Archives for posts with tag: Diversity

When do you ‘count’? The issue with #Yellowstone and Mixed Race People

September 1, 2017 //

The Fairy Princess is mixed race. We sometimes refer to that as Hapa in the Asian American/Pacific Islander community. Hapa comes from the Native Hawaiian language and it began as Hapa Haole – which meant, “half-foreign’.

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Hapa does not refer to the content of anyone’s Asian or Pacific Islander heritage – and that is something that sometimes gets confused – but refers to the thing that makes them different, the ‘other’ that is oftimes considered a marker of losing one’s heritage if you are of Pacific Islander or Asian heritage. Or honestly, any kind of ethnic diversity, once you mix ‘the other’ into it, people start to lose their minds over it.

The mixing.

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Nowhere in the history of Asian or Pacific Islander peoples have people particularly welcomed these ‘half breed’ children. Though the Native Hawaiians were the most welcoming and Hapa (again, shorthand for Hapa Haole), was not a slur. Which explains why mixed race people particularly of Pacific Islander or Asian descent enjoy using this term, and why it’s usage had expanded into the general lexicon of American language.

Not ‘co-opted‘ – it’s usage is commonplace now, that is an entirely different thing. If we all stopped using words from other languages, we would all have to go back to hand signals and grunting.

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Oscar Hammerstein wrote a whole show about the horror with which mixed raced children are viewed called SOUTH PACIFIC, if you are interested. There are plenty of derogatory names for them, which TFP will not go into – and in general, unless these kids happen to be super smoking hot like Miss Universe Brook Lee,

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who yes, hails from Hawaii, most ‘pureblood‘ people do not welcome Hapas.

(Happy Harry Potter’s Kid goes to Hogwart’s Day, btw)

It is an ‘actual thing.“, as the kids say.

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TFP, she is ‘half-other’. Her heritage is Irish, Chinese, and Welsh – as well as being of dual nationality – Australian and American. She is married to a Korean of Chinese descent American, and thus her child is Korean, Chinese, Irish, and Welsh.

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That someone is of mixed heritage is important because being of mixed heritage, is enough to get one publicly flayed for not being ‘enough.’

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This is not solely the view of people within Pacific Islander or Asian American groups- this is a cross cultural problem within EVERY group.

If there is one thing that unites us all, it is that the mixing of ethnic heritages (we are not talking Irish/English, or French/Norwegian) that results in different skin tones has never been welcomed by any group.

Ever.

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Here is the issue this week- very well considered by ReAppropriate – there is a Native American Actor named Adam Beach.

You have likely seen him in films and on television – he is quite a good actor. TFP has always enjoyed his performances, and he is an advocate in his community as well as being a commercially employed Hollywood actor.

All to his credit.

Mr. Beach is a leader in his community, and so – people listen when he talks, or posts on social media.

This past week, Mr. Beach took issue with a mixed race Actress named Kelsey Asbille, being hired to play a role of a Native American.

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Mr. Beach identifies Ms. Asbille as Asian American, or rather mixed race Asian American – aka Asian and Caucasian.

The issue is, that Ms. Asbille identifies herself as Asian, Native American, and Caucasian in an interview with The New York Times, and has played Native American before in the film, WIND RIVER.

Here is the direct quote from the article “What’s so Hard about Casting Indian Actors in Indian Roles?” in regards to her playing the role in WIND RIVER:

Kelsey Asbille, who plays Natalie, the young Indian woman who is raped and murdered in “Wind River,” is of Taiwanese, British and Eastern Band Cherokee descent. Although she did not grow up in an indigenous community, she said she had an “intense connection” to Natalie and what she stood for, adding, “This role, more than any other, it’s in my blood.”

In the film WIND RIVER – a film where concerted effort was made to cast authentically – Ms. Asbille passed the test. That film, incidentally, won Taylor Sheridan a Best Director trophy in Cannes.

Then she got another role, a role Mr. Beach felt should go to someone who has been more active in the NA community. This role involves portraying a young wife of Native Heritage who lives on a Reservation in a project called YELLOWSTONE.

Now, the Writer/Director of YELLOWSTONE is Taylor Sheridan, the man who cast her in WIND RIVER, she is not the main star of the series. The main star is Kevin Costner. She will play the wife of his youngest son.

Did she read for this role, or was it offered? We are not her agents and we do not really know, but it is likely that if the Actor/Director relationship worked well the first time, she had a bit of a head start over other NA Actresses who may have gone in. Again, the Director believes that she has NA heritage. He is accepting of her mixed heritage, as he should be.

Interestingly quoted in that same NY Times article, is Professor Carla Pratt who stated:

“Being Indian is more of a political and cultural identity than racial,” explained Carla Pratt, a professor at Penn State University and a justice of the Supreme Court of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “We do have a reluctance to accept someone who doesn’t fit that stereotypical image.”

Which explains why Mr. Beach is very ‘dug in’ in his opinion about her playing the role.

In other words, while the Census and the Director would perhaps consider Ms. Asbille to ‘count’, Mr. Beach would not – because he is concerned with both community awareness and participation, as much as he is concerned about acting.

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That this ‘controversy’ is really a thinly disguised purity test is not a surprise to TFP.

No one has ever truly welcomed racial mixing, and even as our world continues to evolve, those of us on the front lines will continue to take the hits. This, even as it is acknowledged that racial mixing will continue and it will be a larger segment of the population of America moving forward.

Lest we forget, Chloe Bennet recently had to respond to people who criticized her for changing her surname from her Father’s last name to his first name, because of what she called out as the bias of Hollywood.

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Keanu Reeves, Dwayne Johnson, Moon Bloodgood, Nancy Kwan, Merle Dandridge, and every other person of mixed race descent have all had to explain their right to tell stories that they were entitled to tell based on Family History.

Imagine if you were under as much scrutiny as a mixed race Actor or Actress- eternally justifying your existence – having to constantly avow your ‘loyalty’ to every faction to which you do and should lay claim.

“But I make my own (insert traditional dish)”

“I practice traditional dance every day”

“I have tattoos that show my pride in my heritage.”

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You would be as exhausted as TFP is- and that is not something she would wish on anyone. Inherent in the need to justify – is also blatant sexism – women are asked to explain themselves more than men- this is common to all women.

People always want women to explain themselves more than men.

An example would be Actor Jason Momoa, who has a host of races within his heritage, and also played a mixed race Native American in his series on Netflix, FRONTIER. His being of mixed descent is a huge plot point and he is surrounded by Indigenous Actors and Actresses who also have roles of great importance within the show. He used his heritage to help get the project off the ground, and he used it as a plot point.

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TFP recalls absolutely no one questioning his ‘right’ to self identify as Native American.

Of course, Jason Momoa is JASON MOMOA!!

No one is going to ‘check’ Drogo.

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No one.

But a young gal in her twenties…they will come for her.

Because, men.

The issue to TFP is the bias that is shown towards people of mixed heritage on a regular basis.

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If we audition and happen to do the best that day, it is never ‘unchallenged‘ unless there is a qualifier, a reason that ‘purebloods‘ can accept for our casting. ‘She is fluent…’ or ‘They are an expert in…’ there has to be what TFP laughingly refers to as ‘plausible inclusivity’ when we are cast.

When the truth is – we all get called in, we all look a variety of ways within our ‘grouping’, we all read, someone reads ‘the best’.

They get the job as long as the physicality of the actress fits the role and casting finds them credible.

Bias, for mixed people is everywhere – there is honestly very little winning.

For example, on her personal Social Media page, TFP had people discussing the fact that Major Ben Daimio, who has been identifed as a mixed race person both by Ed Skrein and in press reports was ‘probably not mixed race’ and ‘they didn’t care, but probably not“- because it is hard for people to embrace mixed race people if they come from a homogenus background.

ON HER OWN SOCIAL MEDIA WALL.

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(She still loves them, but come ON!)

That is bias against the concept of mixed race people – even if it comes from well respected and talented people.

It is still bias.

It is ingrained in our various cultures that Mixed People signal the end of culture, when that is usually very far from the truth. Mixed Race people, TFP has found, in general, try harder to get those cultural representations correct- we have a lot to ‘prove’, that is the load we carry, every day.

That Ms. Asbille is proud to represent for Native Americans is not something that has been taken into consideration – what is important is that she participate in activities that the Native American Acting Community, and Mr. Beach deem worthy.

TFP imagines that he has a list.

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Mr. Beach said that Native American actresses should not have to wake up and be slapped in the face by Ms. Asbille’s casting.

Mr. Beach never envisioned what Ms. Asbille’s morning was, as a mixed raced person, to wake up to being personally attacked on the internet, being slapped in the face by the reasoning that she was not ‘enough’ to ‘count’.

Of course, he is the counter of all things.

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However if the ‘greater’ NA Community is against ‘blood purity’ aka “Genetic Marker” tests – then the issue should be moot, especially as the IPCB – Indigenous People’s Council on Biocolonialism has this on their front page:

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Here is a ‘still’ from the film WIND RIVER –

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Ms. Asbille did not say she was 100% Native American – she says she has heritage from Eastern Band Cherokee. TFP does think she looks like she has ‘more’ in her DNA than Asian and Caucasian.

To TFP, she looks ‘extra’ .

TFP is familiar with these issues, and what mixed race NA people could look like. The range of what appearance ‘could be’ is vast- it involves every sort of eye shape and color, skin tone, and hair shade and texture. She is familiar with this because her Father represented two Tribes.

Her Father, who was not Native American ( he was Irish American) but who was a Tribal Judge and a lawyer for both the Abernaki tribe in Vermont, and the Schagticoke Tribe in Connecticut before he passed, made her aware of some of the issues facing the Tribes in question. She would drive him up to the Rez, talk to the Chief….

TFP is perhaps more aware of some of the issues facing the NA population than, say, the average person – she is not an expert – but she is familiar – and this is what it comes down to:

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The first Europeans who settled in America visited enacted tragedies upon the Native Americans.

This is not up for debate – they did it.

They raped. They murdered. They deliberately stole the children from Tribes, and sent them to schools where they were not allowed to speak their native language and they cut their hair.

They deliberately removed them from their traditional lands and placed them on lands where nothing would grow. They spread contagion and death through smallpox deliberately.

They sent them on the Trail of Tears that killed thousands. They used the Native American populations in ways that are unspeakable.

This was all deliberate.

The repercussions of what was done to NA Tribes is with us today and will honestly never be fixed unless America looks hard at itself and takes massive steps to improve the situations that keep NA people from thriving within modern America.

It was done by the White people and it was done as part of a concerted Government Effort because historically, White People like to take things that other people have.

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Thus, many Native Americans – not all Native Americans, but many, will have strands of alternate DNA within their genes. In the 2010 Census, it was shown that nearly half of all Native Americans and Indigenous Alaskans claim to be of mixed race.

This does not negate their cultural identification or love of being Native American.

What it means is that their ancestors survived.

They did what they had to do. They may have fallen in love, they may have used what they had to escape what was worse. They may have had no choice in the matter.

They were strong and proud and people of mixed heritage are living testaments to their strength and will to survive. They are , to a certain extent, definitive comment that walks and breathes that shows America no matter what happens- Native Americans are stronger than anything thrown at them by racist and sexist America.

They survived. Again, to reference what the Professor said above, Native American Identity is equally political and community driven, as it is racial.

There is the issue of tribal cards and what it means being part of a tribe – now, the rules of joining and substantiating a claim of heritage are strict. This does not account, on many levels for the sustained attack that the Native American population has had thrust on it. Many people left and did not look back.

Both for personal and for socio-economic reasons.

The fact that they left, does not negate their being Native American.

It does, in many cases affect their heirs attaining ‘tribal status’ or to being able to obtain a ‘card’. While there are issues with the ‘card’ system, it is the system we have currently in the United States and adjustments are being made constantly.

So if there is no ‘genetic marker’ test desired by the larger NA community – then what is the issue with Mr. Beach?

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Well, like most actors – he wanted one of his friends to get the role.

TFP totally understands this inclination, everyone likes people they know to succeed.

The point of representing the community through various types of activities is a valid one – but it is ‘sticky’ because sometimes people are not ‘joiners’, and sometimes younger actors really are just focused on their careers and not attending different events.

Community Awareness tends to grow as one ages, in TFP‘s observation.

Again, if Ms. Asbille is not in any way NA, TFP will jump right on that bandwagon and implore her to not take the role, as Mr. Skein did not take the role of Major Ben.

But what if she is Native American?

What does the NA Community do with her then?

No one is allowed to ‘swab’ anyone else to prove something – but let’s say she chooses to do it as a way to prove herself – because again, mixed race people continually must prove themselves – and it is totally and completely legit and she is definitively NA.

Where does it end?

Do they invite her participation at a greater level? Do they ‘court’ her as a potential Activist?

TFP is sure that that would be the greater end game to play. To involve her. Perhaps she will not like it and choose not to continue to participate, and it will make her not respond to Native American castings. Perhaps she will become involved on that community level.

However, as she and Chloe Bennet have stated – what they do as people, change their names, or color their hair – that does not negate what is in their blood, and Ms. Asbille will likely continue to represent as Native American. Certain people will again take issue – because she is mixed race.

The cycle begins again.

The optics of People of Color attacking other People of Color as to their ‘worthiness’ and what percentage they have in their DNA are bad. The writing of this blog or any blog will not ameliorate this situation.

However TFP felt this should be addressed.

Yes, there have been issues in the past with Elizabeth Warren and Johnny Depp – and those kinds of issues will play out again and again. Ms. Asbille is not taking on a role that was mired in trope as Mr. Depp did, she is taking on a role of a modern NA woman that will ostensibly be written as a nuanced piece, it is not the same as Mr. Depp’s playing Tonto, and it should not be compared as such.

(BTW TFP was in the Diversity Showcases for FOX and due to a scheduling issue with her scene partner – they had to go up on the night of the Native American showcase, so she is well aware that there are many and varied Native American talents out there, and she wishes there were more projects out there to showcase them.

Yes – the scheduling snaffoo was explained, as was the fact that we were not trying to represent as NA – and our scene was up last – to prevent any misunderstanding in that regard.

Anyway, she is fully aware of the greatness of the NA Acting community, and she wanted to acknowledge that. She is FULLY supportive of Native American heritaged people being cast as Native American)

Here is what TFP thinks- as a mixed raced person herself – and one whose Family is mixed in multiple ways-

(her extended family includes people who are of Australian Aboriginal heritage, Asian heritage, Brazilian heritage, French Canadian heritage, African American heritage, White European heritage)

When a Person of Color claims a certain heritage – she is inclined to believe them.

There is no real benefit to lying about heritage when you are mixed race – because to most people, you are not enough. Of anything. The more mixed you are, the more upset they seem to get.

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Mixed raced people are Sisyphus going up the hill, again and again, only to have that giant boulder come crashing down on them, with the words “DOESN’T COUNT” emblazoned on the side of it.

People in this country like things to be clear cut. They like definitive answers and bright colors. They like things to be to be in absolutes. Good guy, bad woman. Locker room banter versus her emails. No shades of gray.

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When you are dealing with mixed race people – things are not simple. They are messy. They are complicated. There are constant ‘tests’ from people who try and define what exactly you are. – so the question TFP leaves you with is –

When do we stop asking mixed raced people to prove how much they count?

When do we let them just be?

It’s a valid question.

Look, certain people have asked that the AAPI community turn on Ms. Asbille because they equate it to Ed Skrein being cast as Major Ben Daimio.

Many have. It is in their purview. TFP cannot tell people what to do -but this is not the same situation as HELLBOY.

This is not a Caucasian playing a mixed raced Asian. This is a person of multiple heritages who – unless proved otherwise – should be believed.

Let her do her job.

If it comes out she is not NA – that is something else entirely – if she embarrasses the NA community – again, that is something else entirely. However TFP does not think she is out to do that, she thinks Ms. Asbille will do her job.

Dismantling bias against people of mixed race is hard – people look at us and feel we are the reason that they are losing their culture. That the complexity of our ancestors survival which is written in our features threatens their way of life – and in such a way that we cannot be accepted for the many things that we are.

It is time for that to end- if we learn nothing from #Charlottesville and #HurricaneHarvey about the importance of sticking together and supporting one another, that would be a shame.

Representation is important and vital – but the judging of it, of one another, the quantifying and quizzing of mixed race people has had it’s time.

It is now upon mixed race people to reclaim it.

Tags Diversity, entertainment, Hapa, Kelsey asbille, Racism, Yellowstone

Categories Diversity

Tomorrow, Tomorrow @Anneakikomeyers should apologize to @Chineke4Change tomorrow, it’s only a day away…

August 20, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess was having a good week – she moderated a very successful live reading for the Asian American Film Lab‘s Unfinished Works series, featuring a script by Jennifert Betit-Yen, and one by Alice Cox, both of which – The Opposite of a Fairy Tale and The Plains, were well acted and well attended, as well as Live-streamed.

Photo credit: Peyton Worley

She was able to view the phenomenal talents of Lesli Margerita before she leaves the Broadway show MATILDA for the new Broadway version of DAMES AT SEA

Trevor Nunn decided to respond to ‘critics’, and it was all things “get off my privileged lawn‘ and ‘after all I have done for you lot‘ and…in general, super fun, especially when Danny Lee Wynter in The Guardian asked – “If Trevor Nunn is staying true to history, where are the pox ridden actors?”

Or when Jonathan Owen at The Independent wrote

Critics have questioned the verisimilitude of the production which amalgamate Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy and Richard III and is sponsored by Norway’s largest financial service group DNB, Norwegian actor Kare Conradi was chosen to play Edward IV and two British actresses, Joely Richardson and Imogen Daines, play the French characters Margaret of Angjou and Joan of Arc

Critics have, tis true.

Nice one, England, standing up for Diversity on your stages!

In more good news on American stages her AVENUE Q buddy, Natalie Venetia Belcon is returning to Broadway in MATILDA – she will be spectacular (here she is singing HAPPY TIMES from The Music of Alex Wyse at NYTB @ The Duplex)

Broadway vet J. Bernard Calloway is in this NBC Pilot you may view online and vote for called “The Bar Mitzvah Club”

ABC Family is renewing a show with Rex J. Lee…GO REX!

Amy Hill’s character on UnReal stepped up and demanded more screen time in the fauxreality reality show about a reality show…which is great because she is SO gifted and TFP was like, “Are they actually going to USE her and all her gifts or…?” and it looks like that is where it is heading, so that is a WIN for Amy AND the fans of the show!

What TFP is saying is that, in general, in showbiz is diversifying, and in general, everyone gets – especially Asian Americans – how important diversity is on our stages and on our screens…well, everyone except perhaps fellow Hapa, Anne Akiko Meyers, the famed violinist – and here we go….

In a nutshell, British double bassist, Chi-chi Nwanoku and his Chineke Foundation, have formed Europe’s first professional all Black orchestra!

Not only have they formed it, but there is a premiere date of Sept 13, 2015 at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall where the 60 plus members of the ensemble will be led by Tai Murray and conducted by Wayne Marshall. The foundation is attempting to “champion change and celebrate diversity in classical music”, as well as to be a catalyst of change in the industry.

Now, here is the thing that many Asian American artists who work in classical music, both as performers and behind the scenes do not often acknowledge – people expect there to be Asian and Asian Americans in classical music!

John Q. Public who attends classical music events regularly, he/she expects to see Asians and Asian Americans on the stage!

There is such great representation of Asian and API talent in the classical world that if TFP is feeling sad, she strolls past Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall and almost always, there is an Asian or API performer coming soon to a fancy concert hall near you that did not fail their parental expectations.

There are a ton of examples from Conductors,

Conductor Alan Gilbert of the NY Philharmonic

Seiji Ozawa, former Music Director of The Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for 29 years

Tomomi Nishimoto – Artistic Dir/Principal Conductor of IlluminArt Philharmonic Orchestra

to Instrumentalists

Lang Lang

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to singers – check out Yin Huang in the movie version of Madame Butterfly

one could literally go on and on- and in fact, you will seemingly find more Asians and APIs in classical music regularly performing and being lauded than in ANY OTHER PART OF THE AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY!

People expect Asians and APIs in Classical music.

Quite similar, in fact, to the way that people who view classical music expect to see Caucasians performing. Asian and Asian American performers are actually sought out when they have talent in classical music – which, again, is TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNITY IN ALL OTHER MEDIUMS.

One might even venture to say that Asians and API classical musicians of a certain level have a great deal of privilege.

Which is why it is so sad to TFP that Violinist, Anne Akiko Meyers, a woman who has released 32 albums and was the top selling traditional classical instrumental soloist of Billboard’s charts in 2014, could be such a brat.

She posted on her FB page something about fellow People of Color that was ‘questionable’ at best, and at the worst could be considered….

TFP leaves it for the reader to decide- but it is not good.

First of all, just from a mixed raced perspective, Ms. Meyers, you need to check yourself.

because if your parents had been married prior to 1967 in the United States of America, they would have been subject to the type of Bon mots that you so casually threw out and soooo much more, because America has not always been welcoming to what was termed “Mixed Marriages”.

Your website says you were born in 1970 and raised in San Diego, your Mom is Japanese and her Dad is American – they would not have been considered married at all. They could even have been arrested had they gone to a state where it was not legal for people of different skin tone to marry.

In point of fact, America has had a huge problem with Japanese people and no matter how insular it was in San Diego in the 70’s, TFP is fairly certain your Mom would have been victim to a bit of that good ol’ recovering from World War 2 kind of thinking – particularly given that it is a military area. It would not have been easy.

California repealed anti-miscengenation laws in 1948, ahead of the curve by almost 2 decades, but it could have put a crimp in their travel plans, no? Plus the day to day kind of stuff that she, and probably you yourself would have felt or seen could have made things uncomfortable…. on occasion.

Which makes it more annoying that you grew up and decided to turn around and judge people based on skin tone!

TFP knows a little something something about growing up as a Hapa kid, you cannot tell her it was all wine and roses.

In the sea of PoC, we all gots ta swim together Hunty, or no one is going to make it to dry land.

Second, according to your website, ahem –

“I regularly support classical music organizations around the world. Please support your local orchestra, concert society, chamber music festival, or radio station. Long Live Music!”

That is what you, Ms. Meyers, wrote for us all to do – support classical music organizations? And in order to support classical music, a realm in which you live and breathe the fanciest of air wafting from your amazingly fancy violin on lifetime loan…

you saw a news item about classical music and wrote- supportively –

“I wonder if you have to be black to be invited to solo with this orchestra? #reversediscrimination”

IS THAT SUPPORTIVE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC?

One supposes you were trying to make some sort of joke.

The only thing that is hilarious about this is that you hashtagged #reversediscrimination .

Only White People use that!

Hold up – REVERSE DISCRIMINATION – what say you? Aahmer?

There is no reversing discrimination, not even when it is shown by a very talented, pretty Eurasian lady on social media!

You looked at THIS photo which, btw, contains mixed raced people, aka people who, once upon a time, would have had parents whose marriages were also outlawed in this country…..

and then you mocked them from your seat of faux-alabaster privilege. Their orchestra has NOTHING to do with you or your 32 albums or your being named a top Billboard classical artist in 2014…you were, to put it mildly – offensive.

On the heels of all the violence that has been plaguing the United States, on the graves of the People of Color whose cries go unheard and who wind up wrongfully incarcerated or worse…you took a moment from the Chineke Orchestra- a moment that should have been a celebration heard around the world, and you shat on it.

Then when people tried to comment on your website, you took their comments down – which does not negate what you have done.

It compounds it.

From where TFP is sitting, it means that you feel you are above acknowledging that with actions come consequences. Just because you do not like what people have to say, does not mean that they are wrong. They called you on it. You are responsible for your own gaffs – take it.

Own it.

You messed up. Even though you have a fancy violin and a Julliard education- you messed up.

What you should have done is written a statement and apologized. Here, TFP will write it for you.

To the Chineke! Orchestra,

I am writing to apologize to you for my social media outburst. I took what was supposed to be a proud moment for all of us in Classical Music, a celebration of Diversity that has been slow in coming and should be lauded – particularly by those of mixed race who enjoy privilege and success in our field and know how rare it is – and I tarnished it. As a Mother, I try to teach my daughters to not judge people according to the color of their skin and it is shaming to know that I failed to realize that i did exactly that on social media. I will endeavor to do much better, and I wish you every success at Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Play Wagner if it makes it more comfortable to write, but write something!

Give your kids a good example. Ms. Meyers everyone has already noticed.

Chineke Orchestra – TFP wishes you much, much success – and to negate Ms. Meyers comments – TFP suggests this – if you are a person of Mixed race heritage or a person of any kind at all – please buy a ticket and go see the performance because #BlackLivesMatter – in Art and in Life.

Let’s stand together – not because we are keeping invisible score cards of rights and wrongs, but because standing together is the right thing do to.

Compassion is infinite.

Expressing concern about an issue is not taking it away from other things.

Another person’s success does not pull down our own.

(Jeez writing about Hapas behaving badly is depressing….embarrassing too. Cuz, TFP is one as well, just ick. )

For exhibiting discrimination on social media and then compounding it by disallowing people to comment on it, TFP fines you 30 whacks with the wand – Ms. Meyers, get it together!

Also – KISS MY FAN, TAN, FANNIE

Tags Amy Hill, anne akiko meyers, anneakikomeyers chineke orchestra, Classical Music, Diversity, Racism, Rex J. Lee, UnReal, Young and Hungry

Categories Diversity

TFP would like to thank The Playbill…. @BroadwayGirlNYC and @PlaybillCarey

August 3, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess woke up this past Friday to find herself on a “little list‘ put together by Playbill.com – she was totally flattered to be on the list of “useful” women in theater who utilize social media.

Who would not want to be any list that included Kate Shindle (@AEAPresident), Jennifer Ashley Tepper (@JenAshTep), The League of Professional Women in Theater (@LPTWomen), Audra McDonald (@AudraEqualityMc), Lia Chang (@LiaChang), Sydney Lucas (@SydneyLucasNYC), The Kilroys (@TheKilroys13), The Interval (@TheIntervalNY), and from the UK, West End Wilma (@WestEndWilma) ?

Certainly not TFP – she totes wants to be on that list, and she thanks the…ummm…The Playbill.

One likes to be thought of as ‘useful’,

must be America’s Puritan Work Ethic trickle down…but TFP certainly enjoyed being included.

Many thanks to Laura Heywood aka @BroadwayGirlNYC and Cary Purcell aka @PlaybillCarey for reading what TFP wrote, and thinking that it mattered to not just API Theater lovers, but to the community in general.

One often imagines that one’s writing is sent out to the Universe and gets left in the ether for aliens to come and find it – they would find it and and then decide it was good that they came in and took over since we cannot quite get it together here on this planet.

It was honestly thrilling to wake up and see oneself tagged by Playbill in an article, and in such a nice way.

This is perhaps the first blog post by TFP where she did not have to tell someone to Kiss Her Fan Tan Fannie at the end of it, and that in itself is a remarkable thing – since TFP usually has to be ironically enraged to do so…mayhap this will lead to a kinder, gentler TFP?

Probably not.

Lest one thinks that TFP was the only API on the list, TFP was very happy to note that the lovely Lia Chang, @LiaChang,

was lauded for her consistently excellent work, and this was an even bigger example of how the face of theater in New York and around the country is changing.

Heck, it was even picked up by AsAmNews – wow!

A sincere thanks to Playbill for noticing TFP‘s blog and for the encouragement….

TFP wakes up every day hoping she will not have to be quite as useful…but until that day comes – she will soldier on!

Also HAPPY OPENING to the play, WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE being produced by The Finborough Theatre in London – it looks like a wonderful piece and it also gives TFP hope that things will continue to change.

TFP out.

Happily out, which is odd, but out nonetheless.

Have a great week Y’all!

Tags @BroadwayGirlNYC, @Playbill Carey, Broadway, Cary Purcell, Diversity, finborough theatre, Laura Heywood, Lia Chang, Playbill.com, We Know Where You Live

Categories Diversity

No Roundabout it, that is some White Noise

July 27, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess has had a busy week – she was able to go to the Asian American Film Lab’s 72 Hour Shoot Out Party, and hang with some of the very talented filmmakers and cast members. The AAFL is one of those organizations that TFP truly enjoys – under the direction of Jennifer Betit-Yen, the AAFL has it’s own YouTube Channel, which you can easily subscribe to.

AAFL helps bring diverse voices to the forefront – providing them access to information, seminars, screenings, workshops…anyway, it is a great organization, and TFP was thrilled to be able to support them.

She has been a fan a long time, and most recently co-hosted their “Focus On The Philippines” series –

You can watch all the winning films from this year’s 72 Hour Shootout (all the writing, production, and editing has to be completed within 72 hours) on their You Tube Channel, as well as on various local channels in your area.

Congrats to all the participants!

So…yes, TFP was feeling in a good place about Diversity and Representation, after all…ALLEGIANCE has put up it’s banner on a theater and their box office will open September 1, 2015.

HAMILTON is now on Broadway, previews, but….it is up – it opens ‘officially’ on August 6, 2015

not to mention that SCHOOL OF ROCK is coming November 9, 2015 and features a fun, and diverse cast….

Deaf West’s production of SPRING AWAKENING coming back to Broadway, it’s bringing Oscar Winner, Marlee Matlin with it for it’s limited engagement run that starts previews Sept 8, and opens Sept 27, 2015

There is some cool stuff going on on The Broadway, and people are noticing and commenting on it – both on social media and in the mainstream media – PoC are speaking up and asking why are we not represented, and being that there is no good answer, there has been a marked response.

Which is why TFP was chortling at the placement of this particular ‘item”

See that, right there? That on the bottom is an interview with TONY Winner, Lea Salonga, all about how encouraged she is with the diversity of Broadway, sentiments that TFP agrees with, it IS encouraging.

Until you realize that right above it, ABOVE Diversity, there is the announcement of the casting of the revival of NOISES OFF at The Roundabout Theater Company, and as it is the FIRST story, that takes precedence – ie, it was deemed more important.

Lea Salonga is hoping there is a shift, but her hope has been dashed as one can see because although she is a TONY WINNING LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL, who is opening a new show in the Fall of 2015, her interview was bumped from the ‘top spot’ by an announcement of a cast for a show that will not ‘open’ till January 2016!

Which is…wait for it…NEXT YEAR!

Journey with TFP now, let us take a look at the cast for the revival of NOISES OFF and see why it should be the lead story….

TFP is thinking something….

Now, before everyone gets all up in a tilt -a- whirl about ‘well, King and I is up and Saigon is coming back, and if Allegiance is coming too…you have nothing to complain about if we want to have an all white play up....” and whilst that is a point, there are two issues at hand with this:

1. The above cited pieces are all musicals, not straight plays

2. The Roundabout has an issue with casting minorities.

The Roundabout, in a study cited by Playbill.com dealing with the 2012 season, was the fourth LEAST likely to cast diverse in New York City. So that is the point – if it was another company producing, perhaps TFP would not have noticed (not like there is blinding diversity in straight plays on Broadway) – but it was particularly egregious to TFP that once again, The Roundabout is choosing to not cast minorities. While they did not hold the ‘top spot’, they were fourth down on the list, which is…troubling.

The first was the York Theater.

In fact, the last time TFP had to write about The Roundabout Theater company it was because they thought that brown face makeup was no big deal….

That is Andy Karl and TONY Winner Jessie Mueller all browned up for a production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, where they were portraying 1/2 Sri Lankan characters at The Roundabout.

The kerfuffle over that incident was supposed to lead to a ‘closed door’ meeting on their Diversity in Casting…one can only imagine that it was not quite as successful a meeting as it could have been.

Now, as stated, The Roundabout has little to no diversity amongst it’s castings – but that is a manifold discussion to have and here is what people who want to argue will say about it.

1. The Best Actors got the job.

No one knows if the ‘best’ actors got the job, because no one knows who was called in to audition for the job. In the case, and with this cast, it does seem that quite a few of them would have been a direct offer – which leads to the next argument.

2. They went with ‘stars’.

In the United States we have ‘stars’ of every different hue, and that it would in fact, be smarter of them to try and diversify the cast to get an influx of new audience members who would be interested in seeing varied countenances.

One would also have to point out, that not everyone in the cast – while all very talented one is sure – qualifies as ‘stars’ (that is not a diss, it’s a career trajectory point of fact) so the ‘stars’ thing is not a valid rebuttal.

3. The Actors require British Accents

Has one looked and seen the racial diversity of Britain?

Not everyone in London looks like any odd Royal in a Can anymore – there are diverse faces in the UK, or have you not heard Lenny Henry’s speech recently?

You may need a refresher….

Plus which, they might decide to do it sans British accents. Regardless, ethnic minorities in the UK have accents from the UK, and that is not a valid rejoinder.

The interesting thing is that in London proper at the Finborough Theatre, they are mounting the new play- WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, written by Steven Hevey and directed by John Young, and…well….take a look at the cast…Rita Arya, Gary Beadle, Ross Hatt, Paddy Navin, Matt Whitchurch, and Daniel York, yes, a world premiere.

They are in rehearsal and opens in August, full production….look at that, everyone working together, innit?

And what is this new play, this very exciting, very promising looking play about?

“In a city buckling under the weight of a severe housing crisis, Ben and Asma have discovered a borough in London they can finally call their home. However with it’s earthy character and village feel, it isn’t long before this hidden gem becomes the prime location for every other trendy urbanite in the city. As they find themselves under siege from a brutal wave of gentrification, powerless to stop the many charms that had attracted them to the area from being erased, Ben and Asma reach out to the local community for support, but start to question whether or not the damage has already been done.

A timely and important play about the changing face of London.”

Well DONE oh Finborough Theatre! London’s leading Off West End Theatre Company, and one can see why!

Sadly we of The Broadway are casting London in 1982 – she is gutted she cannot see this one.

Look, TFP loves this play, NOISES OFF, she truly does – but this was a ‘no brainer’ in terms of what could be done to embrace the changing world we live in, and the world that this faux theater company is supposed to represent. The last time she saw NOISES OFF, she could not catch her breath from laughing so much, it is honestly that wonderful.

She also knows that the playwright, Michael Frayn has gone back and rewritten things in the past in regards to this play, so the play itself is not set in stone, adjustments have been made in the past, and one assumes that he could make them again – if he so chose.

One of the things necessary to know about this particular play, if you are unaware of it, is that some of the actors play the crew of a theater company, and the truth is, the production crews of a play are diverse.

People who work in theater ARE diverse.

Here, this is a photo from an anniversary of a show about puppets, and there is Producers, Cast and Crew in it, ahem.

Top L-R: John Tartaglia, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Beverly Jenkins, Producer Robyn Goodman, Erin Quill, Phoebe Kreutz, Producer Kevin McCollum Lower Left Photo: Star of MEMPHIS: J. Bernard Calloway Lower Rt Photo: Carmen Ruby Floyd & Erin Quill

Top L-R: John Tartaglia, Carmen Ruby Floyd, SM Beverly Jenkins, Producer Robyn Goodman, Erin Quill, Puppet Wrangler: Phoebe Kreutz, Producer Kevin McCollum
Lower Left: MEMPHIS star: J. Bernard Calloway
Lower Rt: Carmen Ruby Floyd & Erin Quill

In fact, one could argue that there is reason to have a strong South Asian contingent playing the crew based on the changing demographics of the United Kingdom.

4. It is what their subscription base wants

Well TFP wants constant rainfall in California to fill the reservoir, but she understands that she cannot control the weather.

In the case of the subscription base, arguing that people only go to theater to see themselves actually brings the argument back to the need for diversification. Also, one should give the subscription base more credit – they would still buy a ticket if the work was good, even if there was a face or two that did not look like they could share the same foundation shade.

No, no, there is no valid argument to ‘defend’ the lack of diversity in this casting except that it is what the director, Jeremy Herrin, coming from the UK and the director of the esteemed WOLF HALL, Parts 1 and 2, wanted. It is his right, he is the Director, and he had a vision. It is a classic British play, it is a farce, and he cast it as he saw fit – a ‘classic’ fit for a UK that existed in 1982, when the play was first presented.

TFP was curious about Mr. Herrin, and his background, so she did take a look.

Mr. Herrin hails from Scotland and has worked on several things with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Ah, the RSC…. they are the ones that produced The Orphan of Zhao, a play adapted from the oldest play in China – and did not have East Asians play Chinese people.

TFP wrote about that once upon a time.

Once can say this for RSC AD Gregory Doran….his point of view is as strong as it is alarming – and as invasive as Asian carp.

Anyway, it did make TFP laugh that here we are, we pesky minorities, feeling like perhaps we are getting somewhere and things are changing, and yet…Diversity never made it to top billing….not even if the one talking held a TONY Award in her hand.

Fifty smacks of the wand to the Roundabout Theater Company -continuing on in your own grand tradition….

TFP knows people vote in theater by purchasing a ticket….or NOT…she knows which one she will be doing.

As for Playbill.com – TFP is going to hope this was just some alphabetical, random kind of thing…but the irony was definitely there….most definitely.

Thanks for the reminder.

TFP out.

Tags AAFL 72 Hour Shoot Out, allegiance, andy karl, Daniel York, Diversity, finborough theatre, gary beadle, hamilton, Jennifer Betit-Yen, jessie mueller, john young director, lea salonga, matt whitchurch, noises off, paddy navin, rita arya, ross hatt, school of rock, Steven hevey, we know where you live play

Categories Diversity

Let Tilda Him-a-lay-yah – The Doc is not the only thing STRANGE about this casting….

May 29, 2015 //

In light of the recent and stupid comments by MARVEL and Tilda Swinton, in regards to casting of the new Dr. Strange Film – TFP is reissuing her post from last year, when casting was announced.

Ahem:

The Fairy Princess is in a bad damn mood. First, because she went to a routine trip to the dentist and was like “Hey, this tooth kinda hurts”, and twenty minutes later, she had no tooth – because it needed to be removed. Her Dentist was lovely and no reflection on his profession but she was thinking of two things while in the chair…

Steve Martin

images

And The Wild West.

Original caption: USA: Cody’s Original Wild West Show. 1883-1900 USA

And when she says the Wild West she was actually thinking “Thank goodness I don’t live in the Wild West where they would have tied a string to the tooth and the other end to a saddle of a horse and then slap the horse to giddyap and yank it out that way”

TFP is not a rational thinker in the Dentist chair. She is thankful for modern dentistry, and her Dentist is great. However the recovery of a tooth removal is painful and so she has been lying like a lump on the bed taking painkillers and when she came across THIS bit of brilliant Hollywood Casting and it cut through the meds, it pissed her off so badly she started typing in a haze.

It seems that in the new “Doctor Strange” film that Marvel is producing there is a character called “The Ancient One‘ who lives in a monastery in Tibet.

Technically, and according to the Marvel page on The Ancient One “The youth who would eventually be The Ancient One was born over five hundred years ago in Kamar-Taj, a villiage in a hidden land in the Himalaya Mountains in the area now known as Tibet.” Ah TIBET….mystical land nestled deep in Asia…

Ah, what’s that you say? You did not know, dear reader, that Tibet is in Asia?

Let’s get a map (TFP loves a good map)

map

See, there it is, plain as day – right next to China…oh heck, let us get another map to make that a bit clearer…

asiamapw

As one can see…Tibet is located just between China and India, with Nepal kinda wedged in there between.

(Sorry, TFP cannot think of Nepal without Eddie Murphy in Golden Child, apologies to Nepal)

Specifically the village he was born in lies nestled in the Himalaya Mountains. Now, among other things, the Himalaya Mountains are of huge religious import – and that’s important to remember because in TFP’s readings of Marvel Comics (oh yes she reads them on occasion) they like to try and tie in bits of ‘reality’ to make the story lines set on Earth work – not surprising, it helps the reader get into the world of the comic more, however in the Himalaya Mountains, you are not only setting a story there – it is an actual place that is sacred.

Yep, it’s sacred.

Why, you ask?

Oh because it is the birthplace of Buddism in Bhutan. Yep – at Paro Taktsang…., not just for that reason, there are lots of monasteries in the Himalayas and of course, in case it needs more cred (it doesn’t), this guy lives there:

dalai-lama

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama lives in Tibet. Although he has had to flee to India, so he may not be in Tibet now, but he is supposed to be in Tibet…anyway it’s CHINA’s fault if he is not, but he is supposed to be there. BAD CHINA!

(Yes, TFP knows that is kimchi and kimchi is Korean. You can stop with trying to pull apart her logic now, read on.)

The Himalayas are a pretty cool place, and stories have been set there since Westerners have heard whispers of a far off place in the heavens where one could touch the clouds and never age. Perhaps it even inspired the advent of Plastic Surgery…who knows?

MARVEL is adept and trying to intertwine premise and concept with (in certain comics) actual places, one could see by their rendering of The Ancient One, and even by the photo above of one of the World’s most revered leaders of religion and peace, there’s a general ‘look’ to those who dwell in Tibet.

Let’s look at some photos:

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tibet_3011337b

It’s an Asian look, is it not? The People of Tibet? The People who would be born in the Himaylaya Mountain Region have a distinctly Asian appearance because…well...they are Asian, although they are their own thing, well, THIS article says it better than TFP:

The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is now occupied by the People’s Republic of China. They number 5.4 million. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. The Khampas of Tibet are originally from Mongolia. Tibetans speak the Tibetan language, which belongs to the Sino-Tibetan languages and has many mutually unintelligible dialects. The traditional, or mythological, explanation of the Tibetan people’s origin is that they are the descendants of the monkey Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa and rock ogress Ma Drag Sinmo. Most Tibetans practice Tibetan Buddhism, though some observe the indigenous Bön and others are Muslims.

So their roots are in Asia – as they are situated between China and India, essentially, I mean, we SEE you Nepal

– but you are kinda in the same situation, an Asian indigenous peoples. Asian being at the root of all of it – East Asian, South Asian, Asian makes up what the peoples of those lands – China, India, Nepal, and Tibet, look like.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT CAUCASIANS OR ANY OTHER KINDS OF FOLKS CANNOT PRACTICE RELIGIONS THAT HAVE THEIR ORIGINS IN TIBET!

5ec8abcac2aa0c1b661926e54425d949

ANYONE CAN PRACTICE ANY RELIGION THAT APPEALS TO THEM.

RELIGION IS NOT ABOUT SKIN COLOR, DON’T GET IT TWISTED!

A RELIGION’S PLACE OF ORIGIN is different from the RELIGION, even Richard Gere would agree with that.

Debating over who owns Buddhism or any other religion is not what this is about – what this is about is what is going on with the Dr. Strange casting.

TFP wants to be clear – Tibet is a real and actual place, and the trouble with setting things in a real and actual place – even if you make up the village in which someone is supposed to have been born in – is that there is an obligation there to embrace the people that live there by representing them in as honest a way as Hollywood can.

That is an obligation that all creatives share – the ability to truly embrace the many influences we have and acknowledge where they came from and what they have shown us that have driven us to inspiration. Created a character based on the Tibetian way of life? That is beautiful – show us that beauty then. SHOW US why MARVEL Comics even allowed the inclusion of Tibet in the Dr. Strange canon of tales!

SHOW US TIBET!

blogimagestibet

Why would you create a character from Tibet and then do everything in your power to make it appear that Tibet has somehow been invaded hundreds of years ago (according to their myth) by Caucasians who have graciously deigned to grant the Tibetian people the aid of their strength and wisdom?

Now, when the casting of The Ancient One first came up, people in the business of show made guesses as to who was in the mix – that’s what it’s called – in the mix, like you can put a bunch of actors business cards in a bowl, swirl it up, blindly pull one out and cast a movie, you can’t do that…or maybe you CAN….(sometimes, that might be better – looking at you, ALOHA)

Some thought maybe Chow Young Fat, and TFP would agree that he is perhaps more what she was thinking when they announced The Ancient One was going to be in this film. He is Chinese, and according to the map, as we have all seen – China is right next to Tibet.

They share a region and a border, and they violate this and do all sorts of terrible things, but again, Mr. Fat could be from the region of Tibet. Because the people of Tibet, again, just so we are all clear, are Asian.

tibet-girls

They are their ‘own thing‘ but, their thing is an Asian thing.

Everyone on the same page, yes?

The same page that is probably a scroll with calligraphy that is measured in worth by the beauty of the brushstrokes? The page that may or may not be several hundred years old and written by a monk high up in the Himalayas because THAT is where Tibetan monasteries kinda live?

Right, that page. That 1,000 year old page. Also in the mix for The Ancient One, were Morgan Freeman and Bill Nighy.

This was troubling to TFP because as she has said before, you cannot sub in one minority in place of another.

Representation is always an issue in feature films, which are, let’s face it, home of the aging but apparently always sexually attractive to women of all ages but his co-star is always 30 years young Caucasian Man.

“Diversity” aka “Normality” is not really what Hollywoodland is selling. Ever.

She understands that to some, Morgan Freeman and his incredible voice could be credible as a “mystic’ being with ancient knowledge, and of course Mr. Nighy has played supernatural mystical beings before so she understand the reasoning, and that would ALL be ‘for our consideration‘ except for the tricky fact that THE ANCIENT ONE IS SUPPOSED TO BE A NATIVE OF TIBET.

Tibet the real and actual place, remember? So in TFP‘s opinion, of those three, it ‘had‘ to go to Mr. Fat – because…well, not only is he a giant international film star with dozens of films and high visibility, he could easily be believed by the audience to be an Ancient being from a Tibetian Monastery who shares wisdom and other things with Dr. Strange. – Besides, everyone knows that Asian people age well, so if he’s 500 years give or take and only looks 50 or so?

Par for the course. (that was a joke)

MARVEL thought they would throw us all for a loop and change the role of The Ancient One to a female – totally fine. Ancient Asian Women are just as easily residing in a monastery in Tibet – why not? In fact, had the role been changed to a woman, but kept the basic premise of ‘native of Tibet‘ going, everyone would have cheered, TFP would have been first in line.

That was not to be, because everyone knows (ahem) that when you change a male role to a female role, the only thing one can possibly do is give the role meant for a Tibetian Mystic to a …..VEDDY VEDDY TALL BRITISH WOMAN!

Tilda-Swinton-007

TFP’s head swung around so fast, it knocked the anesthesia right out of her bloody jaw.

What’s that, you say? Tilda Swinton? Tilda, the Snow Queen Swinton?

swinton-narnia

Tilda the Irish, English, Scottish heritaged woman is now going to portray a female monk of Tibet who is 500 years old?

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Does aging that long wash out your skin, cause extreme bone growth and drain the pigment from your eyes and hair? Are we now to believe that Tilda is the Tibetian version of a “White Walker” and can only be stopped from this absolute travesty of cinematic White Washing by something called Dragon Glass? Or by taking away her ‘back end’ recouping?

Does Tilda Swinton think she would make a fetching and convincing Tibetian Ancient One?

Now some may argue that it is positive to re-imagine a role with a female, that was originally written for a male – and that IS true. Not as simple though, because you are swapping one underrepresented group in a role that was written for them with a group that while underrepresented as a whole, has more than the first group. Oh let’s cut to the chase – there are more Caucasian Women on our big screens than Asian Men, ok?

TFP supposes that MARVEL is going to hit us all with some immediately created back story about Caucasian travelers in Tibet over 500 years ago, one of whom who happened to be pregnant and gave birth to a tall Caucasian daughter who they instantly turned over to the Monks because the Parents conveniently for the story die in an avalanche leaving the child to the mercy of the monks who raise her as their own….

But not acknowledging the real and actual place that is Tibet when you are casting, is horrific in terms of Asian or Asian American representation on the big screen. Asian and Asian Americans who, in point of fact, buy comic books because as we all know, APIs have the HIGHEST disposable income of any particular ‘group’ within the United States of America.

tumblr_n1cs74fr1g1qzqoygo1_r1_400

Bar none.

We have, here in America, Actresses that are fully capable of embracing this role and of course, Internationally, there are even more Asian Actresses that are fully capable of portraying a native of Tibet – some even have a fan base to rival Chow Young Fat!

Instead of appealing to an International Audience, which is financially viable, the good Execs at MARVEL have white washed this role because as everyone knows….Asian people cannot be super heroes because, well NO GOOD REASON, just that they wanted Tilda Swinton and thought no one would notice.

How could they get it so right with AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. and so wrong with Dr. Strange? Isn’t it the same company?

Honestly, it was probably some executive that has noticed her past performances and thought, “She could totes be some mystic’ without recalling that the Mystic is a native of Tibet. (TFP definitely thinks ‘totes’ was in the thought and the casting memo)

TFP cries FOUL on MARVEL Comics, and honestly FOUL on Tilda Swinton, because you see, Ms. Swinton is an advocate of all sorts of causes, one being EDUCATION, and in supporting EDUCATION, one imagines that she herself sees the value in learning, and in the course of learning, one reads and is taught to read maps.

In reading maps, one begins conversations about the peoples who dwell on the places represented by those maps and it enhances the quality of one’s education to culturally broaden oneself, does it not? And by reading those maps herself, or even if she is only raising money to help others learn to do it, she very VEDDY easily could have learned WHERE Tibet is and WHAT it’s Indigenous peoples look like, and being a rather lefty moral person, upon learning that, she would refuse the role.

Only, she didn’t, did she?

It cannot just be APIs railing against the dying of the light of representation, at SOME point, Caucasian Actors and Actresses have to take responsibility for accepting these roles – PARTICULARLY those who are ALREADY film stars and can obtain work WITHOUT having to take away a role from an ethnic minority.

Ethnic Minorities are vastly, vastly underrepresented on our Hollywood film-scape, and ETHNIC WOMEN? Seriously, how many times does one have to point at zero to see that in major Hollywood Action and Comic Films, the number of Asian women represented is easily counted on one hand?

TFP awards 30 slaps of the wand to MARVEL Comics and an EQUAL number to Tilda Swinton (whose work she has always admired, but who now, she will find tainted) who should have known better.

IN FACT – and here is a secret Hollywood bomb, she now feels much more kindly to Meryl Streep who sat down exactly next to TFP in a deserted screening of MICHAEL CLAYTON on a Wednesday at The Grove, not a chair between them though the theater sat about 300, and laughed and laughed at Ms. Swinton’s performance with…wait for it…Jill Clayburgh. (and some man).

TFP didn’t like Meryl Streep for a long time because of that, but she has CHANGED HER MIND!

CARRY ON WITH YOUR BAD SELF MERYL STREEP AND KEEP FOUNDING THOSE WRITING PROGRAMS!

TILDA…TFP has no words left for you and MARVEL COMICS EXCEPT

KISS MY FAN TAN FANNIE

Tags Bill Nighy, Buddhism, Casting, Chow Young Fat, Diversity, Dr. Strange, Hollywood, Marvel Comics, Morgan Freeman, Offensive Casting, Racism, Tilda Swinton, Whitewashing, Yellowface

Categories Diversity

Hip Hop Hoo…wait, what’d he say?

May 5, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess had a good day, thus far – her child has decided to become a “Potty Pirate‘!

Before he is 21 years old!

Parents of Toddlers will understand this.

But enough about poop – let’s talk about Mr. Eddie Huang.

TFP has been an active observer of Mr. Eddie Huang for a long time now – what with his book, his restaurant, and the television show that was inspired by his book.

The American Dream, right?

ABC kid moved from D.C. to Orlando, grows up in abusive household, identifies with Hip Hop music, goes to college, becomes a Lawyer, stops being a lawyer, opens a restaurant, becomes famous chef, does food based shows, writes a book, book becomes TV show. There is even a clothing line in there somewhere.

Recently though, Mr. Eddie Huang seems to be in the midst of self-imploding and TFP is observing that as well.

with, truth be told, a bit of sadness.

Mr. Eddie Huang seems bent on becoming the most hated Asian American male in America, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. He hates Fresh Off The Boat on ABC because it does not include Domestic Violence. Well, OK, but Bruthaman, you sold it to ABC as a sitcom on a Family Block Night – most situation comedies do not include beating of the children.

He talks about Hip Hop Culture and finding within it salvation, but then denigrates Black women who ask for clarification on some of his talking points.

All in all, he seems to be having a self-admitted crisis, as shown in this article from Papermag:

Huang: Let me ask you this though, how have you dealt with acceptance and success? Because I have only recently been going through it, and I feel like acceptance is kind of the worst shit because you spent your whole life being the underdog.

As TFP is reading the situation, he wants to be rich and successful, but he does not want to be seen as rich and successful, because being rich and successful means….um…. he can no longer enjoy Hip Hop?

He wants to talk and he wants people to listen to what he says, but then when they listen to what he says and they find it confusing or objectionable he is not responsible for what he said because he was not being a role model, he is an outsider!

HE DOES NOT CARE WHAT YOU THINK, WORLD, IF YOU DISAGREE WITH HIM YOU ARE A HATER!

And with “Haters’, one is able to

However, Mr. Huang is de facto a ‘celebrity’ now, so people pay attention to what is is saying, even while what he is saying is geared, essentially to promote his ‘brand’ of Bad Ass Hip Hop Restauranteur. And when you stay stupid sh*t as a ‘celebrity’, people pay attention.

So, TFP thought perhaps she should say a few things….

Mr. Eddie Huang, you are not the only API to ever like Hip Hop…

Love of Hip Hop comes in all forms

In fact before TFP fell in love with Musical Theater, she was ALL about the Hip Hop

However, loving a music and a culture is no reason to be all

TFP knows who you are. She gets your ‘brand’.

You are a guy who grew up in Orlando with Immigrant Parents who became a lawyer.

You always liked Hip Hop, and identified with that music.

You left the law and focused on creating great food.

That won you awards and attention and some food tv shows…

After which you wrote a book and sold the book to ABC.

And whilst on that journey you went from wearing a suit every day to

Very impressive to be sure – to realize that you could parlay your love and identification with Hip Hop into a branding machine. It’s made you quite a public speaker and a fortune.

But Mr. Huang, it’s time to stop being a douchebag.

Sometimes SILENCE is a good thing. Let’s role play –

REPORTER: Mr. Huang, how do you really feel?

FICTIONAL ZEN EDDIE HUANG: I feel really good, and…I have no comment.

You see? Easier than making pre-fab Ramen noodles on a hot plate!

Here’s the problems, as far as TFP can see them:

1. You are trying to sink the first API family show on television in 20 years. Not OK.

2. You are dressing down, in print, the Executives and Writers who believed enough in your story to take a chance on it – even though chances of professional failure were high. Not Ok.

3. You co-opt, in the name of love, a style and a swagger, but then you treat the people whose struggle it comes from with disregard. Especially the women. Not Ok.

If TFP‘s Korean American Husband acted like that, we would have had a visit from his Momz pretty damn quick.

TFP is not ok with this laundry you are airing.

TFP thinks you are struggling with the success of the show – and that is ok, very natural to have ‘Buyer’s Remorse”.

But save that for therapy.

TFP is thinking you need a Publicist.

APIs have the HIGHEST disposable income in America today – and you are a man that they have gotten behind. What happens when the consumers of your brand find it too hard to support you?

No one likes a guy who is rude to women. No one likes a guy that takes what most consider an opportunity for many, and trashes it for personal reasons. TFP remembers when you took on Bill O’Reilly, which is hilarious because in some regards, you are using some of his egregious habits – loudly proclaiming your right to ignore criticism, carrying on about oversensitive people and their reactions to your voice. Who does that sound like?

One supposes either way you ‘win’, if they show stays on, you get to keep cashing that check (oh yes, Children, he gets paid), and if it gets taken off the air, while you lose a check, your swagger with the Hip Hop crowd gets even bigger, because you blew up your own ‘haus’.

One question, is the Hip Hop crowd going to step up when all the APIs go away because you took down their first chance to watch an API family on TV in 20 years?

Are you fully prepared to take down a whole bunch of people with you in the name of your ‘swagger’?

Including three kids that look up to you?

You keep going this way, not even Olivia Pope could save you. (Her show is based on a real person too!)

And the rest of us? The APIs? We’ll all be

So, do YOU, Mr. Eddie Huang, of course DO YOU, no one is telling you NOT to…but Dude, do what you need to to make “doing you’ a bit happier, cuz Homes….you a bit too fortunate to be this angry.

TFP out.

Tags Constance Wu, Diversity, Eddie Huang, Fresh Off The Boat, Hudson Yang, Racism, Randall Park

Categories Diversity

Yes, Vanessa, you ARE a Feminist…. @GigiOnBroadway

March 31, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess on a daily basis gets frustrated with young women in the public eye.

She says that not because she is angry or unhappy about them being in the public eye, but because so often, they ones that wound up in the public eye at a young age have missed some supplemental education because value is placed on other things – things like singing and dancing and acting.

Don’t go crazy, it is TFP’s opinion based on observation.

While TFP knows that singing, dancing, and acting does NOT prevent one from ‘thinking the big thinks‘ – if one does not realize the value of them, those ‘big thinks‘, then one can so easily laugh them off – the collective value of the big thinks.

Case in point – FEMINISM

Now, TFP is of the opinion that every woman in the United States today is a feminist.

This is a loaded statement – and people will ‘come’ for TFP, but WHY is she saying that?

TFP says that every woman in the United States and a large portion of Western Countries are Feminists because they stand, we stand, on the backs of the women that came before. We, the Women of the World, are, as is said in The Joy Luck Club – like ‘steps through time” – one after the other. We, the Women of the United States, are afforded freedoms and choices because of Feminist principles and activists, who fought for us in the past.

With each age, women strive to come forward a bit more. Yes, we continually have to ‘prove’ ourselves – that we are smart, that we are useful, that we are good mothers, that we are ‘just as capable‘….yes, it is exhausting. This is not new, but it is a constant battle that we wage, secure in the knowledge that at least some of it, has backing in legislation.

Women today have choices now that their Grandmothers could not imagine. Some women have choices that, given where their Mother came from and how she grew up, that their MOTHER could not imagine – and that is AWESOME!

DANCE PARTY!

Which is why TFP was so disheartened to read this quote in the New York Times by Vanessa Hudgens,

who will be starring in the Broadway Revival of GIGI.

Regarding her own feminism, “I used to be on the fence about it, “she said “Just because I feel like it gets to a certain place where it almost has the reverse effect, where it is so overpowering and so aggressive that it’s like rather than just standing up for female pride and female rights, it becomes, like, “I am the man’.

Out came the giggle, like a lace fan. “But now I feel like there’s this new wave of feminists coming up that are truly about equal rights for women. I mean, Beyonce is, like, killing the game, and I love her.”

You have been ON THE FENCE about Feminism because you think it is aggressive and makes you like a man?

ON THE FENCE?

You mean that fence that they used to use to keep women from voting, keeping their wages, deciding how many children to have, deciding to pursue education, and deciding to have the ability to start a business that was not based solely on selling their vagina to the highest bidder?

THAT is the fence you were on, Miss Vanessa?

NO.

Not good enough.

Look, TFP rarely responds to young actresses speaking about Feminism – Cayley Cuoco gave a doozy of a statement when she told REDBOOK Magazine (when asked was she a Feminist)

“Is it bad if I say no? ….I cook for Ryan five nights a week and it makes me feel like a housewife; I love that”

TFP thought….

Ms. Cuoco later had to apologize because she is a multi-millionaire who has made her living in one of the most color biased and gender biased businesses in the world, a world she resides in because of an uber amount of privilege and timing…and she made the rounds spouting that age old Publicist ‘cure-all’ – ‘My words were taken out of context.’

No, they weren’t. Vanessa’s were not either. They were not taken out of context because, as is quite clear – because you have to know what the context IS, to be taken out of it. These young women of privilege and position have NO IDEA what Feminism is, and what it has given them, and so…they are talking out of their ass.

Yes, TFP said “talking out of their ass’ er…’asses’.

While TFP generally ignores things that silly women say – ONLY BECAUSE SHE KNOWS HOW MANY BRILLIANT AND SAVVY WOMEN ARE OUT THERE IN THE WORLD – she cannot ignore it when a person of Mixed race says them.

So Vanessa,

under the bus you go, because Hapas are not allowed to spout this idiocy.

There are SO FEW of us out there that EVERY time one of us gets an opportunity they have to, by default, be a role model.

Yes, it is exhausting. Yes, it is a pain in the ass. But what is so tragic is that 11 year old Hudson Yang is paying more attention to his words, as one of the stars of ABC’s FRESH OFF THE BOAT,

than you are, as one of the FIRST Hapas to be headlining a Broadway show at 26 years old!

You are a GROWN ASS WOMAN….and you should know better!

“We”, the Hapas of Broadway have the leads in ALADDIN, and YOU – that’s it.

If Nicole Scherzinger comes in with CATS, that will be FOUR.

Now and in the foreseeable future….

If we were to add the supporting roles of those in King & I, it would bring it up to SEVEN. (Much respect to Ruthie Ann Miles, Conrad Ricamora, and Ashley Park).

SIX lead roles played by people of mixed Asian descent out of 32 shows on Broadway. With a possible 7th coming in.

So no, Miss Vanessa…when we are only dealing with one out of six, one who has legions of teenage female fans, you do not get a pass when you give a quote that posits only BEYONCE as an ‘acceptable’ Feminist.

BEYONCE!

Beyonce has a great gift with a ‘lick’ and is an amazing performer, but are her songs feminist thought inspiring?

If Ya Liked It then ya Should’a Put a Ring on it?

Beyonce lives as a Feminist – she owns a business, she has her own money, she gives to charity, she is a mother, she votes , she expresses her opinions and is not mocked for them – all those things are benefits of Feminism. Yes, she lives her life as a Feminist, as all women in this country do – but her songs- they usually revolve around a man. She ‘owns’ her own sexuality, and that is a component of Feminism of course, but TFP does not really think of Crazy In Love as a rallying cry for Feminism.

No tea, no shade, no pink lemonade – it is what it is.

TFP likes Beyonce and her music – but looking for lessons of Feminism from the lyrics?

Whitney Houston, now? Madonna? Lady Gaga? Pink? Those would all be yes.

TFP is now going to tell you why, YES VANESSA…you ARE a Feminist – in case you are asked again…

1. You get to vote

in 1920 – a mere 95 years ago, via the 19th Amendment, women were allowed to vote in elections in the United States

2. You are not the property of your Father as an unmarried woman (Women’s History In America)

“During the early history of the United States, a man virtually owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions. If a poor man chose to send his children to the poorhouse, (to repay his debts) the mother was legally defenseless to object. …Equity law had a liberalizing effect upon the rights of women in the United States. For instance, a woman could sue her husband. Mississippi in 1839, followed by New York in 1848 and Massachusetts in 1854, passed laws allowing married women to own property separate from their husbands. In divorce law, however, the divorced husband kept legal control of both children and property.”

As a young woman, not only would you be the ‘property’ of your Father, you would have to turn all monies earned, if you were ‘allowed’ to work by him, you would turn it all over TO him, because your money was NOT your own.

And if your Dad was Tom Cruise…it would have been…..

3. You are not the property, should you choose to marry, of your Husband – this was ‘coverture”.

Under coverture, you would turn over any and all property to your Husband as soon as you were married – you would have no say in it’s administration or disposal, and had no legal repercussions if he mishandled the funds. Likewise in the case of a divorce, the courts would favor dispersal to the husband with a small ‘jointure’ perhaps given to the wife at the dissolution of the marriage. Maybe.

You may be familiar with this as the basic plot of DOWNTOWN ABBEY – remember? The Earl has mishandled the funds his wife brought to the marriage which saved Downtown, but cannot be passed on to Lady Mary because….you guessed it – coverture!

4. You can have a ‘line of credit’ aka “a credit card’ in your own name.

That law happened in 1974 – and it was called the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Yes, Vanessa – 1974 was when women in America could get their own credit card! Do YOU have a credit card? Then you should thank those Feminists, male and female, who worked together before you were born, to make sure you could drop into any store you like and buy whatever you want.

5. If you do get married, and you suffer spousal rape, it is now a crime. This law was passed in 1993. You may even have been born, Miss Vanessa – prior to that, if your spouse was in the mood and you weren’t, too bad.

6. You can run in the Boston Marathon…something that women could not do until 1972.

7. You have access to birth control without being subject to ‘decency laws’ or risk being thrown into jail for lewdness.

8. You can get a divorce (if you chose to get married) without having to prove anyone was ‘at fault’.

Prior to 1967, it was rather hard to get a divorce in this country because one needed ‘grounds’. Like, for example, if the Husband was beating the wife all day and night, and he didn’t want her to be able to divorce him, he could (through attorneys and the law at the time) deny that there was a ‘reason’ for the marriage to dissolve. The wife could move out of course, but legally, he was still her husband.

However, it was shockingly easy for a Husband to put aside a wife, because grounds like ‘adultery’ can be given – even if none occurred, and the court in general, found ‘for’ the Husband. Because of course, who would want to live with a cheating wife?

No Fault Divorce has many for and against – even Feminists are divided, however the fact is, if a woman or man is ‘trapped’ within an untenable situation and they want to walk away – they can.

FYI, should you be getting married any time soon whilst on Broadway, it is worth noting that New York State was the last state to ratify No Fault Divorce – in 2010.

9. You do not have to wear a religious or state sanctioned outfit that inhibits your freedom of movement – you have a right to wear whatever you want to wear. You can thank Feminists of the 1960‘s for modern inventions like the miniskirt and so forth.

10. You have the right to star on Broadway in a show about a young girl of 14 who is sold, by her Great Aunts, to an older man in his at least, late 30’s, who is then sooooo overcome by her youth and zest that he ACTUALLY MARRIES HER!

Instead of, as was the custom in the era in which the show is set, signing a contract with her Family as to how many dresses, spending money, carriages, what kind of house she was to have, what the care and feeding of any children resulting from their sexual congress would be, and which gave HIM the ability to terminate, at any time, his support of a woman who was for all intents and purposes ‘ruined’ in the eyes of society because she was no longer a virgin. Also in the contract would likely be how many times per week she was to expect to receive his ‘attentions’, and perhaps even the times with which she must wait up till, before she could make the determination that he was not coming, so she could go to bed.

After her Swain was done with her, and the contract was terminated, she would have to find another ‘protector’, as long as she still had her looks. If she was lucky, she would receive a ‘settlement’ with which she could invest, if not perhaps she would be able to get enough ‘gifts’ that she would then be able to sell as she aged and became less desirable to wealthy men. This would continue until she succumbed perhaps, to one of a host of venereal diseases while all her former lovers were married to ‘respectable’ women and had long and productive lives. She would be left in ‘genteel’ or abject poverty till her death.

That is what happened to Courtesans – if you do not believe, TFP, go and ask Fantine, she is a few theaters down from you.

That this current version of GIGI is being produced by women who have updated and changed the ages and have made this Gigi more palatable, (according to your Director, Eric Schaeffer “We had to get the perv factor out of it“), to modern tastes… is a result of Feminism.

Because….de facto – you have Women in power positions on this production, addressing concerns modern women might have with the show – which is the direct result of people laying down in marches and protests, burning their undergarments, going on hunger strikes, marching, legislating, and in general, trying to assure that you, as a 26 year old woman of today, would never have to go through what women in the past have gone through.

Do the freedoms given to you by women of the past alleviate your concerns that people might think of you as angry or aggressive?

Are there any that you would like to give back?

The reason that we are all able to stand up for ourselves and decide for ourselves is because those are rights that were won before we even got here on this planet, by Feminists, also call Suffragettes, also called Interfering Women, also a slew of derogatory names as well as ‘Too smart for their own damn good”. Not all of them were women, either.

The women of the past have paid it forward to us, and now it is our job to continue to encourage young women to embrace being Feminists, to embrace thinking, to embrace striving, not to scare them by denying what it actually is – which is equality in all things. It is striving for equality – struggles that still go on today.

If one is going to be in a show about a Prostitute…

(which, don’t get TFP wrong, Musical Theater LOVES us some Prostitutes, they get ALL the best songs!)

….who is fighting for her right to decide her own future – then does it not reason that the star of that show should EMBRACE FULLY AND COMPLETELY THE NOTION OF FEMINISM AS IT STANDS TODAY?

IS THAT NOT WHAT THIS ‘NEW’ VERSION OF GIGI IS ABOUT ACCORDING TO HEIDI THOMAS, the writer?

Women making their own choices?

You do know that the French Monks who invented Champagne by accident were actually not thinking of Happy Hookers and their Swains when they invented the bubbly beverage, right? Lerner & Lowe just made that up?

Look let’s not drag this on and on and on because here is the short list:

You are Feminist if you have ever begun, as a woman, a sentence with “Well, I think….”

You are a Feminist if you have ever stated, as a woman, “I don’t like that….”

You are a Feminist if you, as a woman, have expressed your option to not have sex with a man who requests it

You are a Feminist if you have, as a woman, encouraged a little girl to dream about her future, and dream big

Those are four VERY SIMPLE examples of how one can be a Feminist.

For equating Feminism with trying to be a man, and denying that you yourself are the recipient of the benefits of Feminism – TFP sentences you to 20 whacks with the wand, a wonderful Opening Night, and a reading of The Personal is Political by Carol Hanisch, which you should then talk about with the very brilliant Ms. Thomas with whom you work!

The next time someone asks you – and they will again, TFP would appreciate it, as a person of Mixed Asian descent and as a WOMAN if you would simply reply

“I would not be where I am today without Feminism. Next question.”

Tell ’em Hillary!

Tags Broadway, Cayley Cuoco, Diversity, Feminism, Gigi On Broadway, High School Musical, King and I, Redbook, Vannessa Hudgens, Vogue

Categories Diversity

The Road to Show Boat is Paved with…Intentions….

February 18, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess did some “Activist-ing’, she did.

Normally, she writes about productions and they are generally in a different town or somewhere where to get involved in the physical aspects of protesting, she would have to jump a plane.

Sadly though, right here in New York City, the National Asian Artists Project, has decided to do an All Asian American production of Show Boat.

Yes, this Show Boat.

At this point, everyone knows which Show Boat we are talking about – the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein classic, Show Boat, which deals with the divide between the Caucasian and African Americans Post- Civil War in the Deep South.

Show Boat is a show that, in TFP’s opinion, is not one that can be done by APIs with any sense of dignity or sense of history, or, well…sense.

In fact, if one is to do this show without the Cast as written, based on the novel where these themes – between Caucasian and African American – are not honored, it makes you appear as, well…

TFP attended this ‘talkback’ given by NAAP, to see what was going to be said.

Some pretty interesting things were said, particularly by Co-Founder Steven Eng.

Co-Founder of NAAP, Steven Eng

TFP Live Tweeted exactly what was said, but it would be tiresome to replay it all exactly

(although if you wish you can go to her Twitter account @Equill and check them out)

To sum up what was said by NAAP at this ‘open forum”, and share what TFP learned:

1. Baayork Lee is the only reason Big Name Directors will work with Asian American Performers

2. If they were to cast African Americans in Show Boat, it would not ‘serve their mission“

3. “We are not denying opportunity to Caucasians or African Americans because we were never going to cast them’ – Steven Eng

4. “We are driven by our mission…and Tommy Tune is very aware of that’ – Steven Eng

5. “I am not going to talk about Tommy’s concept (for the show) I don’t think it is fair when it is in development” – Steven Eng

6. The Rogers & Hammerstein Organization is the one that did all the intermediary legwork between the Hammerstein and Kern Estates to help approval happen, specifically Ted Chapin.

(Sidebar: If TFP were Ted Chapin, she would be a bit concerned about how often his name came up and his enthusiasm for this project was mentioned and how much he loved it so they did not have to do any of the ‘leg work’ because good Ol’ Ted Chapin was the go-between for them between the estates of Kern and Hammerstein to get this clearance. Methinks Ted Chapin may get an earful from some folks…some folks…somewhere…just sayin’) (Watch your back Ted Chapin)

7. “We will not be changing the show” – Steven Eng

8. “Tommy has been given leeway to change some things‘ – Steven Eng

9. “You have to trust us” – Steven Eng

10. One of the reasons they chose it was ‘to see if Asian Americans could do it’

11. Baayork Lee and Tommy Tune chose this show specifically because they felt other shows were ‘too easy’.

(One can only assume they meant ‘too easy to do without offending and erasing an entire people from their actual history’. That kind of ‘too easy’ )

Which made TFP and others kinda feel like:

Now, observers at home, lest you think that this meeting was unattended – it was not. In fact, prominent Musical Theater Actor, Jose Llana was one of the first to speak of his dismay.

Broadway Performer, Jose Llana

Mr. Llana wanted to know why, specifically why, this particular show was chosen – which was a question that would be asked and remain unanswered repeatedly through the evening.

Hansel Tan asked a question on everyone’s mind as well – how was this going to harm us (API Performers) in the future? Because, as he pointed out, “Nothing here in New York happens in a vacuum”

Actor, Hansel Tan

Cast Member of the Current Broadway Revival of The King & I, Marc Oka stated “It is a visceral feeling, it does not feel right….What some of us would like to tell you is of the danger of this production...’

Broadway Performer, Marc Oka

Co-Artistic Director of Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and member of the LA Ovation Committee, Chil Kong gave a blistering speech asking for the justification of this choice, and requested information that he could bring back to colleagues that are People of Color, to make them understand this, when very few in the room could understand it either.

Noted Tenor, Dillon McCartney,

who sings with The Three Irish Tenors came simply to see, as a fan of the show, what the discussion would be.

So the ‘crowd’ as it were, the crowd demanding answers, was diverse, which was heartening.

Actor, Orville Mendoza, who did not think that he was going to get up and speak, felt compelled after listening to Mr. Eng circle endlessly around the fact that yes, he knew the show was about race, but would not say why they were choosing to ignore the historical factors race played in the show to explore…well…race...but they were intending to explore race because Show Boat is all about race….

Yes, It was confusing.

Actor, Orville Mendoza

Anyway, Mr. Mendoza got up and with great respect, did say that he felt that doing a show about race where you are ignoring the race that belongs in that particular show due to historical accuracy was like “putting a hat on a hat, (because) this show already has a message”

Many views of those present were variations of thoughts expressed in the book by “Show Boat; Performing Race In An American Musical” by Todd Decker (link to purchase here) for example: “My emphasis on race rests equally on definitions of whiteness and blackness. Magnolia and Ravenal perform their whiteness every bit as much as Joe performs his blackness and any actress playing Julie must perform that character’s mixed-race identity, whatever that has meant in particular times and places.”

Show Boat is a musical where, everyone agreed, race matters and despite repeated and fervent requests from several people, a concept was never explained.

One wonders what noted journalist, Jeff Yang is going to say about this whole situation, as he took copious notes on his laptop in the back of the room. TFP is a big fan of Jeff Yang, so she will be very interested to see if he writes on this debate.

Jeff Yang aka @originalspin

After a while, TFP decided to get up and speak – she had made points before, but she wanted to go on record and reiterate why she is convinced that this production is the wrong thing to do:

1. This is not an Asian American story to tell, in any way. We were not ripped from our homelands and made to serve in the most degrading ways possible, people who believed they were superior to us based on nothing but skin tone.

2. After all the strides that have been made in getting theaters to acknowledge that they should cast APIs in roles where the writing requires an Asian Heritaged Actor, to now decide to look to another Minority group and co-opt their experiences makes us hypocrites, and weakens our advances.

3. TFP is a Person of Color within the Broadway community, being part of that community, and also a student of the Musical Theater, she could never think that her auditioning for the role of “Queenie” (which is the role she was asked to come in for) was ‘right’ in any sense of the word. Not as a student, not as a colleague, and not as an Artist – The Fairy Princess will not be playing Queenie.

4. The final point that TFP made was that the concept is offensive, but then to add insult on top of injury, NAPP has chosen as a Director, he tallest White tap dancer in the world….

and THAT was when we finally heard from Baayork Lee, who had sat (after reading a small statement in the beginning) staring blindly ahead in a chair at the front of the room and never speaking, but that was when we heard from Ms. Lee.

She yelled out “Native American, he is Native American!”

TFP apologizes to Mr. Tune for calling him Caucasian, she did not realize it was offensive.

But then TFP was curious about Mr. Tune and his Native American heritage (you may know her Father represented NA Tribes so she knows a bit more about NA issues than an ‘average’ American), and while she does not want to ‘see his tribal card’, she was curious if he had channeled his culture in his work.

Because, when one is a Person of Color…

their heritage often shows up in their work, and perhaps he felt, as a minority, he could use that to enter the minds of African Americans after the Civil War.

Maybe that was why he chose it?

Anyway, TFP was curious, and you know what it did to the …

So she took a walk on the internet and in a book called “The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical” by Warren Hoffman, (Link to purchase here) she found this passage:

“Despite the fact that Tommy Tune himself is part Native American, The Will Rogers Follies was accused of depicting Indians in a poor light. According to a letter sent by representatives from the American Indian Community House in New York,

“The life and work of one of the Cherokee Nation’s most famous citizens is currently being butchered and distorted at the Palace Theater in The Will Rogers Follies. The show is replete with racist caricatures and stereotypes; everything from a braided man in buckskin crashing a unicycle to Tommy Tune’s interpretation of Indian dance, which is more suited to an episode of Scooby-Doo than Broadway“.

They took special offense at a piece of choreography that featured an actor costumed as a Native American dancing on a drum and summed up their comments by stating “These antics are applauded and laughed at by an audience who doesn’t know any better and thinks that this Indian version of “Stepin Fetchit’ is totally acceptable…What is most hurtful about this show is that Tune, it’s director as well as it’s choreographer, is a self identified Choctaw Indian’.

TFP has many thoughts about this…but let’s get back to the meeting….

Several young NAAP devotees also arose to say these various things, here is a sampling with TFP’s reaction in green.

1. “I just moved here” (Can the Adults please smoke?)

2. I grew up in Hawaii, and we don’t have a big pool of talent in Hawaii, so everyone just plays everything, and no one cares (Cuz it is Hawaii and you were in high school, we are in NYC)

3. I’m from Japan, and yes, in Japan we do All Asian Casts, but we are not in Japan, we are in New York, and here, this would not be right to do. (Smartest Gal in the Room in her 20’s)

4. NAAP is my home, but I have a problem knowing if I can audition for this (You really don’t, you just wanted us all to look at you in case that helps you get the gig)

This went on for a while, and then a young blonde lady spoke, she seemed in her 20’s as well, and she said that this production would not bother her at all. She felt that this show would not be taking a job from her. She felt that, as an Artist, isn’t the point to be controversial?

After a few of these, “well, I don’t see why we can’t” comments, a lovely young man named Jonathan Flemings spoke,

Jonathan Flemings @JBlake212

and he quoted the show, the very first line, as originally written, and asked if Kevin (didn’t catch the last name) would say it. Kevin did not want to respond, so TFP interjected, (after he started listing his various heritages) “Are you going to say the N-word!”

Kevin stated that no, he would not use the N-word, and TFP bitchily responded, “Then you can’t do Show Boat”.

TFP can definitely be bitchy, but she does not see that as a detriment.

Anyway, by the end of the event, these things were said by Steven Eng:

1. It is too late to change the show (But they have not finished casting, so it is not, actually)

2. They are going forward with the show. (Cuz they paid for the rights & won’t admit it’s a mistake)

3. They ‘may’ talk to Tommy Tune about releasing some of his directorial vision (Which is the closest they are going to come to admitting this is a big mistake)

4. This will not be a traditional treatment of Show Boat. (Cuz APIs will be playing African Americans)

A question was then asked if the Creative Team was going to reach out to the Black Community to perhaps get a “Consultant’ to help them with issues in the script that, well, they would have absolutely no knowledge of as they are not, in fact, African American, and they said “maybe”.

TFP later learned that they approached a gentleman whose face appears on this blog posting to fill this position.

TFP has no confidence that this production will go well, despite the best of intentions by the Creative Team. She felt that the lack of real conversation, the refusal to actual listen to the voices of the Asian American Broadway Acting Community, who were present, who asked, repeatedly for them to NOT do this show, is indicative of an actual artistic problem with the vision and execution of this piece as they intend to do it.

She did speak to some of the younger folks present afterwards, who, oddly, said that they were big fans of her blog – which is curious because they still seemed eager to do Show Boat, so she wonders really if they read it, per se.

Anyway, advice is free, and that is what she gave them in passing, which she will now share here –

If you are set on this course, if you are going to be in NAAP’s Show Boat don’t put your name on the program, and do not list it on your resume. People of the Theater are all connected, in ways you cannot realize yet, and if you proudly display “Queenie” in Show Boat on your resume, people will call you on it.

They may ask how you, as an Actress prepared to be an African American post Civil War in the Deep South – and that is putting it mildly.

So go ahead…but be prepared…

Connie Wong in A CHORUS LINE will probably now be cast as an African American.

We can say nothing.

All Latino FLOWER DRUM SONG? Go right ahead. All Caucasian HERE LIES LOVE? Well sure, it’s only based on real people and events….that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?

The King and I – Susan Graham (Anna Leonowens) / Lambert Wilson (The King) © Marie-Noëlle Robert – Théâtre du Châtelet – SEE HOW STUPID THIS LOOKS?

Because we are soooooo post-racial.

Production Still: Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan’s Production of THE MIKADO

None of us see color anymore, which means of course that we obviously should not be licensed to drive.

In other words….back to the…

In Closing, TFP wants to say to the NY African American Acting Community specifically and to the larger community – no API Actor who has been on Broadway or who is currently on Broadway that she has spoken to, texted, or who emailed her in the last few days is in favor of this production.

We all see the danger and the insult in this – and there is nothing we can do. We have tried repeatedly to amend this situation, but we cannot, and we apologize, this is a rude awakening that our Asian American Acting Community as such, does not exist.

You cannot be a Community if no one is listening, can you?

However, if people would still like to try and change this situation…and why not?

Why not write to the licensing company and share your thoughts?

R&H Theatricals Amateur Theatres
Ph: (800) 400-8160
Fax: (212) 268-1245
e-mail: amtheatre@rnh.com

R&H Theatricals Professional Theatres
Ph: (212) 541-6600
Fax: (212) 568-6155
e-mail: protheatre@rnh.com

Because of course, while this is a super super bad concept to begin with, they were given permission…but you know….maybe someone will think about it and say…

In which case they could start working on the “All API Version of Grand Hotel” right away….

TFP out….

Tags Baayork Lee, Blackface, Chil Kong, Connie Wong, Dillon McCartney, Diversity, Hansel Tan, Jonathan Flemings, Jose Llana, NAAP, Nina Zoie Lamm Tommy Tune, Orville Mendoza, Rogers and Hammerstein Theatricals, Show Boat, Steven Eng, Ted Chapin, Yellowface

Categories Diversity

Small House of White-Washed Texas @dsmusicals

January 3, 2015 //

The Fairy Princess was in a good mood. She totes was. After all we are, what…three days into the new annus (no, not what you are thinking, it’s Latin) and she had obtained a much desired ticket to say farewell to the Freaks on what will be their last day as Freaks…aka closing performance of Sideshow on Broadway.

Farewell to the Freak Show…may it one day rise again

That’s right THREE ‘effin days into the New Year and guess what she was sent?

This ad for performers from Playbill.com for Dallas Summer Musicals.

Screenshot of an EPA Announcement for Casting of King and I at Dallas Summer Musicals

Read that last line please….The King and Mrs. Anna are already cast.

Rachel York and Paul Schoeffler.

Here is Rachel York in a past performance with Mel Sagrado Maghuyop as The King…

At the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia

This time, however, she is performing the role at Dallas Summer Musicals and they have chosen to go a different way entirely with The King….

Official Headshot of Paul Schoeffler

Now, The Fairy Princess wants to be clear, again, that the Actor hired to portray The King of Siam (ahem) is not responsible for his own hiring. Mr. Schoeffler was hired on the basis of having worked several times previously with Director, Glenn Casale, and on his extensive resume which includes Broadway and Regional Theater. The Fairy Princess would also like the disclose that Mr. Schoeffler and she attended the same university, Carnegie Mellon, in Pittsburgh, and that she has no doubt that he is an abled and thrilling performer.

However, he is not of Asian heritage (and yes, TFP checked, because he originally hails from Canada and there is a large amount of Eurasians in Canada) – according to Mr. Schoeffler himself, he is not, in point of fact, Asian or Asian heritaged.

Nope.

Not at all.

Emailed him directly.

He graciously answered.

TFP thanks him for that. This is not his issue.

Now for the folks who should be…

Yeah, TFP picked a BIG one, and yeah, it’s a SCHOOL BUS because it seems SOME have to go back there….

First, TFP wants you to meet the head of Dallas Summer Musicals…

Mr. Michael Jenkins, head of Dallas Summer Musicals

This is Mr. Michael Jenkins, and he is ultimately responsible for “Bringing the Best of Broadway To Ft. Worth/Dallas” as the President and Managing Director.

Now, to be fair, the shows that DSM has lined up to come in, Kinky Boots, Cinderella, Dirty Dancing, and Pippin, are all shows that have diverse casts, so it is puzzling to TFP why he would approve of a King of Siam that is not of Asian descent.

Because you see, Mr. Jenkins, just as TFP is aware that this ‘famous’ Asian American hails from Texas…

Tila Tequila…raised in Houston, TX

The Fairy Princess is also aware that The King of Siam, who is supposedly portrayed in this musical, was an actual and real person, and he looked like this:

Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua (Thai: พระบาทสมเด็จพระปรเมนทรมหามงกุฎ พระจอมเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว), or Rama IV, known in English-speaking countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851–1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country.

Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, known in English-speaking countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851–1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country.

Then again, TFP knows quite a bit about Asian Americans who live their lives ‘out loud’ as it were, but even if she does not know an enormous amount about a particular individual, or where they come from, if she is curious, she can go to the world wide internet thingy and find out where they hail from…ah Siam is now Thailand, you say?

A Thai Dancer

Whatever could it look like? Wherever could it be?

This is what a map of Thailand looks like:

See where it is? Right next to China and India? Not outrageously far either from South Korea or Japan? So odds are, if there was a King of Siam, now Thailand to be had, they would likely resemble an Asian or Asian Americans.

Lincoln Center is gonna go with this guy, Ken Watanabe….on Broadway…just sayin’

Or, let me put it to you another way – because you are a Managing Director, and those folks have to deal with numbers…you have chosen to portray a story that deals with an Asian history. You want an audience. Did you know that according to the 2010 Census, Asian and Asian American population in Dallas (which is where your theater lives) has risen by 35% to around 120,000 in Dallas County?

120,000 is a lot of potential ticket buyers.

Seems to The Fairy Princess that you would not want to insult the intelligence of those potential theater goers by showing them a Casting that they will, quite literally, not buy. As in, they will not purchase tickets.

Now, you may say, “that group does not purchase many tickets anyway’, but here is the thing – you have to cultivate an audience.

If you need tips, you could read this article outlining what Seema Sueko and the folks at The Pasadena Playhouse are doing, or you could read this article from TCG on Diversity and Inclusion or if you are unaware, ahem, take a look at this speech that TFP gave at the first LA Stage Day which deals with the issue of representation of Asian Americans on our stages:

You say right now you may not have many Asian American theater ticket buyers? Yet there is a pool of 120,000 that you could tap into? Come on Mr. Jenkins, You have to invite them by advertising to them. You have to show them that you are being sensitive, that you are embracing the new era of Broadway and the diversity of America, indeed, the diversity of Dallas County in particular.

But that is not what you did here. There is a name for what you did here, we call it “Yellowface”, and it looks, oftimes, like this:

You see, not even John Wayne can pull off Yellowface

Given the casting of an Non- Asian King in this musical, The Fairy Princess would venture to guess that you will not be getting much of the revenue from that 120,000 strong group.

In fact, they may go the other way entirely, and picket the production. Who knows? TFP has only ever been in the Dallas Airport, so she does not have her finger on the pulse there, but someone may decide that…

and then you might get some static.

The Fairy Princess does not know if this blog will reach you, but she knows that emails will, so if any of her readers would like to share their thoughts on Diversity in Casting with Mr. Jenkins, he can be reached at mjenkins@dallassummermusicals.org – an email that is publicly listed on their website and the sharing of which is in no way a violation of personal privacy.

What was that, Heather?

On to Mr. Casale…

Director Glenn Casale

Oh Sir, The Fairy Princess is perhaps most disappointed in you, in this scenario.

Perhaps it is because she attended a rather swanky party around the Holidays and met a (recently) TONY Nominated Director who shall remain nameless at this point, but who also directed The King and I regionally to great acclaim, and TFP and this Director spoke…at length. At friendly length. (Actually, that was particularly suprising to TFP given the strife she causes upon occasion)

Now, upon doing their research, that Director happened to come across this post by TFP, and between reading it, and the uproar over The Nightingale at La Jolla Playhouse, decided if they were to do The King and I, it had to be as close to authentic in the casting as possible – right down to the children.

Thus, that Director, when told by the local Casting folk that no API kids came in to audition, replied with “There is a Thai restaurant across the street from the theater, go in there and get the word out!”

The leads were cast out of New York City. The Asian American leads were found in New York City and then flown to the large regional theater in question. Imagine!

That Director was particularly happy with the Cast that they wound up with – it had Asian American faces in roles that were supposed to have Asian faces. It told a story that was set in an Asian country, about an Asian King, about, in fact, this King:

King Mongkut of Siam, now Thailand

Perhaps that is not a big deal to you, after all….you are best known for your Broadway Production of Peter Pan, and Peter Pan has that troublesome role of Tiger Lily and…wait….who did you go with for Tiger Lily….

Dana Solimando played Tiger Lily in the Broadway Production of PETER PAN directed by Glenn Casale

Hmph.

Well, that was years ago…things are different now…or at least the internet makes it a bit harder to get away with that kind of thing…unless you are working for Dallas Summer Musicals, apparently.

Mr. Casale, you may get annoyed or mad, even, or feel like…

but here’s the thing – what you are doing, by casting a Caucasian of European heritage as the King of Siam is called YELLOWFACE and it is by NO stretch of ANY imagination, ok to do.

Also, it looks stupid.

The King and I – Susan Graham (Anna Leonowens) / Lambert Wilson (The King) © Marie-Noëlle Robert – Théâtre du Châtelet – SEE HOW STUPID THIS LOOKS?

TFP realizes that you have worked with your friend, Paul Schoeffler, before, in fact, several times and you like working with him. That is great! Seriously, that kind of relationship is a beautiful thing. Working with friends when we are able is one of the great gifts of theater, it makes things easier, it makes the experience fun. TFP understands and appreciates wanting to work with friends, especially when the rehearsal schedule is down and dirty and the show runs a month.

However, working with friends just so you can sacrifice authenticity on the altar of Yellowface, held up by pillars of racism and white privilege, while burning candles of laziness and indifference, is not what theater is about.

Ever.

Perhaps you were unaware of this.

OH BUDDHA, GIVE ME THE AID OF YOUR STRENGTH AND WISDOM…and a stick to whack everyone with…OHMMMMMM

TFP realizes that her point of view, and the growing view of Diversity on our stages is one that not everyone shares, but you have, unfortunately, put yourself in this situation, and what we want you to consider is that you have an obligation to the legacy of R&H to try and get this ‘right’.

Like this –

Christiane Noll and Paul Nakauchi as Anna & The King

Not this:

Mr. Casale, would it be too much to ask you to broaden your scope and try and represent the story as intended by Hammerstein, a story that depicts not only racism, and privilege, and sexism, but also one of expanding one’s notions of what it is that they ‘absolutely know’, oh?

Perhaps you do not have a friend who is a a brilliant performer who also happens to be Asian American that would be right in the role, to you…

But if that is the case, perhaps you could remember one of the lessons of the show, which is there is pleasure in meeting new people…

Or you could just….you know…audition people in New York City. There are well over 780 AEA members who self identify as Asian American, according to Union numbers, surely within that number there is someone available who would be thrilled, in fact, journey to Texas for about 2 months.

The Cast of Fresh Off The Boat may be a bit young for The King, but who doesn’t love a road trip?

Just a thought.

It is hard, in this day of hyper awareness via internet, that ‘we’ are able to comment on upcoming productions and call people out, to a certain degree, on what some would call ‘micro-aggressions’, but to us are examples of

But come on, this is not a little thing –

So under the bus…

ya go Mr. Casale.

Cuz if you wouldn’t cast a white guy as the King of Africa….don’t cast one as the King of Siam.

And…

For the casting of a Caucasian Actor as an Asian Male, The Fairy Princess awards 30 wacks of the wand to be distributed equally between Dallas Summer Musicals and Director, Glenn Casale.

The buck stops with y’all.

Your decision is wrong, and you totally wrecked my groove for Sideshow tomorrow…

Three DAYS into the NEW YEAR…

The Fairy Princess has only ONE last thing to say….

KISS MY FAN TAN FANNIE…Y’all!

Tags Dallas Summer Musicals, Diversity, Glenn Casale, Heathers, Ken Watanabe, King and I, Michael Jenkins, Pasadena Playhouse, Rachel York, Seema Sueko, Sheldon Epps, Under the Bus, Yellowface

Categories Diversity

Congrats to the British East Asians…#TheOrphanOfZhaoRedux

October 27, 2014 //

The Fairy Princess once twittered that if Producers wanted to keep her from blogging, they should just keep her employed – and that is what has been happening. That, and, of course, a toddler who likes to break at least one major item a day and does not want to nap – ever. Apologies.

However, in the midst of this oddly timed employment, for which she is quite grateful, she did happen to catch the British East Asian’s answer to The Royal Shakespeare Company’s elimination of Asian faces in their production of The Orphan Of Zhao – done successfully here in the States with an Asian American Cast, in a joint production from A.C.T. in San Francisco, and La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. (I still have my eye on you, La Jolla….)

To borrow some of the British parlance, The Fairy Princess found their video answer to this casting debacle, absolutely smashing, and hopes that Gregory Doran and the rest of the RSC will see it and be absolutely gobsmacked at the British East Asian talent that is RIGHT THERE in his own backyard.

And thus she wanted to share this wonderful video entitled “The Orphan of Zhao Redux” and give you all a chance to see the marvelous work that happens when creative minds attack a problem and try to open eyes and minds.

Mind, it is nine minutes – but it is absolutely worth it, and if you get a minute, perhaps you will Tweet to the RSC (@TheRSC) that you have seen it, and that you wished that they would host more productions where they feature the astonishing talent of the British East Asians…particularly when the show in question is set in CHINA...or any other local where one would expect to find Asian faces.

Or even…wait for it…put them in shows where they are not defined by their race, but by their acting!

Just a thought…mull that one over.

Congratulations to my fellow Actors, and all who put this together, you were all ‘in it to win it‘, and you certainly have.

In a world where people throw things willy nilly up on the internet, with no production value or thought, The Fairy Princess was moved to see how this video speaks to the issues raised by the Casting of The Orphan of Zhao at the RSC.

She also was thrilled to meet some of the brilliant people behind this video on a recent trip to London, and hopes to get over there more, and check in with everyone – the energy of this group is fantastic.

Well Done!

Tags A.C.T., British East Asians, Casting, Daniel York, Diversity, Equality, Gregory Doran, Jennifer Lim, La Jolla Playhouse, Lucy Sheen, Racism, RSC, The Orphan of Zhao, The Orphan of Zhao Redux, The Royal Shakespeare Company

Categories Diversity

When do you ‘count’? The issue with #Yellowstone and Mixed Race People

Tomorrow, Tomorrow @Anneakikomeyers should apologize to @Chineke4Change tomorrow, it’s only a day away…

TFP would like to thank The Playbill…. @BroadwayGirlNYC and @PlaybillCarey

No Roundabout it, that is some White Noise

Let Tilda Him-a-lay-yah – The Doc is not the only thing STRANGE about this casting….

Hip Hop Hoo…wait, what’d he say?

Yes, Vanessa, you ARE a Feminist…. @GigiOnBroadway

The Road to Show Boat is Paved with…Intentions….

Small House of White-Washed Texas @dsmusicals

Congrats to the British East Asians…#TheOrphanOfZhaoRedux

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