Theatre Tulsa receives threats after a production of '1776'
TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — The trouble began for Theatre Tulsa a few weeks ago when they put on a production of '1776'.
The production, however, was unique for its gender-swapped roles.
Women played the roles of the founding fathers as a way to re-examine the characters.
These changes sparked an array of responses from people, including outrage.
Some people started sending online threats to the theatre, and it's escalated to a point where Theatre Tulsa put together a statement.
"It's sad we really should be worried about safety when we're doing theater, right? But you know, in 2023, that's something we have to make sure that we're keeping our actors or attendees or crews, everybody was keeping them safe. So we wanted to make sure that we had a strong statement out there show we are committed to keeping everyone safe. We are committed to supporting each other, and we were going to fight back against any fear and intimidation," said Obum Ukabam, a board member of Theatre Tulsa.
Ukabam said threats aren't just coming from anonymous people online, some are coming from within the theatre community.
The statement intends to signal to the people sending these threats that the Tulsa theatre community is united.
Theatre Tulsa also hopes this will show people they aren't going to be bullied out of telling diverse stories from different backgrounds in different ways.
So part of this statement was to say that the community at large is here to support one another through this.
