Posted on 01/30/2011 8:37:56 PM PST by fantail 1952
Below is a "Letter to the Editor" of the Missoulian of Missoula, MT regarding a performance presented on Jan. 23, 2011:
Open letter to MCT director Curt Olds:
First I would like to compliment you and the entire staff of "The Mikado" on the beautiful sets, costuming and professional performance we experienced on Sunday, Jan. 23. However, I must call you on something that was inserted into the play which I am almost positive was not in the original book.
The comments made in such a cavalier and oh-so-humorous way were uncalled for. Now, I realize you play to a mostly liberal audience in Missoula and so, I am sure, felt comfortable in your calling for the beheading of Sarah Palin. I am painfully aware that most in the audience tittered with laughter and clapped because "no one would miss her" but there were some in your audience who took great offense to this "uncivil tone" about another human being.
We are in the midst of a crisis that took place in Tucson where many started pointing fingers at that horrible right wing with all their hatred and targeting and standing for the second amendment and on and on and on. So, here we are in a lovely play with beautiful voices serenading us and we have to hear that it is okay to call for the killing of Sarah Palin because we don't like her and no one would miss her. Unbelievable.
As a professional you should be ashamed of yourself, the audience should be ashamed of themselves and I am ashamed of myself for not standing up and leaving at that very moment. I would like to see an apology from you not because I want to hinder free-speech but for the hypocrisy this so clearly shows.
And notice that they want to kill Palin “Islamic” style. Pathetic weak-minded, weak-willed maggots, not worthy of the term “American” let along “civilized”.
I am very happy this letter was written and sent!
If “Community” is part of the name, then the theater is funded in large part by taxpayers. Otherwise, it likely would not exist.
Yes typically when people purchase new cars the stickers go with them. They tried saying the same thing with President Bush. Oh he is not popular because the stickers are disappearing.....well nobody is going to sticker up their new cars until closer to another Presidential campaign. It really does make sense.
From their own website -
Funding
· Partial funding for this project is provided by Montana’s Cultural Trust.
· This project is supported by the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the state of Montana and the National Endowment for the Arts.
· MCT is partially supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.
Perfect example for why this sham needs to be cut from the budget. Paying leftists to insult us.
Why are any involved with this public spectacle still working there? Anyone else ever try something like this on a paid job? Beheading jokes?
An article about the controversy mentions that several press sources mistakenly assumed that the "MCT" was Children's instead of the correct "Community" theater. It also says that the Mikado performance is an annual program that follows the satire aspects of the original by updating to include present day figures. The Palin references will be dropped from future performances.
Uh, yeah, now that’s a little over the top isn’t it?
I guess the liberals really do want a war with us, don’t they?
This is as usual sick on the part of the liberals.
We must not just stand up and leave those kinds of situations, we need to stop the speakers from speaking and declare them finished...they are systematically dehumanizing our lives people...it is just a matter of time when these good liberals will be joking about actual deaths of us.
I keep telling freepers who never go to the theatre, that this is a famous Gilbert & Sullivan song - sung by Japan’s Lord High Executioner. In the original production, the British pols of the time were targetted. Today, they ALWAYS target current politicians. It’s a tradition - and someone always gets their head handed to them.
I am probably one of the biggest supporters of the Divine Sarah on FR. But I also know my theatre history.
You are referring to Gilbert & Sullivan - the genuises who have entertained millions for over one hundred years. It is a very silly operetta - like all of G&S. The productions are hilarious and luckily not held hostage to the politically correct.
Elect Sarah Palin for President 2012
Re-Elect President Sarah Palin 2016
That is not an apology for the words. In fact, the most reasonable interpretation of that sentence is that they are apologizing to their liberal audience for the few patrons who forced them to remove the words from the play.
"We are so sorry that some people just couldn't get the joke. Unfortunately, we had to remove it from the play. Again, we apologize for having to take this action, but a minority of our patrons who obviously have no sense of humor or appreciation of parody complained so much that we had no choice".
An apology would have said "We apologize for the words in our play that were offensive to some of our patrons."
Thomas Jefferson:
“I view great cities as pestilential to the morals,
the health and the liberties of man.
True, they nourish some of the elegant arts;
but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere;
and less perfection in the others, with more health,
virtue and freedom, would be my choice.”
...... Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer, Wolf Blitzer (now there's a man with a violence-laced name), or any other big press advocates of "civility in public discourse."
They probably would like it if she was beheaded. These are the same people who were fine with books and movies about assassinating George W Bush.
Yet you cannot deny: it's telling which politician they wish to hand his head.
If I were directing the musical, you can be quite sure I'd have other choices to rhetorically behead.
Sigh...The Executioner’s Song is a list song. In other words, it lists innumerable victims - all of whom get their heads rhetorically cut off. In G&S’s world, beheading is the official death penalty in Japan. It has nothing to do with Islamists.
Now, when I’ve seen it in Great Britain - yes, they always go after conservatives pols - as well as annoying public figures like Stephan Fry or Ricky Gervais. So I’m not surprised Sarah (and a whole long list of folks) was mentioned. It’s an overreaction by our side.
Well, Surprise, Surprise, Surprise ...
Tells us something about "community theatre" folks.
At least, I think it does.
Wouldn't President Obama fit the 'current politician' theme much better?
Of course he would, but the writers are cowards.
I believe my post #39 points out the fallacy of that statement.
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