{"id":2362,"date":"2015-10-01T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=2362"},"modified":"2015-10-01T08:00:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:00:33","slug":"drama-students-react-to-assassins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2015\/10\/01\/drama-students-react-to-assassins\/","title":{"rendered":"Drama students react to ‘Assassins’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LAURA HUMBLE – ARTS & LEISURE EDITOR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, DramaCentre announced they will produce Stephen Sondheim\u2019s Assassins <\/em>as the spring term musical.<\/p>\n

Assassins<\/em> depicts the group of men and women who have either successfully assassinated or unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate former presidents of the United States. The show opened off Broadway in 1990, and, after an extensive script revision, opened on Broadway in 2004. It went on to receive five Tony awards.<\/p>\n

Because they are so expensive to produce, Centre only puts on one musical every four academic years (the last one being Drood<\/em> in the spring of 2012). As such, the announcement of this upcoming musical was highly anticipated.<\/p>\n

There are several noteworthy reasons as to why students are particularly excited about the choice of Assassins<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSondheim is very reputable,\u201d one student said (students were assured of anonymity so they would feel comfortable talking to members of t<\/em>he Cento <\/em>about this issue). \u201cFrom what I hear, this show is interesting and eye-grabbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s one of Sondheim\u2019s best musicals. I\u2019m really excited about it,\u201d another student said. \u201cI have no idea how they\u2019re going to do it and that interests me a lot. It\u2019s especially interesting because we have an election coming up, and this musical is hypercritical of the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never heard of it before,\u201d a third student said. \u201cBut this is what professors are supposed to do: explore things that aren\u2019t necessarily mainstream. I know it\u2019s going to be an incredible experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a reason that it was chosen. I think part of it was that it is a really interesting play and has beautiful music,\u201d another student said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good choice because it\u2019s an interesting production. It tells interesting stories and tells them well.\u201d<\/p>\n

All across the board, students are excited about Charles T. Hazelrigg Professor of Dramatic Arts, Dr. Patrick Kagan-Moore\u2019s interpretation of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrick doesn\u2019t like musicals, so when he\u2019s going to want to pick a musical, he wants to pick something with meat,\u201d a student said. \u201cThe last time Patrick did a musical\u2026 everyone loved it. History might repeat itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew [Hallock] is an expert in Sondheim, and Patrick is a great director. I have confidence that it will be well done,\u201d another student said.<\/p>\n

Despite these visionaries at the helm, student still have their doubts about the choice. Reactions by students in the drama department have been mixed since the production was announced last spring.<\/p>\n

The main source of the controversy involves the casting:\u00a0Assassins<\/em>\u00a0typically features a very heavily male cast. Of a cast of 13 notable characters, only three of them are women. Thus, there is not much opportunity for an onstage representation of strong female characters, a criticism that has been brought up in past DramaCentre productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Sondheim fan, so I recognize that Assassins<\/em> is a very audience-friendly musical. It\u2019s very entertaining; you can learn something\u2026 That being said, I find for a school of this size and with a drama department that is made up like ours, it is a bit of an odd choice, but not a terrible choice. It\u2019s a musical that is not too terribly difficult, but gender-wise, I don\u2019t think it reflects the department as it stands,\u201d a student said.<\/p>\n

In the current drama department, of the students who have declared, there are nine majors\u2014three women and five men. There are five minors, all of whom are women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish that [Assassins<\/em>] had more parts for women because when a large part of the students that participate in the dramatic program, especially on the acting side, are women, and you have one opportunity to be in a musical production, it\u2019s disheartening when that opportunity is limited,\u201d another student said. \u201cIt\u2019s also a very androcentric play. Most of the complex characters in it are men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presumably, many characters in the show will have to be \u201cgender bent,\u201d meaning that characters originally written as men will be played by female actors in the DramaCentre production. This practice does allow for more women to take part in the production, but it does not wholly fix the problem. There is a remarkable absence of complex female characters on stage. This is an undeniable fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the department is conscious of casting women, they still choose plays prominently inhabited by men. The women they cast don\u2019t get the opportunity to portray complex women on stage. They have to take on men and that\u2019s not fair to them as artists,\u201d a student said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s wrong to ask for a more conscious effort to be made in the consideration [of choosing a production],\u201d another student said.<\/p>\n

This same student wishes to clarify that he or she does not feel this is in any way a conscious failing of the drama professors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never think of it as malicious. They\u2019re never trying to keep women in this department from shining,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n

This issue of a lack of complex female characters mirrors a larger, global issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cConversations like this are happening all over the world of playwriting and theatre about the lack of female playwrights and how that affects the dearth of the lack of women on stage. I think the conversations at Centre reflect a broader trend and concern in the world of theatre,\u201d one student said.<\/p>\n

Thus, this is in no way solely a failing at Centre, but a reflection of a much larger issue in the world of contemporary theatre that should be remedied. Until it is, however, drama programs and theatre companies will have to combat these issues internally.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor students who have issues with the way that things are being handled or feel that there\u2019s a disparity\u2014go and talk with the professors, they want to know your concerns,\u201d a student said.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the drama faculty declined to provide\u00a0comment on this issue.<\/p>\n

Despite reluctances from some students in the dramatic arts program, not one has any doubt that the spring musical will be a vibrant and engaging spectacle, towards which we all will look forward to seeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LAURA HUMBLE – ARTS & LEISURE EDITOR Earlier this year, DramaCentre announced they will produce Stephen Sondheim\u2019s Assassins as the spring term musical. Assassins depicts the group of men and women who have either successfully assassinated or unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate former presidents of the United States. The show opened off Broadway in 1990, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-leisure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}