[Mb-hair] FULTON, MO Bans GREASE and THE CRUCIBLE

[NewChaz64 at aol.com]

NEW YORK TIMES
February 11, 2006
 
In Small Town, 'Grease' Ignites a Culture War

By DIANA JEAN  SCHEMO
For the New York Times

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 superintendent 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."

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