{"id":33619,"date":"2023-10-25T17:36:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T00:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33619"},"modified":"2023-10-25T17:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T00:36:15","slug":"not-my-mothers-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/not-my-mothers-oklahoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Not My Mother’s Oklahoma!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My husband and I love going to the theater. Every year for our anniversary, we get season tickets. Last year, I was so excited to see Oklahoma!<\/em><\/a> On the roster. I remember watching the movie of this musical growing up. I loved the fun, upbeat songs and cheerful melodies. We arrived at the theater for an evening of fun entertainment. We were not prepared for what came next. If you have not seen Oklahoma!<\/em>, the Playbill synopsis is,<\/p>\n

SYNOPSIS:<\/strong>\u00a0A confident cowboy competes with a surly, mysterious farmhand for the honor of taking a lovely young farm woman to a dance in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 musical adaptation of\u00a0Green Grow the Lilacs<\/em>.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The new revival of Oklahoma!<\/em> did not change the script of the original, but the staging of this production changes it into something completely unexpected. Entertainment Weekly<\/em> describes it as follows:<\/p>\n

Oklahoma\u00a0<\/em>has always had this dark underbelly in its tale of frontier violence, rejection of the “other,” and uneasy marriage negotiations \u2014 but very few productions are willing to cede the floor to it. That’s what makes Fish’s revival truly revelatory, his ability to plumb the depths of a musical that has long been whitewashed and revered as a piece of Americana, rather than understood as a critique of it.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was utterly shocking and raw. I had always thought of this musical as a romantic love story. Daniel Fish\u2019s staging reminded me of reading Sway<\/em> last Spring. I left the theater thinking about my own unconscious bias. Pragya Agarwal wrote, \u201cpeople are not just favourably inclined towards people who are the same as them (in-group favouritism or familiarity and confirmation bias) but also often actively biased against those who are outside their group (out-group derogation).\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

I think this restaging of a classic musical depicts what Postmodernism is as described by Stephen R. C. Hicks in Explaining Postmodernism<\/em>. He writes\u201d<\/p>\n

Modern debates were over truth and reality, reason and experience, justice and peace, beauty and progress. In the postmodern framework, those concepts always appear in quotation marks. Our most strident voices tells us that \u201cTruth\u201d is a myth. \u201cReason\u201d is a white male Eurocentric construct. \u201cEquality\u201d is a mask for oppressions. \u201cPeace\u201d and \u201cProgress\u201d are met with cynical and weary reminders of power \u2013 or explicit ad hominem<\/em> attacks.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

In an article included at the end of the book, Hicks describes the movement from modernism to postmodernism in art. One aspect of postmodernist art he describes is the expectation of social justice claims. Art is postmodern, \u201cas long as they are narrower<\/em> race\/class\/gender statements rather than pretentious universalist claims about something called The Human Condition.\u201d[5]<\/a> There is a negativity inherent in the art of postmodernism.<\/p>\n

As a piece of art, this production of Oklahoma!<\/em> fits into Hicks\u2019 depiction of postmodern art. One theater critic stated, \u201cDaniel Fish\u2019s production examines this 20th<\/sup> century classic from a 21st<\/sup> century perspective.<\/a>\u201d[6]<\/a> Fish brings the story into a 21st<\/sup> century perspective. He demands that the audience face their preconceived notions of the characters. One aspect of postmodern art is confronting the truth of the world in stark terms. Hicks states, \u201cPostmodernism has become an increasingly narrow set of variations upon a narrow modernist set of themes\u201d and that in modern art, \u201cArt must be a quest for truth, however brutal, and not beauty<\/em>.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Not everyone who came to see this production was able to handle the changes. Several people left the theater at intermission and I heard more complaining after the performance. On one hand, I can understand. This production was not at all what I was expecting. However, I also feel like it shows a lack of willingness to confront the dark undertones of the story. In this postmodern world, we must be willing to confront our bias, face our prejudice, and address the inequity of society. Although this was not the production, I expected to see that night, I am grateful for the mirror it provided me.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/playbill.com\/production\/oklahoma-circle-in-the-square-theatre-2018-2019<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/ew.com\/theater\/theater-reviews\/oklahoma-sexy-revival-loses-provocative-edge-on-tour-review\/<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Pragya Agarwal, Sway: Unraveling Unconscious Bias<\/em>. (London, Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020), pg. 99.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Stephen R. C. Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault<\/em>. (Redland Bay QLD: Connor Court Publishing, 2019), 20.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Hicks, 260.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=57ogqHMGRLg<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Hicks, 248 & 250.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband and I love going to the theater. Every year for our anniversary, we get season tickets. Last year, I was so excited to see Oklahoma! On the roster. I remember watching the movie of this musical growing up. I loved the fun, upbeat songs and cheerful melodies. We arrived at the theater for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2244,1764,2881],"class_list":["post-33619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agarwal","tag-hicks","tag-oklahoma","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33622,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33619\/revisions\/33622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}