#ableism in rtc

[haowenyang]

if i live in denial i can ignore the fact that the script got changed into something 100x more ableist

[rtc-confessions]

CW for S/A mention/porta potty scene mention

I really really hate the trend on tiktok where people use beautiful from heathers to describe the rtc characters. Specifically, the “freak, slut, cripple, homo, homo, homo”

It feels like an excuse for abled people to say the word cripple and coming from a certified cripple ™️, it really pisses me off that they’re so comfortable saying that word.

But what I think is equally bad if not worse, is that they always label Constance as the “slut”. I tried to search for any reasoning beyond this, when Ricky and Noel have arguably sluttier behavior. And they’re doing it because of her having sex with the carnie in the porta potty!

Yaknow, the one she was too young to consent to, and who was almost DOUBLE HER AGE. That’s literally just sexual assault. People are calling her a slut for getting her assaulted, like it’s funny or something. Coming from a victim, it’s not funny. It’s just really weird and fucked up and I want people to stop doing it. She’s not a slut because she’s a victim, she’s not old enough to consent.

~~

[thelegendofmik]

Stop Defending Ableists Challenge (Level: Impossible)

So the other day I made a post listing all the ableist things Jacob Richmond has included in Legoland and Ride the Cyclone.

And the response was abysmal - the amount of "well actually..." kind of responses I got was disgusting and I took down the post because I find it counterproductive to argue with teenagers on the internet. However, I stand by the belief that if you think you are old enough to post publicly on the internet, you are old enough to be held accountable for what you post.

But I think what I had to say was quite important, so I am going to reword it here.

TW here for the discussion of ableism and ableist slurs (they are all censored)

There is ZERO (0) justification for the use of THREE (3) ableist slurs across both works. I don't fucking care if it was the 2000's. The ADA predates both shows and disability activism had existed for decades before that (as yannick very kindly reminded me). So no, it was not ok for Richmond to use those slurs in his works, regardless of the time period. Because there is nothing "correct" (politically, or otherwise) about ableism.

And before you say "Oh, but it was the character who said it, not the writer..."

CHARACTERS ARE NOT SENTIENT BEINGS! They are not created in a vacuum. Their thoughts and actions are often a reflection of the author's own beliefs and morals.

It was not Ocean who decided to use the word cr*pple. It was Jacob Richmond who decided to use it. Same with the r word and sp*z in Legoland. It wasn't Penny and Ezra who decided to use those words, it was Jacob Richmond. Because each character's actions are dictated by the decisions that the author makes for that character. And in this case, the author decided to be an ableist asshole.

Yes, characters can be assholes. They can be complex and nuanced beings. But there are better ways to portray such experiences than being violently ableist (i.e.: without using slurs). And why does the ableist character get complexity and nuance, but the disabled character is simply the sad, disabled kid, with not much else in his personality until he magically becomes abled bodied. Like we deserve nuance and complexity as well, people!

In a 2022 interview with Curtain Call Bway (here), when asked who his favourite character to write was, Richmond responds with the following:

Ocean is definitely my favorite character to write because it’s based on certain people I’ve met and certain aspects of myself too.

Like he literally admits it himself, that his decisions when writing an ableist character were based off aspects of his own personality.

The reality is, disability has never been more than a comedic plot point to Richmond. He has never cared about portraying a realistic disabled experience. He has never cared about disabled people.

And the cherry on top is that his response to yannick-robin being hate-crimed was to rewrite Ricky so that he could be played by an abled and therefore production teams wouldn't have to give a shit about ensuring their spaces are safe and accessible for disabled performers. If he actually cared about disabled people and properly representing our experiences, he would have worked with a disability consultant and fixed the issues within the show. Instead, he doubles down and causes even more harm.

To add insult to injury, he then licensed that script to Sarah Rasmussen and her team of ableist cronies for the DC production. Because him choosing to continue working with Rasmussen and her team just shows that he shares the same ableist values as the McCarter/Arena team.

So by saying that "its the character, not the author", you are defending Richmond and his violent ableism. You are attempting to justify the harm he has done and CONTINUES TO DO to disabled people. YOU. ARE. A. PART. OF. THE. PROBLEM.

Ride the Cyclone and Legoland (in ALL its forms and versions) contains so much ableist violence. This violence has traumatised REAL PEOPLE, but yannick, myself, and other people speaking out are the ones ruining the vibe by calling it out? Be fucking for real people.

Now if only my university papers were this thorough...

[lore-gore]

Saw this comic by @icepoptroll and thought: "we need to do something similar in our roleplay."

And then I proceeded to draft this:

Song ends.

(Pause.)

Ocean: I just wanted them to pay attention to me. But no achievement could ever make my parents give- give a shit about me! Because they never did. So I just kept climbing and climbing, until eventually it wasn’t about them anymore. Winning just became who I was. I became so obsessed with the climb, that I forgot where the top was. I hurt the people who actually gave me happiness for a goal that would never be reached because it never existed.

Ricky: You really did, Ocean. You constantly infantilized and talked down to me, calling me sweetie despite the fact you didn’t even know if I was sweet. You didn’t know me at all. You treated me like a charity project, rather than seeing me as a person. You reduced my value down to my physical disabilities. You called me useless. You said I’d never learn to read, even though I do know how to read, I love to read actually, and even if I couldn’t, even if I had low cognitive ability, that doesn’t make me below you. I honestly wish you just ignored me like everybody else.

Ocean: I’m so sorry, Ricky. You didn’t deserve that.

Ricky: I know. There’s no undoing what you’ve done, Ocean. Not just to me, but to everyone in the choir. But what you can do is be better. Start treating us with respect and learn from your mistakes. Apologies only go so far.

Ocean: Thank you, Ricky.

Ricky: You’re welcome, Ocean.

Obviously needs tweaking to make it truly fit their characters, but I think I nailed the vibe down.

@krowsindulgences @astral--horrorshow @parasolyaa @savannahwiththegreeneteyes

[rickypottsboyfriend]

rtc fandom moved on too fast from rickys disability being cut . why the fuck is nobody talking about . it goes to show that ableds do not care about physically disabled people when it comes to media . you guys were letting his disability get erased . you maybe reblogged a link to a petition to stop if from happening . but what else did you do ? continue to share what happened ? not support productions that cut his disability ? no . you guys were performative . you dont care . the rtc fandom has moved on entirely . i have seen NOBODY other than myself talk about rickys disability being cut from the musical . fuck you guys

[paper-land]

Just a note: this post started as a discussion of and is going to spend a decent amount of time discussing Yannick Mirko’s firing and replacement in Ride the Cyclone, but I realized I wanted to address my experience with ablism in theatre in general. I can’t force anyone to read this, but if you have the time and you care about representation in theatre, I’d to ask you to try and hear what I have to say

TLDR: Yannick Mirko's speaking out is bringing more attention to ableism in theatre, I added some examples I've seen to emphasize that ableism in the theatre world is really common

Literally I take a break from writing my papers for finals for like 10 minutes and I find out that Arena Stage cast Yannick Mirko’s able-bodied understudy to play Ricky in their production of RtC.

For anyone not caught up, Yannick Mirko is the first disabled person to play Ricky Potts, a canonically disabled character, in the musical Ride The Cyclone. He was unjustly fired from the production he was in (the McCarter atheater) because of their disability. They had one medical emergency and was told that his disability was too unpredictable that he would be replaced by his understudy, who is not disabled.

Now, onto the Arena Stage production. Three of the seven cast members played the roles they are in now in the McCarter Theater production (Jane Doe, Mischa Bachinski, and Noel Gruber). Two are playing their original role from a different production (Constance Blackwood, Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg). One appears to be playing their role for the first time, though I could be wrong on this (The Amazing Karnak). The only cast member of the Arena Stage production who, as far as I can tell, was an understudy for their first production is their Ricky Potts. Ricky is being played by the able bodied understudy who took over the role when Yannick Mirko was fired from the McCarter Theater production. He was also reportedly referred to by his disability aids during the rehearsal process, rather than his name.

This is genuinely disgusting. Theatre is already so discriminatory to disabled people and the McCarter Theater and Arena Stage productions have so far only proved that they can get away with it. Admittedly, I have minimal social media presence so there could be conversations I haven’t seen, but I have seen a maximum of 5 people talk about this.

It’s very much worth noting that most productions I have been in or seen we’re willing to bend over backwards to make sure an able bodied actor could stay onstage. I’ve been in five shows where an understudy was sent out. Three because the actors had Covid and two because the actor was in the hospital and would not be discharged until after the show was over. This may sound like a lot of productions with understudies, but I’ve been in theatre for 11 years. I’ve been in 30 shows. Five shows, especially mid-pandemic, is nothing. I have been in shows where directors have done everything in their power to keep an able bodied actor in a lead role (including many cases of severe illnesses and one with a concussion and staples in his head). I’ve seen an actress onstage while she had broken ribs. I’ve seen a friend perform after slicing her leg and spraining her ankle. Ive seen a different friend come to a three hour rehearsal after spending the morning vomiting. Two different people I know have performed with dislocated joints. I’ve been onstage when I was so sick I couldn’t breathe or speak. I’ve been onstage when my glasses broke and I couldn’t see as far as the people around me. Most actors I know who have left productions only left because they could not physically return or because they were fired for actually valid reasons (skipped nearly half of the rehearsals so they could go on vacation without informing the director).

If these were fine, if I’ve been praised and seen actors praised for doing this, why was Yannick Mirko fired for one medical emergency? Easy answer: Ableism.

One less-than shocking part for me was realizing that I’ve worked with one of the people who was involved in the McCarter production for an awards show. I watched her work with disabled performers in one of the other acts. And, mind you, by “work with,” I mean that she told them their spots and expected them to know where to go. She was absolutely lovely to everyone else (especially leads but I don’t want to get into the treatment of ensemble actors right now, that’ll probably be a different post one day).

I also want to discuss my experiences with ablism in theatre, as someone who has witnessed it and, very recently, started experiencing it (to, admittedly, a significantly lesser degree than many).

The first show I was in with a disabled actor, I was 14. My friend was made to climb multiple set pieces despite her leg not being fully functional. She’d been in a wheelchair for several months at school that year. I didn’t fully realize something was wrong until she started complaining about minor pain to me. She never wanted anyone to go to the director and she never went on her own.

My next is when I was 15. I didn’t realize what was really happening for many years. He had missed several rehearsals with no word to our directors and was made to leave the show. This sounds normal enough, I mentioned someone else who was forced to do the same earlier on. This would be normal if the director hadn’t checked in on and allowed able bodied actors who had done the same thing back into the show. I figured at that point in my life that he’d just missed more shows or assumed that he’d come to the mutual agreement to leave. I don’t have answers, but I’ve started to doubt those beliefs in recent years.

My next show with a disabled actor was when I was still 15. We had one disabled actress, a girl in a wheelchair. The show was set in a high school. She was in onstage twice. The first time, she sat on the side during a group number and sang with us (she was never taught any choreography. The second time, a cast member brought her on, she was crowned prom queen, and then she left the stage and was never seen again until curtain call. Honestly, at the time, I thought it was weird that we were treating her as less capable and not allowing her into any more of the show, but it’s hard to bring that up with anyone. Especially when everyone you try to talk to about it defends the choice. Everyone said that she was less capable or that she’d stick out or that her wheelchair would get in the way. I didn’t feel I could address it, so it was left unsaid. She went to school with me for five years and I never saw her in another production.

It took several years to be in another show with a disabled actor. My school was by all accounts really great about our treatment of disabled people until it came to extracurriculars.

My most recent show that I’m talking about was not technically with a disabled actor, but one who was injured for the entire rehearsal and performance process and was treated similarly from what I could see. It was last year. They were cast in the group that was onstage the least. Nobody in that group was invited to any vocal rehearsals and they were all in one choreography rehearsal. They were also made to stand at the bottom of a set piece on their own because they couldn’t climb it like the rest of their group.

I’d also like to discuss my experiences since finding out that I have a wrist problem that will likely impact me on and off for the rest of my life. For context, I have limited mobility in one of my hands due to a problem with my wrist and thumb. I cannot fully bend my wrist in any direction, nor can I comfortably straighten my thumb all the way or make a fist with the thumb on the inside.

I’d also like to note that I am currently in university taking a creative writing minor, so that sucks because my wrist and thumb do affect my ability to type and write, so it flares up a lot. I also really like to draw and sew for fun and I’ve had to greatly limit my ability to do the things I enjoy. I’ve been in two shows since I went to my doctor because of the pains and four shows since the pain started affecting my abilities to do things.

This first show I was in after my wrist got bad was a very dance heavy production that consisted of two group numbers and a solo or duet for every cast member. The worst part for me was dance warmups, where we were instructed to do many things forced us to put large amounts of pressure on our hands. Primarily different forms of lunges and pushups. I would cry after every day’s warmups. I could barely hold my props.

The next show, I actually worked crew on. I was involved in props, costumes, and makeup, as well as moving sets/props between scenes. I made props with box cutters and scissors I could barely hold. My hands shook so hard when I was trying to melt the edge of a ribbon to keep it from fraying that I dropped a match (thank god I was outside and on pavement). I sewed costumes until I couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day. One of the worst parts was when I hand-sculpted multiple special-effect-makeup prosthetics for one of our actresses. I could hardly hold my makeup brushes or my dummy head that I was sculpting on by the end of every one I made (three sets, for context, every set used two pieces). The other worst was moving sets. I was originally set to move a desk for an office scene that was so heavy that I cried after our first rehearsal and requested to be switched to a new job. I was given a bookshelf that was on wheels. Two of the four wheels were broken and I had to pick up the shelves to get it into the correct position anyway. This show was actually the reason I went to the doctor about the wrist pains.

My next show was actually an improv workshop followed by two performances. I spent the day of the workshop painting for a school activity. I ended up in a wrist brace for the full workshop. I have never seen a group of people so cautious around me, nobody was even willing to touch that arm, which made a certain amount of improv very strange because we were doing a lot of physical stuff with each other. Everyone else was grabbing hands and stuff and they were just awkwardly standing next to me. I ended up taking off my brace for the performances so that I could feel like a part of the show. and hurting myself because I should have been wearing it.

The last show was a recent production where off-and-on through the rehearsal process, I was in the brace. There were many comments made asking about why my wrist was still hurting me, which I assume is a certain amount of ignorance because yes, my wrist still hurts, I haven't been able to move it properly for half a year. However, I was not given a single costume I could wear the brace with and another cast member was instructed to pull my by the arm that was hurt. Luckily, between pain meds and excessively taking care of myself, it didn’t hurt during production week, but I’d still call that some bad treatment.

Basically, theatre sucks for disabled actors. Please, help bring awareness to this. If you’ve seen or experienced ableism, I encourage you to speak out. Yannick Mirko is a wonderful performer and an inspiration to me. He’s been through so much. Also, I’m not fond of cursing, but fuck McCarter Theater and fuck Arena Stage. Cast disabled actors as disabled characters and don’t replace them with an able-bodied understudy.

[dial1-800-peachykeen]

It's always 'ily' and never 'mdtwiliyaeidnstbiabtmimbtpyiwttaotpfysaitpfomhtiifjiettyhbtcrawauawtyamwawssadadatiswiyelrroltbdmptilmmataoym'

[cpvnksabm]

I know complaining about it won’t help because it just makes people view me as a bitter cripple but good lord is it frustrating to be wholeheartedly obsessed with a fandom that constantly perpetuates ableism and belittles anyone who calls them out to the point that it’s unreasonably difficult to venture into any fandom space without being made to feel like I’m less welcome there for being disabled. Like can you people do better

[undescribed1mage]

Actually !! That isn't all. I am not the greatest at explaining things so sincerest apologies if any of this is worded wrong.

The Arena Stage Ride The Cyclone cast was announced. Everyone was main recast(nothing against the actors, ofc) either from Jungle Theatre or McCarter, except for Ricky.

Arena Stage is produced by Sarah Rasmussen, the producer of both the McCarter Theatre & Jungle Theatre productions of Ride The Cyclone(evident in the current casting).

Sarah Rasmussen has fired a disabled actor simply for being disabled. It's explained better here, as well on Yannick themselves account.

[haowenyang]

yannick: please don’t be a performative ally

SOME rtc fans: okay *is a performative ally*

(saying arena stage was good, saying mccarter theatre was good, praising kholby after what he said, saying the new script was accurate to TRAUMATIC mutism (which yannick has said it is not)/not bad/people are being over dramatic/saying that there’s still rep in the show etc, while reposting and saying stuff about what happened to yannick are all examples of the act of outwardly appearing devoted to a cause while declining to take any major actions to support it. the literal definition of performative ally-ism)

[rtc-confessions]

i’m going to start off by saying that i myself am autistic which is widely considered a disability (a hidden one in fact) and i would never myself want to come off as ableist and i’m sorry if you think that way it isn’t my intent i’m just here to state my opinion (and hopefully stop harassment towards 13 year olds which i’ve unfortunately seen) . recently there has been discourse in the fandom on weather or not it’s is ok to call ricky 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 and i wanted to give my two cents on the situation at hand. i personally think it’s ok to say it as long as it’s not in a ableist way. Most people when their using this term they mean it in the tiktok meme and often don’t have any intent of being ableist. yes the word freak and freaky have adopted ableist origins that originated in i believe the 1800s. however most often or not when people use the word freak they are referring to the something as odd or unusual (or the tiktok meme) yes this obviously dosent disregard the origins but the context is being used differently and throwing ableist accusations isn’t ok. most of the time someone isn’t educated on the subject. i think it’s ok to use the 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 meme on Ricky as long as you aren’t being ableist about him but if you disagree with that it’s perfectly fine and i’m open for criticism. also i’m not trying to disrespect anyone’s own experiences I myself have bean called a freak as-well. thanks for taking the time to read this rant and don’t harass others if you disagree feel free to discuss this is just my opinion and stay safe <3

~~

[thelegendofmik]

Ride the Cyclone's Ableism Runs so Much Deeper than I Realised

Hi friends! Its been a while since I spoke about Ride the Cyclone, because it was a shitshow and I quite frankly wanted nothing to do with it anymore.

But I am a chronic ruminator, and its midnight and I am currently in a pain flare, so I have found myself ruminating on RTC. In my head, I jokingly introduced Ocean as "Ablest Extraordinaire!" - which led me to realise that while Ocean is the only one who is explicitly ableist, the others are inherently complicit in her ableism, as they stand by and do literally nothing about it. And they were most likely the exact same while they were all alive.

And then I had the realisation:

The choir only deem Ricky worth listening to - his story worthy of being heard - after he is magically cured of his disabilities and is all of a sudden able-bodied. Now that his existence is palatable to the ableds.

Isn't this an amazing message to be sending to disabled kids? (/s) That in order to even be listened to they should suppress their access needs (by ditching the mobility aids and/or forcing themselves to communicate verbally).

And this isn't just a mentality expressed in the show (and by extension, by Jacob Richmond/Brooke Maxwell), it is one that is expressed by the teams that produce this musical. Exhibit A: McCarter theatre. They hire yannick-robin, but try to dictate which mobility aids he uses, and when, in order to try and make his disabilities more palatable to them and their target audience. And the moment yannick experiences a symptom of said disability (*gasp* shocking, I know, that a consistent denial of one's access needs leads to intensified symptoms) that doesn't fit with the carefully curated image of disability they want to portray, they throw him aside and deem him too "inconsistent".

Fucking pathetic, if you ask me.

To any disabled folks reading this:

You deserve to be heard, as you are. Tell your story however the fuck you see fit. You don't need to force yourself to be palatable to the ableds. They need to pull their heads out of their asses and grow the fuck up, quite frankly. And don't let anyone diminish your access needs - you deserve to have equal access in EVERYTHING. I love you all xx

That's all for today :)

[the-opus-collective]

“ocean wuz written to be a bad character!”

yea i get tha -_- …but she was written in the most painful way ever… (and i had to experience it ;n; …/sillyj (<- ricky fictroject))

for examp: rowan from taopp is a bad character in a sense he’s abusive n manipulative (>:( ) but it was tackled so well because melliot is skilled @ writing characters with dubious/jst plain bad moralz… half of the melliot chars r dubiously moralled anyways…

but oceanz ableism, xenophobia and homophobia (as well as general bitchiness) iz just laughed abt and WRITTEN liek tha :/

it’s written 2 be laughed about.. :( nd az a sys tha is phys + ment disabled bodily its weird for most ppl in the sys 2 see… :((

ricky out >:D

[ID: a photo of our cat (a black and white cat) loafing taken from above]

[lore-gore]

Breakdown of edits for upcoming roleplay, found here:

The changes to the 2016 version of Ride The Cyclone will be as follows:

Ricky will switch between his wheelchair and crutches throughout the play, depending on the choreography. (Or whatever mobility aid/combination of mobility aids Ricky's roleplayer wants to use.)

Ricky's catchphrase will still be last, but it will also be when he first speaks:

(RICKY realizes that this plane of existence has no boundaries. He attempts to communicate telepathically.)

RICKY; RECORDED

Story of my life brother.

KARNAK

Meet Ricky Potts

SFX: MEET RICKY

KARNAK

Town dreamer. Catchphrase:

(RICKY does a small physical gesture. He moves his mouth along with the words now.)

RICKY

Level up.

OCEAN

Oh my god Ricky, sweetie you can speak!

RICKY

That's nothing... watch this.

(RICKY summons his wheelchair.)

During What The World Needs, the tambourine line is used instead.

Ricky and Constance switch places in the pyramid.

Afterwards, Oceans 'I love you' to Ricky will go like this:

OCEAN

And Ricky! Honey. I love you. I got you into the choir even though you didn't talk! I mean, you got play the tambourine!

RICKY

No one gets to play the tambourine, they're always made to! No one's making out with tambourine guy.

OCEAN

Accessibility for all!

RICKY

And then I rode the roller coaster. Thanks.

Karnak calls Ukraine Ukraine, not THE Ukraine

Pre- Space Age Bachelor Man will go like this:

RICKY

Level up!

KARNAK

Ricky Potts, born June 5th. Gemini: the dual nature. Favorite ride: The Gravitron. Born with a rare degenerative disease, when Ricky mysteriously stopped speaking at an early age, the Potts family took a vow of silence. The only time they ever really interacted with one another is when they read comics, or fed the cats. They had 14 cats. From the time he started school Ricky was subjected to the most appalling cruelty humanity can muster: complete indifference. Far from growing bitter, Ricky developed an elaborate playground in his synapses, where he became his own best friend. Ladies and gentlemen I give you Ricky Potts! The most imaginative boy in town.

(Pause)

MISHA

Why don't you express your truth as 'The Boy Who Couldn't Talk Now Plays The Accordion Like The World's Most Celebrated Accordion Player.' Whatever the hell that dude's name is.

RICKY

Well... What if people can't handle what I have to say?

CONSTANCE

Just go ahead! It's fine.

RICKY

I dunno, it's... Kinda hard to talk about. So...

CONSTANCE

It's hard to talk about stuff. But um... After a while you might feel better.

OCEAN

Yeah you can talk-

(Everyone looks at OCEAN)

Okay...

RICKY

Okay, um... Well I guess you can say I'm pretty sexy on another planet!

Look, I am a radical prophet from the Zolarian Starcluster. Supreme leader of those beings that evolved from cats. There are seven suns on planet Zolar so, the gravitational pull it makes everything hotter, longer, wider, and wetter.

(CONSTANCE giggles)

CONSTANCE

I'd be lying if I said that was exactly what I was expecting! But okay?

OCEAN

Who even are you right now?!?

RICKY

I'm telling you, monkey lovedrop! Come on-

I'M JUST A SWINGIN'

CHOIR

AAAH!

RICKY

SPACE AGE!

CHOIR

AAH AH!

RICKY

BATCHELOR MAN!

He does not concede afterwards.

Instead of Misha being missing from The Ballad of Jane Doe, it's Ricky.

And then, the ending, in which Karnak dies before Jane is ressurected:

OCEAN

(to herself)

“The one who wants to win it the most shall redeem the loser—in order to complete the whole.”

(beat)

... you knew all along I could never do it

KARNAK

What?

OCEAN

Choose myself.

(She looks around the room. She exhales.)

(To everyone in the room)

It shouldn’t be me.

(She looks at CONSTANCE who looks at JANE, OCEAN nods)

I made no attempt to get to know any of you in life. Not even my best friend. In any real way. Which turns out is too bad for me, because each and every one of you is a fricken rockstar. We died young, in some random accident. But to say that if one dies young, they die needlessly - that is to discount the years we had. The experiences we had... Our hopes, our dreams... I would gladly take my seventeen years over nothing. Who do I vote for? ... The girl who can't remember any of it. Her... we had a life—she didn’t. That’s my vote. Motioned carried.

(JANE looks confused as she moves toward the proscenium.)

OCEAN

Democracy rocks.

KARNAK

As you wish.

(Suddenly a flurry of fortunes he has given over his life overlap. “You will get a promotion, be sure to ride the Cyclone”, “Your love will last. Be sure to ride the Cyclone”, “The truth is on your side, be sure to ride the Cyclone” etc.)

KARNAK (SFX)

Automation, digital hiccup

Your lucky number is seven, you will get a promotion, you will soar to great heights, be sure to ride the Cyclone.

(KARNAK is dead, but the children remain. They huddle around JANE to comfort her.)

OCEAN

IT’S NOT A GAME, MAYBE THAT’S THE NEWS

CAUSE NO ONE WILL WIN HERE

AND NO ONE CAN LOSE

THERE’S NO ONE TO MEASURE OUR FOOLISH PRIDE

AND NO ONE KEEPS SCORE OF HOW HARD WE TRIED

OCEAN, CONSTANCE

THIS RIDE IT HAS HEARTBREAK

THIS RIDE IT HAS PAIN

OCEAN, CONSTANCE, NOEL

ALL KINDS OF BLUE SKIES

NO SHORTAGE OF RAIN

KIDS (EXCEPT JANE)

YES THERE IS LAUGHTER AND THE TELLING OF LIES

AND MAYBE IN DARKNESS WE OPEN OUR EYES

AND YOU GIVE AND CHOOSE

WHILE YOU LOVE AND LOSE

AND YOU FEEL THE WORLD IS SPINNING

WITH NO ENDING OR BEGINNING

YOU JUST TAKE A LOOK AROUND

TAKE A LOOK AROUND

TAKE A LOOK AROUND

AND ‘ROUND AND ‘ROUND AND ‘ROUND

(The children break away.)

#20 SAILING THROUGH SPACE REPRISE

CONSTANCE

WE'RE JUST

KIDS (EXCEPT OCEAN)

SAILING THROUGH SPACE

MISHA

THERE'S NO

KIDS (EXCEPT OCEAN)

UP OR DOWN

NOEL

SO

KIDS (EXCEPT OCEAN)

BEAUTIFUL AND STRANGE

RICKY

BUT IT'S

KIDS (EXCEPT OCEAN)

MORE THAN SPINNING 'ROUND

(glock echoes)

YES, IT'S EVERYTHING YOU LOVED

AND EVERYTHING YOU DREAMED

AND EVERYTHING YOU SHARED

AND EVERYTHING THAT SEEMED SO...

OH SO TERRIFYING...

#21 IT'S JUST A RIDE

OCEAN

BUT IT'S NOT A GAME, IT'S NOT A GAME

KIDS (EXCEPT OCEAN, JANE)

WHOA NO NO

IT'S NOT A GAME, IT'S NOT A GAME

KIDS

IT'S JUST A RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-IDE! WOO!

IT'S JUST A RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-IDE!

CONSTANCE, MISHA, NOEL

YOU MIGHT LIVE FOR A DAY OR ETERNITY

OCEAN, RICKY (OVERLAPPING)

AAAAAAAAAH!

CONSTANCE, MISHA, NOEL

THERE'S NO TIME FOR A JUDGE OR A REFEREE!

OCEAN, RICKY

NO ONE WILL MEASURE...!

CONSTANCE, MISHA, NOEL

AAAAAAAAAH!

OCEAN, RICKY

HOW HARD WE TRIEEED!

KIDS

WE’RE ALL JUST SAILING THROUGH SPACE

THERE’S NO UP, THERE’S NO DOWN

IT’S ALL SO BEAUTIFUL AND STRANGE

BUT SO MUCH MORE THAN SPINNING ROUND

YES IT’S EVERYTHING YOU LOVED

AND IT’S EVERYTHING YOU DREAMED

AND IT’S EVERYTHING YOU SHARED

AND IT’S EVERYTHING THAT SEEMED SO

OH SO TERRIFYING

TURN IT ROUND!

IT'S JUST A RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-IDE! WOO!

IT'S JUST A RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-IDE!

AND THE WORLD WILL KEEP ON SPINNING

WITH NO ENDING OR BEGINNING...

SO JUST TAKE A LOOK AROUND

TAKE A LOOK AROUND...

TAKE A LOOK AROUND...

KIDS (EXCEPT JANE)

AND ROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND...

JANE

I KNOW THIS DREAM OF LIFE IS NEVER ENDING

IT GOES AROUND AND ROUND AND ROUND AGAIN

(The kids stand in rollercoaster formation, except for JANE who stands at the side. We see the curtain open up with the eternity light with only the sound of howling wind for a brief moment ... The curtain suddenly starts to close with the sound of the roller coaster track, the instant it closes, snap blackout.)

THE END

[a-fucking-tornado]

Just wanted to say: nothing but respect for @adandelioninspring

[lalas181]

So. This has recently come to my attention. Here's my thoughts as an actor on the RTC debacle. This is copy/pasted and elaborated on from the "I am signing this because" comment I left on the petition. Note this take also extends to actors with invisible disabilities like Autism or ADHD, of which I am one, hi hello. It is nowhere near as hard to decently accommodate wheelchair-using and otherwise (potentially) disabled actors as folks would have you believe. I was recently in a production of The Wizard of Oz where one of my fellow ensemble members (who is a regular actor at said theater, he's in basically everything) was able to be accommodated for in both costume and blocking with relative ease. This is even accounting for quick-changes, because we did in fact have those! The most trouble I ever saw him have was that it took him a little bit longer than was ideal to get from one wing of the stage to the other through the passage behind the backdrops, but that was far from an uncommon experience for anyone in the cast since it was a fairly tight squeeze what with it being up against the wall at the back of the stage. If you've been in a small theater with this kind of passageway, you know the deal. The actor playing the Cowardly Lion had to leave the stage to vomit a good few times in the middle of a pretty intense dance number during dress rehearsals due to not processing the heat from her (not particularly bulky) costume combined with the stage lights well. I personally am not entirely sure what the full deal there was since, well... I'm not her doctor, but it was functionally making her physically unable to do the full dance number either way. Whether it was just momentarily disabling or was an actual full-on condition, instead of being whiny and shitty about it the folks in charge of the theater worked with her and eventually found a solution that worked so well that she was fine for the entire run of the show and didn't even have to sit down to catch her breath during said dance number. That solution was actually super simple- she worse a sleeveless sweater vest that'd been previously layered on top of another shirt and having an ice pack affixed to her back via some kind of strap-pouch-thing. Simple, easy, and as far as I could tell it didn't cost a cent. This was in a theater that was pretty old and needed renovations despite having already had renovations. I was freezing to death in the men's dressing room and the electrical outlets in the green room ranged for kinda bad to possibly something to actually worry about, but even then they were able to make sure that our physically disabled cast members were just as accommodated for as the physically abled ones. Any and all excuses that Arena Theater and McCarter could give are entirely invalid. It isn't hard to do the bare fucking minimum, ESPECIALLY in a fancy modern theater. @mccartertheatrecenter , DO BETTER. You write a character as physically disabled, cast a physically disabled actor, and then not only toss them to the curb when they have a quick medical complication that is easily resolved and a known symptom of their condition, but decide after that to make the physically disabled character ABLE-BODIED IN A REWRITE. This is not inclusivity. This is not helping. This is frankly a disgrace, and if I sound angry that's because I honestly am angry as well as disappointed. I'd heard about RTC and kinda wanted to see if I could catch a production of it. Now I won't. I know a bunch of other people- many of which have been long-time fans or have been positively impacted by the show in significant ways -won't be going to see it either because of this. The good news is that the only way to go from here's probably up, since this is some bottom-of-the-barrel stuff that's been pulled. Folks who care (or even just want to look like they care, I'm personally not picky), the link to sign a petition to try and help make stuff better is linked below. https://chng.it/PNTkLRkx5F