It does what it needs to do storytelling-wise, but it feels like going home, you know?" Taymor said. "It's funky, and it's so good, and it's so from the heart, and it's so visceral, so that's something that I find really unique to the musical theater world. The show has a nine-piece orchestra, with an Americana sound. The music is what fully drew Taymor in to the project. "That's part of what makes 'The Outsiders' so special, is that when you read it, you can project yourself onto it."Ĭourtesy of The La Jolla Playhouse Director Danya Taymor is shown in an undated photo. "I think in the future of this musical, there could be some really interesting casting for certain characters that isn't necessarily binary," Taymor said. In terms of gender, Taymor said that the script also leaves room for diversity and nonbinary actors. In this adaption, several of the Greasers are written to be performed by diverse actors, though the Socs - and the Greasers who attend the same school as the Socs - are all white, because their school, Will Rogers High School, was still a segregated school. Michael Ralph, chair of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, is part of the project as an anthropologist to keep the production accurate to Tulsa's history. The Vietnam War, poverty, classism and uprisings and violence centered on race - a "boiling point and a breaking point," she added.ĭr. "This is Tulsa, 1967, which is such a particular time in this country," Taymor said. Taymor said that this adaptation is true to the realities of the time and place, but also crafts relevance for audiences now and in the future. "Something that Susie said to me when I was there is, she said, 'Make your version mine already exists.' And that was extremely freeing to get the blessing from the author to make a version that speaks to today." "A sense of responsibility, for me, is what drives me to do justice to the story," Taymor said, adding that she met Susie Hinton (the novel's author) in Tulsa as she researched for the production. The enduring success of the book and movie add an element of responsibility to Taymor as she directs the musical's world premiere - but she also recognizes a freedom with this new platform. "The Outsiders" at The La Jolla Playhouse
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