Banned High School Iraq Play Goes Off Broadway
When the Connecticut students in Wilton High School’s advanced theater class decided on creating an original play about real Iraq soldiers for their April production, they didn’t count on it being banned by the school principal.
For their play, titled “Voices in Conflict,” students read through letters sent home from Iraq soldiers, including a very sad letter from a 19-year-old Wilton High graduate who died in Iraq last September.
The students also read the blogs of civilians living in Iraq, and watched footage of American troops who’d returned from the war. The teenagers, unaware of the true price of war, said the project was what education should be: an eye-opening experience.
Cast member Devon Fontaine, 16, had this to say:
“In Wilton, most kids only care about Britney Spears shaving her head or Tyra Banks gaining weight,” said Devon Fontaine, 16, a cast member. “What we wanted was to show kids what was going on overseas.”
Play Gets Banned by Principal
But before the students could bring the play to Wilton High’s state-of-the-art, $10 million auditorium, principal Timothy H. Canty banned the production.
The principal has said that he was concerned the play lacked context and political balance (sort of like the whole Invasion of Iraq.) He said the production might upset the community (sort of like the reaction to the whole Invasion of Iraq thing.)
The Show Must Go On
But, clouds in theater often have silver linings, and this cloud was no exception.
The students were offered a new stage…the stage at New York City’s Public Theatre, Off Broadway, in the Big Apple. Take that, Mr. Principal.
The first performance was standing room only, including one of the characters in the play: real-life Iraqi war veteran Lt. Charles Anderson.
The students received a standing ovation. Since that first performance, the play has won the first ever MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL COURAGE IN THEATER AWARD, and the students have taken the play on the road to other theaters.
Read more about the play at the production’s website here: Voices in Conflict
Read More: Iraq, resistance, students, war, Voices in Conflict
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I think Xman is right in his fear that things can’t be turned around. This is just another sign how fast we are falling behind the rest of the world as we go around imposing restrictions on free speech and thinking. Instead of applauding these students for their thinking, we banish them. I am glad that someone gave them the venue.
The sad part is that there is no outrage over the priciples actions.
I’m with you and Xman, too, in the doubt that things can’t be turned around, at least with the current generations on the world stage. What I found refreshing is that there are at least a few teenagers coming along who refused to be dumbed-down and who saw through the main-stream news brainwashing despite the best efforts of our corporate-focused (and war-focused) society.
As I read this, I was encouraged by the kids and wondering what motivated the principle. Fear again? Fear that he’d get in trouble for letting the play go on? Fear that people would feel his school was not turning out the “right” product (students)? Maybe just fear that something other than the Fox News opinion might be gaining traction and then he’d be on the losing side? Fear that his manhood would be questioned by his golfing buddies…”hey dude, you can’t even control a few scraggly assed lesbo’s and computer geeks?”.
Lots to fear when you decide not to celebrate the differences.
When I heard about this, I thought, how typical of today’s McCathyesque climate of conformism. Good on the students. Meanwhile, Mr. Prinicipal needs to go back to civics class. Shame on him.
Yes, shame on Mr. Principal, but I think he inadverdently taught these kids a very valuable lesson. Speaking up thoughtfully is important and worthwhile.
And as I look back on my school career, I must admit that there were a handful of educators who deserved that title, who taught us to think — but school is not often about encouraging independent thought — it mostly teaches you how to follow the rules, complete your rote paperwork, do what you’re told and spit back information verbatim.
But see, we can change things — these kids changed things by creating the play, and when they were censored, people got wind of it and changed things by giving those kids and their creation a venue and a larger audience than they ever would have had if the principal allowed them to run the play at school. And now here we are, all over the country, never having met and discussing it passionately.
[...] Banned High School Iraq Play Goes Off Broadway [...]
Good for these kids! Success is the best revenge.
Kids have a profound sense of ethics, when they put aside their ego.
They are the real hope.
I wonder what the principal’s golfing buddies are saying to him now?
They’re saying, “Thanks a lot, Timmy…now, not only do we have to watch some commie liberal play, but we have to go to New York to see the kids in it, take our wife out to a fancy dinner, throw our beer money away on a hotel, and window shop 5th Avenue with a maxed-out credit card. You’re a real pal. Thanks a real heckuva lot!” ;-)