The Playgoer: CT high school will NOT ban August Wilson after all...

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Friday, January 21, 2011

CT high school will NOT ban August Wilson after all...

In case you haven't been following this odd story, the school superintendent for Waterbury, CT tried to prevent a high school from staging August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone because of its dialogue's, um, liberal use of the word "nigger." 

Not quite a replay of the Huck Finn bruhaha down south, since in this case the would-be censor is an African American worried about kids going around using the word too much.

But kudos to Connecticut theatre bigwigs James Bundy (AD of Yale Rep) and Howard Sherman (formerly of the O'Neill Center and American Theatre Wing) for lobbying against the decision, and now the show will go on.

I guess I understand the concern as a "language" concern--about what's appropriate or not for children to be asked to perform on stage.  But this apparently is an arts "magnet" school for chrissakes.

1 comment:

Leigh Hile said...

That whole situation upset me so much. I'm so glad it's going on as planned.