2 February 2018
THE COLLEGE FIX — A New York high school has canceled a production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” after a student activist group complained about a white student being cast in a lead role.
The school now will be putting on an alternative production.
Members of Ithaca High School’s Students United Ithaca — all five of them (left) — got together and wrote up a letter and list of demands after the role of Esmeralda went to a Caucasian peer.
“It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you,” said Maddi Carroll, a member of the Students United group who is African-American. “And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?”
Students United’s letter conceded that the student cast as Esmeralda “is a stellar actor, singer, and dancer” and that any production would be “lucky to have her.” […]
NOTE: Esmeralda, a fictional character in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” was a French-Roma woman.
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