[NEohioPAL]A Word on the Unrinetown mess

Wed Nov 8 11:35:51 PST 2006

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Here is why I'm opposed to High Schoolers and 8th graders doing Urinetown:
You are far too immature.  Those of us involved in shaping young minds must be unified in our thinking here.  It does you kids no service to mix our messages. 
This is a world where children singing the word 'pee' is not ok, but an unconstitutional school funding system is just hunky dory.  Don't ask. 
As everyone knows, you kids don't read newspapers, have no ability to rationalize and form opinions of your own.  Lord knows you never have to make sense of really difficult stuff like pregnancy, suicide, poverty and the like. You just care about your ipods, prom dates and wardrobes.  
Far safer to do a light musical like 'Oklahoma', about a wholesome white guy who gets the girl (granted by doing battle with a contender who masturbates to photos of naked women and kills people for fun...but we'll just cut that stuff out of the 'kiddie' version, because the writing isn't important), or even 'Chicago' which has such kid-friendly themes as adultery, murder, racism and even makes references to everyone's favorite people: homosexuals.  (ARHGHGGHGHGH!)
I might also suggest the perennial favorite "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" which spares young people the threat of being exposed to good writing in the theatre.  Better to give you a hot guy in a loin cloth then a lesson in authenticity in art.  
Urinetown?!? You've gotta be kidding?  What is the world coming to?  Teaching kids lessons in corporate corruption, the dangers of ideolotry, environmental sustainablity....and let's not even get into the influence of that troublemaker Bertolt Brecht!
For as we all know, the purpose of theatre in education is not to enhance creativity, expand and enrich knowlege of the world, foster an appreciation for craft, collaboration and community, and it most certainly isn't to engage students in a thoughtful way around the forces that shape thier lives. 
It also isn't there to entertain in any real sense of the word.  I was teaching a class once where the subject was some of the very same musicals folks would 'rather see kids do than Urinetown'. Shows like Cats.  or Annie.  I made the point that a lot of people really like those shows, and that's why we should do them.  Because they are popular.  It's all about pop-u-lar. 
One kid piped up (an 8th grader, no less) and said "No, people just THINK they like those shows."  
How rude of him to say.  
Doesn't matter that he's probably poignantly correct.  
Speaking of which, even though I'm dead opposed to this heathen production, I still would like to be added to whatever mailing list I need to get ticket information, dates, times, etc... Not that I plan on supporting this nonsense....;)
JT Buck
Arts Director
Home: For the Arts
Akron, OH
<A href="http://www.homeforthearts.com">www.homeforthearts.com</A>
  
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