#cooper howell

[per-the-jellicle-magician]

A few wise words from Junior Labeija, Gus in Cats: the Jellicle Ball, reprising his role from the og run at PAC NYC. Ft. the associate director Cooper Howell

[dailylgbtmusicals]

Cooper Howell (they/them) as Luke and others in The Lightning Thief

Information

Name: Cooper Howell

Credits: Emojiland (Smiling Face with Sunglasses), In The Heights (Usnavi), Frozen: Live at Hyperion Theater (Hans)

Color of the rainbow with which they identify: Non-binary

[poc-dreamcast]

Moulin Rouge Cast

I just watched Moulin Rouge Broadway last night so, without further ado...

Anthony Lee Medina as Christian

Adrienne Warren as Satine

Major Attaway as Harold Zidler

Cooper Howell (they/them) as The Duke

Chris Lee as Toulouse-Lautrec

Jon Rua as Santiago

Alice Lee as Nini

Sis as La Chocolat

Emmy Raver-Lampman as Arabia

J. Harrison Ghee (he/they) as Babydoll

[dailypocsix]

Cooper Howell as Anne Boleyn

information:

Name: William Cooper Howell

DOB: Unknown

Nationality: American

Ethnicity: Afro-Latine

Credits: Frozen: Live At The Hyperion (Hans), In The Heights (Usnavi), Spamilton (Lin)

[ahnsael]

Cooper Howell

Heaven and Hell: or my experience being a person of color in Disney's Hyperion Theater. #holdingtheateraccountable Im just gonna go ahead and be straight up. This is pretty scary to share.

A lot of you in my tumblr circle love Disney (myself included, though it’s been a while since my last “Disney happy cry”).

But this is an important story. I was so happy when Disney cast a multicultural ensemble for Frozen live on stage at the Hyperion Theater in DCA. And the original director, Liesl Tommy, was fantastic to the cast.

Then another director, Roger Castellano, was brought in when Liesl went back to New York. And he was an absolute 180º turn from what the cast knew.

People of color started getting “let go” and replaced with white people. After every show, Cooper Howell would have to endure far more criticism than his white cast-mates. Castellano even said that when Cooper Howell played Hans opposite Domonique Paton as Anna, it was “too urban.”

And the kicker -- while his cast-mates would talk with him about how unfairly he was being treated, they refused to back him up when he went to Human Resources.

Black lives matter. On the streets, and in the theater, and in every other career and aspect of life. It’s not just “let us live” (though that would be a nice start), it’s about “let us feel like part of the community.” Black QUALITY OF LIFE matters.

Castellano isn’t there anymore. Liesl saw Dominique Patron post something about him and called Disney herself...and having created a wonderful stage show that is still very popular, she has some pull. When SHE called to complain that the people SHE hired were having a bad time, Disney finally let him go.

We need to hold Disney to a higher standard than this. It doesn’t have to be one word against the other. There are ways of investigating even if the rest of the cast couldn’t bring themselves to talk about what they had seen with HR.

Disney can truly be magical. But any former cast member can tell you (even current cast members, just not while on the clock) that there is a dark side. It’s like the force -- the light and the dark. And sometimes you have to speak up.

This is a thing I saw (not going to say where I saw it or who said it or provide a text caption because I don’t want them to be retaliated against for saying it but they are a current cast member). After watching a stream of Bob Iger talking to the cast as a whole, they said this:

Change needs to happen. At Disney, in the United States, in the world as a whole. But it takes people speaking up, and others amplifying those voices, for it to happen.

[letstalkaboutentertainment]

Once on This Island (3D Theatricals)

[for-an-answer-to-appear]

Once On This Island - (Redondo Beach, CA) [2 of 2]

[ariafsar2]

Lil bodega owner