Another Mockingbird Canceled

[Chairman Moe]

A children’s theater production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” scheduled to be performed in March 2023 was canceled after the Board of First Stage Theater Company got cold feet. The show had been cast and rehearsals were under way.

First Stage is located in Huntington, West Virginia and is in its thirty first year of children’s theater productions.

There were complaints from some parties about the use of racial epithets. These were asked to be removed but the director refused.

This pattern is not uncommon. The director, anticipating the possibility, spent time with the Board prior to the play’s approval explaining the challenges. The Board believed it understood the stakes, but at the first sign of trouble it folded.

This should serve as a warning to any theater company considering performing a controversial play: make sure it’s a hill you’re willing to die on before giving approval. Directors and dramaturgs will have to work harder to meet this growing challenge.

 

[jtweigandt]

I'm pretty open to whatever you want to put on stage with an adult company, but what ages are we talking about here? I perused their web site and FB and looking at their historical list of presentations, this is a BIG step out of the box for them.
Maybe the director prepped the board etc.. but it comes down to what the mission of the company is. To train youth in the nuts and bolts of theater and acting and instill a love for the art? Or to create warriors for social change? I think if the kids stick with it, they will have plenty of time in the future to move out to the provocative and controversial. I think a youth theater can probably have more success in improving how we all get along by diverse casting and having an environment where they all have a kick ass time creating something together as a team. Mockingbird can certainly be a teachable moment for High Schoolers who maybe you can get to think more deeply, but "youth theater" are we moving down in to middle school too? Maybe just maybe in this case the play selection process and the director and the board failed these kids by not prepping the community at large as well.

 

[Chairman Moe]

I'm pretty open to whatever you want to put on stage with an adult company, but what ages are we talking about here? I perused their web site and FB and looking at their historical list of presentations, this is a BIG step out of the box for them.
Maybe the director prepped the board etc.. but it comes down to what the mission of the company is. To train youth in the nuts and bolts of theater and acting and instill a love for the art? Or to create warriors for social change? I think if the kids stick with it, they will have plenty of time in the future to move out to the provocative and controversial. I think a youth theater can probably have more success in improving how we all get along by diverse casting and having an environment where they all have a kick ass time creating something together as a team. Mockingbird can certainly be a teachable moment for High Schoolers who maybe you can get to think more deeply, but "youth theater" are we moving down in to middle school too? Maybe just maybe in this case the play selection process and the director and the board failed these kids by not prepping the community at large as well.

All valid concerns, and I share them, which is why, as part and parcel of any involvement in the production, I asked to be dramaturg, a role I had never played and one that the company had never employed.

First thing, I hired a professional race identity counselor/facilitator. Secondly, poured through the news looking at the state of American censorship, and thirdly did a deep, exhaustive dive into…. Everything.

The director and assistant director are both speech and language specialists with a doctorate and masters respectively. Their current specialty is in teaching teachers who find themselves in troubling situations (vis a vis students and parents).

Two private dramaturgy pages were established online, one (375 pages, including published treatises), and one less “heady” for the students were published.

Plans were made to decenter the “whiteness,” to include a large lobby and hallway display of the Major players in the civil rights movement, and to produce a teaching aid commiserate with tbe BOE’s established guideline. You get the idea.

In pre-casting interviews, the students (all or almost all were 9-12 grade), we met and discussed at length all of the things you mentioned and much more. Stories were told, kids opened up, feelings were shared, rules were established. When asked if he thought maybe the material was too difficult to address, one boy, without flinching, replied, “I’ve been on the internet a few times.”

Part of our work, by the way, was to include, as an approach to understanding both play and performance, “Go Set A Watchman.” I don’t see how anyone can view Mockingbird today without looking at it through that lens.

Nevertheless, Mockingbird is powerful, as is the subject matter. When it was canceled I was, in part, relieved. Not for the kids, who were crushed, but because I never believed we had true commitment from the Board. That’s my message here. Whether or not one thinks a play is or is not appropriate, the authority with jurisdiction has to be absolutely engaged and steadfastly committed. That was our failure. Others take heed.

Since most of us here are tech geeks, maybe this will make sense: “we should fear for the characters, not for the actors.” It’s an old saw, but it applies here, too. The tendency today is to protect our children from danger, real or imagined, and even if the kids were ready the adults weren’t. These students were growing weary of “Seussical” and “Guys and Dolls Jr.” They wanted a challenge. Some are soon off to college or conservatory. In giving them a challenge we we right, but perhaps we went a bridge too far. Maybe not. Hard to say. Mockingbird, in all it’s forms, is no longer as welcome in America as it once was.

So… off to Kate Hamill’s “Little Women,” a version where non-traditional gender roles take center stage and a girl dresses in drag. I don’t expect any problems.

 

[Chairman Moe]

All valid concerns, and I share them, which is why, as part and parcel of any involvement in the production, I asked to be dramaturg, a role I had never played and one that the company had never employed.

First thing, I hired a professional race identity counselor/facilitator. Secondly, poured through the news looking at the state of American censorship, and thirdly did a deep, exhaustive dive into…. Everything.

The director and assistant director are both speech and language specialists with a doctorate and masters respectively. Their current specialty is in teaching teachers who find themselves in troubling situations (vis a vis students and parents).

Two private dramaturgy pages were established online, one (375 pages, including published treatises), and one less “heady” for the students were published.

Plans were made to decenter the “whiteness,” to include a large lobby and hallway display of the Major players in the civil rights movement, and to produce a teaching aid commiserate with tbe BOE’s established guideline. You get the idea.

In pre-casting interviews, the students (all or almost all were 9-12 grade), we met and discussed at length all of the things you mentioned and much more. Stories were told, kids opened up, feelings were shared, rules were established. When asked if he thought maybe the material was too difficult to address, one boy, without flinching, replied, “I’ve been on the internet a few times.”

Part of our work, by the way, was to include, as an approach to understanding both play and performance, “Go Set A Watchman.” I don’t see how anyone can view Mockingbird today without looking at it through that lens.

Nevertheless, Mockingbird is powerful, as is the subject matter. When it was canceled I was, in part, relieved. Not for the kids, who were crushed, but because I never believed we had true commitment from the Board. That’s my message here. Whether or not one thinks a play is or is not appropriate, the authority with jurisdiction has to be absolutely engaged and steadfastly committed. That was our failure. Others take heed.

Since most of us here are tech geeks, maybe this will make sense: “we should fear for the characters, not for the actors.” It’s an old saw, but it applies here, too. The tendency today is to protect our children from danger, real or imagined, and even if the kids were ready the adults weren’t. These students were growing weary of “Seussical” and “Guys and Dolls Jr.” They wanted a challenge. Some are soon off to college or conservatory. In giving them a challenge we we right, but perhaps we went a bridge too far. Maybe not. Hard to say. Mockingbird, in all it’s forms, is no longer as welcome in America as it once was.

So… off to Kate Hamill’s “Little Women,” a version where non-traditional gender roles take center stage and a girl dresses in drag. I don’t expect any problems.

I should explain the last line of my reply above; i. E. “I don’t foresee any problems” with Hamill’s Little Women.

I do, in fact, anticipate issues. To counter these, we have removed the children’s theater company from the process. Instead, we partnered with a local adult company and are working under their aegis, in their space, and with their support. As many of the Mockingbird cast as we could find a place for were brought back. The show is also being funded by the parents. This means the authority in charge has the backbone to withstand any assault, and go into this with teeth clenched and nails out.

I don’t expect any problems.

 

[Van]

I'm pretty open to whatever you want to put on stage with an adult company, but what ages are we talking about here? I perused their web site and FB and looking at their historical list of presentations, this is a BIG step out of the box for them.
Maybe the director prepped the board etc.. but it comes down to what the mission of the company is. To train youth in the nuts and bolts of theater and acting and instill a love for the art? Or to create warriors for social change? I think if the kids stick with it, they will have plenty of time in the future to move out to the provocative and controversial. I think a youth theater can probably have more success in improving how we all get along by diverse casting and having an environment where they all have a kick ass time creating something together as a team. Mockingbird can certainly be a teachable moment for High Schoolers who maybe you can get to think more deeply, but "youth theater" are we moving down in to middle school too? Maybe just maybe in this case the play selection process and the director and the board failed these kids by not prepping the community at large as well.

Please explain to me what you feel is Provocative OR controversial about "To Kill a Mockingbird"? Unless one is really in favor of the racist policies of ... ( I was going to say past but that's kind of stupid isn't it?") I guess it sort of depends on your view of Children's/youth Theatre. If it is your opinion that everything should be "Ducky goes to Market" Then yeah I can see why one might think this 'inappropriate' <typing that makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. Do I think "The Goat" or "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" are appropriate for a children's or youth theatre ? Hell no. If your goal is to train young actors, up to grad 12, then you better not spend all your time performing "The Perils of Pauline" Everything in life is a teachable moment and it is exposure to stories like Mockingbird that allow children to grow.
My answer to these things is: "You don't like Drag Queens reading Stories to kids? Don't take 'em to the library on Monday Nights."

 

[jtweigandt]

Plain and simple. It wasn't the story that was the problem here. Examining race relations and the history of racism isnt the problem here. It was the lightning rod that is and continues to be the N word, who can say it, in what context and when. The production team knew this going in. I don't know if you can get a publishers waiver to leave it out, and you can argue all day long whether total artistic integrity was worth dragging a bunch of kids through this. But in the end.. it was the use of one word that closed this thing down.

 

[MNicolai]

Plain and simple. It wasn't the story that was the problem here. Examining race relations and the history of racism isnt the problem here. It was the lightning rod that is and continues to be the N word, who can say it, in what context and when. The production team knew this going in. I don't know if you can get a publishers waiver to leave it out, and you can argue all day long whether total artistic integrity was worth dragging a bunch of kids through this. But in the end.. it was the use of one word that closed this thing down.

Maybe 10 years ago that would've been the case. But seeing how things have been going here in Florida politics lately and with school boards and college boards getting taken over by anti-woke MAGA's on a crusade against diversity, any discussion of race or civil rights, or anything that could possibly be warped into someone's view of "CRT", the N-word wouldn't be the reason that play gets shot down in this state. It might be a cherry on top, but anyone putting that play on or any play like it is opening themselves up to a world of hurt.

The theater in question in this thread appears to be a private organization so they don't have the same stakes that a school has -- but that really doesn't change the fact that you're only ever one post in a Facebook group away from having a mob show up on your doorstep for indoctrinating children.

Case in point, my local schoolboard just got taken over by a MAGA majority. They immediately fired the superintendent -- also a Republican, because he enforced a week-long mask mandate that he had no influence on -- the prior school board put the policy in place, it was his job as an employee of the board to enforce, and he pushed the board to later adopt a positivity rate threshold for local testing that would automatically withdraw the policy when positivity rates dropped. That took about a week, and masks were no longer required. Nonetheless, he was canned and politically drawn and quartered in a couple board meetings for not being hardcore MAGA enough. (Interestingly, one of those schoolboard members was just appointed by DeSantis to the new board that controls Disney's zoning district...)

Also case in point, our governor installed a new college board to take over a small college here in town that's been traditionally very much about diversity. In no time at all, the diversity office was shuttered, a new policy was enacted to prohibit any recruiting or admittance based on diversity -- and probably 30-40 classes in their curriculum associated with diversity, civil rights or black history, women's rights, LGBTQ+, etc, will be on the immediate chopping block too as they move toward the next semester.

People are getting fired on the spot from administrators to librarians as this culture war heats up more and more.

None of this is to say theaters shouldn't present plays about diversity or civil rights. Now may be more important than ever to present those scripts, but if your theater isn't a blue state or city, there's an ever-growing chance your company will be attacked in the most deliberately public and vitriolic ways possible, brought to you by outrage on social media platforms shared between malicious actors and pearl-clutching parents. Nuanced conversations about the appropriate use of a particular word in a script isn't going to happen. The play just has to have a reputation as being about diversity or alleging white privilege exists for it to become a target.

 

[jtweigandt]

""""There were complaints from some parties about the use of racial epithets. These were asked to be removed but the director refused.""""""

From the original post.. By a direct participant.... That's why this particular production was cancelled.

The only other info I would overlay here is that although they are "independant" They appear on their FB page to use the local High School facilities for at least some of their productions. So when you rely on the public school for your production venue, that also will figure in to "stand fast" or "fold" on the language question alone.

 

[Chairman Moe]

Well, things have changed almost over night.

I said in a follow-up comment that I "expect no problems" with Little Women. Since then, the state legislature here in West Virginia has sent a bill to the State Senate that, as I read it, would make any production of Hamill's play a crime. Not only could the producers, actors, and participants be arrested, but parents who take children under the age of 18 to see Alcott's play would be subject to old Soviet-Style re-education. With God as my witness, I wish this were hyperbole. I read and reread the language of the proposed bill and it's quite specific: no minor is to be subject to any show where two or more people are dressed in drag and perform as the gender opposite of that assigned at birth. In the case of Little Women it's Jo and Amy play-acting. Beyond that, the play's them is Jo's discomfort with her "sex at birth."

My wife and 9 year old saw this version in Cincinnati and cried like babies. Deeply affected. They love it. Never in a thousand years did I think then - just a few months ago - that to have the same experience here might land one of them in jail.

This is no joke.
Speaking of drags, I reiterate: All the kids in Mockingbird were allowed to audition if they wanted. No one was forced. And there were parts for those who did not feel comfortable with the Word.
In short, no kid was "dragged through" anything. They auditioned, and were enthusiastic about the project. The "drag" belonged to the adults, and, we think, some kids who were outside of the process. As Jane Austin put it, "some people just don't like a party of pleasure."

 

[MNicolai]

@Chairman Moe

Most of the laws getting proposed and passed are violations of the first amendment. Some are more specific about it pertaining to adult-themed entertainment such as performances happening at a strip club and are a little less brazenly unconstitutional, but they're likely all going to have to get challenged up to SCOTUS and what happens there is certainly a wildcard.

 

[almorton]

We were going to put on "The Nether" this year. In the end we didn't, but the notes in the script suggest that the central part of Iris should be played by an actor as close to the age of the character as possible (which is about 14). I'm not sure that would get past many of the jurisdictions being discussed above.

 

[StradivariusBone]

Controversy over portrayal of the "n" word in period literature has existed since I was in elementary school 30 odd years ago reading Tom Sawyer (and before that as well- no doubt). But I tend to agree with Mike on this, it would be a mistake to not look through the lens of current events and the culture war animosity being propagated by those on the right. Mike's description about his local school board is verbatim what happened where I live on the other side of the state. All told, I think there's 13 districts in Florida (out of 67) that are currently looking for new supers after their board's turned into MAGA cesspits. Classroom libraries are banned. Teachers are being threatened with felonies for exposing kids to "unapproved" literature. The "approvers" are all sanctioned by the right wing nuts running things. This is a problem.

Florida is the testing bed for this. DeSantis has complete control over the legislature here and he has set his sights on DC.

 

[What Rigger?]

All valid concerns, and I share them, which is why, as part and parcel of any involvement in the production, I asked to be dramaturg, a role I had never played and one that the company had never employed.

First thing, I hired a professional race identity counselor/facilitator. Secondly, poured through the news looking at the state of American censorship, and thirdly did a deep, exhaustive dive into…. Everything.

The director and assistant director are both speech and language specialists with a doctorate and masters respectively. Their current specialty is in teaching teachers who find themselves in troubling situations (vis a vis students and parents).

Two private dramaturgy pages were established online, one (375 pages, including published treatises), and one less “heady” for the students were published.

Plans were made to decenter the “whiteness,” to include a large lobby and hallway display of the Major players in the civil rights movement, and to produce a teaching aid commiserate with tbe BOE’s established guideline. You get the idea.

In pre-casting interviews, the students (all or almost all were 9-12 grade), we met and discussed at length all of the things you mentioned and much more. Stories were told, kids opened up, feelings were shared, rules were established. When asked if he thought maybe the material was too difficult to address, one boy, without flinching, replied, “I’ve been on the internet a few times.”

Part of our work, by the way, was to include, as an approach to understanding both play and performance, “Go Set A Watchman.” I don’t see how anyone can view Mockingbird today without looking at it through that lens.

Nevertheless, Mockingbird is powerful, as is the subject matter. When it was canceled I was, in part, relieved. Not for the kids, who were crushed, but because I never believed we had true commitment from the Board. That’s my message here. Whether or not one thinks a play is or is not appropriate, the authority with jurisdiction has to be absolutely engaged and steadfastly committed. That was our failure. Others take heed.

Since most of us here are tech geeks, maybe this will make sense: “we should fear for the characters, not for the actors.” It’s an old saw, but it applies here, too. The tendency today is to protect our children from danger, real or imagined, and even if the kids were ready the adults weren’t. These students were growing weary of “Seussical” and “Guys and Dolls Jr.” They wanted a challenge. Some are soon off to college or conservatory. In giving them a challenge we we right, but perhaps we went a bridge too far. Maybe not. Hard to say. Mockingbird, in all it’s forms, is no longer as welcome in America as it once was.

So… off to Kate Hamill’s “Little Women,” a version where non-traditional gender roles take center stage and a girl dresses in drag. I don’t expect any problems.

Brave, thorough, and appropriate. Seems like what became a hard lesson for these kids in not only "holding the mirror up to reality" but also doing what theater is supposed to do- and that is in fact challenge the actors, audience and society.

 

[What Rigger?]

Well, things have changed almost over night.

I said in a follow-up comment that I "expect no problems" with Little Women. Since then, the state legislature here in West Virginia has sent a bill to the State Senate that, as I read it, would make any production of Hamill's play a crime. Not only could the producers, actors, and participants be arrested, but parents who take children under the age of 18 to see Alcott's play would be subject to old Soviet-Style re-education. With God as my witness, I wish this were hyperbole. I read and reread the language of the proposed bill and it's quite specific: no minor is to be subject to any show where two or more people are dressed in drag and perform as the gender opposite of that assigned at birth. In the case of Little Women it's Jo and Amy play-acting. Beyond that, the play's them is Jo's discomfort with her "sex at birth."

My wife and 9 year old saw this version in Cincinnati and cried like babies. Deeply affected. They love it. Never in a thousand years did I think then - just a few months ago - that to have the same experience here might land one of them in jail.

This is no joke.
Speaking of drags, I reiterate: All the kids in Mockingbird were allowed to audition if they wanted. No one was forced. And there were parts for those who did not feel comfortable with the Word.
In short, no kid was "dragged through" anything. They auditioned, and were enthusiastic about the project. The "drag" belonged to the adults, and, we think, some kids who were outside of the process. As Jane Austin put it, "some people just don't like a party of pleasure."

None of this is hyperbole. @Chairman Moe is giving it to you all, completely straight and accurate.