"Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes." ~ "Seasons of Love" lyric from "Rent"
Just last year, in Trumbull, Connecticut, the Trumbull High School Thespian Society production of Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” was canceled by the school administration because the musical addressed drug use and homosexuality.
And this was the sanctioned, self-censored “School Edition” of the musical to be performed just one-hour’s drive from where the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical premiered on Broadway almost 20 years ago.
Just last week, a Tullahoma, Tennessee community theater production of “Rent” was set for six performances over two weekends at the South Jackson Civic Center before encountering opposition and on-site ministry from local leaders at the Christ Community Church and Highland Baptist Church. The Highland pastor stated “I don’t believe our community has an interest or appetite for such fare,” even though the show ran for over 11 years on Broadway, playing to an audience of over 5 million people and untold millions more on tour, in film, and on DVD.
High schools in Washington, Oregon and Illinois have recently cancelled planned productions of Moises Kaufman’s “The Laramie Project,” a powerful play that explores the real-life killing of a gay student at the University of Wyoming. In a youth production in Iowa, the show was staged only after all the profanity – which came from actual interview transcripts – was removed.
John Jay High School in Cross River, New York allowed the production of “The Vagina Monologues” but banned the use of the word “vagina,” which made for a very short and altogether confusing show.
There has been recent opposition to Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” because of its violence, Turner’s “Come and Gone” because of its repeated use of a racial epithet, and Miller’s “The Crucible” – about the Salem witch hunts of the 1600s and written in the 1950s as an allegory of McCarthyism – because of its disrespect for authority.
According to the website of the National Coalition Against Censorship, youth theater is, itself, a crucible where the next generation of audiences are formed and future thinking adults are inspired. For millions of young people on both sides of the proscenium arch, the stage is their first real encounter with the performing arts and the kinds of stories they tell. For many, it will be their only encounter.
How important is it to raise a generation that is used to serious, uncensored theater and to have a community that supports this endeavor? The Cleveland Jewish News asked director Fred Sternfeld of Beachwood, whose current Hathaway Brown Theatre Institute production of “Rent” has received overwhelming support from parents and community leaders as well as stellar reviews.
Sternfeld: The heart of “Rent” has little to do with the drug use and sexuality that some people find so alien and objectionable in the work. “Rent” is about love and making the most of your days on this planet, and the young people in our show and at our show – I would venture to guess the young people at every show – get this immediately. Similarly, “A Chorus Line” is about putting yourself on the line, taking a chance, reaching for your dreams – again, very universal topics. The play also deals with frank disclosures from the characters about their sexuality and relationships, but it’s the universal messages that resonate.
CJN: Yes, but it’s the frank disclosures that concern many parents.
Sternfeld: The parents of our cast members have been overwhelmingly supportive of the play choice, the process and the final production. Without exception, parents of actors 17 and under signed the consent form for their children to appear in the full, uncut version of the musical. We ended up doing the school edition, which is shorter and tones down the language without losing the artistic and political reasons for its existence. But this was never an issue with the parents.
CJN: Why?
Sternfeld: They trust their children.
CJN: How have the kids reacted to the content that the pastors in Tullahoma and the school administrators in Trumbull find so offensive and threatening?
Sternfeld: Our tremendously talented young performing artists love the fact that we respect them and entrust them to place mature themes and topics in their proper context. This isn’t just lip service. Here is what Isabel Billinghurst, who plays Joanne, posted on Facebook [reprinted with permission] about her takeaway from “Rent” and all its “offensive and threatening” content:
“The lyrics are some of the most profound in any musical; they're phrases that are put together expertly, expressing what can only be described as the human condition. And the best part? Everyone in the show sings the same words. We all feel together. This show is more than a show. It's a life story that tells us to be who we are, to always find the love in our lives, and to live each day for that day, without the burden of the past or the pressure of the future.”
This is the kind of thinking that theater inspires. Imagine what censoring or forbidding it communicates.
Cleveland Jewish News entertainment writer Bob Abelman takes a closer look at Jewish artists, their work and other issues of interest.