The New York Times: The Public Theater, one of the nation’s biggest and most influential nonprofit theaters, has abruptly shortened the run of a climate change activist’s provocative one-man show, saying the creator, Josh Fox, had violated the theater’s code of conduct.
3 comments:
This situation is quite unique but I do feel like events that lead up to the cancellation of the show happen more often that thought of. What is most confusing here is that as the audience, we don't know the full story. It is not for us to know the whole story but some points seem to be missing. With the creator using the idea that his show is ending early due to the Public's disagreement with the content is something completely different from the Public saying that Josh Fox is acting in a manner that is not professional and potentially harmful. They each have their different reasons but it is interesting seeing both sides not give any specifics on previous actions from the other. Something I am curious about is that if Josh Fox really believes that The Public cancelled the last 3 shows and didn't just cancel the whole run before it was in previews for the reason that it disagreed with the moral of the play seems to be something that just makes him seem a little crazy about the idea that this wasn't his fault. Either way it is a shame that this happened.
Like Pablo mentioned, as a third party just reading about what was going on after the fact in a pretty short article, it feels as though there are some details missing, or that we’re not hearing everything that happened. I completely disagree with cancelling or ‘silencing’ people/ shows that say controversial or different things since they can often bring about good conversations about said topics. However, I’m also aware that *some* performers and activist types of people can have personalities that are pretty awful to deal with and can be overdramatic about situations they’re in. Back in high school I’ve had an actress publicly accuse me and the sound department of being vindictive and purposefully making it so that she wasn’t heard during her solo when in reality it was just a fluke in her body pack. Looking at some of the other things that The Public is putting on, it doesn’t seem likely that the content of his show would be a red flag for them, especially since they did let it perform for the first few days and only cancelled the last three. But again, there’s limited information given here so we can’t really be 100% sure on the actual cause.
I would like to reiterate what Pablo and Ari have already said, we don’t have the full story but there are strategic hints throughout the story that may provide some context. First off it is extremely clear the show was not canceled due to content. The Public made that abundantly clear in their statement. The accusation that donors to the theatre influenced the production seems silly because rarely have I heard of companies turning away donors. My guess is that there will always be a doner you disagree with. Do you think the school of drama agrees with the political views of every single person who drops a dollar in the showcase basket at the end of performances? Josh Fox may have been drawing the attention away from his behavior. I think Josh Fox may have been subject to microaggressions, which could explain some of his frustration, particularly surrounding his Jewish heritage. He mentions that he was called “too passionate, too loud and too emotional.” Although it definitely seems like this was not the only issue. I really appreciate how the public stood by their staff in their statement, because it is so easy to incriminate people just trying to do their jobs.
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