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TechnoratiWar and Censorship at Wilton High
Last Sunday night, as millions of Americans tuned in to the two Tonys—the final episode of "The Sopranos," to see whether Tony Soprano lived or died, and the Tony Awards, celebrating the best in American theater—actor Stanley Tucci (who played "Nigel" in "The Devil Wears Prada") was in an off-Broadway theater, the Culture Project, watching high school students perform a play about war.
The production, "Voices in Conflict," moved the audience to tears, ending with a standing ovation for the teenage actors, still reeling from a controversy that had propelled them onto the New York stage. Their high school principal had banned the play.
Bonnie Dickinson has been teaching theater at Wilton High School in Connecticut for 13 years. She and her students developed the idea of a play about Iraq, initially inspired by the Sept. 3, 2006, death of Wilton High graduate Nicholas Madaras from an IED (improvised explosive device) blast in Baqubah, Iraq. The play uses real testimonials from soldiers, from their letters, blogs and taped interviews, and Yvonne Latty's book "In Conflict," with the students acting the roles. The voices of Iraqis are also included.
In mid-March, after students spent months preparing the play, the school administration canceled it. Superintendent Gary Richards wrote: "The student performers directly acting the part of the soldiers ... turns powerful material into a dramatic format that borders on being sensational and inappropriate. We would like to work with the students to complete a script that fully addresses our concerns." (The students have modified the script; they perform Richards' letter, its cold, condescending bureaucratese in stark relief with the play's passionate eyewitness testimonials.)
The story struck a chord with Tucci. He was already producing a video piece about his high school alma mater, John Jay High School in Cross River, N.Y., where high school girls were suspended for performing an excerpt of Eve Ensler's play "The Vagina Monologues." Their crime: uttering the word "vagina" after being warned not to.
Following the performance of "Voices in Conflict," Tucci participated in a public conversation with the student actors, noting that "Cross River and Wilton are only 15 miles apart. There's obviously something in the water."
After The New York Times published an article on the Wilton High censorship scandal, Ira Levin, the author of "The Stepford Wives," wrote the paper a letter: "Wilton, Conn., where I lived in the 1960s, was the inspiration for Stepford, the fictional town I later wrote about in 'The Stepford Wives.' I'm not surprised ... that Wilton High School has a Stepford principal. Not all the Wilton High students have been Stepfordized. The ones who created and rehearsed the banished play 'Voices in Conflict' are obviously thoughtful young people with minds of their own."
Wilton High School principal Timothy Canty was quoted in The New York Times article saying that the play might "hurt Wilton families 'who had lost loved ones or who had individuals serving as we speak,' and that there was not enough classroom and rehearsal time to ensure it would provide 'a legitimate instructional experience for our students.' "
I asked the student actors about their opportunities to discuss the war at school. Jimmy Presson, 16 years old, said his U.S. history class has a weekly assignment to bring in a current-event news item, with one caveat: "We are not allowed to talk about the war while discussing current events." The students said that they can discuss the war in a Middle Eastern studies class, but, they said, it is not being taught this year. "Theater Arts II was the only class in the school where students were discussing the war," Dickinson said. Jimmy added, "We also get to speak about it with the military recruiters who are always at school."
Following Sunday's production, Allan Buchman, Culture Project's artistic director, summed up, "What we saw tonight was the reason to have a theater."
With the evening winding down, the kids were already talking about their next performance, this one at the famed Public Theater, another prominent New York institution, which will be attended by some of the soldiers the student actors play. Jimmy said: "It means a lot that we can share their stories. We got word from India, Japan ... and even Iowa." The audience laughed. It was getting late. As the students packed up to head home to Connecticut, they wondered if they would ever be allowed to perform the play where it all began, at Wilton High.
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.
© 2007 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate
30 Comments so far
Show All"The production, 'Voices in Conflict,' moved the audience to tears, ending with a standing ovation for the teenage actors."
I was moved to tears just reading the account. But then I read this:"Superintendent Gary Richards wrote: 'The student performers directly acting the part of the soldiers … turns powerful material into a dramatic format that borders on being sensational and inappropriate. We would like to work with the students to complete a script that fully addresses our concerns." (The students have modified the script; they perform Richards' letter, its cold, condescending bureaucratese in stark relief with the play's passionate eyewitness testimonials." By THAT brilliant move I was REALLY moved to tears. Brava/Bravo to Theater Arts II and all involved in this production.
Thank you for the insight view of the dumbing and worse the numbing of Ameriac life and culture. We woulden't want to make the criminals feel bad because their crimes are "over there". You gotta luv this sort of burrying our HEADS IN THE SAND. Just go do the great work of empire and don't do any plays about the results
Schools all over the country are failing us, teaching to the test, not talking about the war but I graduated HS in 1975 and we NEVER even mentioned Vietnam unless we were buying the POW bracelets so although this article and the comments made me sad for these particular students I don't think times have changed from when I was in HS and THAT is why we are where we are ... We become active citizens somewhere along the line mostly one on one because something touches us personally not because we are TAUGHT to be citizens in school. Lets hope these Wilton HS students just became citizens!!!
Thank you, Amy, for giving us stories that would otherwise never be read. School administrators, by nature, don't rise to the top of the heap by bucking the system they represent. We have a saying at the little, non-profit arts school we founded: "Teaching is an art, the teacher, an artist." Let us be grateful that the "system" has not yet been able to "kill" all art.
Teaching a class in civics and current events but not allowing discussion of an ongoing war is like teaching chemistry but forbidding any talk based on the periodic table.
The artificial restriction upon Wilton High's view of what is civics and what is appropriately noncontroversial for discussion as a current events topic should not surprize us, however.
For years after the Constitution's initial adoption, any mention of the word "slavery" in the Senate or House of Representatives was forbidden. Indeed, part of what created the whole background for Bush's fear mongering public relations campaign rallying popular and media support for the invasion of Iraq in 2002-2003 was the systematic censorship of any meaningful treatment of the Vietnam War and the peace movement of the 60's and early 70's from public school American history textbooks.
Today's casual acceptance by mainstream America of the neo-cons' vision of perpetual "low intensity" urban guerilla warfare between US troops and Muslims in the Middle East as a permanent front in a fight against global terrorism is just more chickens coming home to roost.
If you don't teach history to begin with, nobody learns history's lessons.
Bill from Saginaw
hazmat said, "school officials (socrates and howard zinn aside) seem terrified of their primary mission: to prepare their students to think independently, to evaluate information critically, and to take their rightful places as citizens in a vibrant democracy."
You're living in the past. The purpose of public schools now is to turn out obedient little worker bees who will buy lots of consumer products and believe whatever a person in authority tells them. This principal clearly understands that purpose and is actively pursuing it.
Wilton High School
http://www.wilton.k12.ct.us/whs/
Mustn't offend the warmongers among the school parentage by causing innocent folks to THINK and FEEL!
Pres dent Bush needs to attack Wilton High so to spread freedom an Democracy there; then they all should take a nice 2 week vacation in Cuba.
The fact that schools in states such as Texas and Missisipi still beat students on their sexual erogenous zones is a clear indication of what public schools are like in America; bastions of control for unimaginative, small-minded adults to throw their ugliness into. Once under 18'ers are extended the full human rights they deserve, real progress can happen.
http://www.dreamingearth.net
I'm taking a positive point of view of this chicanery. The kids involved certainly learned a whole lot more about how America really works, the influence of the media on an argument, the value of celebrity, and the hypocrisy of American freedom because of the political dust-up than they would have if their little play had gone on as intended to a small audience of proud parents and bored fellow students. Let's hope they take it to heart.
whatheheck
ah, beat me to it by a whisker
public schools are state funded institutions, like prisons, and not coincidentally share many of the same characteristics - loss of basic freedoms being among them. no need to ask the students, as most of us have attended or still do so. obviously, not all schools are equally oppressive, and many would proudly present such a production. but the irony of permitting military recruiters on campus while censoring artistic expression concerning war is breathtaking. "land of the incarcerated, and home of the chickenshit" - has a nice sort of ring...
America (the United States part of America)does not want to hear about this war-period. The few kids I have talked to that have returned from Iraq felt they had done a lot of good in Iraq, but then they think it would be cool to join up with Blackwater.
School is a 10-13 year prison sentence. Sure some kids like it and learn from it, but the same can be said for prison. It's events like this that expose it for the fascist institution that it is. What we teach our kids in school is that they truly have no rights, and like the Soviet Commissars, we require them to learn about the Constitution that is completely powerless to protect them. That's the prime strategy of totalitarian regimes -- non-stop cognitive dissonance. Check out John Gatto.
http://www.spinninglobe.net/condunces.htm
They aught to perform it live right in the middle of their town as a protest. That would be fantastic. Maybe rent a public place to perform it. Good way to thumb their nose at that ignorant principal of theirs. So much ignorance prevalent in the people running our school systems, it's a shame.
The high school reflects the values of the parents. Thats America and Connecticutt elected Lieberman with 50% of the vote. Its why there is no impeachment in progress now.
I saw the play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff. The play is about life in the trenches during WWI and it is brilliant and moving.
But Americans are in denial. They don't want to hear about war, so Journey's End closed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey's_End
"Journey's End opened to previews in New York at the Belasco Theatre on February 8 with its official opening on February 22, 2007. It closed on June 10 after 125 regular performances. That same evening, it won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2007."
Maybe the high school students could next do that play, Journey's End, written in 1928.
Its the same story told again.
Live drama gets to the parts that even the Internet can't reach. What's true of "Voices in conflict" is true of the operatic version of "Dead Man Walking", and indeed of the Oberammergau Passion Play.
Films are recordings of what happened, the TV news shows what's happening from far away. But with Live Drama, it's happening right here - right now! And THAT is what true theatre is all about.
The spirit of Arthur Miller marches on in these youngsters!
How can people be puzzled that so many of those graudating from high school are unmotivated, unprepared, depressed, and angry?
Between the silencing of 'offensive' words, the narrowing of permissible topics of conversation, the districts' fears of litigation, and the 'compassionate conservative' backlash against 'secular humanism,' the size of the cage around our children grows ever smaller.
Perhaps, as parents, we should reconsider the purpose of High School. It's job is to prepare our children for real life. True. But real life IS censorship. Real life is the suppression of ideas that threaten the powers that be. As parents, we should be teaching our children how to deal with the High School version of real life so that MORE students join in protests through theater. We should teach our children that standing up to principles trying to "protect" society from dialog is required as part of responsible citizenship and that it extends all the way up the ladder of authority. High school is the practice ground for dissent, because authorities see it as the training ground for obedience. It is the time when our children cease to be children and start to become adults and it is the time that authority tries to attach those blossoming adults with a collar. A last stab at controlling them so that they won't make waves.
Encourage your children to talk to the military recruiters and ask them harsh, threatening questions. Encourage them to be suspended for doing the right thing. I read so many posts on this website suggesting that discipline is the cure for our poor public schools, but I find that misguided. A respect for other human beings is important. Treating people with decency and consideration, I understand. But deference to authority is how we end up bombing innocents in the name of profit. It is how our children learn to become cannon fodder. It is how our children learn to given tacit consent to thousands of evils perpetrated in their name.
NO. High School is truly preparation for real life, so let us prepare our children, truly.
My highest compliments to the students of Wilton High School.
and this is what's going on in one of the richest areas with the richest schools in the country. kudos to stanley tucci.
Why weren't these kids being rote taught so they could pass a standardized test on arithmetic? I thought we had killed of the arts in American education.
When I read about this kind of 'Education' I feel very sick about what is going on in our country. Of course, too much thinking about the state of our country seems a real waste of time.
It's OK for these kids to sign up for the US military while in high school (in fact they are encouraged by the presence of recruiters at the school) and start killing a few months thereafter, however it is forbidden to talk about the war in class, to read the soldiers' letters and blogs in the play, or to mention publicly the word "vagina." That's called training young minds to participate in a democracy American style. It is helpful to consider the founding purpose of American primary and high school education: to produce workers who are obedient and to steer the vast majority of students away from critical reflection on their condition (there is vast explicit literature on this educational purpose from more honest times in the first thirty years of the 20th Century when the American educational system was being established). Military recruiters at the ready are stationed as they leave the school for those who were correctly trained and have no other good options available.
I think the article's emphasis on the "stepford" connection is misleading. I would venture to guess that MOST US high school students would face similar difficulties if they tried to perform such a play about the soldiers' statements (and would be less likely to be helped to produce it off-Broadway in NYC).
High school age students considering the military, take heart the words of the immortal Joey Strummer of The Clash:
It's up to you not to heed the call-up
You must not act the way you were brought up
...
Who knows the plans or why they were drawn up?
...
I don't wanna kill!
Wilton High School principal Timothy Canty was quoted in The New York Times article saying that the play might "hurt Wilton families 'who had lost loved ones or who had individuals serving as we speak,'"
What about the Wilton veteran families hurt by the principal by censoring this expression? I guess those veterans are no good liberal hippie scum, and they don't mean sh!t to this goon.
school officials (socrates and howard zinn aside) seem terrified of their primary mission: to prepare their students to think independently, to evaluate information critically, and to take their rightful places as citizens in a vibrant democracy.
how pathetic---afraid to harbor opinions of their own, lest they be marked for character assassination by right-wing media bullies, they rush to prevent their young charges from expressing anything but the narrowest orthodoxy. in discussing current events, these kids are forbidden from even approaching the single issue that currently dominates news in the adult world.
how fitting that school uniforms for the mind are required in stepford.
"the play might 'hurt Wilton families'"
The average family will pay $33600 to support this $2.4 trillion dollar fiasco. The majority of american families do not want to. This amount of money translates into 1600 hours of slavery against their will.
"and they are not allowed to write FUCK on their airplanes..." marlon brando as colonel kurtz, apocalypse now.
the disconnect b/n war & the acceptable language/images about war help to make war so ubiquitous. how can you be offended about a play using the very words of soldiers wounded and killed in war, and not be offended about the fact of wounding and killing in war?
"why would i want to think about that? it will disturb my beautiful mind."-barbara bush, as herself
Public education must prepare students for citizenship. Without an informed citizenry a democratic republic cannot last. The thirst for knowledge and freedom burns in these youth; the future is theirs and they have begun to speak out, to rebel against arbitrary power and they will not be denied the right to do so. To them I say, "keep on keepin on."
Bravo to the students and their drama instructor for keeping education alive at Wilton High despite the best efforts of the remainder of the faculty and adminstration to destroy it.
It's nice to see that in scattered little places like Wilton CT and Boulder CO (where the panel on Sex, Teens and Drugs got some Christo-fascists all so upset that they called out their dogs, James Dobson and Bill O'Reilly, to bitch and whine about it)
What too few of those who support and oppose such presentations don't realize is that it is in the passionate disputing and arguing over such that true education takes place. Otherwise we are just dealing with memory training and indoctrination.