because sh*t just got real.

There is a White Supremacist who is going to be Chief of Staff. They are appointing a Climate Change denier as Head of the Environmental Protection Agency. They are going to phase out Medicare. They are going to force members of a religion to register themselves.

Which violates the First Amendment, which reads:

The Hate Popsicle that is a certain blonde spewer of vileness even suggested taking away voting rights if all four grandparents of a person, were not born in the United States.

Now, TFP is actually a dual citizen of a fairly lovely country and so, if she is deported unlawfully because none of her Grandparents were born in the United States…well, at least she is not going to a conflict area. She is either going to be going to Australia or Ireland because…that is where both sets of Grandparents hailed from.

How many Americans could claim that all four of their grandparents were born in the United States? All four.

There are many reasons that Hillary Rodham Clinton did not appeal to different demographics but the one area that people seem to be ignoring is education. It seems that there has been a lack of teaching critical thought, and if we do not all step up to that challenge, we are only going to sink down into the tar like the dinosaurs we have now become with this election. Everyone is so concerned with trigger warnings, that critical thought is going by the wayside, and that is one thing we have to stop.

There has been quite a bit of justifiable weight given to news pundits normalizing hatred – which they did. There has been quite a lot of weight given to Bernie Sander’s supporters and the vileness they spewed at Sec. of State Clinton during the primaries.

Calling someone a ‘corporate whore’, when the candidate is a woman, is not running a clean campaign. Calling someone a ‘bitch’, even if you yourself are a female, is not running a clean campaign.

By the by – no, Sanders did NOT denounce it right away – so look, there we are, 2 Caucasian men called upon to denounce hatred against females and minority groups and there – with both Trump and Sanders, no immediate response.

Sanders later told his supporters to stop, but they had already shown the way in to creating a nice wall of misogyny for Sec of State Clinton to have to scale.

There has been quite a bit of weight given to Third Party Candidates and people who were just too damn lazy to get to their polling place, or who thought that waiting in line is a drag, or that they were just ‘not that into it’.

You did not have a candidate to ‘believe’ in? So what? Life is rough. Life is not about you and your precious feelings – life is about making the better choice for society.

Life is about sometimes you have to ‘suck it up, Buttercup‘ and vote for someone who would keep us going in the right direction, who had been working for women and children for thirty something years and who knows how to make things happen domestically and internationally

…or someone who repeatedly lies, but who happens to have a penis.

There is NO moral high ground here for anyone to look over the disaster the United States – which, we should really start by changing the name, no? – is going to become under the Great Hate Pumpkin and his tiny hands minions.

TFP has had six friends report acts of confrontation and verbal assaults since the election – one accompanied by physical assault on a child  at school – on their social media pages. Without sharing too much of their personal stories – they are all well educated, tax paying, society minded, contributing adults, or in the case of the child, the Parents are. Some are white, but members of a minority community, some were of Asian descent, and some were of mixed race.

These were in Coast areas – so imagine how bad it will get in the middle of the country?

However – before we all totally and completely despair – TFP has a thought.

The people on the front lines of changing America and American thought for tomorrow are…wait for it…Librarians and Teachers.

YES!

Librarians and teachers can actively combat the lack of critical thought that is a pox on our houses right now. Librarians and teachers can introduce this thing called…wait for it…books.

Books about other cultures, books about humanity, books about exploring, and kindness and manners – all those qualities we are desperately lacking right now in many areas.

Diverse books can help us all. Here is a list for teachers, that is pretty good – and here is another one.

Children are like seeds, you have to water them so they grow to be an actual plant. Librarians and teachers, along with parents, have an opportunity to show them worlds through books, that they have not dreamed of yet. Better yet, we should give librarians and teachers a mandate – to open one child’s mind, per day. At least.

Let us support Librarians and Teachers – approve their budgets! Pay them what they are worth! Pitch in, Parents and Community Leaders!

Creative and critical thinking is required to be a human. They are required to grow.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton were not born with silver spoons in their mouths. They got to where they are now because of education.

Because they read.

Just like, in fact, this guy.

So while we, the adults of this nation have royally screwed the pooch on this last election – inciting hatred and all kinds of bad behavior – we do not have to pass it along.

We have to help our Librarians and Teachers, and support their ability to teach subjects like science that is actual science, and math that is actual math, and reading that is not just about one book, but about ALL the books.

After all, if David Duke’s stepson, Derek Black can change his mind, so can anyone else.

We can all, perhaps take a page from the book that TFP reads, and has read to her child since it was given to him at about 3 months old.

Because as Oscar Hammerstein wrote all those years ago – you’ve got to be carefully taught.

And it seems like much of America, has been – much to the shame of us all.

The Fairy Princess is still trying to make sense of this most recent of National Elections, so she has been sitting at home in a pantsuit eating leftover Halloween candy – obviously very productive.

She does not want to accept the bigotry and racism and sexism that caused  people to vote against their own interests (Unless you happen to be the 1%), the environment, education and basically, people of minority status.

She has already had two friends, in Coast cities, confronted by supporters of the Great Hate Pumpkin, and that is two friends too many for her to stomach.

She could go on and on, but she is going to do something else here – she is going to reach out to a bunch of kids that wish to do a play in their home community of Blue Hill.

In Nebraska. Blue Hill, Nebraska – population 986.

You see, the kids of Blue Hill’s High School have been working on The Laramie Project, which is set to be performed this coming weekend – and well…as a result of the election, and because the Great Hate Pumpkin has not asked his supporters to tone down acts of violence and confrontation – these kids are being ‘asked‘ (and one assumes not politely) by some, to cancel their show that is based on the murder of Matthew Shepard by two disenfranchised white young men in Laramie, Wyoming.

Matthew was killed because he was Gay. He was beaten, robbed, and then driven to a deserted area, strung up on a fence and left to die.

His story has a resounding message for today.

TFP, as many know – does not back down from a fight. She does not. It makes her many things, a nasty woman?

Proudly.

Educated?

Definitely.

Compassionate?

Hopefully.

This is what she wants to say to the people of Blue Hill and to the kids in the show.

(TFP hates ‘open letters’, so we shall forgo the “Dear Blah Blah Blah’. Open letters are as much a pox on our houses as anything else. TFP thinks – just write what you mean, so that is what she is going to do.)

Art can do many things in the world that acts of violence and rhetoric can not.

Art can lift people up. It can help them have empathy for those around them – whether those around them who need compassion are dealing with issues stemming from age, or unemployment, or lack of opportunity, or racism, or sexism, or disability, or LGBTQ discrimination, or either physical or sexual abuse – ART can help.

It can show people in the audience – whether in an art gallery, a museum, a symphony space – what it feels like to have another point of view – even if just for a moment. Art leaves people with emotions they did not know they had

In fact it is good to remember here that when civilizations have passed, what we the inheritors of the earth learn and identify those civilizations by, in fact – is the Art.

Great writers tell us stories of history and legend, and we are the better for it.

Great Painters and Sculptors ‘show us’ the world of their time, and we revel in the view of this looking glass through time.

Great Composers leave us their works for hundreds of years, so that we may viscerally feel what they felt and heard. Folk Artists pass along themes meant for simpler moments, quiet moments some of which have simply traveled through individuals over the course of eons.

Great Artisans show us through their crafts, as clearly as a photograph sometimes, how people lived and what they relied upon to make their lives bearable.

Art is what makes life bearable.

You cannot control what other people think, or how they vote, or what is in their heart – but when you share Art that comes from your soul – in this case, a play that you have all worked on diligently – you can show them what is in YOUR heart.

You can show them the purity of the message of The Laramie Project – that turning your head away from bearing witness to evil is the wrong thing to do. That ordinary people can make extraordinary choices to pull us all together when hatred tries to rip us all apart.

You can show them that no one should be scared to be who they are or fear getting killed for it.

You can show them that tolerance, one of the most basic tenants of any religion, is the way forward to healing any divide.

Now, one should know that TFP has a personal connection to this piece, of sorts – other than having seen it and being a part of the Broadway community etc, etc, etc.

TFP worked with The Matthew Shepard Foundation for several years, helping them obtain ‘fancy’ items for their annual fundraiser. She has met Mrs. Shepard and talked with her, she helped get TMS foundation to endorse a film she was an Associate Producer on – The Sensei.

Not only is she more than familiar with this theater piece, this theater piece inspired her to help. Much as Matthew’s story inspired The Sensei‘s Writer/Director, D. Lee Inosanto to create the film.

That is what theater does. That is what Art does. It gives inspiration.

The kids of Blue Hill have TFP‘s complete support and admiration for tackling a show of this nature in High School – that they want to do this show, want to explore these themes means that the Parents and Teachers of Blue Hill are raising extraordinary people.

Why let a few disgruntled people ruin the creation put together by these very compassionate and thinking leaders of tomorrow?

Artists – they put themselves ‘out there’ with their work, and push back happens – so even as these High School Students experience the joy of performing, they enter the pantheon of those attacked for free thought, and they should take comfort in knowing that they are not the first to have been berated, nor will they be the last.

TFP trusts that the good people of Blue Hill will stand behind their students, their very extraordinary students at this time. She knows that all Parents, all Educators only want what is best for ‘their’ kids – and what is best is that they grow, not only in height, but in dignity, in compassion, and artistry.

Break A Leg, oh Students of Blue Hill – the Broadway Community supports you and your choices – and we cannot wait to meet the people you are on your way to becoming in the future.

Students of Blue Hill – Places, please.

TFP out.

 

The Fairy Princess wants to remind you, the Theater Going Professional of a few important things coming up on the calendar – so this will be as brief as her tolerance is for those voting for a 3rd Party Candidate or the Orange Hate Pumpkin.

See that roundhouse kick?

If you are voting third party, that’s to you from me, Pinky Lee.

So first – PANEL DISCUSSION TONIGHT on THE MIKADO

This one is sponsored by NYGASP – as in New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players in New York City, probably the oldest and most established G&S company within these United States.

On the panel – Dr. Jonathan Jenkins Ishikawa – Professor of Espistemology at University of British Columbia who is also a G&S performer and expert, Kelvin Moon Loh- the Assistant Director for their new version of Mikado and an experienced Broadway performer himself (King & I, Side Show), Scott Watanabe, Actor (Allegiance, Broadway Bounty Hunter), Associate Director and Director of this new version of The Mikado, David Auxier, as well as the Producer/Exec Dir of NYGASP, David Warren.

And…this one:

Moderated by the esteemed Robert Lee, Professor of Graduate Musical Theater Writing at NYU’s TISCH School of the Arts.

Should be fun.

-Ish.

Here are the details:

November 3, 2016 –

The Kaye Playhouse (68th Street between Park & Lexington Ave)

6pm

FREE

THE SECOND PLACE AT WHICH YOUR AEA PRESENCE IS REQUIRED is actually November 7th at 2pm.

AEA needs their members to be present to VOTE (all about the Voting, Kids – think of it as a POTUS warm-up) so that AEA members can continued to be PAID and not be forced to self-sabotage.

Yes, this is about people who are Union Members, who wish to remain people who can afford the gas and coffee and rent and everything else as well as being a working actor, showing up to vote on whether or not to have the other side’s POV shoved down their gullets every time they get a AEA communication.

This sounds crazypants, no?

Yeah, it totally does – however there is a movement going on by those who are in the “Please let 99 Seat Theater Contracts go right on not paying their actors minimum wage because it’s LA and everyone really just does theater because it is either fun or because they make simply scads of money doing television and they don’t care about the money’ contract.

They want to change the Union By-Laws so that they – they who are sucking up much needed AEA Funds in lawyer fees to defend us all – they want to change the Union By-Laws so that any propaganda they send out has to be included in all  AEA communications with members.

So they do not have to pay for the support of their own argument.

Again, they are trying to force our Union – that we all fought to get in to, that we all pay dues to – to include their anti-Union rhetoric in all communications.

They want us to do their work for them. At our cost. At the Union’s cost – written, telephone, or electric communications must include their views if this By-Law gets changed.

That is not what a Union does. Hate to break it to you Pro-99 Folks, but Unions represent ALL the peoples in it – not a crazy faction that is actively campaigning to not be paid.

You know what suffers when Union Members do not get paid?

Everything. Pension plans, Health plans, services, Administration.

All of it suffers – and there is NO WAY that The Fairy Princess would EVER – and she means EVER advise or condone Actors and Stage Managers to actively sink their own ships and fight for the right to be bamboozled and hoodwinked by some charlatan “Producers/Actors’ in Los Angeles who want nothing more than to reinforce the notion that everyone else should make money except the Actors because our talent on stage does not deserve compensation – but of course THEY all still get paid. Just not the Actors.

All you need to do to attend is go to the Actors Equity webpage and sign up in advance OR JUST SHOW UP BEARING YOUR AEA CARD.

It’s going to take 2 hours of your day. Cuz meeting, then voting.

You think “#FAIRWAGEONSTAGE” is a good premise?

What about #FAIRWAGEEVERYSTAGE – that’s right – on ALL Stages our members deserve to be paid – every single one.

So do not let them hijack your imput – you go and stand on line and vote against changing the By-Laws to support an Anti-Union agenda.

NOVEMBER 7, 2PM

If you are attending the meeting in New York City, note that the location has changed. Please come to:

New York Hilton Midtown

The Sutton Room, 2nd floor

1335 Avenue of the Americas (53rd Street)

New York, NY 10019

C’mon Folks – this stuff is important.

That is why details matter. Not just the big vote – ALL votes.

Also – NATIONAL ELECTION FOR ALL US CITIZENS ON NOVEMBER 8TH!!!

Do not throw away your shot!

TFP out.