from Insight Higher Education:
Worried About Guns? Ban a Campus Musical
After the Virginia Tech murders a year ago, Yale University banned the use of stage weapons in a student theatrical production
— infuriating actors and educators who believed audience members could
distinguish drama from real life. After a few days of ridicule, Yale
backed down.
A year later, after another gun tragedy, college officials are still
trying to figure out how to make their campuses safe — and theater
still is a target. A student production of Assassins, the
award-winning musical, was to have premiered Thursday night at Arkansas
Tech University, but the administration banned it — and permitted a
final dress rehearsal Wednesday night (so the cast could experience the
play on which students have worked long hours) only on the condition
that wooden stage guns were cut in half prior to the event and not
used. Assassins is a musical in which the characters are the historic figures who have tried to kill a U.S. president.
Robert C. Brown, Arkansas Tech’s president, issued a statement
explaining the decision as follows: “All of us have a healthy respect
for the freedom of artistic expression that college theater represents,
and all of us agree that out of respect for the families of those
victims of the tragedies at Northern Illinois University and Virginia
Tech, and from an abundance of caution, it is best at this time not to
undertake a campus production that contains the portrayal of
graphically violent scenes.”
While faculty members involved in the program declined to comment on
their views, others said privately (citing fear of offending
administrators) that they viewed the decision as an overreaction and
one that sent the wrong message about theater, the role of art, and
free expression. The local newspaper reported that the administration
was so concerned about the production that reporters were barred from
the dress rehearsal. Adding to the anger of many on the campus is that
the film American Gangster, featuring plenty of blood and
violence — and none from singing historical figures — was screened on
campus this week. Why, many want to know, is musical theater being
singled out?
Further frustrating faculty members, there have been reports of gun shots — and a recent shooting injury — at parties organized by Arkansas Tech students,
but the students organizing those parties were reportedly football
players, not thespians. Some questioned why what they see as a false
concern (fake guns in drama) was getting attention, as opposed to what
they view as more serious problems. Others said that they viewed an
order to stop a play as a violation of academic freedom.
One professor who asked not to be identified said “there seems to be a real double standard — this just feels wrong.”
Susie Nicholson, a spokeswoman for the university, said that the
play could yet be rescheduled, so it was not really being called off.
But others on campus noted that student productions, relying on the
time of students who have a range of commitments, can’t just be pushed
back a few months. Asked who made the decision to call off the play
this week, she said “the administration,” but then added that the
decision had been made “in conjunction” with some faculty members.
Nicholson said that the decision did not limit artistic expression,
noting that the president’s statement included his support for artistic
freedom. She said she did not know if any of the officials who made the
decision had ever seen a production of Assassins, but said that they were concerned about the gunshots that are part of the play and might be heard outside the auditorium.
Ardith Morris, a professor of theater who was directing the
production, said she could not comment on her feelings about the
decision, and could only answer questions of fact. She said that a
total of 60 students had been involved in the production — counting
actors, the orchestra and technical crew. When the decision was made to
call off the production, she said that she asked if the president
wanted to brief the students, but that offer was declined in favor of
her doing so. She said the news brought “tears and outrage” from
students.
Morris has taught and directed student productions for 26 years at
Arkansas Tech. Asked if she had ever called off a show previously, she
said, her voice breaking, “never — including the show that opened the
week my husband passed away.” Even facing a personal loss, she said,
“theater people” wouldn’t call off a production. “It’s just not what we
do. Theater is who we are — it’s how we view the world and realize
ourselves as people.”
Kurt Daw, dean of fine and performing arts at the State University
of New York at New Paltz, and a past president of the Association for
Theater in Higher Education, said he was disappointed to hear about a
college refusing to let a play go on as scheduled. Daw said that he
would understand Northern Illinois University not wanting such a show
right now, but that beyond the immediate vicinity, administrators
should recognize “the theater’s capacity to heal and to make us think.”
He noted that while Assassins is about assassins, it is by no
means a pro-violence play but a work that “calls on us to think about
the violence in our culture and what the sources are for it.”
Theater productions appear “more prone to censorship” on campuses
than are books or professors’ writing, Daw said. He thinks this is
because “what’s powerful about theater is its immediacy.” But to Daw,
that’s no reason to keep theater away from students — even in difficult
times. “I think academic freedom absolutely covers artistic events the
same way it covers writing,” he said. Some theater may frighten those
who watch it, he said, but that reaction may be entirely the point.
“I’m in favor of trusting audiences.”
— Scott Jaschik
Recent Comments