Students' Iraq play silenced

"Student productions at [Connecticut's] Wilton High School range from splashy musicals like last year’s 'West Side Story,' performed in the state-of-the-art, $10 million auditorium, to weightier works like Arthur Miller’s 'Crucible,' on stage last fall in the school’s smaller theater.
For the spring semester, students in the advanced theater class took on a bigger challenge: creating an original play about the war in Iraq.
. . . [But] the school principal last week canceled the play, titled 'Voices in Conflict,' citing questions of political balance and context.
The principal, Timothy H. Canty, who has tangled with students before over free speech, said in an interview he was worried the play might hurt Wilton families 'who had lost loved ones or who had individuals serving as we speak.'
. . . At least 10 students involved in the production, however, said that the principal had told them the material was too inflammatory, and that only someone who had actually served in the war could understand the experience. . . . and [they said] that the principal barred the class from performing it even after they changed the script to respond to concerns about balance."

source
Cowan, Alison Leigh. (The New York Times). Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School. March 24, 2007.

posted: monday, march 26, 2007, 9:56 PM ET
posted: monday, march 26, 2007, 11:08 PM ET

tags: iraq play free speech wilton high voices in conflict