The Danger of a Single Story

This is fantastic. Hat tip to Mary for the link.

Life is Alright in A-me-ri-ca. . .If You Are White in America

The Broadway fairies were good to us - tickets for West Side Story were indeed available at TKTS yesterday, so Sarah, Rob, and I went to see it last night. It was awesome. The dancing was incredible. The set design was fantastic and creative. The cast was top notch (although - oddly - Tony and Maria each sounded fine on their own, they sounded fine when singing with other people, but when they sang duets with each other, they did not sound good at all - it was weird).

This revival has the Puerto Ricans speaking in Spanish the majority of the time that they are among their "own kind," and also often singing in Spanish. Sarah didn't care for this directive choice at all (though she speaks fluent Spanish and could follow what they were saying and singing). I know only a smattering of Spanish vocab, and thus couldn't understand what they were saying 99% of the time, but it didn't bother me as much - I can see how it would make sense, it's what 1st generation immigrants often do when among their fellow immigrants. And I'm familiar enough with the music to know what the songs were about in English, but it still did change the experience to not be able to understand what was being sung. I suppose the effect they were going for - aside from the realism - was to alienate English-only audience members to the same degree that the PRs are alienated in the play.

On a similar note - I did notice right away that the words to "America" were different than what I know them to be. I am most familiar with the movie soundtrack, which I listen to pretty regularly, and which casts "America" as the girl Sharks singing the glories of America (idealizing the land and their experience of it, focusing on the possibilities America offers), and the boys keep popping in with sarcasm and the reality of how they are treated here. In the play, it's only the girls singing, one of whom is homesick and idealizing life back in Puerto Rico, while Anita keeps reminding her of the harsh realities of life there, and why America is better than that.

Prior to yesterday, I've only ever seen the play staged once, over a decade ago, at my hometown community theatre. I don't remember noticing this difference in the songs back then, but I also don't remember if I'd already owned the CD and was super familiar with West Side Story back then. . .in any case, Sarah owns the original Broadway recording of the music, so we listened to her version today, and it matched the play exactly.

This just makes me wonder why they changed the lyrics for the movie?

It also makes me wonder why they didn't use the movie version for this revival of the play? I mean, I suppose to be a true revival, it would have to be true to the original. But this production seemed to emphasize the bigger picture issues addressed in the play - of immigration and community violence. The movie version of the song serves these purposes much better, as it is a much more pointed political commentary on both the dreams and the treatment of immigrants (especially non-white immigrants) in this country.

The original lyrics, on the other hand, better serve the individual tragic trajectories of the play: Anita is the one defending America in the song, her blindness to its dangers (whether true naivete or intentional ignorance) is her tragic flaw, and Anita is ultimately betrayed by America, whose violence kills her beloved Bernardo and then attacks her when she tries - even after his horrific death - to continue believing in the promise of America, the violence attacks her as she tries to help Tony and Maria find the somewhere they can live in peace. I guess that makes the same point, teases out the same themes, just on a much more personal scale.

A Time for Burning

I just watched this most excellent documentary from the mid-1960s, which follows attempts by some churches in Omaha to promote inter-racial dialogue and understanding between fellow Christians during the heart of the Civil Rights movement. This is cinema verite at its finest, the people in the film spoke very candidly and cut right to the heart of the issue in many of their conversations.

The deeply saddening thing about watching this film is to realize how relevant the film, and the issues raised in the conversations it documents, still is today, over 40 years later (just last week a black ministerium colleague new to the area went to the farmer's market and was immediately accosted by a white person who asked them "You don't think you really belong here, do you?"). So much more dialogue and awakenings that are so needful but have yet to occur, so much more understanding yet to be gained by everyone. . .

The fascinating thing about watching this film is to realize that if you only substitute the words "gay and lesbian" for "colored" or "negro," the conversations between the white church members and pastors are the exact same conversations we're having today on the issue of sexuality. Seriously, I have heard, almost word-for-word, precisely the same hopes and fears given voice in the ELCA over the past few years.

I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

But if you get the chance, watch this documentary. Better yet, watch it with a group of people and then talk about it afterward. You won't regret it.