Performance occupies a space somewhere between literature, film, visual art, and music. It is like the physical manifestation of a poem, or the extension of a painting beyond the frame and into time and motion. And like all of these media, when theater touches on such hot topics as religion, sexuality, or politics, emotions are inflamed and battle lines drawn. The Catholic League and other conservative religious groups have attacked plays exploring or criticizing religion, such as Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, which contains a gay, Christ-like character.

Perhaps it is the “live and in person” quality of performance that makes it so controversial. It is one thing to have a photograph of a nude hanging in a gallery, but it is something else completely to see a nude person on stage before your eyes. This lends theater and performance art a more real, tangible, and immediate quality absent from other art forms. Or perhaps it is the element of voyeurism, in the feeling that the audience is witnessing an event and not merely gazing at the result of the event of producing art. Is it the element of action, of “being there” that makes theater more present ... and therefore more dangerous?

Community theaters are especially vulnerable to restrictions tied into funding. Government agencies, federal or state, or other entities that provide financial help to theaters and performance centers have the power to exercise control over those spaces through a tightening or loosening of the purse strings. Governmental agencies that provide money for performing arts particularly are responsive to controversial issues, as taxpayer money concerns the sensitivities of the community. Outspoken and politically active constituencies may be able to persuade funding agencies to reconsider their tax-money allocations by raising objections to controversial performances.

Theater and performance are artistic expressions that enjoy the same First Amendment protection as other forms of art. If someone finds the content of a play or the nudity in a performance piece objectionable, they merely need not purchase a ticket to see it. Trying to shut down a production or threatening physical violence on any person involved is an inappropriate attempt by one group to suppress the viewpoint and free expression of another.

Below are descriptions of some incidents involving conflicts over plays. Also listed are several other resources.

Incidents

» Gurpreet Kaur Bhatt's Behtzi a play involving sex and murder in a Sikh temple, incited violence and protest when it was produced at the Birmingham Repertory Theater in the United Kingdom. The play had to be cancelled to prevent further violence and injury.

» In March 2003 Glyn O'Malley's play, Paradise, an examination of the impact of war on Israeli and Palestinian youth, was scheduled to tour high schools near Cincinnati but was cancelled because Cincinnati Muslims protested its portrayal of a teenage girl as a jihad-bomber.

» Grand Rapids Community College found itself in a bind
when a legislator on the finance committee called to find out if state money was being used in a local theater group production of Corpus Christi at the college. Constituents complained that the play is sacrilegious. Rather than risk the legislator's ire, The Actors' Theatre moved the play to the Fountain Street Church; its Reverend Judith Walker Riggs said, "The great figure of Christ...cannot be harmed by a few words spoken by a few actors in Grand Rapids, MI. But some of our own hearts might be encouraged to move away from narrow-mindedness, hatred and violence." The college maintains its sponsorship of the Actors' Theatre. [CN #89 Spring 2003]

» In South Carolina, a production of Arthur Miller's 1972 play
The Creation of the World and Other Business, a dramatic comedy based on a non-traditional interpretation of the Book of Genesis, was canceled by Greenville Technical College, after a complaint about the play's content. NCAC and PEN American Center both sent letters of protest.

» William Pope, performance artist, denied funding by NEA for retrospective exhibition Pope's Previous performance of walking around NYC wearing an extendable (to 14 feet) white cardboard penis is thought to have triggered the rejection of funding by the NEA. See, Some Questions Raised By The Latest National Endowment for the Arts Grant Making Decisions

» Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You a play "explaining" the Catholic dogma in a humorous manner, was protested by the Catholic League as "anti-Catholic" despite the playwright's admitted affiliation as a Catholic.

Nassau Community College (NY) President, Sean Fanelli, received this year's William J. Brennan, Jr. Award for his refusal to cancel Christopher Durang's play, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You in spite of bitter protests. His leadership in protecting a course on human sexuality that critics called "pornographic" and "anti-Catholic" also prompted the award from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. [CN #81 Spring 2001]

» Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi Under Attack in Indiana July 24, 2001 At Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, a student produced version caused heated controversy. Protestors intend to file a law suit if the play is not banned. The University won't cave. "We still believe that the First Amendment and academic freedom apply," said Chancellor Michael Wartell. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to overrule a lower court decision allowing a production Corpus Christi at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. The court did not find a constitutional violation even though the play offends the religious beliefs of some community members.

» Terrence McNally's new play, Corpus Christi, previewed at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York in late September despite protestors who claim the play is blasphemous for depicting a Christ-like figure as gay (CN 70). Joan Bertin, NCAC executive director, met with playwrights and leaders of other First Amendment organizations supporting the Manhattan Theatre Club's right to free expression.
Related:
» Arts and Free Speech Groups Support the Manhattan Theatre Club Oct. 13, 1998
A statement issued by artists, writers, and organizations dedicated to free expression, art, and literature in support of the Manhattan Theater Club's decision to run McNally's play.
» New York Audiences Get A Choice...Will San Antonio and Anchorage Be So Lucky? The controversy raised by the Manhattan Theatre Club's decision to first cancel, then reinstate Corpus Christi may have implications for other venues around the nation.

» On May 3, 2001 a student production of Of Mice and Men was to open at Dacula High School in Dacula, Georgia, until Principal Donald Nutt abruptly canceled it because the student actors refused to remove profanity and "racially insensitive" language from the script. The Belladonna Repertory Company donated its theater for the students to produce the play, uncensored.

» In Charlotte, North Carolina, where Tony Kushner's play, Angels in America, was attacked voters unseated four Mecklenburg City Council members who voted to defund the arts. Community action to ensure restoration of arts funding, however, has not prevented the Actor's Theater of Charlotte from canceling plans to produce Dream of a Common Language. Cowed by the state's indecent exposure law, the group has resorted to self-censorship.

» National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley 524 U.S. 569 (1998) Finley and three other performance artists who were denied funding previously granted by the NEA challenged the constitutionality of the "decency and respect" provision contained in a recent amendment to the NEA's funding policy. The Supreme Court upheld the provision as only being "advisory" in order to prevent Congress from eliminating the NEA altogether.

» The National Endowment for the Arts may not consider "general standards of decency,"
ruled the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a 1992 federal district court ruling. The case is Finley v. the NEA in which four performance artists -- Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller -- were denied grants by John Frohnmayer, then NEA chair. Their grants were restored with damages. In his ruling, Judge James R. Browning wrote, "Even when the government is funding speech, it may not distinguish between speakers on the basis of the speaker's viewpoint or otherwise aim at the suppression of ideas...Government funding of the arts, in the circumstances of this case, must be viewpoint-neutral."

» Marietta, GA's Theater in the Square
was at the center of funding controversy when it put on Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, a play where one character's gay brother has just died of AIDS, and David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly. The county instituted a "traditional family structure" standard and removed funding for all arts grants, which not only affected the theater, but other non-controversial programs. Related:
Free Expression Policy Project Report on Arts Funding
Cobb County Defunds All Public Art

» Southeastern Promotions Inc. v. Conrad 420 U.S. 546 (1975) A city municipal board rejected Southeastern's application to put on the play "Hair" at the city-leased theater due to outside sources alleging the play's obscene nature. The Supreme Court ruled that the board's rejection was an unconstitutional prior restraint restricting free speech before it is made.

»Tony Kushner's Angels in America a play dealing with issues of AIDS, homophobia, and McCarthyism, incited outrage in the Mecklenburg (NC) County Commissioners, who consequently removed funding responsibility from the Arts and Science Council and instituted a "traditional American family" standard. Ultimately, the county voted out the commissioners and the Council retrieved its grant-making responsibilities. Related:
» Congressional Attack on the NEA Spills Over

» A high school production of West Side Story was recently canceled
in response to protests about its portrayal of Puerto Ricans and use of racial slurs.

» Homophobic Attacks on Artistic Expression: Including the Terrence McNally play, Lips Together, Teeth Apart.

Resources

Websites

» Free Expression is Arts Funding: A Public Policy Report by the Free Expression Policy Project An in-depth look at the history and issues surrounding arts funding in America, with a survey of state and local agencies' policies. Includes examples of arts funding and theater in collision.

» The R.O.C. - Rock Out Censorship A website dedicated to covering censorship news and promoting free expression in all areas of entertainment from music to comic books to theater and adult entertainment. This link specifically relates to theater censorship incidents.

Articles

» Resolution No. 1897 Recognizing that freedom in the creation and presentation of works in the visual and performing arts serves the public interest and calling upon all New Yorkers to oppose the use of government funding to impose subjective standards of decency, ideology or any person or group's religious beliefs.

» Education Held Hostage Fall 2002, by Joan E. Bertin Describing the issue of academic bias when dealing with the Middle East and Islam. Includes an incident where the FPN and AFA attacked the University of Maryland over The Laramie Project, a play by Moisés Kaufman.