Florida High School Cancels 'Indecent,' a Play About Censorship on Broadway in 1923

[Judi Lynn]

Free speech groups—and playwright Paula Vogel—are condemning the school board’s decision

Ella Feldman
Daily Correspondent

January 13, 2023

In 1906, dramatist Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance, a Yiddish play about the daughter of a Jewish brothel owner falling in love with one of her father’s prostitutes. When an English production of the play opened on Broadway in 1923, the cast and producer were arrested on obscenity charges—and the play was shut down.

In 2015, playwright Paula Vogel dramatized the controversy and censorship in her own play, the Tony-nominated Indecent. Now, a Florida high school has abruptly canceled a student production of Indecent, citing sexual content.

Administrators at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Florida’s Duval County made the decision a few weeks after casting had been finalized. The play was replaced by The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.

In a statement, several free speech groups—including the National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN America and the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund—express “deep concern” over the play’s cancelation and urge the school to reverse its decision.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/florida-high-school-censors-play-about-censorship-and-queer-jewish-love-180981437/

[The Magistrate]

1. Damn, Ma'am

I'm going to have to look that up, never heard of it and it sounds like I ought to have.

Thank you.

[Harker]

2. O, the irony.

Proof that so-called conservatives would turn back the calendar.

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. By that reckoning, bibles should never be allowed on campus in any form.

For they also have 'sexual content'. Otherwise, they are all hypocrites and should be called out as such at every turn.

[3Hotdogs]

4. I would'a thought so, too. With all that begetting and begotting..... then I learned that begetting

is how we Republicans account for taking money from rubes.

"Trump begot $98 for each N.F.T."

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. Exactly.

They cannot watch a play about real love but they can read about David and Bathsheba all day long. Amazing, isn't it?

[Abigail_Adams]

5. I'm not too disturbed by this,

actually. This is extremely mature material for a high school group, many of whom are minors, or their friends who would be in the audience are minors, and choosing this play was a bad decision on the director's part. Perhaps the director was reacting to DeSantis's attacks on "wokism" by programming it. But it's way too old for teens, and if the director had used better judgment the cancellation wouldn't have happened. "Indecent" would be stuff for a community or professional theater company.