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| A scene from [REDACTED] |
When last we checked in on the theatre program at Santa Rosa High School in California, they’d recently
had their production of Dog Sees God shut down by school officials who
trembled at the wrath of Anonymous Whiny Folks.
There’s unpleasantness in that play, after all: substance abuse,
homophobia, teen violence, isolation, eating disorders… all that nasty stuff
that teenagers understand all too well because they and their friends are
grappling with those issues.
As Curmie said in the earlier piece, he doesn’t think it’s a
great play, or, frankly, even a good one.
But you know what, Gentle Reader?
That doesn’t matter. Curmie will
probably skip going to the current production at the university from which he
is now well and truly retired. Why? Because he’s not the target audience, wouldn’t
catch all the references, and would not only be miserable himself but would run
the risk of spoiling the evening for other spectators. Similarly, Dog Sees God resonates with
people a quarter of Curmie’s age a lot more than it does with him. That’s absolutely no problem.
Anyway, if there’s anything a half century of working on
shows has taught Curmie, it’s that theatre kids are a resilient lot, quite familiar
with problem-solving, and they enjoy little if anything more than sticking to
who we in our generation called The Man.
That was true when Curmie was one of them, and it’s true today. So what did the Santa Rosa kids do? They couldn’t do their show on campus, so
they packed up their stuff, booked a space a few miles away, and packed the auditorium
with enthusiastic theatre-goers. Twice.
But, as they say in the late-night infomercials, WAIT! THAT’S NOT ALL! That brouhaha was in mid-November. By January, those kids, working with their
director, Jerome Anglin, and with Brent Lindsay, artistic director of the
Imaginists theater company in Santa Rosa, had written a freaking musical,
[REDACTED], about their experience.
And they entered it in the Lenaea Festival, a huge convention/competition
that draws entrants from some 70 (!) high school programs. As one does.
(Don’t get ahead of me here, Gentle Reader, even if you’re pretty sure you
know what’s coming.)
Curmie presumes the festival is named for the similarly named event in Ancient Athens which was notable primarily for its stagings of Old
Comedy plays (satirical works by the likes of Aristophanes); it also took place
in the winter, which may or may not be relevant here. Curmie won’t bore you with more theatre
history, Gentle Reader, except to note that [REDACTED] is the kind of
fare that would have fit in nicely with the Lenaea Festival of the 5th
century BCE.
One suspects that [REDACTED] isn’t going to supplant Lysistrata
or The Frogs (both of which premiered at the other Lenaea Festival) in
the dramatic lit anthologies, but with the Mommies Against the Arts chanting, “Protecting kiddies is our duty! / We cancel anything that smells a
little fruity!” and defending school officials, “particularly those who make
over $200,000 a year,” it certainly seems to have captured the
iconoclastic irreverence of Old Comedy.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the troupe received
the Spirit of Lenaea Award. The festival
of a couple of millennia ago would have been an appropriate venue, and its 21st-century
descendent seems to be so, as well. Board
director Cheena Moslen said, “This group refused to be silenced. They mobilized
their community, pushed back against censorship driven by fear, and ultimately
staged their production, selling out performances. But that hurdle seems to be
the beginning of a larger issue of silencing and oppression.”
It’s interesting, too, that according to Anglin that particular
award generally goes to an individual rather than a group, but it was the
entire company who shared this prize. Santa
Rosa also won a dozen other awards, including the Gold Medal (Curmie isn’t sure
what that means, but it sure sounds impressive, right?) and a host of individual
awards; there are awards for songs, scenes, monologues, etc.
Curmie has never been a fan of awards in the arts. He pays even a little attention to awards
shows only when he knows someone whose project has been nominated. But sometimes those awards serve a
purpose. High school theatre programs in
Curmie’s adopted state of Texas are generally better (and much better funded)
than they were at Curmie’s previous stops in other states. That’s because you can win trophies in it,
and school adminstrators love to brag, even if it isn’t about anything they
really care about (cough… football… cough).
And, lo and behold, the district—the same folks (with the
exception of a new principal) who shut down Dog Sees God—are now strutting
around praising these kids. District public
information officer James Hodgman saw a preview performance of [REDACTED]. “It is clear the students wanted to be heard
on any possible censorship, and the play is based on some things that happened
in recent memory,” he said. “At the district level, we are working to prevent
something like that happening again.” Curmie
notes the ambiguity of that demonstrative pronoun. Does “that” refer to the censorship or to the
students’ having the audacity to believe they should be heard?
That new principal, Monica Fong, had questioned some of the
monologues students intended to perform at the Lenaea Festival; Anglin invited
her to a rehearsal, but she “didn’t really have much of a response to it,” and
the play was not approved by the administration. Now, of course, it’s “We would like to
congratulate the ArtQuest Theatre group from Santa Rosa High School for awards
received at the Lenaea Festival. Congratulations
to the students and all of the teachers that made these awards possible.” Uh huh.
Curmie and Beloved Spouse watch a lot of old cop shows on
Hulu, Amazon, Britbox, etc. Not infrequently, some
antagonist tries pushing our hero or heroine around. They’re not our hero and heroine by accident;
we know they’re going to win in the end.
And Curmie finds himself talking to the TV, saying, “Don’t fuck with
[insert name here].”
School administrators, boards of education, and anyone else
who seeks to censor free expression, especially in the arts, take note: Don’t
fuck with theatre kids.
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