The Diary Of Anne Frank

[sid]

I was in my car today and listening to a station that broadcasts classical music. I then heard an announcement that a local theater was going to put on this play next week and "it will feature a multicultural cast." Anne Frank will be black.

Now they are changing history. Is this sort of crap ever going to stop?

[Fred Pillot]

Well maybe Anne Frank was one of the Ethiopian Jews.

[blackhawknj]

And if someone put on a production of "Porgy and Bess" with an all-white cast.....?

[togor]

"Hamilton" seemed to be a big hit. Not sure what the problem is here. Art is about interpretation.

For oil paintings, do guys here stick strictly to portaits of people in powdered wigs and plates of fruit?

[clintonhater]

And if someone put on a production of "Porgy and Bess" with an all-white cast.....?

It could never happen--when the first ad appeared, the theatre would be fire bombed.

[JB White]

If it doesn't matter, then why couldn't I play the part of Chicken George in Roots? They said I wasn't tall enough but I didn't believe them.

[clintonhater]

Not sure what the problem is here.

Seriously? Then you have a problem. Anne Frank's story isn't "art," it's history.

Hamilton was a hit because, & only because, the hip-hop travesty it made of American history.

[togor]

History and art can't blend? You're really proposing to put a FOR WHITES ONLY sign on the casting call? Maybe it's a mixed troupe that know a great story when they see it. It's not like they're turning it into "Springtime for Hitler". I suspect the Nazis will stay the villains in their production, same as everyone else.

[clintonhater]

You're really proposing to put a FOR WHITES ONLY sign on the casting call?

Let's just say exactly the reverse of the casting call for Porgy & Bess; which, being sheer fiction, could be done without making a mockery of historical facts.

[togor]

Let's just say exactly the reverse of the casting call for Porgy & Bess; which, being sheer fiction, could be done without making a mockery of historical facts.

By your logic only Dutch Jews are allowed to put the play on, and then only in Dutch to get the mood right. Anything else is a step down the slippery slope of "interpretation", and God Knows we can't have that. Even worse, Anne herself was gassed by the SS before she could finish the script, so they had to bring Goodrich and Hackett from Hollywood to bail her out.

It's a dramatization, a stage play, based on a diary. It's not a reenactment. Let the story be told by whoever wants to tell it.

[blackhawknj]

And if someone were to interpret and present a la "Der Stuermer", showing the Frank family in a negative way...after it's just a story.

[clintonhater]

By your logic only Dutch Jews are allowed to put the play on, and then only in Dutch to get the mood right. Anything else is a step down the slippery slope of "interpretation", and God Knows we can't have that.

Not mine or anyone's logic, but rather a ridiculous, extremist, distortion of a reasonable adherence to historical facts & common sense. Equivalent to saying that if you're bigoted enough to object to a non-white playing the role of, say, Lincoln, in a historical drama or movie, then, in order to be "logical," the actor would have to have grown up in Illinois splitting rails.

How 'bout a blond white man playing the role of the arch-demagogue in "Selma"? You think that would constitute an "artistic interpretation" of the events on which this movie was supposedly based?

[blackhawknj]

So having white actors play roles in "blackface" or "yellowface" is acceptable so long as they play the part seriously ? Having someone who is way too short play Lincoln is acceptable so long as he "channels" Lincoln's character ?

[Vern Humphrey]

Guys, don't feed the troll.

[togor]

India has the greatest number of English speakers on the planet. Are the plays of Shakespeare nonetheless off limits?

Casting across type is a thing. Sometimes it's a disaster, but sometimes it's inspired. The individual performance has a lot to do with it.

Anne was an Ashkenazi Jew, a people who have a long and proud history of supporting civil rights, born from centuries of oppression in Europe. A black woman for reasons of her own experience may better be able to channel Anne's growing sense of bewilderment at a fate impressed upon her than say a white woman of patrician breeding who may more look the part. American Jews in the audience are unlikely to be bothered by the casting choice for reasons of skin color.

Is the objection here about cultural appropriation? Because blacks have complained about that for years. If blacks played only the Nazis would that be OK?