I am a high school senior & been involved in the musical productions for several years.
Our school was scheduled to perform "Godspell" as their spring musical in February. Work had already begun on the sets & costumes when the principal decided in December to cancel the play. The teacher was totally taken by surprise & we were outraged. At the time, his reason for cancellation was a vague reference to "potential community upset". He has now changed his reason to "community complaint on the religious nature".

"Godspell" would not be the first religion based production that has been performed at the school. In 2002 they performed "Jesus Christ Superstar" and it was well received. There was even a production of "Godspell" at the school's summer theatre program about 5 years ago. Our community has a broad religious base & students of almost every religion are in the cast.

The play passed 2 school play review committees. The members of the committees are chosen by the principal & consist of an assistant principal, 3 teachers & 3 parents. I find it hard to believe that they could overlook content that would later be found unsuitable. According to our school district policy the principal has the final say & there is no formal appeals process. The school superintendent has agreed with the principal.

Our school's recent production of "The Skin of Our Teeth" was heavily edited. It was so heavily censored that the students could not say the words “God,” “minister,” “colored,” “slave,” “Middle East,” “Baptist,” or “Moses” for fear of upsetting the community. Also,in a beach scene, they required the girl to wear either a period type bathing suit with NO exposed flesh or wear a coat to cover it. Can you imagine a coat in a beach scene?


Did the censorship issue ever arise at your school? How did you get around it? We want to flood the school district with support for the ability to perform without fear of undue censorship. Any help that you can give would be appreciated.

Censorshipe is wrong in all its forms. I'm sorry your school is so butt blind. I normally ingore it and say do read what i want. what are they going to do ? throw me out ? and if they do good i wouldn't want to be in a school were i can't say the word God ....