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'Hamilton' Controversy Spills Over To Montana Community Theater

A  June 2016 Hamilton Playhouse production of "Into The Woods."
Courtesy Tom Braden
A June 2016 Hamilton Playhouse production of "Into The Woods."

Last week a case of mistaken identity brought the New York City theater world and Washington D.C. politics slamming into a small non-profit in the Bitterroot Valley.

Denise Rose is the director of the Hamilton Players:

"The Hamilton Players are a small, non-profit community theater in Hamilton, Montana. And last week, our twitter handle, @hamiltonplayers was confused with @hamiltonmusical, and people were very upset," Rose says.

When Rose opened her theater’s social media accounts early last week, there were some unpleasant surprises. They’d been mistakenly associated with the now famous incident involving Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s visit to the Broadway play "Hamilton," at which members of the cast addressed him directly with a political message that erupted in controversy nationwide:

"We got a lot of negative feedback both on Twitter and on Facebook," says Rose. "We got private messages, public posts on our timeline. And then we started receiving some one-star reviews from people who had us confused with the Hamilton musical in New York. It was kind of crazy. At first I thought it was funny. My phone was blowing up, and I was like ‘oh my gosh, this is crazy.'"

At the time, the Hamilton Players had 49 followers on Twitter, and 1,000 likes on Facebook. They have one full time employee.

"And then we started getting the negative feedback and the negative reviews, and I realized how impactful it could be, and how, if you’re not socially responsible, and pay attention to who and what you’re talking about and to, you could destroy a business. These people had no idea who we were," Rose says, "and they were calling us racist, and horrible, and disrespectful, and saying boycott @hamiltonmusical, boycott @hamiltonplayers, having no idea who they were even addressing, kind of terrifying in that sense."

Rose says she doesn’t think there’ll be any lasting effect on the playhouse:

"I think we survived. It actually brought a little bit more awareness to the fact that we even exist, and I have run into a lot of support in the community. So, I think on the whole, we’re gonna end up better off for the experience with more awareness and support."

I asked her what she learned from the experience.

"Love everyone and make more art," Rose says.

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