Playbill.com: An Ohio high school that fired the woman hired to direct its musicals is reassessing the goals of its drama program after school administrators expressed concerns over a production of the Tony Award-nominated musical Legally Blonde.
Loveland High School, located 20 miles northeast of Cincinnati, presented a November production of Legally Blonde, the 2007 stage musical based on the Golden Globe-nominated 2001 film of the same title.
11 comments:
I think this is a weird case because Loveland school had already put on productions with even more references to sex and alcohol than Legally Blond, which in my mind has always been an innocent show. One can make the point that Guys and Dolls, a play that practically every high school has staged is too PG13 for audiences, which is crazy. Also, theatre, even in high schools, is about pushing bounds, not just about reciting lines and turning on lights.
Wow, this is pretty shocking. Especially with there past show history, which clearly had more reference to sex and alcohol. But I guess with the very odd system that high schools have these days its not too, too weird. I know my high school, a very, very conservative school overall, has done innumerable shows featuring sex, & alcohol, and even shows with suicide and child murder, & yet we were not allowed to produce Urinetown simply because of the show's title. I understand and agree with many of the rules set in place in high schools except I think it should be allowed to talk about things like sex and alcohol, and help prepare students for all of those things that adult life offers us.
This is indeed very shocking to me. I don't understand why a high school director would be fired for staging LEGALLY BLONDE. Yes, it is sexual...Yes, there are some moments that are not family appropriate. BUT...all of these high school students know about this by now... Legally Blonde is way less sexual than something like SPRING AWAKENING or RENT and has only a few sexual moments. I performed many of these shows while I was in high school, and SPRING AWAKENING was a widely talked about show because of that, but I just don't even understand how this would happen.
This is an extremely ridiculous situation. Not because of the minuscule amount of questionable content, but because the school had already approved the show, and that it had already been performed multiple times. The school in question had even staged racier productions in the past with no consequence. I think that this must boil down to a complaint the the school received from a parent or important community member, and action had to be taken to preserve the school's image. It's rather sickening.
My high school is has started already rehearsal for legaly blond which they will be performing later this spring and this issue hit home with them. After talking to an old high school teacher that will be a part of the show. She shared some of her consern that this was going to happen to her even with the districts aproval because earlier in my high school years a pair of directors performed larmie project and sweet charity. The school board read the scripts and aproved them. After all the shows were over with the board decied that the matterial was inapproiate and both teachers ended up resigning because of the board. It seem to me this story is just another case of administrating ignoring arts until it becomes a problem or being blind to what exactly is put before them.
This makes no sense to me. I wonder how they even justified this, the musical has hardly any content for people to get angry over, and especially if they did Grease with alcohol and cigarettes on stage. This seems like it is a much more political decision and they just needed an excuse. There is the bit at the end of the article about a "change in administration". Even more then this she didn't do anything wrong the script was approved by the school, I imagine the school will get a lot of flack for this.
This makes me so angry that I couldn't even read the whole article in one sitting. First of all, it drives me crazy that a high school teacher was fired for producing a show that, yes doesn't have some of the greatest content, but still has a better message than most classic musicals. A director I once worked with once told me that, "A show without prostitutes is like a day without sunshine. A show without alcohol is impossible. (Unless it's disney)." If a drama teacher is going to get fired for doing a show that has a scene with wine in it, then the school is pretty much asking for the teacher to produce High School Musical over and over and over again. I also find it ridiculous that the school fired a teacher for producing a show that they didn't even care enough about to read the and make sure it was to their standards. Honestly, if a school is going to blatantly ignore the show and the rehearsal process and then say once the show is half way through its run that the show shouldn't have been produced, then the school should be held accountable, not the teacher who was given the green light by the administration. I find this unfair and I can't believe this happened of LEGALLY BLONDE of all shows... I mean really...
Well, this is infuriating. It's so hard to find quality arts educators, and this parent is essentially volunteering her time (to great success, it sounds like). I do hope they come to their senses and have her back after this all blows over. It's highly unlikely they'll be able to find someone better or willing to put up with their BS.
Im not quite sure everything is being reported here. this seems to be a bit suspicious seeing as how they have put on more provocative shows in the past. i feel like maybe the teacher is either telling everyone she was fired for her choice in shows or the school is telling people that because what ever the real reason is they dont want people to know or they just needed and excuse to fire her. either way it was completely in there rights. I totally disagree with it but theres nothing anyone can really do once a school makes up there mind. ive come to learn that schools are not always run democratically.
Yay PTA... If alcohol in shows is not allowed on stage, say goodbye to Fiddler On The Roof, Hello Dolly, Ah Wilderness; all shows considered tame and acceptable, yet each with their own scenes about alcohol. As for the presence of sex in plays and musicals, there's a South Park episode about that. My point is that almost every single show cherished has at some point or another had alcohol and sex in it, yet no one has had problems with it. It seems to me like parents nowadays seem to be against anything modern (though this show isn't that new) that wants to explore the same themes that theater has been exploring for ages.
For a show that is about self empowerment and finding your own i think the firing of this teacher was completely unfair. People are so concerned on keeping their children innocent that they are forgetting the meaning of theatre and the great messages that can be told from it. If they want a high school friendly show then they need to continue doing high school related shows with high school characters, and even then if you create a show about high school, REAL high school, it will be much more raunchy than this.
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