Actor and teacher Stevie Ray Dallimore, who ran a drama program at a private boys’ school in Chattanooga for ten years, had never experienced a grade like this.
He said a nearby all-girls school was offered to produce “She Kills Monsters,” which students would also participate in, but was rejected because of its homosexual content. “Shakespeare in Love”, which had a male student as the main character at a girls’ school, was rejected on the grounds of cross-dressing. He said his school’s production of Chekhov’s classic “Three Sisters” was rejected because of concerns that it dealt with adultery and some boys would play women as they had done in the past. It says.
Long a key component of arts education and a formative experience for creative youth, school drama has become increasingly important as America’s political and cultural divisions have led to a surge in book bans and the way race and sexuality are taught. It is now the latest battlefield that has led to conflicts over. Schools and efforts by some politicians to restrict drug performance and transgender medical care for children and teens.
For decades, student work has come under intense scrutiny for age-appropriateness and, more recently, for left-leaning. student and parents Many programs have been criticized for their portrayal of women and people of color. The latest wave of opposition has mostly come from right-wing parents and school officials.
The final act of a year-long drama in Dallimore’s Chattanooga? He learned that his position at McCurry School would be eliminated, along with his peer’s position at a nearby girls’ prep school. They were invited to apply for a single new position directing plays for both schools. Both educators are now out of work.
“This is clearly a national problem and we are a small part of it,” Dallimore said. “This is definitely part of a larger movement, a strong political and religious coalition in an effort to ban books, erase history, and demonize others.”
McQuarrie’s spokesman Jamie Baker confirmed that two school drama positions had been removed in order to consolidate the programs, but said, “McQuarrie’s theater director’s contract was not renewed due to content concerns. It would be inaccurate to imply or claim in any way that She noted that the school has “commitments to Judeo-Christian traditions and Christian principles” and that “we continue to make decisions in line with these It should come as no surprise to anyone that they continue to do so,” he added.
Drama teachers across the country say they are facing heavy scrutiny over program selection, with productions that were acceptable only a few years ago now no longer available in some districts. A survey of teachers released last month by the Educational Theater Association found that 67% said concerns about censorship were influencing their choices for the next school year.
In emails and phone calls over the past few weeks, teachers and parents have provided numerous examples. From the right, there was opposition to homosexuality in the musical “The Prom,” the play “Almost Maine,” and other frequently staged shows. From the left, “South Pacific” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie” depict race, “How to succeed in business without trying” “Bye Bye Birdie”, and “Grease” concern gender depiction. ing. And in individual schools, there are many unexpected complaints about the presence of bullying in “Mean Girls,” the absence of white characters in “Fences,” and the words “damn” and “bastard” (in Oklahoma). has been submitted. (in “Newsies”) and “God” (in “The Little Mermaid”).
Teachers say the polarized political climate and the growing power of social media make the challenge of school production far more important than it once was.
“We see a lot of teachers practicing self-censorship,” said Jennifer Katona, executive director of the Educational Theater Association, an organization of drama teachers. “Even if it was a bunch of girls dressed as boys from the Newsies, it wouldn’t have been a big deal a few years ago, but it’s a big deal now.”
Teachers now find themselves desperately searching for titles that are somehow relevant to today’s teens and less likely to get them into trouble.
“A lot of people don’t want any kind of controversy,” said Chris Hamilton, a high school theater director in Kennewick, Washington. The proposed work was banned by the school administration. “She Kills Monsters” is a comedy about a teenager who finds solace in Dungeons & Dragons, the nation’s seventh most popular school play, featuring gay characters. “The level of surveillance is increasing,” Hamilton said.
Theater teachers across the country, in red as well as blue states, are finding it increasingly difficult to find plays and musicals that escape the kind of criticism they fear could lead to job losses and cuts in funding. It is said that it has become “People are losing their jobs because they booked the wrong musical,” said Ralph Sebusch, executive director of business for the National Playwrights Guild.
“A polarized society is fighting culture wars in high schools,” he added.
Playwright Stephen Gregg, who has been writing scripts for high school students for 30 years, was asked to replace the script this year after a publisher sent him an email requesting a “large-scale edit” of the sci-fi comedy “Crash.” said he was surprised. “We’re a public school in Florida, so we can’t have gay characters,” he said of gay and heterosexual couples.
Greg said he turned down the offer because he thought there would probably be gay children in the theater program and that would send a terrible message to them.
This year, several school performances were canceled due to content concerns and made the news. A production of “Indecent” is taking place in Duval County, Florida. killed Because it’s a lesbian love story. In Pennsylvania, the Northern Lebanon School District has banned performances of the country’s most popular school musical, The Addams Family. quoting dark themes.
Jonathan Friedman, director of free speech and education programs at Penn America, said, “Throughout the school year, there has been a very clear and continuous stream of teacher absenteeism, which has been linked to efforts to ban books. It happens in parallel or in conjunction with “Sometimes it affects plays in production, sometimes it affects the approval of future plays. The whole climate is being affected.”
Some works have overcome objections. New Jersey’s Cedar Grove High School canceled performances of the musical ‘The Prom’ featuring a lesbian, but Under the pressure of public opinion, he gave up and staged. In Indiana, Carroll High School in Fort Wayne canceled production of The True Story of Marian or Robin Hood. sold as “Gender-bending, patriarchal-busting, hilarious new interpretations of classic stories,” say students I played it anyway at the local amphitheater.
Autumn Gonzalez, a teacher at Scapule High School in Oregon, faced opposition over the production of the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” featuring two gay fathers. She stuck with it, the show was chosen by her students, and production was allowed to continue. But she’s being especially cautious about her next year. When her students expressed her interest in the suicide-themed Heathers, she replied, “That doesn’t happen.”
“I’ve always tried to find a middle ground,” she said.
“We’re not going to do Spring Awakening,” she said, referring to the 2006 musical about youth and sexuality. “This is not a community for that. I’m not going to shy away from deep messages either.”
Proponents say this constraint affects the education of future artists and audiences.
“Students are exposed to a wide range of productions, not just the safest, most body-friendly, and most family-friendly productions,” said Howard Sherman, managing director of the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City. I have a right to have it,” he said. I’ve been tracking the issue for years.
In some areas, you can’t even read the contested play. In Kansas, the Lansing City Board of Education responded. opposition from parentsbanned high school students from reading “The Laramie Project,” a widely staged and educated play about the murder of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard.
“Several schools have banned performances of the play each year, but this is the first time the play has been banned from being read aloud,” said Moises Kaufmann, the play’s lead author. A Lansing student asked, “I don’t want to be a cautionary tale, but it’s alarming.”
