Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Gay Plays Promote Tolerance
Last week I went to see a production of Stupid Kids. You know, the John C. Russell play about four kids in a 1980s American high school that has been produced and re-produced over and over again in most major American cities since its premier in 1989. The play’s story is familiar, at least for me: a whole lot of angst in school bathrooms, falling in love with your best friend over and over again and not really understanding what is going on, writing bad poetry you contemplate showing the object of your affection only to tear it up and hide it under the bed.
The play really is cathartic. Trust me.
But what struck me about this production was the presence of four high school students in the cast. They had been added to throw a contemporary spin on the whole production. I was amazed at the opportunity these kids had. They were in high school, in a play about confronting one’s sexuality in high school. Now, there are some kids who are not troubled by the sometimes horrifying act of “coming out.”
Well, their compadres in Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach will have no such luck.
A sanitized version of Rent created for high school drama programs has been closed at the school because the principal was worried about the gay content. The general edit already took out all same-sex contact so the gay content Principal Asrani is worried about is the presence of gay characters.
Because this is a high school, free speech arguments are harder to make. And because this is a play that has already been switched out with “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown,” even a winning argument is unlikely to change things much for these students.
What saddens me is that these kinds of plays provide solace for so many kids who are struggling with their sexuality. It also helps their classmates understand what is happening to some of their friends and to sympathize with those brave enough and sorted out enough to come out early. These little things, high school plays, a lesson about Stonewall in history class, posters about gay friendly language in the halls, these are the things that actually reach the target audience and have a chance of curbing the alarming suicide rate amongst gay teens.
Newport Beach, CA is Gestapo headquarters of fascist Orange County. I worked there for six years; I have NEVER met such ARROGANT, CONCEITED, HATEFUL, BIGOTED people in my LIFE. Apparently they think their money gives them the permission.
If The Big One DOES come, I hope Newport Beach ends up at the bottom of the Pacific!
I agree with Bud. I grew up behind the Orange Curtain. I escaped at age 24 all the way to Long Beach. But Long Beach was and is a different world.
I grew up in the City of Orange which is a little more down to Earth than Newport. But While I was able to find gay friends and be out to some people, Moving away was really good for my mental well being. Also while this may sound trivial to this day many people in the O.C. are very much about what they drive and are also really rude drivers that will not let you into traffic.
L.A. Drivers seem to be more friendly and will let you in.
Newport Beach is so issolated from reality…Huge houses, expensive cars, fake boobs etc. Parts of L.A. are very fancy too but I think they are sobered by being nearer to working class and poor neighborhoods.
Tom in Long Beach
A play about five people. Four of witch have AIDS and two are gay.
Two are IV drug users and one a sometimes working documentary maker.
All of witch are communist idealists that are refusing to pay their rent.
I must be really dumb because I missed how this play promotes tolerance.
I live in the Hampton Roads area of SE VA. We had a similar thing happen to a local high school. They wrote and developed a play around the hit songs of Petula Clark called “Pet Sounds”–and in it the lead male was just coming to terms with “coming out”–they ended up playing at a local stage theater that stood up and said they could put it on there–it ended up selling out and coming back to that same theater 6 months later only to sell out again. Have those kids hit up the local stage theater–I’ll bet they get picked up. Publicity is a marvelous thing.
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