North suburban park district say strong racial language in the musical “Ragtime” prompted their decision Wednesday to cancel the show two weeks before it was set to open.
I have not written about a news piece in a long time. This I find unacceptable. To that end I wrote the following to the Park District Executive Director Tom Grisamore the following email.
Good morning Mr. Grisamore
I am writing to express my concern regarding the decision to cancel ‘Ragtime’. As an actor and a patron of the arts it deeply saddens me to know there is someone/something out there censoring art. Especially art that has been around for a considerable length of time. So much information is available about ‘Ragtime’ I found it sad and insulting to read “This is something we very honestly should have known about and hopefully we could have acted on this sooner, but we did as soon as we found out what was there.” Once again, the information is available and secondly art reflects humanity.
For that, a well known bard put it best “…the purpose of playing, whose
end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as ’twere the
mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own
image, and the very age and body of the time his form and
pressure.
Hamlet Act 3, scene 2, 17–24″
We may not agree with the past, but it is what it is. Reflecting it and the present times is the part of playing (acting). The damage has been done, in that the show has been canceled, but it can be re-instated. Please consider this based on the responses of not only the director of the show but the community (poll posted below).
Thank you for your time.
Gary Ploski
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