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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Musicals, in their efforts to engage in the world as it is or model life as it could be, are political almost by definition. #broadway #musicaltheatre #America #politics #musicals #DoYouHearThePeopleSing

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

As I argue in “That musical politic: Musical Theatre Citations and Satire in the Trump Era,” Trump lacks media literacy around musicals, yet frequently engages with them—even going so far as to argue that Theatre must be a “safe” (i.e., apolitical) space. That is impossible. doi.org/10.1386/smt_...

doi.org

That musical politic: Musical theatre citations and satire in the Trump era | Intellect

This article amplifies the intersection of musical theatre and political discourse during Donald Trump’s presidency by working against Trump’s imperative that musical theatre be a ‘safe’ art form. Rat...

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Daily reminder that musical theatre is political. The US Army Chorus singing “Do You Hear the People Sing?” at the Governors Ball is a layered example of mobilizing music theatre as political commentary and satire, and how it’s interwoven with audience media literacy. m.youtube.com/watch?v=pIQh...

m.youtube.com

Les Misérables Epilogue Scene Performed at the White House Governors Ball by the US Army Chorus

YouTube video by The DailyFAFO

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Hi, Christina, could you add me? Many thanks!

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

As we head into the next stretch of presidential politics, my hope is that this essay gives us some vocabulary and pedagogical tools to engage with our current moment. If you need access, please don't hesitate to contact me. #musicals #Broadway #politics #popculture doi.org/10.1386/smt_00…

doi.org

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

“That Musical Politic: Musical Theatre Citations and Satire in the Trump Era" responds to Trump's public comments that the Theatre must be a "safe and special place" and analyzes how artists combat Trump's assessment of theatre and his politics through performance and artistry.

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

If you’re looking for a way into thinking about how theatre artists can and have resisted Trump and encroaching fascism, try my new article on musical theatre, #Broadway satire, and presidential politics: doi.org/10.1386/smt_00…. DM if you need access to a copy! #ElectionDay #musicals #dramaturgy

doi.org

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Hi there! Newly over here and would love to be added!

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Samuel Yates @syates.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Today, I’m holding the words of Tony Kushner close: “But hope isn’t a choice, it’s a moral obligation, a human obligation, an obligation to the cells in your body.” Full speech at www.thenation.com/article/arch...

But hope isn’t a choice, it’s a moral obligation, a human obligation, an obligation to the cells in your body. Hope is a function of those cells, it’s a bodily function the same as breathing and eating and sleeping. Hope is not naïve, hope grapples endlessly with despair. Real, vivid, powerful, thunderclap hope, like the soul, is at home in darkness, is divided; but lose your hope and you lose your soul, and you don’t want to do that, trust me, even if you haven’t got a soul, and who knows, you shouldn’t be careless about it. Will the world end if you act? Who can say? Will you lose your soul, your democratic-citizen soul, if you don’t act, if you don’t organize? I guarantee it. And you will feel really embarrassed at your ten-year class reunion. People will point, I promise you; people always know when a person has lost his soul. And no one likes a zombie, even if, from time to time, people will date them.

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