A New York high school cancelled its rendition of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” after social justice warriors complained that a white student got a lead part.
Eliza VanCort, the mother of Ithaca High School senior Annabella Mead- VanCort, wrote a letter to school administrators last November, when she heard the school was going to do the production, and warned them that they would be watching.
“And then they cast it the way they did,” Annabella told The Ithaca Journal. “And then we decided to write letters.”
“It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you,” Maddi, a black student, said. “And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?”
The part they are disputing is Esmeralda, a 15th century Romani gypsy, which was given to a white, female student.
Esmeralda is described in Victor Hugo’ work as half French, but the students insisted that the character is black.
There has been a black Cinderella, Orphan Annie, Hermione Granger and entire all black remakes of “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Honeymooners” and “Steel Magnolias.” But it is doubtful that the VanCorts wrote any letters about those productions.
