Just about the story line...
The musical is bases off a book written by Jeff Whitty. His inspiration was Sesame Street. He takes the basic ideas of Sesame Street by basing the character after those on the show (although more controversial), setting it on a street (although this one is rundown), and brings, for the first time, puppets and onstage actors together for the audience. Both the live characters and puppet characters sing, and short animated video clips are played as part of the story. The production is so controversial because it deals with real life lesson about homosexuality, race, and sex. These topics combined make it an adult rated puppet show, so mush so they are required to make a claim about how it is not affiliated with PBS by any means.
This is very interesting to me; the use of a childish characters or props (puppets) but applied to adults. We post a lot about comedians and the use of race as jokes. How it is okay to laugh sometimes and how it is not other times. I think by taking topics that are difficult to talk about and using something such as comedy or theatre we can look at them and really see how they affect our society. I think that theatre is an especially interesting way of adapting what is happening at large in society and bring it down to size for an audience. It shows the audience they too can actually relate; although, they might think that problems with racism, homosexuality, and the like exist outside their realm. By bringing it closer to the everyday level people experience the moral of the story and maybe even reflect on their own ideas about the topic discusses.
We talked about the song everyone is a little racist so I just wanted to post a clip on the blog so everyone could hear a little of it.
It's at the Fox this weekend if anyone is interested in seeing it.
Thanks for posting this clip. It was enjoyable and mind-opening.
ReplyDeleteI think the message of the song is really true. Even though I hate to admit it, I sometimes do have thoughts that would be considered racist. Walking down the street, if I see a black guy looking a little thuggish, I would automatically think "Ok, I should keep my distance." Or when a see a preppy white girl talking in that "Like, O my gosh..." tone, I would think "that's the typical blonde airhead."
I think the fact that a lot of people don't realize or want to admit that they are racist (which I was and still am one of them) because it sounds negative creates a big problem. People can't change if they don't even acknowledge that they may need to change.
This musical makes it easier for us (for me at least) to acknowledge our racist thoughts. It reassures us that we are not the only ones and that it is ok to admit it. By doing, it may open up a much needed dialogue about race in America.
I agree with what Thoa said. I think that everyone, at some point in their life has had some sort of racist thoughts. Although I don't like to admit it either, there are times when I think that I am somewhat racist. For example, every time DPS sends an email out about an occurrence on campus, the description is given as a black young male of average body weight. What impression does this give individuals that go to SLU? I do tend to get nervous if I see someone "thuggish" walking around campus late at night, but honestly, I think that had every single description of a perpetrator not fit this description, it wouldn't have affected me so much. I think that although plays such as Avenue Q may be controversial, they do, in fact, open our eyes to concepts of race and acknowledge that these issues are out there. Instead of ignoring them, I think that it is good that this play has brought them into the light and given them a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw the play on Friday night, and I must say that I was quite impressed with the show in general. It addressed many of the societal issues that we have discussed in class and that we are encountering every day in our lives. That particular song is very poignant because it is very true, because at the heart at all people is a little bit of a racist tendency, or some kind of -ism that tends to bother them. Part of this is due, I feel, in part to our culture and its tendency to allow a little bit to slip by and chalk it up to human nature. we have to always be vigilant and fight our natural classist tendencies.
ReplyDelete