Thursday, March 17, 2016
High School Removing Swastikas From ‘The Producers’ Is Latest Example of Cowardly Censorship
OnStage: This week, news hit that a high school in New York would remove the use of swastikas in their upcoming production of The Producers. While some may cheer and agree with Tappan Zee High School's decision, to me, it's another example of High School theatre censorship.
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This reminds me of my sophomore year in high school, when we performed The Diary of Anne Frank. In order to show any swastikas on stage, we had to go through a process with the admin clearing it. In my case it was allowed, but I guess that could be a result that The Diary of Anne Frank is more well known in an academic setting than The Producers. However, I still agree with this author that the inability to show swastikas as a part of this production would lessen the impact of some of the parts of the show. As the author mentioned in the article, there are words in the show that are at the same level as the Nazi flag, but are not censored. It seems to me that the principal did not even read the script to pass judgment on this show. The symbols are only used for comedic purposes, with no real reason to be censored.
Y'now, I actually did a show filled with swastikas in high school for probably a much worse reason than The Producers, a show that is very clearly making fun of Hitler and the Nazi Party. I mean for Christ's sake, the line during that scene is "Don't be stupid be a smartie, come and join the Nazi party". And the audience in the show is disgusted until they realize its satire too. Just as the superintendent would've if he would have come.
My school did Nazi Julius Caesar where Caeser was Hitler and we were all his supporters in a weird Inglourious Basterds Shakespeare sort of thing. And I wish I could post pictures because literally every costume and 10 flags had giant swastikas on them. And the show was allowed to compete for our school. And we all played Nazis in a non-satiric sense. Now I'm not saying this is a good thing, but the district okayed that. However, then they said no to the high school version of Avenue Q the next year, which is even cut for high school and was too offensive for the superintendent. Which, seems very strange to me.
But, anyway if my old high schools let us go to competitions as Nazis, they should've been able to put on a fun production of the Producers with Swastikas.
I think that the author of this article makes some really great arguments. I can see why the superintendent might think that he is doing the right thing, but I think that any figure in education should think more about the message they are sending when they shy away from things like the swastika. When I first read this article, my thought process went to that of the officials and how if they removed the swastika from everything, they would in a way be neglecting to teach their students history. The author brings up examples such as the sound of music. If the soldiers in this play were not wearing the swastika, it in a way fails to teach the children what exactly that sign meant at the time and the kind of people who were wearing it. Many discussions in my Foundations of drama class have led to the fact that theatre is here to show us what words alone can't whether we want to see or not. Sure, the students may have read that the swastika and the Nazis are bad but they would get much more of an understanding if they could see that on stage. I understand how that can be scary to officials of schools, but most plays that deal with this issue Like the Producers and the sound of music either bring a satirical, funny, light to the subject, or provide mild and tasteful interpretations that could be appropriate for high schoolers. Sure, if the plays were any more vivid/ truthful with their portrayal of Nazis it would be cause for concern. This to me is mainly a choice of education and how much you feel youth should be educated on matters like these. If you are going to censor a sign of evil, why wouldn't you censor the evil itself. By doing this, The superintendent is not giving the children the whole story.
This superintendent obviously didn't read the script of the producers, because otherwise he never would have approved it. There is literally a song called Springtime for Hitler in the show, so I have no idea why he was okay with that but not the symbol. The thing that confuses me the most about this is the superintendent's quote that "There is no context in a public high school where a swastika is appropriate." This completes ignores that fact that this could be used as some sort of an educational tool, and there's no way that all of the history textbooks at that school don't have swastikas in them. According to this quote it would also be inappropriate in that case too. Of course there is a right way and a wrong way to handle the issue, however I think that completely banning it is not the best way forward. The swastika is a symbol that represents a dark and terrible time in history, but simply ignoring it and getting rid of it prevents discussion and promotes censorship.
When my school put on The Wedding Singer, we got feedback from our principal that one of the sexual scenes went too far and must be restaged. We then went through four different versions of the dance but the principal unhappily approved it. It’s interesting because I feel like high schools are a true incubator of censorship. When you break it down to its bare elements, it is the government choosing which art to endorse and display to the public, which can be very difficult, even though I would argue it shouldn’t be. This is a prime example of that and I totally agree with the article author’s point of view when they disagree with the idea that swastikas should not be allowed in a public high school. Education depends on unbiased exposure to all ideas that way students can choose what is important to them.
This is stupid, and that’s a lot coming from me as I am usually on the side of minorities for things like this. First of all if you have to remove one of the biggest symbols in the show then WHY do the show? If you believe that there is no place in a high school for swastika then this isn’t the show for you. Anyway, I feel like with this we’re getting too far into just straight up erasing history. If we get rid of the swastika in schools, then we aren’t teaching our students to be able to recognize to identify terrible party’s like the Nazi party. I mean Hitler in The Producer’s is so clearly satire, let people learn from it. I want to hear the complaints of those complaining about this. When you just pick random crap to yell about it ruins when people yell about real issues that matters.
This censorship is so incredibly infuriating to me. Surely we can’t expect everyone to know that the most terrifying part of history is not what happened, that’s in the past, no matter how much we try to forget we can’t change it. It’s the fact that the people who created that past aren’t all that different at all from us. The scary part about the Nazi regime is not that by hanging swastikas, even in an un-ironic manner, we will suddenly have hoards of bloodthirsty antiemetic Nazi’s swarming our schools but the fact that if we forget what happened. If we block out every symbol of our horrible deeds of the past we too might fall into the trap that Germany did. Even if the producers doesn’t exactly tell the story of the past in complete accuracy the censorship of history from art because we are afraid of a symbol is utterly ridiculous.
I agree with the author of this, maybe not as violently, but if you are really uncomfortable using swastikas in a show, you shouldn't do the Producers. It's a show about Nazis, making fun of the Holocaust, and I just personally don't think that's super fitting for a high school. I do not think The Producers is an evil show, I don't think there is a problem with making this art, but is it appropriate for a high school? My junior year, we did Spamalot. In Spamalot, there is a number called "You Won't Succeed on Broadway (If You Don't Have Any Jews)" I went to a very Jewish high school, and we happened to have a bus load of Israeli exchange students at the time this show went up. Opening night, when that song happened and our big, glittering Star of David flew in, the Israeli students jumped up and started dancing along with the actors. The point of the song is to playfully make fun on Jewish people and stereotypes, not to dance around singing "Heil Hitler". I think a show like The Producers is simply too controversial for high school, and there's nothing wrong with being controversial if it's not a public institution. You can't be surprised when there is backlash from helicopter parents. Teach students about the history behind these art pieces so when they go into the real world, they can make those controversial decisions for themselves.
This particular instance of censorship is, to me, hilarious. I typically don’t agree with censorship, especially in high school theatre. Although one can make a case for removing unnecessary violent, graphic, or just plain racist content from a show which doesn’t need it, I’m fairly certain if you cut out every reference to Hitler and the Nazi’s in The Producers, you’d be left with maybe 30 minutes of run time. And frankly, if the superintendent was uncomfortable with any and all references to Nazism, then why did he approve The Producers in the first place? These kinds of decisions need to be made before the contracting process even starts. It really just points to ignorance and thoughtlessness on the part of the superintendent for not doing his research or even reading the script he most likely approved. And sadly, that’s so often the case. Higher powers who blindly say ok without care, only to pull a 180 when confronted by one upset person. It’s a sad truth in high school and college theatre that leads to an awful lot of disappointment.
School Censorship has been such an issue for so long when it comes to productions. This superintendent has probably never even heard of The Producers till he found out a high school was using swastikas. It was probably the only word he heard that made him cut the symbol from the show. I agree with Jasmine in that, if you're going to cut the biggest symbol in the show, then don't do the show. Also, I don't think it is realized that the show is NOT condoning the use of swastikas. It's actually exposing really dark events. Yes, it is a comedy and it is poking fun at wearing one and dancing around in Nazi uniform, but just like previous comments state, if you choose to censor it, it is as if it didn't happen. What is this superintendent trying to do by removing swastikas from the show? Trying to black out history and not bring to light what Hitler did? Just because it might be a "touchy subject"? Or is the superintendent trying to keep a district reputation in being respectable? Well I'm sorry but it's just plain dumb. I'm pretty sure no on in the audience would whisper to the person next to them, "I don't think that's a costume, he might be a Nazi." Oh Please.
I am tired tired tired of people taking offense to things that are not meant to harm anyone. It seems like every week there is a new complaint about how "this is too sexual" or "this is too violent" or "this is not okay for my high schooler to see." These are REAL things, people, that REALLY happened. It seems like no one wants to admit that there is anything in the world that could actually be a decent learning tool for young people rather than a red flag saying "No no we don't want to be associated with that no no no."
I had a teacher in high school who used to call the environment we learned in, "Nurtureville," which is astonishingly accurate. Everywhere I turned in high school there was an administrator making sure that this and that stayed hush hush and that no one heard about it because it could be offensive to someone. This is no way to teach young people to be adults. The real world does not censor for anyone.
Don't even get me started on banned books...
This reminds me of the last show I did at my high school, we did Cabaret, and naturally we used swastikas as part of that show because to a very large extent that show deals with Nazism and the transition of Germany from the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany.
As the lighting designer, we used gobos and wash lights to turn our proscenium into a very large Nazi banner at the end of Act 1. I remember thinking it was weird that my high school didn’t have an issue with the use of that symbol, we all knew why it was there and we all were respectful about the history behind it. Because of this, we were able to create a really powerful moment in the show.
Now, I had happened to be in Germany a week before we started work on the production, which very much helped me design the show, but I learned on that trip that in Germany the use or display of the Swastika can be met with jail time, except if used in for purposes of historical education or artistic purposes, ie. producing a play that deals with the issue. The reason for this is so they are still allowed to educate their youth about their regrettable past, such that they don’t repeat their mistake.
In a country where you can say just about anything you want, I find it very annoying, and frankly destructive, when educational institutions gut the substance (and usually the driving factor) of plays so that they cover their asses from offending the public. If you’re going to do a play like Cabaret, or The Producers, you better be damn sure you know there’ll be a Swastika in the show or you should just pick a different show. It’s nothing short of whitewashing history, and public schools are the last place to be ignoring historical significance. Yeah, the Swastika is the symbol of the genocide of millions of people (jewish, gay, catholic, disabled, etc). Yeah, there are other factors to WWII than genocide (such as the battle between fascism and communism). When we ignore these events, we withhold that knowledge from young people who could use it to help make the world a better place by not repeating the mistakes that got us to WWII. They sure don’t forget it in Germany.
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