"The Laramie Project" is the true story about the murder of Matthew Shepard. The homosexual University of Wyoming student was beaten to death in 1998.

Drama coach Bob Angelini told The Asbury Park Press that homophobia and fear led Principal Julia Davidow to reject the play. It was set to be performed in the high school in November.


Activists are going to fight to let the students produce the play, but some parents and local politicians are against it, saying everything from
the play will promote violence to the play will prmote the gay lifestyle.  some parents think the topic is too harsh for teens.

Opinion?

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--schoolplaycancele0803aug03,0,6956169.story

Where's this now?

I think if the school won't let it be done on school property or on school time, let the students make their own independent production.  The school has the right to stop stuff from being done on its time and terms, but can't punish the students for doing it on their own time outside of school jurisdiction.

good point.  i think if a place has a long standing rule against something, nothing can be done.  BUT if they just read the script and changed their minds about it, then action should be taken.

a local talk radio personality in new jersey is considering putting up the money himself for the kids to put on the show.

Oh, this is in NJ?  Hmmm, wouldn't have expected this kind of attitude in those parts but I don't live there...

Oh, this is in NJ?  Hmmm, wouldn't have expected this kind of attitude in those parts but I don't live there...


this kind of thing is always going on.  someone has an idea, everyone says no, everyone gets mad, and it just never pans out.
from a school play to managing the turnpike, it's the same thing.

Yeah, and these same parents would raise the dickens if the schoolboard prohibited "Hamlet" from the curriculum!
I mean, a gay man getting lashed to a stake and beaten to death is pretty vanilla compared to the bizarre, perverted, sadistical, sick, crazy sh*t that goes on in "Hamlet"!

I always thought that was warped the way the schoolboards in the '80s were all in a tizzy about heavy metal records and yet we were required to read "Hamlet" for Englsih class.
I mean, if you showed the PMRC a metal album containing all the following themes:
Homicide
Suicide
Incest
Insanity
Stabbing
Death of fathers by poisoning
Skulls of dead friends

They'd go NUTS, nuts I tells ya!

The only questions I would have about a play on the subject of Matthew Shepherd are about its literary and artistic merit and whether or not it is true to the subject.  I would have no problem with the subject itself.  Matt Shepherd was tortured and killed because he was gay.  We had the Christian Right saying it was the wages of sin, and Shepherd deserved it because he allegedly was making advances on his murderers.  I think such a play has great relevance to this country's problems with intolerance and hypocrisy.  I would not mind if it was explicit as long as it was in pertinent context.  However, I would not present such a play to kids under 14.
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/nono.gif

Maybe parents think the play is scarier than anything Shakespeare because this story is true and current  :(. 

While I think this is an important story to tell, my concern is its impact on gay students; especially those who are struggling with their homosexuality.  Hopefully, the depiction of such a tragedy would  include some positive dialogue as well.

"The Laramie Project" is the true story about the murder of Matthew Shepard. The homosexual University of Wyoming student was beaten to death in 1998.

Drama coach Bob Angelini told The Asbury Park Press that homophobia and fear led Principal Julia Davidow to reject the play. It was set to be performed in the high school in November.


Activists are going to fight to let the students produce the play, but some parents and local politicians are against it, saying everything from
the play will promote violence to the play will prmote the gay lifestyle.  some parents think the topic is too harsh for teens.

Opinion?

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--schoolplaycancele0803aug03,0,6956169.story


This is what a principal would've said in the 50's about a play that depicted lynching of blacks.  I see nothing wrong with the school putting on the Matt Shepard story.  BTW, isn't it a large influx of gays that're turning Asbury Park AROUND and making it nice again?

This is what a principal would've said in the 50's about a play that depicted lynching of blacks.  I see nothing wrong with the school putting on the Matt Shepard story.  BTW, isn't it a large influx of gays that're turning Asbury Park AROUND and making it nice again?

that's a good point.

and as long as the kids are interested, why not?  what if they want to do it in support of the story?

This hardly surprises me. Too many people afraid to take heat from the school board. There are great things about school boards, such as the fact that they give citizens the right to control their own schools. But there are downsides to this as well, the current situation being a symptom of the mob-rule mentality in the governance of public schools by school boards answering to angry, idiot parents first and to the State's standards later.

that's a good point.

and as long as the kids are interested, why not?  what if they want to do it in support of the story?
What is the general consensus of the student body? 

What is the general consensus of the student body? 

I am looking for more articles...but the radio news has not covered that aspect yet.

Well look what happened!

OCEAN TOWNSHIP — The curtain will go up at Ocean Township High School this fall on a play about the death of a gay college student.

School Superintendent Thomas Pagano reversed a decision by the principal who felt "The Laramie Project'' might be disruptive. That decision last week led gay-rights activists to plan a protest.

Pagano told The Asbury Park Press in today's editions the community was overwhelmingly in favor of the play and no one had expressed support for Principal Julia Davidow's initial decision.

Pagano told the newspaper he had received hate mail from as far away as California. It seemed "the entire universe was focused on this community,'' he said.

"The Laramie Project'' is the true story about the murder of Matthew Shepard. The
homosexual University of Wyoming student was beaten to death in 1998.

Hate mail is probably a bit extreme.  I'm glad that the supe decided to let it proceed, and I am hoping that the community can be mature and tolerant about this.

Hate mail is probably a bit extreme.  I'm glad that the supe decided to let it proceed, and I am hoping that the community can be mature and tolerant about this.
Actually, if you click on the discussions link after reading the article, you'll find some ridiculous anti-gay posts.  It may be true :-\\.  At any rate, it's heartening to hear that the show will go on.  Bravo.

Actually, if you click on the discussions link after reading the article, you'll find some ridiculous anti-gay posts.  It may be true :-\\.  At any rate, it's heartening to hear that the show will go on.  Bravo.


I believe it.  I meant to say that I thought that this didn't warrant anything like hate mail, but people are sheeple and sheeple are stupid, so whatcha gonna do...

What would be even better would be if the students maybe put on some Shakespeare, with subtitles, or in current language.  Let's face it a lot of people only have a vague clue as to what is really happening in some of those plays.  A little Oedipus Rex in real time would have the parents out in the streets with tar, feathers, and nooses.

What would be even better would be if the students maybe put on some Shakespeare, with subtitles, or in current language.  Let's face it a lot of people only have a vague clue as to what is really happening in some of those plays.  A little Oedipus Rex in real time would have the parents out in the streets with tar, feathers, and nooses.





NO kidding!  I  think that would be a great next step that the educators could take; showing the kids that this stuff goes on all the time - throughout the centuries!

What would be even better would be if the students maybe put on some Shakespeare, with subtitles, or in current language.  Let's face it a lot of people only have a vague clue as to what is really happening in some of those plays.  A little Oedipus Rex in real time would have the parents out in the streets with tar, feathers, and nooses.




How about some "MacBeth"? Do you realize how many people they'd have to have to portray all the dead bodies? :D

What would be even better would be if the students maybe put on some Shakespeare, with subtitles, or in current language.  Let's face it a lot of people only have a vague clue as to what is really happening in some of those plays.  A little Oedipus Rex in real time would have the parents out in the streets with tar, feathers, and nooses.



Actually, Shakespeare's plays were banned time and again by right-wing schoolboards for all thse reasons and more.  "Othello"?  Now we can't have that sort of thing, now can we?

A few even went so far as to ban The Bible---that's right The Holy Bible---God's own book for us, the literal Gospel Truth!  But when you get right down to it and read the O.T. you discover Jerry Springer had nothing on the biblical canon.  You know, like we all hear the story of Noah's Ark in Sunday school, but they never told us about Noah getting sh*tfaced, getting naked, passing  out cold, and then getting molested by his own son, Ham, while he was out. 
Some scholars dispute this and claim Ham merely saw his pop in the nude...but nobody disputes Noah was passed out in the buff while drunk on wine.

Is that setting a good example?

There's a reason why you get all those kiddie versions of Bible stories.  Whether in 2007 b.c.e. or 2007 c.e., folks have always been folks, and they sure know how to get themselves in all kinds of trouble.  They don't call it "raising Cain" for nothing!
::)