The Colored Museum
Dramaturgical Production Notebook

For Mount Holyoke's production of The Colored Museum, two of the scenes were cut: "The Soldier" and "Permutations". There were also modifications to certain characters' sexes. While these were not dramaturgical decisions, it is important to explain this aspect of the production.

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• Pre-Casting Cuts
• Post-Casting Changes

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Pre-Casting Cuts
"Permutations" was cut because of the time limit; the show would have run past an hour and fifteen minutes. Instead of cutting down individual scenes, the directors instead chose to cut entire scenes. "Permutations" was also far more complex and the directors were worried it would get lost to the audience.

"The Soldier" was cut also for time. The choice of cutting this piece probably dealt with audience; would the audience be as aware of the popular stereotypes associated with black soldiers?

Post-Casting Changes
No men tried out to work in this piece. This created somewhat of a problem; for instance, "Miss Roj" had gender and sex roles included in it as a theme, which almost demanded a man.

The directors decided that they needed to work with the best people who tried out. The sexes of almost all the characters remained the same; the only roles that were changed were the two characters in "Symbiosis" and one of the models in "Photo Session".

Because the woman cast to play Topsy also was cast to play Lala, the scene "Lala's Opening" was swapped with "Symbiosis" to give the actor a change to prepare for her next role. In addition, instead of having Lala's lines about her dream in the final scene with Topsy, the directors chose to have the Girl from "Photo Session" say her lines from "The world was becoming too much for us..."