Another teacher loses her job over her choice of school plays

Posted: 3/18/06 at 12:50pm

I remember reading on here a while back about a drama teacher in Indiana who was reprimanded for his choice of allegedly unwholesome productions such as Bat Boy, and therefore had to clear future musical choices with his boss. He gave the principal a loaded choice of either Urinetown or Cabaret, and because of the predictable knee-jerk fear of titles that refer to excretory functions, the principal chose Cabaret.

Whatever happened with that? Did the show go on?

This morning I read an AP update on something similar happening now in central Missouri. Wendy DeVore, the Fulton High School drama teacher, has decided to resign after fundamentalists criticized Grease for showing "teens smoking, drinking and kissing," and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream for depicting "suicide, rape and losing one's virginity." Because of those past criticisms, the superintendant cancelled the spring show, which was ironically supposed to be Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a show that on the surface is about witches but deep down is about censorship.

Speaking of devil worship, wasn't another teacher in Colorado recently fired for showing her class a video of Gounod's opera Faust? Like Winston Smith in 1984, I vaguely remember reading about these incidents but can't seem to track them down in an archive. I wish there were some central Web repository for stories about suppressions of performing arts, like there is at http://www.chillingeffects.org/ for online censorship or http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/ is for newspapers.

Maybe we should start one here?

Missouri drama teacher resigns in play flap

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:30pm

I saw a middle school production of Grease, and the school passed out disclaimers that they do not support drinking, smoking, etc.

Oh please. Let's get back to the real meaning of this post.

Updated On: 3/18/06 at 01:30 PM

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:32pm

It's sad

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:37pm

Enforce? Meaning it's allowed, but not forced upon the students?

[keatonbynumbers]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:46pm

Ha, I wish my school had "enforced" drinking.

[grizzabella]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:48pm

It seems that school administrators are always trying to connect with students and make their educational lives relevant to their lives outside school. Then, they turn around and make a fuss over something innocuous like Grease, while the kids are exposed to worse on network television.
Munk, I wondered about the use of the word "enfored" in that sentence, too.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:59pm

This is ridiculous. Well i really hope that this town has also forbid minors to watch MTV because the things they show on there are far worse then a piece of culture.

[mrslovett7]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:06pm

That's so weird. At my school last year we did Cabaret and Midsummer. And then this we we jsut finished Urinetown and Anne Frank is up next.

~H*
And we'll serve anyone meaing anyone and to ANYONE at all!

[JudasIscariot]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:06pm

Fired for showing Faust? Haha, my school is doing Dr. Faustus as our Spring show.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:07pm

There was a discussion on the whole Grease/Crucible issue a while back.



In Small Town, 'Grease' Ignites a Culture War Updated On: 3/18/06 at 02:07 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:12pm

I rather see GREASE in a High School than CABARET, CHICAGO, SWEENEY etc.

Some High School directors make me sick, because they think they can get away with anything.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:15pm

I see what you mean, but sometimes if a school has a great performing arts program, challenging the students with a difficult work can be beneficial in numerous ways, but there is indeed a fine line that does get crossed every once in awhile.

[kk holiday]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:17pm

In 1999 at my former high school - Amherst Regional High School - a production of West Side Story was cancelled when several Puerto Rican students and parents complained about what they perceived as stereotypical representations and racial slurs in the musical. It ignited a passionate controversy in the Pioneer Valley area that made international news. The cancellation provoked angry protests on the town common and charges of censorship by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ironically, shortly after the cancellation of the Amherst production, a high school staging of West Side Story was successfully produced in Holyoke, a neighboring town, primarily performed by Puerto Rican students. And this year Amherst High School has just performed Urinetown as their annual musical choice, without a single eyebrow raised.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:21pm

Well, with all do respect, WEST SIDE STORY and URINETOWN are two different entities all together.

West Side Story and Cabaret are two of my favorite shows, but I think there are a bit much for high school students to do in most cases.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:28pm

ugh. Why do people pick a fight about something they know nothing about?

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:51pm

I hate that they feel the need to censor shows in high schools. Where I went the best show we ever did was Voices of the High School which tackled all sorts of real life issues. Yes, they cut out the part about homosexuality, but that was it. High schoolers alreayd know a lot more than people think they do and seeing someone drinking/swearing or really anything else that makes a show get censored is not going to make them want to do it.

And i really would like to teach and being the advisor for the drama department, but things like this make me want to change my mind. Updated On: 3/18/06 at 02:51 PM

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:56pm

Well, caitie, with all due respect, cutting out the issue of homosexuality is far worse than censoring something related to drinking or swearing, in my opinion.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 2:59pm

I don;t know about it being far worse, but I understand what you were saying.

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 3:50pm

I meant to put it another way. The adminstration did not cut that one out the drama teacher did not because she thought it was wrong, but because it is a very....conservative area and she knew the students would not be able to control their comments to it. Did I hate that it was an issue? Yes but i understood why she did it. I meant it as an oh well kkind of thing because the show DID still address pre marital sex, drug use, drinking, abortion, and many other issues that were forbidden in most schools.

They still did something that addressed homosexuality but in the script two guys would have made out on stage and since the entire school was going to see the show as an assembly, she did not want the actors getting heckled during the show or later that day. If she did the show again this year, I am sure it would stay in, but even just 5-6 years ago that being on stage in where I went to school was unheard of.

This is the same place where we would have dropped the f-bomb before saying God d*mn it onstage. We were just glad we could keep all of the other issues in the show Updated On: 3/18/06 at 03:50 PM

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 4:58pm

We're having a production of Urinetown in our high school right now.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 5:08pm

When we did Anything Goes in high school people complained it was about prostitutes. People need to get a freaking grip already!

[Yawper]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 5:22pm

Sometimes I wonder if the schools are afraid of liability.
Years ago my school district was sued by survivors of a family whose son shot and killed his parents - the blame was put on the teaching of Hermann Hesse's "Demian" in his English class.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 5:25pm

I've read and seen some pretty controversial stuff, and I've never felt the need to blow up a building or kill someone. If someone is going to shoot and kill his parents, they probably would have done it without reading some book. You can't ban things just because 1 person happened to go crazy.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 5:33pm

Well since some people on here seem to think High Schools can do ANY show..

So my question is - if HS do CHICAGO, CABARET, ETC.

It's only a matter time before we see OH! CALCUTTA! in HS right?

But that wouldn't be a problem to some of you, correct? Since some feel High Schools need to take risks etc.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 5:51pm

I mean, risks in my mind is more along the lines of Children of Eden, or A Little Night Music, difficult shows that aren't really the typical high school productions. West Side Story is a challenge as well, and if the children are mature and talented enough...

I think shows like CHICAGo, CABARET etc are not meant for high schools to do