The New Theatre Hero for the #MeToo/BLM Era

Meet high schooler Shellie Shelby, a biracial young woman who faces her fears, summons her powers, and ends up the lead in the school musical -- in a role traditionally cast with a white actor.

I've been wanting for a long time to create a book about theatre in the style of Dr. Seuss. A couple years ago, I talked about it to Zak Farmer, one of our New Line actors, but also a really talented visual artist. He agreed to illustrate the book for me. The result was Shellie Shelby Shares the Spotlight, and Zak and I could not be prouder of it.

I soon settled on the idea of following a high school drama kid through the whole process of putting on a show. I realized if I made the main character a drama newbie, they could be the reader's surrogate as the character navigates the crazy path to opening night. My first instinct was to make the main character a barely fictionalized version of me in high school.

Of course it was.

But then I thought about all the little kids of color who could look at former President Obama and Vice President Harris, and finally see themselves in those roles. And I thought this book of ours can 't be about another white boy getting the lead. Not in the era of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. When I wrote my musical theatre history book fifteen years ago, Strike Up the Band, I was careful to include artists of color, women artists, openly gay artists, artists with disabilities. This time, it was almost more important.

Once our hero Shellie Shelby was born, I made two more preliminary choices. First, her sidekick and best buddy would be the only incidentally gay Jo-Jo McQuill. Second, I decided to populate the story with strong women. So the villains are two socially powerful senior girls, and Shellie's Wise Wizard figure on her Hero's Journey is her drama teacher Mrs. R. Further, I decided that this would be a 42nd Street type story, with the newbie somehow getting thrust into the lead at the end. And though I don't name it specifically, it's pretty clear that the show they're doing is Gypsy and Shellie takes over the role of Mama Rose.

And there's a subtle implied point here that probably only women actors will notice. The teacher Mrs. R. has purposefully chosen a show with really strong female leads. I wanted to hint here at the growing idea of older women mentoring younger women, inspired by organizations like Maestra, the organization "for the women who make the music in the musical theatre industry;" and Know Your Value.

This became very important to me -- that a biracial actor, with natural hair, could easily be cast as Mama Rose. It didn't matter that her hair would look different than Ethel Merman's. It didn't matter that she might not be the same race as the actors playing her daughters. Everybody in the audience knew it was pretend, everybody knew those were actors on stage; nobody thought they were watching real life, nobody thought Shellie was actually Rose Hovick. Those are all silly concerns but the nonwhite actors I know tell me it happens all the time.

The main purpose of the book was to create something fun for tweeners and teens -- and musical theatre nuts like you and me -- that portrayed the process of putting on a high school musical pretty accurately. But I have to admit, I did a little sneaky teaching along the way. Shellie herself gets a little philosophical after auditions:

“Oh, that’s okay, Joe,”
Shellie said,
“I’m still your biggest fan!
The goal is not to Be the Best;
It’s Be the Best You Can!

Besides which,
If we don’t get cast,
That’s out of our control.
It’s not about
Who’s Best or Most;
It’s Who Best Fits the Role.”

And all this wisdom
Shellie shared
(No shallow
Facebook fluff!)
Surprised her more than anyone!
Who knew she knew this stuff?

And Mrs. R gets repeatedly philosophical:

“But what is most exciting,”
Mrs. R. one day related,
“Is the acting that’s
Most honest,
Even when
Exaggerated . . .

The brushstrokes
May be bigger,
And the colors
May be bolder,
But the details
Are as truthful
To the eye of the beholder!”

Couldn't have said it better myself. Oh wait, I wrote that. Here's another of my favorite gems from Mrs. R.:

"We humans need our stories,
To connect and understand,
To bind us to each other,
To our times and to our land.

See, Theatre is Life,” she said.
“It’s Life,” a pause, “Explained.
The more our stories tell the Truth,
The more we’ve entertained!”

Part of that truth is the multi-racial, multi-cultural society we live in. As much as we think about diversity in our casting and on our board at New Line, if not for #MeToo and BLM, I'm honestly not sure I would have been in the right place, with the right understanding, to recognize I should not write our book about yet another white boy. As New Line actor and board member Kevin Corpuz keeps reminding me, Representation Matters.

Our little book is only a very tiny contribution to that idea, but I think/hope it's only the beginning... Zak and I are already planning a sequel for Shellie and Jo-Jo.

Everything's different now. Everything. That's why we knew we had to open our 30th season with Songs for a New World. We really are in a New World now, all of us. There's so much good to embrace and so much evil to rise up against.

We can never forget that we are the storytellers, and we have great responsibility in times like these.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott