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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1990)
j Nebraskan 3 Editorial Board I University of Nebraska-Lincoin Jana Pedersen, Editor, 472-1766 Mall Merck, NewsEditor Brandon Loomis, Columnist John Payne, Entertainment Editor Darran Fowler, Sports Editor Brian Shcllito, Art Director Michelle Paulman, Photo Chief I Show should go on Producer deserves casting freedom The Actors’ Equity union stopped the show last week by threatening to prevent Jonathan Pryce, a non-Asian actor, from playing the lead role in the Broadw ay run of the British production “Miss Saigon. But the musical's producer, Cameron Mackintosh, said the (show won’t go on without Pryce, who played the role in London. The actor’s union has a point; an Asian show should have an Asian star. But their point is flawed in several ways. First of all and least importantly, the character Pryce is sup posed to play is not completely Asian, just half Asian. He also is half French. Second, actors traditionally play characters that aren’t like | themselves. Theater would be monotonous if actors could play I only parts that matched a ccnain set of their own traits. The 1 whole point of acting is to play other people, and makeup can and should be used to accomplish that goal. \ And Pryce is one of a small number of non-Asian actors on the set. Of the 50 roles in “Miss Saigon,” 34 are played by actors of color, 29 by Asians or Asian-Americans. Finally, the logic behind the union's tactic easily can be reversed. If only Asian actors may play Asian roles, it follows that only white actors may play white roles. Lawrence Olivier could not have played Othello, but Denzel Washington would be kept away Irom Richard HI, loo. The solution to the problem is simply to let the best actors, | regardless of skin color, play the roles they win, and to let those who cast productions decide who gels what roles. In this case, it means allowing Pryce to play in “Miss Saigon.’’ -Jana Pedcnten R(°L ike Daily Nebrw>kan | Responsibility falls on parents In response to Irvin Nelson’s re sponse (DN, Aug. 12) to Jana Ped ersen’s editorial (DN, Aug.5), I think that before you start talking about where the responsibility falls after labelling, you should do your home work on the effects of labelling on the market. According to Rip magazine, sev eral hundred record stores across the country have announced that they will not slock labelled products. Several states have been considering manda tory labelling of all products with explicit lyrics, and what this leads to is pre-censorship. The responsibility will inevitably fall on the artists who produce the material, because if it is unacceptable, it won’t even be in the stores. Artists are now pre-censoring everything including album covers just to get their feel in the door . .. By not exposing our children to this music, wc arc not necessarily protecting them from themes of big otry and alcohol abuse, because that s what’s happening in the real world. Knowing what is right and wrong should begin at home. The best thing w c can do is educate our children so they know that just because suicide and drugs are in music, it doesn’t make them acceptable. I think that the responsibility should be shoul dered b> the parent, but the Kxds available aren’t working the way they were designed. My linal point is this: No one shixild have the final say on what music wc are allowed to listen to, but by all means if they don’t want to hear it, they arc more than w clcomc to turn it off. # Joey Ossian elementary education Ml£r___ The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others. Readers also are welcome to sub mit material as guest opinions. Whether material should run as a let ter or guest opinion, or not to run, is left to the editor’s discretion. Submit material to the Daily Ne braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R Sl, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. _ There’s little to learn from Iraq In long run we won't have to worry about Middle East or oil ^^1 o, when me sanu eventually settles and our boys come marching home from Kuwait what will we have learned from Sad dam Hussein? Some, such as Senate Minority Leader Boh Dole (R-Kan.), would have us believe that we need to get on the ball, militarily speaking. Dole and others argue that Iraq’s Aug. 2 inva sion of Kuwait is a prime example of why we need to keep signing big checks to finance our defense budget. Others would have us believe Hussein’s invasion is as good a rea son as any to begin disliking Iraqis as much as we learned to dislike Irani ans, or arc beginning to dislike the Japanese -- again. After all, who the hell do they think they are anyway? dun oincrs would want us lo re member the leadership exemplified by our president during a crisis situ ation. In a week’s lime, President Bush managed to re-establish the United States' position as global po liceman, deploy the most soldiers the United Stales has had abroad since Vietnam and slip an economic noose around the neck of our aggressor. It truly has been his finest hour. While the Iraqi standoff has been a sobering experience to some and a pain in the wallet to others, all of us - or most of us anyw ay - w ill be able to walk away from this experience pretty confident. Older generations can rest assured thai the United Stales still knows how to gel tough. Cra/y lib eral college kids can get the ridicu lous idea of world peace out of their heads. And even the children can experience the pride of daddy going off to war. A11 ih i s for a mere S14.6 m i 11 ion or so a day. Perhaps the moral of the Iraq Kuwail story is that, in the short run, there really is very little to learn atall. We re just confirming what we’ve known all along -- that when you’re American there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can't do w ith a thick wallet and a big gun. But maybe, if we look a little fur ther on down the line, we’d be able to learn a little more. We’ll all be glad to know- that in the long run, we Von’t have to worry about bullies like Iraq. Nor will we have to worr> about defending oil rich Saudi Arabia from its greedy neighbors. And in the long run, West ern Europe won't have to rely on the American government to protect its oil interests in Saudi Arabia, or any where else for that matter. Why? Because in the long run - w hich could come in about 40 years - we will have used up the world's supply of fossil fuels. In the long run, nasty mishaps like oil spills will be a thing of the past. We won’t have anything to fill upour tankers, or power them for that mat ter. It s such grxxl news one wonders why it isn’t covered more in the newspapers. Not to worry. U.S. senators like Frank Murkowski of Alaska will have us facing the long-run in no time at all. In the midnight hours before Congress recessed for August. Murkowski added an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would require the president to pro pose opening up for oil and gas drill ing all onshore and offshore federal lands whenever oil imports exceed 50 percent. Just think -- oil rigs all over the California, Florida, North Caro lina and Massachusetts coastlines w ith one measly amendment. The idea has leaders in the petro leum industry so excited they’re screaming, unit: unu: Still, there arc others who aren't so anxious about the future. Their voices, nearly silenced by all the cries lor immediate relief, whisper, ‘‘Couldn’t . . . shouldn’t we conserve a little? Isn’t it time to explore alternative energy resources?” You’d think these people would grow tired of worry ing. After all, many of them also complain that we need to do something now to handle the na tional debt, improve education, tech nology, the economy and the envi ronment. Such a burden. No, most of us would rather learn our lessons about the future when the future is upon us. It’s w hat we’re used to. So, what’s the real moral of the story in the long run? That in the short run, there’s really very little to learn at all. R<»od ism senior news-editorial major and a Summer l)ail> Nebraskan editorial colum nist.
