FROM
THE
DESK OF THE DLDF
BY RALPH SEVUSH,
Executive Director, DLDF
NOTES FROM BANNED TOGETHER
E
verybody has their reasons.
Whether it’s a school princi-
pal in suburban Connecticut
who thought the school edi-
tion of the hit 1996 musical, Rent, was
too ahead of its time for his students
in 2014; a mayor in Georgia who tried
to stop a production of Rocky Horror,
even when the movie was playing at
midnight not far away; or the school
board in Pennsylvania that cancelled
an upcoming production of Spamalot
and fired the teacher who chose it...
Yes, everybody has their reasons.
For thousands of years, politicians,
parents and school principals have
been going after work like Oedipus
Rex, Lysistrata, Merchant Of Venice, Tar-
tuffe, Hamlet, The Importance Of Being
Earnest, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, The
Cradle Will Rock and The Mikado. We
can shake our heads in wonderment
that such classics were ever contro-
versial, or even that they still are in
some quarters.
But censorship of theatrical work
is not some medieval practice that
we’ve left behind, some long-forgot-
ten notion unknown in these more
civilized times. It’s a mindset we’ve
brought with us, and it continues to
this day.
Why? Because everybody has their
reasons.
The rationalizations offered by our
moral watchdogs generally fall within
at least one of five types of subject
matter which, they claim, make a
particular work inappropriate for a
particular audience:
1. Sex and vulgarity: Including
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depictions, or insinuations of,
“inappropriate” sexual activity
(e.g., between different races, the
same gender, young and old, family
members, etc.) or any language of
a sexual, scatological, or otherwise
vulgar nature;
2. Politics: Expressing views that
are either too radical, politically
incorrect, or that depict extreme Students in Wilton Connecticut are
violence; prevented from presenting their own
3. Race: Either showing inappropri- original play about the soldiers who
ate “race mixing,” employing were wounded and killed during the
racial stereotypes, or using raciallyIraq War (it would be offensive to the
insensitive words; community). The town of Flagler, FL
4. Religion: Depicting religion, re- shuts down To Kill a Mockingbird (be-
ligious practice, and/or religious cause of the “N” word). A New York
leaders in any way that may be nonprofit and a JCC in D.C. cancel
deemed “blasphemous” or “dis- plays that each present what are de-
criminatory”; and scribed as “anti-Israeli” views.
5. LGBTQ issues: This sub-section In fact, as this is being typed, the
of “sexual content” subject matter president of Cal State University
gets its own category, because it has just cancelled an upcoming pro-
is by far the most common reason duction of the play N*gger Wetb*ck
currently used by censors, when Ch*nk. As a result, the performing
a work either depicts, or implies, arts center’s executive director has
LGBT characters, or themes, or resigned in protest.
tolerance, and certainly any im- Our need to stop the communica-
plied sexual activity. tion of unpleasant ideas is not the
exclusive provenance of any one era,
So, another excellent teacher religion, political doctrine, or cultur-
resigns (or is fired) for choosing the al worldview. It is a compulsion that
wrong school musical (because it por- cuts across time, space and thought.
trayed LGBT characters). A town tries But in a democratic, pluralistic soci-
to prevent a theater that is presenting ety (which we still are, at least of this
Vagina Monologues from putting the writing, prior to the 2016 presidential
title on the theater’s marquee (it’s election), our citizenship demands
an offensive word!). Catholic groups that we answer “bad speech” with
picket and call in bomb threats to a “good speech,” that we challenge of-
nonprofit theater presenting Corpus fensive ideas with ideas of our own,
Christi (because of “gay Jesus”). When rather than stifle the conversation.
a theater hosts an anti-censorship And if you disagree, let’s talk
event (not unlike Banned Together), about it. Because everybody has their
the producers are required to cut Mo- reasons.
hammed Gets a Boner from the presen- RALPH
tation (for fear of violent reprisals). rsevush@dldf.org
12/2/16 12:44 PM
 FROM
THE

BANNED TOGETHER event in New York

The cast of the DLDF's Banned Together
event at Drama Book Shop in New York

BD Wong and
Patrick Page
performing
a scene from
Angels in
America

DLDF’s Amy VonVett and TADA! Youth

Theater’s Producing Artistic Director,
TADA! Youth Theater’s Resident Youth Janine Nina Trevens
Ensemble performing “Totally Fucked” from
Spring Awakening

pp74-77 Departments.indd 77 12/2/16 12:44 PM