Lin-Manuel Miranda – the creator and lead actor of "Hamilton" – called on Congress to provide failing theater companies with a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.
Miranda and "The Cosby Show" star Phylicia Rashad pleaded with lawmakers to furnish the theater industry with $500 million in annual federal funding for the next five years – a total of $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds.
"The person who [will have written] your favorite musical is working on it right now in a small theater somewhere in this country," Miranda said during a Senate briefing on Thursday at the Russell Senate Office Building. "And those small theaters are closing, and those small theaters are in crisis."
Rashad told lawmakers that theater is principally "communication from the heart."
"When we communicate from the heart, other hearts are touched," Rashad asserted. "This is why theater creates community."
The briefing was hosted by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) as a way to introduce the Supporting Theater and Generating Economic Activity Act. The STAGE Act is a "federal funding initiative that has the potential to stimulate the theater industry as it continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges." The legislation was unveiled by the Professional Non-Profit Theater Coalition, an organization representing 140 theaters from across the country.
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York’s Public Theater, told the Los Angeles Times, "To the federal government, it’s a pretty small amount of money, but it would make an unbelievable difference to theaters across the country. Every theater would survive, and could serve our communities in ways that, right now, we’re struggling to do."
Theater attendance has dropped by as much as 30% since the pandemic shutdowns of March 2020, according to the Washington Post. There are reportedly two to three theater companies shuttering each month.
Many theaters have already received funding from the federal government from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program in 2020 – which supplied $15 billion for "ailing entertainment spaces and promoters in the largest public rescue of the arts in U.S. history."
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A transvestite in the Canadian province of Ontario became an international sensation last year by rankling parents over his preference for wearing massive fake breasts in the company of their children. He was placed on paid leave in March.
It appears he couldn't stay away the classroom for long.
Kerry Lemieux, who calls himself Kayla, is kicking off the fall semester at a new school, where he will be able to make a new generation of students feel uncomfortable.
The head of his new school in Hamilton, Ontario, has since issued a warning to parents, not that a controversial male teacher will be confronting their children with his cartoonishly pronounced nipples, but that his presence may trigger disruptions and protests.
TheBlaze previously reported that Lemieux taught at Oakville Trafalgar High School, where he trotted around an industrial arts class wearing a wig, lipstick, and size-Z fake breasts.
Despite being photographed walking around elsewhere without his costume, Lemieux repeatedly claimed his breasts were real, alleging they were enlarged as the result of a condition that afflicts some real women, "classified as gigantomastia, which can also be referred to as macromastia or breast hypertrophy."
Parents and students took issue with Lemieux's hypersexualized costume, which his neighbor said he wears "extremely infrequently" while outside school.
In late 2022, the school board refused to implement a dress code, suggesting that doing so would be discriminatory, reported the Toronto Star.
In March, one mother blasted the Halton District School Board at a board of trustees meeting, stating, "Parents and schools alike teach children about the importance of boundaries and consent. Boundaries define professionalism in the education system and must be upheld for all in order to restore public trust."
The mother's view was evidently widely shared, including by Education Minister Stephen Lecce of the Progressive Conservative Party, who similarly blasted the school board, stressing it "abdicated its responsibility by failing to put the interests and safety of students first."
The district ultimately put Lemieux on paid leave.
Heather Francey, a spokesman for the board, said, "While not currently on an active assignment, the teacher remains employed with the HDSB."
The school board added that it continued to "support the teacher in partnership with OSSTF (Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation)."
After several months of what essentially proved to be a paid vacation, Lemieux is now working for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board and is set to begin teaching in September.
Tom Fisher, the principal of Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School in Hamilton, recently issued a warning to parents concerning the school's new teacher, obtained by the Toronto Sun.
"We are writing to you today because we anticipate the school your child is attending this year, Nora Frances Henderson, may receive some level of public attention, and we want to communicate what this means for you, your children and our school," wrote Fisher.
Fisher's cautionary note does not warn parents that the school's new teacher dresses like a caricature of a woman or that he has been the subject of various concerns about safety risks to children raised by the parents of past students.
Rather, the memo reportedly stated that the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has an "obligation to uphold individual rights and treat everyone with dignity and respect," and "should the school be subject to any disruptions or protests; we are committed to communicating with you as openly and as frequently as possible to ensure student safety – and to share any operational plans."
Fisher detailed some of the various ways the school would accommodate Lemieux and make life harder for parents and students.
For instance, parents must now "email or call before coming to the school if they wish to visit to speak to an employee." Anyone seeking to enter or exit the building, including students, must also use an intercom system to do so, and exterior doors will henceforth remain locked during school hours.
These security measures appear to be prompted, in part, by the criticism Lemieux has faced and the bomb threat his previous school received via email during a week he had been noticeably absent from class — around the same time he lost his wig skydiving with male porn star Alexandre Boisvert.
Concerning the memo, the school board told the Sun, "In an attempt to be transparent with our community, HWDSB communicated about steps we are taking to facilitate a smooth return to school for students and the broader community. ... We recently communicated to some parents to inform them of the possibility their child’s school may receive heightened public interest."
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Oakville teacher faces international attention over tight attire and very large prosthetic breastsyoutu.be
Shortly after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, his running mate Mike Pence attended the stage production of "Hamilton" at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York City and got booed.
What's more, after the play was over, Brandon Victor Dixon, who played Aaron Burr, addressed Pence from the front of the stage:
"Vice President-elect Pence, I see you walking out, but I hope you will hear us, just a few more moments. There's nothing to boo here ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing to boo here. We're all here sharing a story of love. We have a message for you sir, and we hope that you will hear us out. ... We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us, all of us."
\u201cTonight, VP-Elect Mike Pence attended #HamiltonBway. After the show, @BrandonVDixon delivered the following statement on behalf of the show.\u201d— Hamilton (@Hamilton) 1479528965
Now a Texas church is under fire for putting on an "unauthorized" version of "Hamilton," which includes biblical references not in the original production — as well as a sermon after the play is over that likens homosexuality to drug and alcohol addiction, the Washington Post reported.
The “Hamilton” honchos in New York said they didn't give the Door McAllen Church license or permission to stage its performance, which was livestreamed Friday and Saturday and included scenes in which the characters Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton talked about how Jesus “saved” them, the Post said, citing videos from author and podcast host Hemant Mehta.
OnStage Blog said a pastor gave a sermon at the conclusion of the church's performance that included "anti-LGBTQ messaging." Mehta said the sermon was guilty of "demonizing homosexuality." It's worth noting that Mehta also is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com.
The pastor in question is Victor Lopez, the Post reported, and here's what he said:
\u201cThis is how The Door McAllen church concluded its illegal production of Hamilton: with a sermon demonizing homosexuality.\u201d— Hemant Mehta (@Hemant Mehta) 1659910252
"He knows exactly what you've gone through," Lopez said, referring to God. "You've gone through maybe broken marriages. Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs, homosexuality. Maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, relationships. God can help you tonight."
According to Onstage Blog, the pastor added, "He wants to forgive you for your sins."
According to the Post, Pastor Roman Gutierrez told the Dallas Morning News he got legal permission from the "Hamilton" team to produce the church's show. The Post added that during Sunday's sermon, Gutierrez said a lawyer asked him to remove online videos of the church's performance. The pastor also said the church isn't anti-LGBTQ and "everyone is always welcome," the Post noted.
However, the "Hamilton" team denied giving the pastor permission to perform the show, the Post said, citing the Dallas Morning News.
Shane Marshall Brown, a spokesman for “Hamilton” in New York, told the Post in a statement that the New York production was “unaware of this unauthorized staging of ‘Hamilton.’”
“Hamilton does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church,” Brown told the paper. “We issued a cease-and-desist letter for the unauthorized use of Hamilton’s intellectual property, demanding the immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, their own website, and elsewhere.”
The team added that it let the church continue with Saturday's show as long as no photos or videos were taken, the Post said.
The author of the Onstage Blog piece appeared to take particular umbrage with the ideology behind the church's performance: "I’m not even going to get into the choice to add text into the show to fit anti-LGBTQ bigotry because that’s just simply disgusting and against what the Bible really teaches about love."
As did Mehta, who titled his lengthy write-up, "A Texas church illegally performed ‘Hamilton’ to spread anti-gay bigotry."
"So to recap: A Christian church in Texas staged its own unlicensed production of a musical, changed the story to suggest Hamilton found Jesus, and used the whole thing to tell people to stop being gay," Mehta wrote.
He added: "There’s been a lot of backlash online to what this church is doing. Not because it’s a Christianized version of a secular phenomenon, but because this is theft no matter who’s doing it. It’s also an ethical failure: They’re ripping off the creative genius of several people and using it to spread a message that directly hurts the people in these shows and those they love."
Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning Broadway producer, writer, and composer, has issued an apology for "colorism" after critics attacked his new musical, "In the Heights," for not featuring more diverse actors.
The production — which is now in U.S. theaters and is streaming on HBO Max — is based on a tight-knit, largely Latino New York City neighborhood, Washington Heights, where Miranda grew up.
In a lengthy Monday statement, the Broadway producer admitted that he "fell short" in "trying to paint a mosaic of this community."
The 41-year-old wrote, "I started writing In The Heights because I didn't feel seen. And over the past 20 years all I wanted was for us — ALL of us — to feel seen. I'm seeing the discussion around Afro-Latino representation in our film this weekend and it is clear that many in our dark-skinned Afro-Latino community don't feel sufficiently represented within it, particularly among the leading roles."
"I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, over feeling unseen in the feedback," he added. "I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy."
Miranda noted that he is "truly sorry" and is "learning from the feedback."
"I thank you for raising it, and I'm listening," his apology continued. "I'm trying to hold space for both the incredible pride in the movie we made and be accountable for our shortcomings. Thanks for your honest feedback. I promise to do better in my future projects, and I'ms dedicated to the learning and evolving we all have to do to make sure we are honoring our diverse and vibrant community."
-LMM https://t.co/CHfdLgFUz3
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) 1623709464.0
Ahead of the musical's premiere, director Jon M. Chu and two of its main characters — actresses Melissa Barrera and Leslie Grace — discussed colorism and a "lack of Afro-Latino actors in leading roles" during an interview with The Root's Felice Léon.
According to People, Léon asked Chu, Barrera, and Grace about the "lack of Black Latinx people represented in the film," considering the cast mainly appeared to be "light-skinned or white-passing Latinx people."
Chu responded, "Yeah, I mean I think that that was something we talked about and I needed to be educated about, of course. In the end, when we were looking at the cast, we were trying to get the people who were best for those roles and that specifically, and we saw a lot of people, people like [actresses] Daphne [Rubin-Vega], or Dascha [Polanco]."
He added, "But I hear you on trying to fill those cast members with darker-skinned [actors]. I think that's a really good conversation to have, something that we should all be talking about."
Barrera pointed out, "I think it's important to note, though, that in the audition process — which was a long audition process — there were a lot of Afro-Latinos there. A lot of darker skinned people, and I think they were looking for just the right people for the roles, for the person that embodied each character to the fullest extent. And I think we are all very much like our characters, so much so that a lot of times it didn't even feel like we were acting, they just kind of let us live in there. And because the cast ended up being us, Washington Heights is a melting pot of Black and Latinx people, Jon and Lin wanted the dancers and the big numbers to feel very truthful to what the community looks like."
Grace chimed in, "I didn't realize until making this movie that I didn't really get to see myself or people that look like my siblings that are darker than me on screen."
"I didn't realize how much that affected the limitations I put on myself, being someone who wanted to be an artist and be an actress and even be in the Latin music industry, being Afro-Latina," she added. "I feel so blessed that I get to express the diversity that is within the Latinx community in a way that we haven't been able to see onscreen because so many times we're put on screen in one particular way, and since we get so little opportunities, everyone wants to claim that one story because it's all we got."
Grace added, "I hope that this is cracking that glass ceiling. Because I do hope to see my brothers and sisters that are darker than me lead these movies."
What shines through all the inaccuracies and the anachronisms of 21st-century wokeness is an old-fashioned three cheers for America.
Against the Jacobins!
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