Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Another School bans a play because three people didnt like it

thesupermikey · 02-11-2006, 01:17 PM

linky

I think we need to race money to send copies of the Crucible to every
student at this highschool, who is with me!

Most interesting is the comment from the student who said "We can't do
anything about it. We just have to obey." Its almost as if its Nazi
Germany...or Now, with you know...that fuck racist bush running the
country.

Quote:

February 11, 2006
In Small Town, 'Grease' Ignites a Culture War
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

FULTON, Mo. — When Wendy DeVore, the drama teacher at Fulton High
here, staged the musical "Grease," about high school students in the
1950's, she carefully changed the script to avoid causing offense in
this small town.

She softened the language, substituting slang for profanity in places.
Instead of smoking "weed," the teenagers duck out for a cigarette. She
rated the production PG-13, advising parents it was not suitable for
small children.

But a month after the performances in November, three letters arrived
on the desk of Mark Enderle, Fulton's superintenden
t of schools. Although the letters did not say so, the three writers
were members of a small group linked by e-mail, all members of the
same congregation, Callaway Christian Church.

Each criticized the show, complaining that scenes of drinking, smoking
and a couple kissing went too far, and glorified conduct that the
community tries to discourage. One letter, from someone who had not
seen the show but only heard about it, criticized "immoral behavior
veiled behind the excuse of acting out a play."

Dr. Enderle watched a video of the play, ultimately agreeing that
"Grease" was unsuitable for the high school, despite his having
approved it beforehand, without looking at the script. Hoping to avoid
similar complaints in the future, he decided to ban the scheduled
spring play, "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller.

"That was me in my worst Joe McCarthy moment, to some," Dr. Enderle said.

He called "The Crucible" "a fine play," but said he dropped it to keep
the school from being "mired in controversy" all spring.

To many, the term "culture war" evokes national battles over new
frontiers in taste and decency, over violence in video games, or
profanity in music or on television. But such battles are also fought
in small corners of the country like Fulton, a conservative town of
about 10,000, where it can take only a few objections about library
books or high school plays to shift quietly the cultural borderlines
of an entire community.

The complaints here, which were never debated in a public forum, have
spread a sense of uncertainty about the shifting terrain as parents,
teachers and students have struggled to understand what happened.
Among teenagers who were once thrilled to have worked on the
production, "Grease" became "the play they'd rather not talk about,"
said Teri Arms, their principal, who had also approved the play before
it was presented.

"Grease" and "The Crucible" are hardly unfamiliar; they are standard
fare on the high school drama circuit, the
second-most-frequently-performed musical and drama on school stages,
according to the Educational Theater Association, a nonprofit group.
The most performed now are "Seussical" and "A Midsummer Night's
Dream."

But challenges to longstanding literary or artistic works are not
unusual, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the American
Library Association's office of intellectual freedom. Complaints
generally are growing; in 2004, the last year for which figures are
available, 547 books came under fire, an increase of nearly 20 percent
over 2003, when 458 books were challenged.

"That a literary work is a classic does not protect it from being
challenged, or even removed from a particular community," Ms.
Caldwell-Stone said. Fulton, about 90 miles west of St. Louis, is best
known as the home of Westminster College, where Winston Churchill gave
his Iron Curtain speech in 1946. Presidents since Harry S. Truman have
spoken in Fulton, lending the town a more cosmopolitan image.

Joseph Potter, an assistant professor of performing arts at William
Woods University here, has staged dozens of shows for the community,
including "Grease," and said he had never received a complaint. But
politically and socially, Mr. Potter said, the town's core is
conservative.

The three complaints about "Grease" reached Dr. Enderle within the same week.

Mark Miller, a 26-year-old graduate student, said he was moved to
complain after getting an e-mail message about the show from Terra
Guittar, a member of his church. Her description of the pajama party
scene offended him, he wrote, adding that one character should have
worn a more modest nightgown. Mr. Miller did not see the play.

"It makes sense that you're not going to offend anyone by being on the
conservative side, especially when you're dealing with students, who
don't have the same power as a principal or a theater director," he
said.

A tape of the dress rehearsal showed that while most of the girls in
the scene wore pajamas or a granny gown, Rizzo, the play's bad girl,
wore just a pajama top. After the other girls fell asleep, Rizzo
slipped her jeans on to sneak out for a date.

Ms. Guittar was so outraged by the drinking and kissing onstage that
she walked out on the performance. She said she was not trying to
inhibit artistic creativity. "It was strictly a moral issue," she
said. "They're under 18. They're not in Hollywood."

But other parents were happy with the play. Mimi Curtis, whose son
John played the lead, said the principal and drama teacher went out of
their way to respect parents' wishes, changing the script in response
to her own objections to profanity.

Ms. Curtis, who ran a concession stand during the play, saw all four
performances.

"I didn't view it as raunchy," she said, adding that children who
watch television are "hearing worse."

Dr. Enderle said he did not base his decision to cancel "The
Crucible," which was first reported by The Fulton Sun, a daily, just
on the three complaints and the video. He also asked 10 people he knew
whether the play crossed a line. All but one, he recalled, said yes.

"To me, it's entirely a preventative maintenance issue," Dr. Enderle
explained. "I can't do anything about what's already happened, but do
I want to spend the spring saying, 'Yeah, we crossed the line again'?"

Nevertheless, the superintendent said he was "not 100 percent
comfortable" with having canceled "The Crucible."

The absence of public debate meant that students heard of the
cancellation as a fait accompli from their principal, Ms. Arms, and
Ms. DeVore, the drama teacher. Others learned "The Crucible" was off
limits through an internal school district newsletter. In it, Dr.
Enderle said he dropped the play after seeing this summary on the Web:
"17th century Salem woman accuses an ex-lover's wife of witchery in an
adaptation of the Arthur Miller play."

Mr. Miller wrote "The Crucible" in the 1950's, in response to the
witch hunt of his own day, when Congress held hearings to purge
Hollywood of suspected Communists, pressuring witnesses to expose
others to prove their innocence. The affair is not acted out in the
play, which focuses on how hysteria and fear devoured Salem, despite
the lack of evidence.

Dr. Enderle said Fulton High's students had largely accepted his
decision and moved on. They are now rehearsing "A Midsummer Night's
Dream" as their spring drama.

But in interviews here, students, who had already begun practicing for
auditions of "The Crucible," expressed frustration and resignation,
along with an overriding sense that there was no use fighting City
Hall.

"It's over," said Emily Swenson, 15, after auditioning for "A
Midsummer Night's Dream." "We can't do anything about it. We just have
to obey."

Both the students and Ms. DeVore seemed unsure of why "The Crucible,"
which students study in 11th grade, was unacceptable.

Jarryd Lapp, a junior who was a light technician on "Grease," said he
was disappointed that "The Crucible" was canceled. But he had a
theory. "The show itself is graphic," he said. "People get hung;
there's death in it. It's not appropriate."

Ms. DeVore believes it was canceled because it portrays the Salem
witch trials, "a time in history that makes Christians look bad."

"In a Bible Belt community," she added, "it makes people nervous."

The teacher and her students are now ruling out future productions
they once considered for their entertainment value alone, like "Little
Shop of Horrors," a musical that features a cannibalistic plant, which
they had discussed doing next fall.

Torii Davis, a junior, said that in her psychology class earlier that
day, most students predicted that "Little Shop of Horrors" would never
pass the test.

"Audrey works in a flower shop," Ms. Davis said. "She has a boyfriend
who beats her. That could be controversial."

Ms. DeVore went down a list of the most commonly performed musicals
and dramas on high school stages, and ticked off the potentially
offensive aspects. " 'Bye Bye Birdie' has smoking and drinking.
'Oklahoma,' there's a scene where she's almost raped. 'Diary of Anne
Frank,' would you take a 6-year-old?" the drama teacher asked.

"How am I supposed to know what's appropriate when I don't have any
written guidelines, and it seems that what was appropriate yesterday
isn't appropriate today?" Ms. DeVore asked. The teacher said she had
been warned that because of the controversy, the school board might
not renew her contract for next year.

For the moment, Dr. Enderle acknowledged, the controversy has shrunk
the boundaries of what is acceptable for the community. He added that
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" was "not a totally vanilla play."

But asked if the high school might put on another Shakespeare classic
about young people in love, "Romeo and Juliet," he hesitated.

"Given the historical context of the play," the superintendent said,
"it would be difficult to say that's something we would not perform."