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Have plays cast in predominantly black, Asian performers, etc.


shootingstar

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For each of Shakespeare's plays instead. Every culture has a centuries old Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, the king plays  (which I  never cared for. Too  much effort for me to figure out political games underneath all that archaic language), Hamlet, etc.

Love, respect treachery/betrayal, satire, etc. is international for an English speaking audience and for anyone with a Western education/schooled on some British literary classics. There are now ALOT of English speaking folks with drama training that would fit the bill in the 21st century.

To cancel or not to cancel Shakespeare? Meet the English professor flipping the script on the Bard | CBC News

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I'm asking questions, yet people who don't even care about Shakespeare most the time in the area of the arts  (because they like other types of drama), suddenly get all upset with my suggestion in thread.:whistle:  Then they should stand back, and let the talent rise to the stage.

In Japan a non-verbal "King Lear".....which to me, seems so Japanese with their traditions of Noh and other highly stylized performance theatre where there is alot of symbolism,  movement. I'm not sure I would enjoy a non-verbal "King Lear".

Nonverbal "King Lear" Review - Conflict in Visuals, Sounds, and Imaginations - The Theatre Times

In Toronto, an interpretation of "The Tempest":  Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" Explores Colonialism, Resistance and Liberation - The Theatre Times

Last winter, at the Studio Theatre at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, Canadian actor Antoine Yared played Caliban in The Tempest. He stood, centre stage, looking out over the audience as he reassured his companions that the magic music of the island should not frighten them. He said:

“The isle is full of noises … that give delight and hurt not.”

But his face told the audience a different story — the story of a man heartbroken for what had been taken from him.

We chose Shakespeare’s The Tempest as the centrepiece for our “Playing for Free” workshop because the play has been entangled with the history of slavery and freedom in the west for over 400 years.

The Tempest tells the story of the Duke of Milan, Prospero, who many years before had come to the island with his infant daughter. Upon arriving, Prospero enslaved two of its inhabitants, Caliban and the spirit Ariel. The play follows three interconnecting plotlines: Prospero’s revenge plan against his enemies; how his daughter, Miranda, falls in love with the son of his chief enemy; and how Caliban plans to destroy Prospero and take back the island.

Many consider the play an allegory of European colonization, and throughout the centuries, Caliban’s character has featured prominently in arguments that defend or resist against colonialist tyranny.

The Tempest has also been interpreted as an allegory of liberation. The 20th-century writer Roberto Fernández Retamar declared that the insurgent Caliban spoke for the colonized peoples of the Americas. In 1993, a production by Robert Lepage in Montréal portrayed Caliban as a working-class punk-rocker in open rebellion against the elite Prospero.

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8 hours ago, shootingstar said:

For each of Shakespeare's plays instead. Every culture has a centuries old Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, the king plays  (which I  never cared for. Too  much effort for me to figure out political games underneath all that archaic language), Hamlet, etc.

Love, respect treachery/betrayal, satire, etc. is international for an English speaking audience and for anyone with a Western education/schooled on some British literary classics. There are now ALOT of English speaking folks with drama training that would fit the bill in the 21st century.

To cancel or not to cancel Shakespeare? Meet the English professor flipping the script on the Bard | CBC News

There are a lot of Old Greek and Shakespearean plays and Biblical stories that feature Black actors playing White parts, unfortunately not many feature Asians.

On the other hand, there's Aladdin - who's White in the old movies but Chinese in the original Tales of Scheherazade.

My father loved Charlie Chan detective movies.  When I was a kid and I'd do something clever, my White Dad would say Charlie's line, "Pretty smart, us Chinese."

Of course, actor Warner Oland was White and, I think, so was the actor who played "Number One Son" - but they should remake the movies today without the slapstick stereotype scenes.

Warner Oland.jpg

 

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We're in a transition period.  As the world slowly becomes more "mutt", each generation is going to scratch their heads at the prior ones, and move on.  Even today, like in Wilburs example, many folks just want the best actor playing the role, not the one that matches the original intent. 

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