How Book Banning Effects Theater Censorship- Part 2
Censorship of art is a problem-- and a clear warning sign of fascism.
This is a continuation. Read part 1 to make sure you’re all caught up!
Let’s continue our discussion of how book banning effects the theater— and the art community at large— in the USA.
What is Getting Banned Now (and Who’s Doing It)?
After reading the first part of this exhaustive essay, you’ve probably picked up on a few patterns. One of them being that the people banning books, theater, and art in general really don’t like two specific things: Gay Stuff and Diversity (especially in regards to race).
So, let’s get into the nitty gritty. What books have been banned lately and why?
The most common reasons for banning books and theater given by groups such as Mom’s for Liberty are as follows:
Sex in any capacity, even an educational one
LGBTQIA+ content (even non sexual)
Racism, colorism, and any indication that our country is built on these things/still deals with them
Anything that includes accurate information on climate change and other proven scientific processes that conservatives and fundies reject (Mother Jones, “Texas Board of Education Urged to Reject Climate Accurate Textbooks”)
Yeah that last one made me want to scream into a pillow for twelve hours.
I have taken the liberty of researching the top ten most banned books of 2023, as the stats for 2024 aren’t available yet. We’re going to go through this rapid fire, with short 3-5 word reasons for the banning. Here we go:
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
for Gay Stuff
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson
Same as the above
This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
Once again, Gay Stuff
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Sex things that aren’t sexy but traumatizing and sad.
Flamer by Mark Curato
Gay stuff again
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
For racism reasons
Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Sex stuff. I’ve read this no joke like 5 times, it’s a favorite, and I don’t even know what sex stuff they’re really talking about. Also apparently it’s “degrading to women”? I disagree heavily, but okay.
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Sexually explicit, which, it is in some ways? But only because it’s about prostitution…and it’s not glorifying any of it.
Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
Sexually explicit…yeah, because it’s a sex education book!
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Depictions of rape. Which. Yeah, this book is about human trafficking! A real thing that happens to children and adults all over the world!
Seeing any patterns? I bet you are! (If you want to see every book challenged, go to this link to find the database: https://pen.org/book-bans/pen-america-index-of-school-book-bans-2023-2024/)
And who do we have to…thank for this? Quite a few groups. Let’s go through our shit li–I mean, the list of groups advocating for book banning, and sometimes theater banning as well. Rapid fire, here we go!
Mom’s For Liberty
By far the biggest group. They have multiple chapters.
No Left Turn in Education
Probably the 2nd biggest group. Also have multiple chapters.
US Parents Involved in Education
MassResistance
Parent’s Rights in Education
Mary in the Library
County Citizens Defending Freedom
Power2Parent
Groups that are really small and localized that tend to form on social media such as Facebook.
PACs funding the campaigns of ultraconservative school board members who want to ban books such as Southlake Families PAC, Patriot Mobile, and Red Wave Texas.
The Cancellation of Indecent…and More.
Theater has been being censored and/or banned for years now. This didn’t just start happening out of the blue; it’s been ramping up for a while. Since 2015, multiple performances of plays and musicals have been canceled at schools and community theaters across the country due to a few very loud community or board members. Some examples are:
The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson
Spamalot by Eric Idle and John Du Perez
Sweeney Todd by Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim
Rent by Jonathon Larson
Legally Blonde by Lawrence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin, and Heather Hach
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You by Christopher Durang
The Tender Yellow Sky by Tim Milhorn
Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
Bang Bang You’re Dead by William Mastrosimone
…and that’s not even close to all of them.
Most recently, however, certain cancellations have been getting more coverage in the news and on social media. This started, arguably, with the cancelation of Paula Vogel’s Indecent at a Florida high school (the worst state for book bans, I should point out).
In 2023, students at Douglas Anderson High School of the Arts were astonished to learn that their production of Indecent had been canceled by public school officials (NPR). The school had selected Indecent for their season very purposefully, in order to perform it on the 100 year anniversary of the events it is based upon, and so it came as a shock. Notably, Duval County (where the school is located) had had many instances of book banning in its recent past, mainly of books containing LGBTQIA+ content. These books had been labeled as containing “sexual content”, which was a blatant lie (PEN America). In case you are unaware, Indecent is based on the historical events surrounding the premier of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, in which the cast was arrested for violating obscenity laws (the play contains a sapphic kiss). You can see the connection here, yeah?
The main issue cited by public school officials for cancelling the play was, quote, “Indecent contains adult sexual dialog that is inappropriate for student cast members and student audiences.” (NPR) As an educator, I would like to point out that this is incredibly subjective, and also that, according to Duval County School rep Sonya Duke-Bolden, “students were required to provide parental consent” to appear in Indecent. Meaning that, of course, the parents of every student involved in the production approved. Many censorship groups utilize the argument of “parental rights” in their crusades to ban art, and the fact that parental permission slips existed here makes this point lose a lot of oomf. The school decided to replace this performance with Chekhov’s The Seagull, which has sexual/emotional love triangles and a character that kills themselves…which I guess in their mind is more fine than queer acceptance? Once again, the idea of what is appropriate for high schoolers is subjective, and should not cause the censorship of art.
This wasn’t the only cancelation incident that got coverage— performances of The Addams Family in at Northern Lebanon High School; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at in Ohio; The Laramie Project in Kansas; a couple different performances of The Prom, and more have happened in the past two years alone. And that doesn’t include the cancelations that were not publicized or did not go viral online, or the shows that are disqualified before they are even considered due to bigoted reasons.
The most recent professional cancellation/ban happened in New York City only a few months ago. You may have heard of this if you keep up to date on your theater news— the cancellation of Becoming Eve at the Connelly Theater.
In October of 2024, the Connelly Theater’s general manager, Josh Luxenberg, “resigned over interference by the theater’s landlord, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York” (American Theatre Magazine). This left things wide open for the Archdiocese to fully seize operations and make renting out the theater almost impossible for anybody looking to produce work that contained LGBTQIA+, gender-expansive, and reproductive rights stories. This was first highlighted by the cancellation of Becoming Eve by Emil Weinstein, which tells the story of a transgender rabbi. New York Theater Workshop, the producers of the show, are still trying to find a venue as far as I’m aware.
But Becoming Eve is probably not the only show that was supposed to go up at the Connelly to suffer this fate— just the first one to do so publicly. Mr. Luxenberg resigned because the Catholic Church was getting so involved in vetting the plays staged at the theater. On the Connelly website they state that they are no longer accepting proposals.
The Connelly Theater was a staple Off-Broadway venue for many independent shows over the years, so the community has taken this as a great loss. In this way, the censorship of one play is much more than that: it is the censorship of many works, and the loss of a community space. Things are hard enough in the downtown and Off-Broadway theater world in New York. Venues are expensive to rent, both for the theater companies who run them and self-producing teams, and many are being bought up because of this. Heck, The Wild Project is facing potential sale, and Second Stage gave up their Off-Broadway space last February! We cannot afford to lose spaces to censorship when we are already losing them to high cost of rent.
So…what can we do about it?
Read Banned Books and Plays!
There is a large effort being made by multiple organizations, teachers, and librarians to get people to read banned books in an effort to support the fight against censorship. The same effort can and should be made in the theater space as well!
If you would like to read banned plays, here are some more historically censored plays to add to your TBR along with the others I’ve already mentioned (and the reason they were banned/censored!).
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Sex and Gay Stuff
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Violence
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (often read in schools so watch for this one)
Violence maybe?? To be honest, I have no idea.
Salome by Oscar Wilde
Sex stuff
Jesus Christ Superstar (?????)
Literally no clue, wouldn’t these christofascists love this? Perhaps “depicting Christ in an un-christlike way”?
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
Sex
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Violence and sex
Multiple plays of Shakespeare’s (also read in schools, so watch)
Sex again! Wow, Original.
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Sex stuff, violence, euthanasia, also scathing commentary on morality which I’m sure the right HATES.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Sex and abuse
(And any plays about LGBTQIA+ experiences, POC experiences, and women’s rights fit right in here on this list too.)
Combatting Censorship
What can we do to combat censorship in the theater space? Here’s a list of some ideas! Feel free to add more in the comments of this post.
Educate yourself on censorship happening where you live
Attend school board meetings when they are discussing the banning of books or the cancellation/censorship of theater in schools and speak up!
Stay informed on the situation at the national level by following librarians and teachers online and reading relevant articles in newspapers
Help local libraries and businesses become book sanctuaries
Support book sanctuaries
Support local theater by attending shows, helping out in the box office, or (if you’re so inclined) participating in some way in the shows
If you have money to do so, donate!
Help find unconventional spaces for people to perform in, and support work in those spaces!
Participate in Banned Books Week events and activities
Participate in Banned Theater Week events and activities
Banned Theater Week is a new initiative that takes place the first week in November! Be sure to participate later this year by reading banned plays and posting on social media to raise awareness. Or, maybe, you could even plan your own Banned Theater Week event near you!
That’s all for this essay, folks. I hope you learned something, and that that something lit a fire under you to join the fight against art censorship. And just remember, as this McElroy brother said on Twitter:
Keep fighting the good fight, my friends.
Much love,
Brynn