Thank you for the welcomes!
Now tell us about the "Singing Spiritual Women" - no one would belive me if I told it.
Well, since you asked so nicely...
Two years ago, I was in a production of "The Sound Of Music" at a Long Island performing arts camp. I was thrilled to be cast as Mother Abyss (Very unconventional casting, if you ask me. My last name is Weinbloom! I don't make a very convincing Catholic.), and it seemed from fairly early on that this would be a very good production. Two weeks before we were supposed to open, the head of the theatre department came into our rehearsal studio to tell the cast that the very Jewish philanthropists of the camp had complained that nice Jewish girls were being "forced" to play nuns (No mention of the little Jewish boys who were playing Nazis!). Our director, in all his brilliance, came up with a 'logical' solution for this problem: Get rid of the nuns. Of course, the entire cast was outraged, but especially the poor nuns who not only were losing valuable stage time but also their one chance to act like shiksas! When I asked the director why the philanthropists were so upset, he simply said "Well, the Catholics have done some terrible things to the Jews over the years..." And the Nazis
haven't?! With each passing day, different aspects of our characters and the show in general were stripped away. First, we were told that we wouldn't be allowed to cross ourselves. Eventually, we also lost the right to kneel or hold our hands in a religious manner. When we got our costumes, they were simple black dresses. No habits, no crosses, nothing remotely religious. Instead of referring to Maria's home in the begining of the show as the "Abby", we were forced to call it the "School". Two days before the show, we were asked not to sing the opening in Latin, but rather on a simple "Lalala". On the final cast list that was put in the program, the nun ensemble was referred to as "Singing Spiritual Women".
It was very, very sad.
