Care and Feeding: My Son’s Role in the School Play Makes My Flesh Crawl—but He Loves It

[cereta]

Link.

Dear Care and Feeding,

I have a 14-year-old son, “Ed.” Ed’s in his school’s theater club, and they’re putting on production for the end of the year. Normally they do Shakespeare adaptations, but this year the club president decided to shake things up and they’re staging an adaptation of some old sci-fi video game, about a group of people (aliens, I suppose) trying to reclaim their homeworld after an exile. Ed is playing the senior fleet intelligence officer. I’ve been to a few of his practices, and the character he plays, as well as the degree he gets into character, is extremely disturbing. It’s this extremely cold, callous, ultra-professional in a very nasty profession sort of character. He has another character tortured to death and later relates it to the other bridge crew/major characters with a completely casual “Subject did not survive interrogation.” He pretty much never shows anything on his face when playing the part, and several of the other characters are noticeably uneasy around his.

I get that Ed isn’t the characters he plays. But the way he shifts into this character and holds that role makes my flesh crawl. I’ve seriously considered pulling him out of the theater club over this, although I haven’t pulled the trigger on that so far. Am I going too far with this? Ed would hate it if I yanked him out, but at the same time I am convinced that playing this character is unhealthy.

—Theater Trouble

Dear Theater Trouble,

I think you could have stopped at “Ed isn’t the characters he plays”! Making him quit the club seems like it would be a massive overreaction. If you find him disturbing in this role, don’t you think that probably just speaks to his ability as an actor? If the club had stuck with Shakespeare and put on Othello, would you force him to give up the role of Iago?

I’m guessing that Ed likes theater club or he wouldn’t be a part of it. Instead of freaking out and yanking him from the production, maybe ask him how he feels and how it’s been going for him. What does he think about the play? How does he feel about his character? What sort of direction or input is he getting from the club? What other sorts of roles would he be interested in down the line? Let him tell you about the experience; the good things he gets out of participating. This is one role in one play—you may not like it, but try to remember that he’s an actor playing a part and let him enjoy it.

Comments

[cereta]

I'm just amused that this theater club has apparently been putting on Shakespeare, and that's dandy, but the LW is freaked out by a modern villain. I guess iambic pentameter makes murderers and other horrible people easier to take.

(Seriously, I'm reminded of a scene in The Laramie Project where a theater student with conservative Christian parents was cast as a gay character, and his parents said they wouldn't attend. He points out that they'd come see him play MacBeth, a murderer, without so much as a word.)

[full_metal_ox]

I guess iambic pentameter makes murderers and other horrible people easier to take.

It’s a distancing convention: the equivalent of “Once upon a time.” Just as boobs are Educational as long as they’re in carven marble or Renaissance oil paint and belong to someone with a plumper body type than currently fashionable.

[oursin]

Wonder if they've been using cleaned-up texts of Shakespeare expurgated of the smut, or maybe the smut is sufficiently opaquely period to have flown right by her.

[full_metal_ox]

I was surprised fairly recently to learn of the existence of a G-rated version of Avenue Q, safe for school drama productions; here’s the school-safe version of the song about the uses of the Internet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcU4-i78hqo

[raven]

I've gotta say, I love 14yo Ed and his talent.

[minoanmiss]

Ahahhahha I bet LW really hates it when her favorite actors Play Against Type.

[petrea_mitchell]

Thinking of all the classic Doctor Who DVD commentaries I've listened to, where one of the comments that keeps popping up is the other actors talking about what a sweet and funny person the actor playing that story's horrible villain was when they were out of character.

[dine]

LW really doesn't understand what "acting" is.

the advice is good, though I wonder if LW will follow through. personally, I think it's keen that a kid is able to develop and stick with a persona that's (apparently) far from his own.

[cimorene]

And this is such a fundamental non-understanding that if you start to think about it it gets odder and odder. How do you even - how has this LW managed to - and what do they think television - I can't.

[mildred_of_midgard]

Plato genuinely believed this, which is why he banned acting from the Republic. (Or at least one reason.) My reaction when learning this in college was exactly yours: "I can't even."

But LW's atittude has a whole history behind it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheatricality

[full_metal_ox]

LW does not want to think about the number of people delivering ongoing Tony-worthy performances as Straight Kid or Cis Kid or Good Christian Kid or else.

[cimorene]

Omg 😂😂😂

[minoanmiss]

I always loved that Mary Renault had an actor tell Plato off for that. Fictional revenge is delicious.

[mildred_of_midgard]

That's awesome. Good for her.

[ysobel]

FFS, is LW Thermian or something?

Ed's character is probably SUPPOSED to be creepy. "Noticeably uneasy" is character reactions to the character -- hell, it might even specify that in the script -- not the kids reacting to Ed.

[green_grrl]

I wonder if LW would feel better if they saw Ed will all the rest of the cast laughing and joking around after final curtain. Yes, Ed is actually their sweet and normal kid, and all the other kids know it.

Good actors can be scary! There are certain actors I love, but they’re so good that I won’t watch them if they are playing a creepy / scary part because it will be too believable.

[full_metal_ox]

“…That one may scowl, and scowl, and be a sweetie.” What a concept, huh?

[michelel72]

Haha I love the idea that the LW is Thermian.

[dissectionist]

Imagine having your kid excelling at a difficult skill and your response is… that.

[firecat]

For me it was writing and I’m very glad I no longer have people with authority over me fretting about the content of my stories.