Through The Eyes of 2019
“Tony: I- I didn’t believe hard enough.
Maria: Loving is enough.
Tony: Not here. They won’t let us be.
Maria: Then we’ll run away.
Tony: Yeah, we can.
Maria: Yes.
Tony: We will...
Maria: [singing] Hold my hand and we are halfway there, hold my hand and I’ll take you there. Somehow! Someday!”
We are living in a very sensitive time. Sensitive… bleh, I hate that word. It is interesting because a lot of the time, it has such a negative connotation. People are “too sensitive.” I am always told that I am “overly sensitive,” which feels negative, like I should be a different way. But when I say we are living in a “sensitive time,” I mean to say that we are living in a time where we are exploring cultural norms and systemic problems under a microscope, especially in liberal New York. We are discussing sensitive topics, having sensitive conversations and looking at problems that should have been addressed in this way years ago. “Sensitive” in this context, is a good thing. Appropriate words and phrases are changing faster than our climate. Storytelling in general is under a microscope. Stories that were written even five years ago are considered out of date, sometimes having racist or sexist undertones and language that is no longer deemed appropriate.
Take the word “queer,” for example. When I was growing up, you did NOT use that word. It was a terrible thing to say to or about anyone. Now, the word has been reclaimed in the LGBTQ community as a positive word, an umbrella term for those who don’t want to put themselves in one of the other categories. Of course, I am thrilled! I love when words lose their negative connotations. (I wish that would happen to the word “sensitive”). The more we can shift to the positive, the better off we will be.
However, I officially feel like things are changing so rapidly, I just can’t keep up. l rely on my students, sometimes too heavily, to point out the red flags I am missing. Whether this is in scenes they are doing, stories we are reading, or in ways of exploring dialogue, improv, devised theater or analyzing a piece of theater, students point out the problems that 2019 has awoken us too.
Now, I am usually the kind of teacher who is anti-watching movies in class. Let’s get up and let’s do something! However, I was teaching a unit on Musical Theater about how dance and song can enhance storytelling. Naturally, I chose to show the students West Side Story. If you are unfamiliar with West Side Story, it is a musical based on Romeo and Juliet, with phenomenal choreography by Jerome Robbins and classic songs by Leonard Bernstein. In the cannon of musical theater, it is the gold standard.
The story focuses on two gangs, the Jets, who are white Americans, and the Sharks, who are Puerto Rican. The musical was set in 1957 New York City, but unfortunately, I think the piece still stands up in 2019 New York City. Less dancing, less choreographed movement, more serious weapons, more casualties.
DAY ONE OF WATCHING THE MOVIE:
Student: Miss Frare - I don’t get it. What are these two groups fighting about?
Me: Well, turf… power… the…
Student: This is actually the definition of toxic masculinity!
Toxic masculinity - a relatively new phrase in our world that refers to certain norms of masculine behavior that can be associated with causing harm, either to a group or to themselves. The first time I saw this movie was in 2002 when “boys will be boys” was still very much the motto. Toxic masculinity wasn’t even a thought in society. But through the lens of 2019, I can totally see it; two groups fighting each other, sometimes to the death, on purpose, in order to have power? Bragging rights? Space? Sure.
DAY TWO OF WATCHING THE MOVIE:
We meet Tony and Maria, our star-crossed lovers. The dialogue is flowery, meant for the great romantic love stories of the 1950’s film era; Cinderella, Gigi. I, of course, am sitting at my desk eating it up, tissues hidden under my chair so that I may dab my eyes when no one is looking. The class… isn’t buying it. They find it comical and utterly insane. Most of them are actually laughing. “No one falls in the love that fast.” “You don’t love him, you just think he’s hot.” “You don’t love him, you just love that he is off limits.” So here are are. Young students of 2019 thinking that the love between Maria and Tony, AKA Romeo and Juliet, is total BS from the start. Love like that doesn’t exist. You have to meet on the Internet, fall in love via swipe culture, date for at least three years and THEN run away together… oh! Okay.
DAY THREE OF WATCHING THE MOVIE: (Heads up: Spoilers ahead - you have been warned).
Tony kills Maria’s brother… it was half an accident, half self-defense, but Maria still plans to run away with Tony. She loves him. The class has lost all faith in Maria as a character. They don't see her as a strong, independent young woman who “don’t need no man,” therefore she is not worth bothering with anymore. They all hate her. Moving on.
DAY FOUR OF WATCHING THE MOVIE:
Anita (a friend of Maria’s) gets attacked by the Jet gang. They touch her and grope her and start getting particularly vicious before it is broken up by a nice older gentleman. It hits the women in the class to their core. As it should. Sadly, this is one of those things we haven’t left in 1957, is it?
As I put West Side Story, a classic film, up against the eyes of 2019, I was amazed to see what I was awoken to. Has it changed my mind about it being an important and classic piece of American musical theater and American history? Absolutely not! Do the students appreciate it? Of course. But here we are in 2019, teaching students to analyze stories of another time. Stories that are doors to the past but also bring to light why this time HAS to be so sensitive. And we will be here again, many years down the road, asking students to analyze Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton through the eyes of 2040. I wonder - what they will see then?
