Anti POC Hermione? Riddikulus!

So I went for a punny title, but at the end of the day this is going to be a serious blog post. Because it's on a subject close to my heart. I have been wanting to write this post for a while now but have had a lot on my plate so have only just got round to it! For those that don't know, the cast for the upcoming sequel play 'Harry Potter & The Cursed Child' for the grown-up Harry, Ron and Hermione was announced about a week ago! Here's a picture of the brand new trio:

From left to right: Jamie Parker (Harry), Noma Dumezweni (Hermione) and Paul Thornley (Ron).

As soon as the casting was revealed I felt elated. As I said, this was a subject close to my heart but not just because of my adoration for Harry Potter. Some of you may not know this, but I studied Performing Arts for three years at University and wanted very badly to be an Actress before I began to love writing. The real lack of racial diversity found in Plays/Musicals/Films etc. troubles me just as much as the lack of it in books does.  Viola Davis this year was the first black actress to win an 'Outstanding Actress' Emmy award and as she said in her acceptance speech:

"The only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else is opportunity."

In truth, there are very little in the way of POC parts, certainly in comparison to those written for white people. It seems a shame that in 2015, skin colour can still be such a deciding factor. So for me, such a decision was a victory in so many ways.

While most people shared my enthusiasm as I took to Twitter to celebrate, I found that not all did. In fact, I even found horror among some of my supposed fellow Harry Potter fans. I found comments along the lines of "Hermione is supposed to be white, like in the films." and "Casting a black Hermione is obviously political correctness gone mad." that made me feel so ill I had to take a breather and stop myself from getting into a few huge arguments, especially as most of them started with "I'm not being racist but...". 

Let's start with the books. As the source Harry Potter material, surely all it would take is a simple descriptor of Hermione's skin colour to clear up whether Rowling intended Hermione to be a POC or not. The only descriptors found throughout the series refer to Hermione's 'bushy brown hair' and 'rather large front teeth' and 'brown eyes'. The only quote that even slightly indicates her skin tone is found in 'The Prisoner Of Azkaban' where she is described  as being 'very brown' after her holiday abroad. Of course this still leaves no clarification as it could refer to her natural skin colour being brown or a tan after being out in the sun. 

Simply put: Rowling has not ever said that Hermione is white. By assuming that a lack of quote proving she is of an ethnic minority must mean she is white, you are being incredibly disrespectful. In truth, Rowling has chosen to leave it to interpretation. The films of course chose to cast Emma Watson and that is fine too. As the play is not a follow-on from the films, there is no need to cast someone who looks like an older Emma Watson. It is also important to remember that Emma Watson had bushy hair only in the very early films and certainly didn't have prominent teeth. She was of course a phenomenal actress and played the role brilliantly, which is all that should be important as far as I'm concerned. 

In terms of Dumezweni's acting career, I would say that it is impressive to say the least. She has appeared in a multitude of TV programmes, Theatre productions and Radio shows making her credentials very admirable (minor roles in Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders and Eastenders will make her a recognisable face to many). I found myself even more impressed with her Theatre reviews, especially as she received such fantastic ones when she stepped into the lead role in Linda just a few days before Press Night. People, as someone who has been on stage before, that is difficult. If that's not enough to convince you then this should be: she beat Benedict Cumberbatch and nabbed herself an Olivier Award. All of these things considered there should be no concerns about her acting skills.

At the end of the day, Hermione is a fictional, interpretable character. People should be making more of a fuss about the fact that Paul Thornley is certainly not ginger-haired like Ron is supposed to be, and Jamie Parker does not have Harry's (and Lily's) green eyes that the book describes (neither did Daniel Radcliffe by the way). But no one is because that would be ridiculous, just as this notion that Dumezweni's skin colour has ruined the Harry Potter franchise is. Rowling's magical books were always about embracing diversity and turning the underdogs into heroes. I am beyond excited to see these three in action and look forward to more casting announcements in the future!

Top Ten Tuesday: My picks for 'Characters That I Want To Have Their Own Book' (The Harry Potter Edition).

This is such an interesting topic, I always look forward to doing these every week. I find myself wishing so often for certain characters to get their own book or series and now I finally have the opportunity to let everyone know which ones!

1) Neville Longbottom.

When you think about it, Neville has actually had a really interesting life. In fact, in a way, it's similar to Harry's in terms of tragedy, isolation and the continuous fear of death. I feel like Neville's potential part in the prophecy was a little overlooked and I think he would have a pretty fascinating childhood story, as well as his life as a Hogwart's student.

2) Professor McGonagall.

To be honest, I would love to view life from any Hogwarts Professor's POV, but I think McGonagall is awesome! Can you imagine the Hogwarts Staff Room conversations? Her thoughts as she has to give Harry detention (again)? and I bet that she transformed into a cat to listen in on private conversations all the time. 

3) Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew.

Okay just think about this one. The entire first three books from Peter Pettigrew's viewpoint. He would hear everything the trio said and not be able to do a single thing about it! Perhaps, while everyone was sleeping, he just transformed back into a human and went for a walk. I'll bet there are a ton of hilarious 'being chased by Crookshanks' stories too!

4) Lily Potter.

This is a pretty obvious one really. I would just love to get her view on Hogwarts life, meet some new professors and watch her fall in love with James. I'll bet her childhood friendship with Snape would be the most heart-breaking, emotional thing to read too! 

5) Bellatrix Lestrange.

I never really felt like Bellatrix Lestrange, as a character, was given any real back-story or motivation. She was literally just a psychopath. Why did she join Voldemort? Were they ever romantically involved? Does she have a tragic story that turned her into the craziest woman alive, or was she always like that?

6) Draco Malfoy.

Okay so this story would probably involve an awful lot of whining and moaning about Potter, but there would probably be some pretty cool bits where he tries to understand jut what his Father is up to and his own feelings on that. Not to mention, I am desperate to know exactly what Draco did in his school Summer holidays...

7) Luna Lovegood.

This would literally be the Harry Potter story with added Nargles. No, seriously, I want to read some cute Lovegood moments and maybe find out a bit about Luna's Mother. The Lovegood back-story has always intrigued me! Also, how did she cope with being captured and taken to Malfoy Manor?

8) Rubeus Hagrid.

I would love to read a bit of Hagrid at school, wouldn't you? I bet he was the most enthusiastic pupil of the lot and was absolutely heartbroken when he lost his wand. It would just be interesting to find out about some of his early Gamekeeper years, and interactions with other Hogwarts Students, pre-Harry.

9) Arthur Weasley.

Does anyone else want a 'Mr Weasley's Guide to Muggle Inventions', and then just page after page of various Muggle things and how they work (except they don't work like that at all)? Well I do. I would love to find out more about the inner workings of the Ministry Of Magic and he would seem to be the man to ask.

10) Gilderoy Lockhart.

Who on earth doesn't want to actually read Gilderoy Lockhart's books? They sound like such fun reads! It would be really cool to try and figure out at which point Gilderoy pulled out his wand on the real Wizard who braved all these foul beasts, and wiped their memory. 

Daily Shenanigans, 21/05/2014: A few steps closer!

I'm extremely pleased with the progress I made today! Basically all of the programming is done and I've even sorted out most of the sound for my performance on Friday! I am starting to get a bit nervous now, there are still things to do and I have this unshakable anxiety that something might go wrong (I've been assured it won't). My morning mainly consisted of sorting out sound files, while the afternoon was entirely made up of doing things in Uni with my friend who kindly agreed to help me out! I've had a pretty decent day, though I've had an absolutely awful headache that only went away a few hours ago. On the plus side, I did get to watch 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I' so that improved the evening immensely!

Tomorrow I plan to get a bit arty! I need to make some props for my show and go to town to pay in a cheque. On a blog note, I also need to post my 'Life Of A Blogger' post. As you can see, I will not get a review up today for 'The Three'. I just need to be focusing on my Uni work right now, but I am making progress with it!

Back again?

Well folks...

I can only apologise for my profound lack of blogging, and suffice to say, I'm feeling rather sheepish. Many many things have cropped up over a rather busy year which have prevented me from keeping this up...until now!

So let me start with a brief catch up of my second year at Uni, which I have finished. I originally planned to restart this many a time but never quite got round to it, partly due to the large number of assignments that were being thrown at me left, right and centre. Having finished those and receiving all of my marks (I've passed the year with a barely scraped 1st, very pleased) I decided to get involved with the annual UCF (University Centre Folkestone) Musical, applying to be in the Stage Management team. Having studied both Production Techniques and Stage Management as part of my course this year, I've found that I've really enjoyed these subjects and am very much considering a career in this kind of work. Having Stage Managed a devised piece for one of the Third years (Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqczYHSpOd8 I highly recommend giving it a watch, the entire thing was written and directed by a very talented student who has just graduated) and helped back stage with a number of different shows which the University have put on, the Musical would definitely be the biggest I have done. 

This years chosen Musical was 'The Witches of Eastwick', one that I had previously heard of and became very excited about! Needless to say, I was not disappointed. Despite the huge stress levels and bruises it entailed, it has been by far one of the most fulfilling and fun things I've done for a while, and has made me many new friends. For those interested, more pictures were taken by Jason Dodd and can be found here. 

All in all, the whole thing was a wonderful way to say goodbye to not only the students leaving this year, but to the UCF campus as we are all moving to Canterbury. It's been an emotional rollercoaster, but well worth it (though it is nice to sleep again).

Perhaps this post was a little short but I'm tired. I am off to London from tomorrow for a few days to visit the Harry Potter Studio tours and to watch Matilda the Musical, which I hope to blog about when I get the chance! I would like to thank my little sister for getting me back into this finally (though it's now beginning to sound like an Oscar speech), and just a bit of shameless promoting, her blog is here. Give it a read, she'd be ever so grateful!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

Readers, I am terrified!

I've just been to see the Woman In Black with the fella and I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight. So I'm going to blog instead. Those wanting to watch, stay back! Save yourselves!
I joke of course, it was a fantastic film. I think watching it on the big screen definitely made the experience better (and more terrifying). For those that have seen the stage show or read the book it is different as to be expected. However I don't think this is a bad thing! It put it's own twist on the story while keeping the fundamental parts that we wanted to see. Daniel Radcliffe was very good (though it was definitely hard to shake the whole Harry Potter thing bless him). I would definitely recommend, though ONLY if you think you can without being traumatised. Don't be fooled by the 12A rating, I certainly wouldn't take a 12 year old to see it, it's far too scary!

I was glad to see it was a 'Hammer' film, (I've become a fan of Hammer House of Horror films recently, watched 'Witching Time' yesterday with my Dad). You could definitely see the old Hammer House of Horror influences in the film! I've been watching a lot recently, just started a new anime called 'Toradora!'. Would definitely recommend, it's underrated but very VERY addictive.

The title of the post? I noticed that in both 'The Woman in Black' and 'The Artist' that symbol appeared, which I found interesting. Google it!