As someone who grew up in Dallas after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, I may be a little sensitive about this topic. The disturbing trend of gleeful images of a dead, currently-sitting president cropping up all over the place is very disturbing. Perhaps it has always been around in private, but with the pervasion (and perversion) of social media, it has become much more of a common everyday occurance.
As a starting point, here is something you may not know. A production company was staging a revival production of a Stephen Sondheim musical "Assassins" set to open in the Fall of 2001. "Assassins" is an imagined meeting of all of the killers of presidents lead by John Wilkes Booth trying to convince Lee Harvey Oswald to go through with his deed to achieve immortality. Each assassin is featured telling his or her own story of why they did. Sounds gruesome, but it really is a wonderful and very Sondheim show. Anyhow, it was already in rehearsal with an opening in September 2001. But immediately following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the producers wisely decided to table the production for a later time because they thought it would be in very bad taste.
But something happened along the way from that moment. The first time I saw this begin to creep in was during the 2nd term of the Bush Administration. Anyone remember the hoopla over the 2006 movie "The Death Of A President"? It depicted the events leading up to and following a fictionalized assassination of President George W. Bush. It was shocking, but it sold only about 900K tickets and went by the wayside quickly. There were other images around, but the Bush Administration didn't make much of a deal about it.
Then at the beginning of the Obama Administration we quickly lost our sense of humor and lampooning and/or presenting images of a sitting President as a buffoon or dead was in very poor taste again. But it was okay as long as it wasn't a sitting President apparently. In the 1st season of HBO's "Game Of Thrones"one of the prop guys used the severed head of George W. Bush on a spike for set dressing. HBO apologized. No one is sure why the prop department had a severed head of GWB hanging around, but I am sure that was an interesting story that was never really esplained.
Anyway, now fast forward to the Trump Administration, and now artists, writers, and pundits have regained their senses of humor and cannot crank out enough words and images of a hopefully soon-to-be dead President Trump! It's all the rage, and also causing a lot of rage for those who think that it is still in poor taste and downright dangerous to do that with any President. Yeah, you all know the whole bloody severed head that Kathy Griffin made famous last week and ended up blaming everyone but herself for the end of her "career".
Which brings me to the latest outrage that has just opened in Central Park -the new conceptualize staging of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" produced by the very popular, non-profit, NEA-funded Public Theatre for their yearly Shakespeare-In-The-Park series. I am sure that you can easily imagine the "concept" of their newest iteration of Shakespeare's tragedy, and frankly, it's not that imaginative. Yeah, it's set in D.C. in the present day and, though not named Trump, JC is costumed in a suit and tie, and is a blond-bewigged buffoon with a Slavic-sounding, high-fashioned Calpurnia as his wife. And when JC is brutally stabbed by Brutus and crew outside the Senate in Act 3, Scene 1, it is particularly bloody. The director said the concept came to him on Nov. 9, 2016 and he ran with it. As it turns out, the big-moneyed corporate sponsors of the show were not pleased at the potential fallout and began pulling their sponsorships (a/k/a " big money") - Delta and Bank Of America so far - with all of the gnashing of teeth, screams of "Artistic freedom" and backlash that should be expected in our New Age Of Outrage on social media from both sides.
Anyway, I am conflicted about this. I believe in free artistic expression, but I am horrified at the pervasion and the ease in which we are normalizing and even for some gleefully hoping for the worst. As a child who grew up with the spector of a Presidential assassinaton, I know what happens next in that scenario and it ain't glee.
Comments?
As a starting point, here is something you may not know. A production company was staging a revival production of a Stephen Sondheim musical "Assassins" set to open in the Fall of 2001. "Assassins" is an imagined meeting of all of the killers of presidents lead by John Wilkes Booth trying to convince Lee Harvey Oswald to go through with his deed to achieve immortality. Each assassin is featured telling his or her own story of why they did. Sounds gruesome, but it really is a wonderful and very Sondheim show. Anyhow, it was already in rehearsal with an opening in September 2001. But immediately following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the producers wisely decided to table the production for a later time because they thought it would be in very bad taste.
But something happened along the way from that moment. The first time I saw this begin to creep in was during the 2nd term of the Bush Administration. Anyone remember the hoopla over the 2006 movie "The Death Of A President"? It depicted the events leading up to and following a fictionalized assassination of President George W. Bush. It was shocking, but it sold only about 900K tickets and went by the wayside quickly. There were other images around, but the Bush Administration didn't make much of a deal about it.
Then at the beginning of the Obama Administration we quickly lost our sense of humor and lampooning and/or presenting images of a sitting President as a buffoon or dead was in very poor taste again. But it was okay as long as it wasn't a sitting President apparently. In the 1st season of HBO's "Game Of Thrones"one of the prop guys used the severed head of George W. Bush on a spike for set dressing. HBO apologized. No one is sure why the prop department had a severed head of GWB hanging around, but I am sure that was an interesting story that was never really esplained.
Anyway, now fast forward to the Trump Administration, and now artists, writers, and pundits have regained their senses of humor and cannot crank out enough words and images of a hopefully soon-to-be dead President Trump! It's all the rage, and also causing a lot of rage for those who think that it is still in poor taste and downright dangerous to do that with any President. Yeah, you all know the whole bloody severed head that Kathy Griffin made famous last week and ended up blaming everyone but herself for the end of her "career".
Which brings me to the latest outrage that has just opened in Central Park -the new conceptualize staging of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" produced by the very popular, non-profit, NEA-funded Public Theatre for their yearly Shakespeare-In-The-Park series. I am sure that you can easily imagine the "concept" of their newest iteration of Shakespeare's tragedy, and frankly, it's not that imaginative. Yeah, it's set in D.C. in the present day and, though not named Trump, JC is costumed in a suit and tie, and is a blond-bewigged buffoon with a Slavic-sounding, high-fashioned Calpurnia as his wife. And when JC is brutally stabbed by Brutus and crew outside the Senate in Act 3, Scene 1, it is particularly bloody. The director said the concept came to him on Nov. 9, 2016 and he ran with it. As it turns out, the big-moneyed corporate sponsors of the show were not pleased at the potential fallout and began pulling their sponsorships (a/k/a " big money") - Delta and Bank Of America so far - with all of the gnashing of teeth, screams of "Artistic freedom" and backlash that should be expected in our New Age Of Outrage on social media from both sides.
Anyway, I am conflicted about this. I believe in free artistic expression, but I am horrified at the pervasion and the ease in which we are normalizing and even for some gleefully hoping for the worst. As a child who grew up with the spector of a Presidential assassinaton, I know what happens next in that scenario and it ain't glee.
Comments?
Free expression doesn't mean they get their money for free. Another good example why the whole NEA is just bad policy. Art should stand on its own and stand the test of time.
ReplyDelete***UPDATE*** As of this morning's news, American Express has pull funding too.
ReplyDeleteKoshcat- I agree about NEA funding. And it does no service to any arts group as old school as the Public Theatre to make an enemy of corporate donors. They forget that these are "donors" who give donate money that they don't have to. As they give th, so can they not giveth again, or, taketh away at will.
Strange move for an organization reliant on corporate and government money. They are going to pay a steep price.
ReplyDelete***UP-UPDATE*** Amex has decided to have it both ways - We will not pull our funding 'cause we didn't actually give $$$$$$$ and say specifically that it was for the production AND they do not condone the interpretation. Hmmm, I wonder where that one will land in the frenzy...
ReplyDeleteit's like my new favorite sporting event taken directly from an ancient Roman Coliseum replete with Gladiators wielding giant verbal-swords and everything including man-eating lions and Christian!
Okay, I have definitely had too much caffeine this morning...
Bev, It sounds like Amex wants to support this without being seen as supporting it.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the assassination stuff, the left is so shameless that I don't think it bothers them in the least... so long as no one does it to someone they like.
ReplyDeleteAll Sharpton is complaining that not enough blacks sell weed. I can't stop laughing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rev-al-sharpton-calls-for-more-diversity-in-white-dominated-weed-industry_us_5940213ee4b02402687d271e?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Sharpton also aims to help identify ways people of color can become more involved in the industry where it operates legally, which is growing at a rapid rate and expects to surpass $21 billion in 2020. While it is hard to track down official statistics on the demographics of cannabis business owners, Buzzfeed’s Amanda Chicago Lewis investigated the issue and discovered that less than three dozen of the almost 3,600 storefront marijuana dispensaries in the country are black-owned ― about 1 percent.
“Decriminalization and diversity are hot buttons for this industry, and there is a low percentage of canna-businesses owned by people of color,” said Scott Giannotti, Managing Director, CWCB Expo Events, in an email. “To have one of the nation’s most prominent voices speak on this topic at CWCBExpo is an extreme honor. This is a turning point for the industry and we are proud to have Rev. Sharpton inspire real action forward.”