War and Censorship at Wilton High: CT HS Students Perform Play on NY Stage After Ban by Principal

[babylonsister]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/20/153202

War and Censorship at Wilton High: Connecticut High School Students Perform Play on NY Stage After Ban by Principal

Administrators at Connecticut’s Wilton High School have banned students from performing "Voices in Conflict", a play about the Iraq war, calling it "sensational and inappropriate." We speak with the play’s director, as well as two students involved in the production. We’re also joined by Iraq war veteran Charlie Anderson, whose story is depicted in the play. Two weeks ago, audience members packed into an off-Broadway theater here in New York to watch the curtain go up on an unusual production - a high school play about war. The play, called “Voices in Conflict,” was performed by students from Wilton High School in Connecticut. The reason they were performing it on a New York stage instead of the school auditorium? Their high school principal had banned it.

It all started when Wilton High School drama teacher Bonnie Dickinson and her students developed the idea of a play about Iraq. The play uses real testimonials from soldiers, from their letters, blogs and taped interviews, and Yvonne Latty’s book “In Conflict.” 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 did change the script, they incorporated his quote in the play.

* Bonnie Dickinson. Has taught theater at Wilton High School in Connecticut for 13 years. She is the director of the play “Voices in Conflict.”

* Jimmy Presson. Wilton High School student. He played Iraq war veteran Charlie Anderson in the play “Voices in Conflict.”

* Courtney Stack. Wilton High School student and choreographer of “Voices in Conflict.”

* Charlie Anderson. Member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He served in Iraq from March to May of 2003.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT AT LINK~

[Buttercup McToots]

1. Wow!

Way tae go, youngsters!
Fight back with all of yer worth...
:applause:

[babylonsister]

3. Nice story, isn't it. Well, maybe not for the principal! nt

[no_hypocrisy]

2. John Houseman and Orson Welles would have been so proud of these kids.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. That's Awesome That They Did That. Good For Them! Any Chance There Will Be Video?

[babylonsister]

6. I'm not sure; I'm sure the Dem. Now! website will let us know; if I find

one, I'll post it.

[IChing]

5. "The Stepford Wives" book and movie was modeled after the town "Wilton Conn."

In a March 27, 2007 letter to the New York Times, Ira Levin said that he based the town of Stepford on Wilton, Connecticut, where he lived in the 1960s. The truth is stranger than fiction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stepford_Wives

[JanusAscending]

7. My eldest son and his family live in Wilton.

Their youngest son is a student of Wilton High School, preceded by another son and daughter who have gone on to college. I'm not surprised that this happened in Wilton. Bunch of "high mucky muck conservative, I'm better than you crowds" (my family excluded of course) Just so happens to be where my son has been employed since he graduated UConn. I'm glad the Drama Teacher had the guts to go forward with this, otherwise what kind of lesson is that for these young people?? They'd just grow up to be like their parents!!! This was a perfect choice for the Stepford Wives location.:hi: P.S. I just recalled that my grandson told me that a lot of his friends at school had lost Mom's and Dad's on 9/11, many families live there because of the close proximity to NYC. Guess maybe many of them have reason to feel this stongly about it, but I'll not make excuses for their actions.

[Stephanie]

13. 9/11 has nothing to do with it.

As you know, 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. Whle there may be many 9/11 families in CT, there are many more in NY & NJ and most of them are well informed about the facts.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Can we swap out the Connecticut electorate for these kids? Please?

[JanusAscending]

9. Lay off Ct.....................

it's getting kind of old, don't cha think?? I've read your same old gripes on TOO many threads lately. Time to learn a new song :shrug: or do you have nothing better to do than stir up controversy on DU??? As a matter of fact, I'll bet you that most of these kids parents voted for Holy Joe!!!!

[BlooInBloo]

10. No.

[cgrindley]

11. He was right to ban it, but banned it for the wrong reasons

I would have banned it too. If you put on a play that is anti-war (and despite the feeble claims protesting that this play was neutral, it wasn't), then you're setting a precedent. The other side, the dark ones, the evil ones, will one day regain power and they will abuse all such precedents. And we'll have retarded X'ian fundie plays about creation science, or some knob end will dramatize Atlas Shrugged. No one needs that.

[ConsAreLiars]

16. Are you actually arguing that

telling the truth should be prohibited because because the "the dark ones, the evil ones, will one day regain power and they will abuse all such precedents"? -- what an utterly bizarre bit of "reasoning." I don't think I have ever seen such a craven justification for supporting fascism in the schools. Good work. It deserves a mention on some top 10 list. Maybe the Scalia Prize of the Month.

(edit typos)

[cgrindley]

17. Wow, an award for me, thanks

I think that calling a certain perspective "the truth" isn't as easy as all that and it certainly isn't an escape from a greater responsibility to the future, where we need de-politicized schools more than we need ideologically-driven nonsense.

If I were to write a play detailing how George Bush is a mouth breathing hare-lipped sped, drunkenly steering this nation into fiscal, moral and political oblivion, technically speaking, I'd be telling the truth. But it sure as hell would be a political play.

We don't need to escalate the battle of ideologies in our schools. As democrats, we will only lose such a fight as we play by sound ethical and moral rules. We need to be above the Repukes and to stay above them.

[annabanana]

19. While I WOULD object to plays

pushing creation science and other religion based themes as subjects of a school play.. If they want to try and make a silk purse out of Atlas Shrugged I say 'you go right ahead'. .

Censorship is a poison. The cure to bad ideas is more ideas...

[onenote]

21. Missing the point of the first amendment it seems

So to your way of thinking, student plays should be limited to non-political subjects -- maybe something like Hello Dolly. I'm assuming you feel the same way about other expressions by students --school newspapers, for example, should not discuss anything political. Probably shouldn't be allowed to do editorials at all, since the expression of an opinion on one side of an issue would open the door for ---eek -- the expression of an opinion on the other side.

Of course, for those who believe the beauty and strength of the first amendment is that it allows for an exchange of ideas....

[Stephanie]

12. This year they are portraying the soldiers, next year they could BE them.

They're 17 year-olds portraying 19 year-olds. I applaud them.

[Hekate]

14. That's so true. nt

[hfojvt]

15. Since they are in Connecticut, it would have been nice

if they had done "We bombed in New Haven"
maybe next year

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/home/heller-bombed.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[annabanana]

18. I hope that Superintendent Gary Richards feels like the parochial

censorious ASS that he is.

[DemReadingDU]

20. afternoon kick

[KamaAina]

22. Wilton is among the most anal dots on the entire map

one- and two-acre zoning predominates; gotta keep the riffraff out. Not to mention that when I lived there it was bone dry; fortunately I lived within walking distance of the Norwalk line, about 100 feet across which was "Elmer's Town Line Liquors".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton%2C_Connecticut#Housing_stock_and_land_use