Is any other school system in Massachusetts (other than Boston), the subject of more page one Boston Globe articles than Newton? Today, Ellen Ishkanian dives into the controversial production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (Village 14 posts here and here) at Newton North.
At a community meeting in Newton Monday night, the theater director apologized. “I’m sorry, I am so, so sorry you are feeling the anger you are feeling,” said Adam Brown, director of Theatre Ink, which staged the play over the weekend. “We blew it. I’m sorry.”
Wow, someone who admits fault. Can Adam Brown run for elected office???
Seconded. Adam Brown is a good man, a great teacher, and a great asset to Newton.
Good to see the apology from Adam Brown.
It’s worth reading the Globe article. I was particularly struck by:
… it meant watching her son make the decision to sit out auditions for something he had long looked forward to.
Chou said she and her husband, who is British, wondered why their son, a sophomore at Newton North, was not more excited about upcoming auditions for “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” a show they knew nothing about….
“Finally he said to us: ‘I’m not sure about this show, I’m not sure I’d want Ama and Agong to have to see it,’” she said, referring to his grandparents, Chou’s parents, who had recently moved to the area.
Here’s a letter Jennifer Price sent to parents and others yesterday...
Dear Newton North Community,
We want to thank many of you for attending this past weekend’s production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. We are so proud of our student’s performance and what they have learned throughout this process. As a teaching and working theatre our goal is not just to produce plays, but educate our students and staff throughout every production process. It is also always thrilling to watch the success of our students both on and off stage throughout a production.
This production of Millie has generated a robust, and sometimes very difficult but educational conversation in our community. We truly value this as well as the honest feedback we have received. As planned early on in our process we invite you to a “talk back” tonight, Monday March 17th, at 7:00PM in the Newton North Auditorium. We hope you will join us to learn more about the play and continue an open and honest conversation and further learn and share perspectives surrounding the arts and stereotypes, especially those presented in Millie. We will entertain questions and discuss the recent concerns surrounding Newton North’s production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. It is important to acknowledge up front that we recognize the concerns that have been brought forward. We appreciate the open and honest dialogue and hope that the information in this letter will help us all understand the work that has gone into this production and the teaching and learning that will continue long after this weekend.
In choosing Thoroughly Modern Millie for production we recognized early on that there are some significant challenges in regard to the stereotypes portrayed in the show. We ultimately decided to produce the work, but took deliberate steps to address these concerns directly from the onset:
Michele Leong, Director of the Human Rights Office and Charlene Beh, English Teacher at Newton North have been a helpful resource to the faculty, staff, and students involved in this production. They led the cast/crew in workshops about the stereotypes portrayed in the musical. They also were instrumental in educating the staff and students on Asian Stereotypes in the media and its impact on our society. Ms. Beh also attended a rehearsal and gave helpful feedback to the production staff. They also provided resources about Asian stereotypes that are available on the Theater Ink Website.
The students in the Asian Culture Club at North had a conversation with the director, producer and department head in which they voiced some of their concerns and suggestions.
We reached out to Music Theatre International, the company that owns the rights to Millie to see if a high school edition was available. Unfortunately, it was not and although we did explore changes to the script we knew in the end this was not possible due to our contract/agreement with MTI. From our agreement: “Any changes violate the authors’ rights under federal copyright law. Without prior permission from MTI, your actions may subject you to liability – not only to the authors, but also to us – for breaching the terms of your license agreement, which clearly forbids you to make any changes or deletions.”
Our Director worked with the cast daily making sure the characters in question were developed with integrity and care throughout the process while understanding the issues they presented.
The program includes a Production note that addresses the concerns surrounding Asian stereotypes. That note is attached.
Adam Brown, Director of Theatre Ink, in his opening words to the audience at each production made a statement about the stereotypes in Millie and invited the audience to read the production note, as well as invited them to our talk back on March 17th at 7:00PM.
We do understand that we did not anticipate the magnitude of feelings that the play would elicit. Even as educated artists and teachers we also learn and grow in situations like this. Future selections will go through more scrutiny and we will look at issues with a keener eye. We do apologize for the impact that this has caused and may cause members of our community.
Even with these steps in place, we acknowledge that for some it may not be enough. It is our sincere hope that this production is one of both artistic integrity and one where significant learning has occurred. It certainly was never and is never our intent to offend members of our school or Newton community.
Theatre Ink prides itself on being “Newton North’s Teaching and Working Theatre.” The process of producing this show, and the thoughtful and sometimes challenging dialogue it has generated among staff, students, and the broader Newton community, exemplifies the program’s commitment to explore, critique, and interpret how the human experience is conveyed through the arts. As the curtain went up this past weekend we brought the constructive conversation and learning process that our school community has engaged in over these past few months to an audience of students, parents, and community members. We hope that you will choose to participate in it with the same appetite for learning that we have seen in our students – a genuine desire to understand our differences, our history, and ourselves.
Thank you, as always, for being our partners in this process. We hope to see you this evening.
Sincerely,
Todd R. Young Adam Brown Jennifer Price
Chair, NNHS FPA Department Director, Theatre Ink Principal
To me, the above quote is really important. No Newton student should have to decide not to try out for a play because they would be ashamed for their family to see it.
This is just another example of highly educated liberal teachers who have absolutely no common sense. It’s all right to do the play because the school used it as a “teaching opportunity.” Yes, but the audience wasn’t in on the “teaching” aspect of it. With 14% of Newton’s pupils being Asian, no one thought about the consequences? What’s next? A third of Newton is Jewish, will the High School be putting on a Nazi play next?
Former Newton Alderman Greer Tan Swiston wrote this for Wicked Local Newton
Forgive my insensitivity but I am still trying to figure out what is so darned offensive.
Mrs. Meers is a caucasian woman masquerading as an Asian. The person we love to hate is the white woman, not the Asian woman. The fact that she masquerades as a caricature leads us to dislike HER not the Asian that she is pretending to be. The fact that she is a despicable caucasian (as opposed to an Asian) is quite clear.
One of the “bumbling” Asian men actually ends up being the hero of the show, saving Miss Dorothy from being sold into white slavery. The romance between the Asian man and Caucasian woman is feted, not played down. The “bumbling” Asian wins the beautiful girl, not the Caucasian millionaire, because of his brave and kind heart.
The other “bumbling” Asian makes it clear that he has one purpose in mind: to bring his mother to the United States. Many immigrants did many things – good, bad, legal, illegal – to do the same. It is a period piece.
The language was authentic, not made up words (An Asian friend confirmed that for me).
Go ahead – jump down my throat, folks.
DanZee — They unfortunately blew a good chance to do “The Producers”. Mel Brooks wanted the play called “Springtime for Hitler”. Sorry, this is disturbing. Only in Newton
@Nativenewtonian
I am an alumnus of Newton North and an Asian American. I actually did not find the play to be overtly offensive and thought it was very well done. I do, however, have a huge problem with your comment. Let me give you an example:
Would people in you and (Newton) find it offensive if the play involved Mrs. Meers as a Christian and was masquerading as a stereotypical Jewish person (with a big nose, cheap/money grubbler, and a yamaka)? Or if this was any other minority religion/race, (Latino with a sombrero and eating tacos)?
The fact is the play portrayed extreme negative stereotypes that was sanctioned by Newton North is the reason why people are in an uproar.
P.S. The language may have been authentic, but they used Cantonese for speaking and Mandarin during the singing.
Again, I thought it was an excellent play and the cast did a wonderful job. I just have a problem with your comment.
NNHS, It is absolutely your right to have a problem with my comment, though I completely stand by it. My question to you is…would YOU find it funny if Jews, Blacks, LGBT’s are portrayed in stereotypes? Bet you would! Happens all the time. How cleansed do we want to be? Shall we rewrite history? This production was done sensitively, and well. Kudos to NNHS, Theatre Ink, Brown, and Jennifer Price. Another great show!
So according to the Boston Globe – Brookline rewrote the Play as not to offend the Asian community. I am trying to understand how Brookline thinks by rewriting it to be South American part rather then Asian didn’t just change the stereotype from one group to another?
I would NOT find it funny if jews, black or LBGT were portrayed in negative stereotypes… I don’t think I indicated in my previous comment that I would? It seems you would, which is the problem why “it occurs all the time”.
I don’t want to rewrite history? I don’t really know how to comment your reaction. I never said the play shouldn’t have been shown… I never said this was an atrocity… In fact, I agreed with you that everyone involved in this play put on a fantastic performance.
Though, I did not find it offensive, I cannot speak for the entire Asian community in Newton. But I can definitely see why some people would find it offensive. I was just highlighting the fact that if this play highlighted another minority (Jewish community) this would most likely evoke a similar reaction from the Jewish community. Would you agree?
When recently Pres Obama did a skit as part of an on-line “Between Two Ferns” parody situation, he from any less mature society presented himself as a wet rag reaching for attention. We’re better with mature parody stuff. Just look at Fox News
I look at Millie as a period piece and as a piece of the history of American Musical Theatre genre. However, its interesting… I was about to say that if a musical were written today that portrayed terribly offensive stereotypes, I would find it inappropriate. However, NNHS, have you seen Book of Mormon? That’s pretty darned offensive to Mormons and Africans, yet it is an award winner. Legally Blonde certainly boasts stereotypical gays. Yet, it is a popular show, and the NNHS community embraced it with 4 sold out shows 2 years ago. Where do we draw the line on art?
I couldn’t tell you where the line is drawn, I am not an expert in arts and theater nor am I an expert in human rights. This day and age, the line is blurred when it comes to over-sensitivity and offensive in nature.
Again, I was not offended by the performance and this is speaking from someone who did experience stereotypes and racism during my four years at NNHS.
The reason why I disagreed with your original post was the fact that you failed to mention anything involving the negative stereotypes that were associated with each character, that is the main reason why many people found it offensive.
I’m surprised to find (thanks, Google) that the original source for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” is apparently the 1967 film. The Broadway play was adapted from the film in 2000. So the stereotypes in the play, although set in 1922, do not simply reflect the fact that it was written in benighted times – I think most people had become sensitive to Asian stereotypes by 2000, if not by 1967. Were there protests on Broadway at the time? The people responsible for the play seem to still be alive – perhaps some of this anger should be directed their way.
I’m curious how (as mentioned in the Globe article) the Dalton School, and Brookline High were able to re-write the play to eliminate the offensive stereotypes and NNHS was not. The article states that Dalton had permission; it does not state that Brookline had permission. But NNHS, in the principal’s letter, says they could not get this permission (because they asked after signing the contract?). Perhaps the rights holders should have some consistency here and consider offering a “sanitized” version for schools.
NNHS should have thought this through before signing a contract, but if the Globe really wants to delve into this instead of skating on the surface, they should talk to those responsible for writing the script and managing the rights to it.
Brookline High School put on the same play and there was no uproar there. And they did not rewrite the Asian characterizations. No one objected.
This reminds me very much of the conversations had in English classes all over America every time Huckleberry Finn appears on the syllabus. We had a similar conversation when I went through Newton North, and as a class we decided that whenever we were reading passages of the book out loud in class, we would keep all of Twain’s original language. That meant using the N-word, which none of us were comfortable with, but it did afford us all opportunities to discuss the damage that word, and the stereotypes and hatred attached to it, and why although the times we live in now are brighter and less ignorant, we shouldn’t bury and forget where we came from to get to this place we are now; as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, we run the risk of repeating the history we forget about.
I didn’t see the play, and had actually not heard of it before this controversy, but I did participate in Theatre Ink all four years I was at Newton North and I know Adam Brown and Michele Leong very well. Neither of them would have treated the material lightly, and I firmly believe a part of the reason the piece was selected was to provide the type of teaching that I had in my English class with Huck Finn: sometimes uncomfortable, but ultimately enlightening.
Here’s another example: in my senior year I was in “The Laramie Project”, which dealt with the story of Matthew Shepard, the young man who was murdered in Wyoming for being gay. It was an ensemble show so we all played multiple roles, and one of the roles I played was one of the men who beat Matthew to death. My character was a nasty piece of work, but the point of the character was not to hold him up as a role model, the point was to shine a light on how ugly and wrong that type of thinking was.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I empathize with those who were offended by the material. No one should ever feel isolated or dehumanized because of a work of theater, and I particularly feel for the student who elected not to audition because it was a show he felt as though his relatives would be ashamed to see him in; however, sometimes works of art are designed to make people feel uncomfortable, and to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves hard questions about their beliefs and stereotypes. Theater Ink is “working and teaching” theater, and sometimes learning is painful. Hopefully the students who participated in the show grew from the experience, and Mr. Brown isn’t afraid to keep doing challenging shows in the future.
@ Concerned Mom:
More than one Globe article has said that Brookline HS did change the play – the woman pretending to be Chinese was instead pretending to be a woman from the US south. Are you saying this is incorrect?
The latest Globe article on this issue can be found here: http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/03/19/thoroughly-modern-millie-dustup-could-chill-high-school-productions/bWxr2wcrxlurFm7vkKjWbI/story.html
This article points out that the play is of relatively recent origin (2000) but still no one is asking why other schools were able to make changes but Newton North could not get permission to do so.
@Bruce: At the meeting on Monday and in the letter from the Department of Fine Arts, they say they contacted MTI to see if there was a “high school version” available. They then state that unfortunately, there was not. I do not know if they tried to get permission to do so.