Prepare Ye the Way of la Meme Chose

[ceebeegee]

God, I am SO SICK of productions of Godspell with the same old tired trope of male Jesus and Judas. The show is about the Gospel of St. Matthew with mixed genders apostles dressed as clowns, invoking every current pop reference out there--you'd think SOMEONE besides me would've thought of actually casting a woman as something other than adoring groupie. BORING.

Comments

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

Well, changing the gender of a character, or having someone of the opposite sex play the character as its written sex, generally falls under the blanket agreement of not changing anything in the text without written permission. You don't really know what the authors will accept until you ask.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

But that's not in the text. That's not changing a line, that's casting which is the prerogative of the production team. I have as much a problem with legally mandated gender-based casting restrictions as I would against race-based casting restrictions--especially, as I've said, for a show like Godspell.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

And I don't think that's part of a blanket agreement--I think that has to be specifically written into the rights, like Jerome Robbins does with his choreography.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree there. Although I would personally be more liberal with such decisions I believe it's the author's right to say that the gender and/or race of the character is a part of the text and that the roles must be cast according to gender, race and other specifications he/she considers to be essential. A standard Dramatists Guild contract gives the author veto power over casting. (That's how Arthur Laurents was able to prevent Patti LuPone from doing Gypsy until he changed his mind.) And if there's any fuzzy area I side with the decision of the author because I support his/her right to determine what is and isn't an essential part of the play.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

See my post above--if you consider it that essential, then have it written into the rights. But I don't agree that's a default assumption--again, especially with a play like Godspell.

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

From the MTI website, which handles Godspell's rights: When you are granted a performance license, by law the show you license must be performed "as is." You should not make any changes unless you have obtained prior written permission from us to do so. Otherwise, any changes violate the authors' rights under federal copyright law. Contact us - it's always safest to ask."

While the meaning of "as is" can be debated I see no harm in simply checking if casting against race and/or gender types is acceptable to the author. After all, if I'm presenting someone else's creation I wouldn't want to risk doing something he or she would disapprove of.

Godspell is a bit of a different matter, however, since Tebelak has been pretty open about encouraging companies to improvise and make changes in his book pretty much at will. There may even be note about that in the text. However, I don't know if Schwartz allows the same freedom with his score.