The College Fix: Is ‘The Sound of Music’ banned now, too?
A private college canceled a student-produced play that satirizes the Ku Klux Klan an hour before its final dress rehearsal, saying it could trigger some people on campus.
Maryland’s Washington College denies that the last-minute decision amounted to censorship that will chill the expression of other student artists.
1 comment:
Sorry, but this is censorship, plain and simple. The college is wrong and they missed an incredible teaching moment. There are many people to blame here for this, but what I think is most telling is that the article mentions that the college didn’t know about the material in the play. I’m sorry? In the two colleges that I have been a student of theatre, both of them have to have the season approved and in my undergrad, the student group also had to have their two yearly plays approved as well. I’m also getting increasingly concerned about the plethora of complaints about plays and musicals because they contain certain themes. I respect an individual's decision about what they will and will not tolerate but I draw the line when people just start lashing out against a work and fights to get it closed or banned instead of using it as an educational opportunity simply because of some trigger to them. Yes, there are plays and musicals that should not be performed because of the way that certain characters are portrayed but that doesn’t mean that just because the KKK appears in a play that we need to shut down the production over the fears of offending someone. If you’re easily offended, maybe you shouldn’t go to the theatre. Theatre is supposed to inspire and probe the deeper questions, it is supposed to challenge and push boundaries. It can’t do that if the performance doesn’t happen because someone (in this case, the head of the college) gets offended.
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