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chairman of the commission.
The Muslims presented commis-
sioners with a "Fact Sheet on Paradise"
that included a long list of complaints
about the play, such as that it showed
only negative portrayals of Palestinians
and positive representations of Israelis.
The commission decided it could
not get involved in a situation involv-
ing the First Amendment, says
Shriberg, a management professor at
Cincinnati's Xavier University and the
president of his synagogue.
He's disappointed the theater decided
to cancel the play. "Confronting human
relations is a good thing," he says.
The day after the hearing, Sycamore
High School canceled its booking.
Unhappy playhouse board members
voiced their displeasure at the uproar
and sponsors threatened to pull their
funds, O'Malley says.
To lessen the perception that this
was a "Zionist" play directed by a
"Zionist" theater, Goldstein, who is
Jewish, was replaced as director.
Then, two weeks ago, in response to
the clamor, playhouse artistic director
Stern (who is not Jewish) decided to
cancel the play.
First Amendment Concerns
"I have been fatwdeh" says O'Malley,
referring to an Islamic religious decree
ordering someone's death.
"I sympathize with the theater, but
I'm the playwright. My name is the
one being smeared."
After a play opens, O'Malley says,
anyone can say or write or take any
actions he wishes. But censoring the play
violates his freedom of speech. He vows
to develop the 65-minute, five-actor play
into a full-length piece for adults.
Canceling the production of
Paradise was not the goal of the
Muslim community, says Jad
Humeidan,.executive director of the
Ohio chapter of the Council of
American Islamic Relations (CAIR),
who attended the Dec. 16 reading.
However, he is pleased "that particu-
lar version" of Paradise is canceled.
"People need to know what's hap-
pening in the Middle East. They need
to know the truth, without any biases
and prejudices from either side," he
says. "We were trying to work with
the author and producer to present a
more balanced view."
Emotions surrounding the play have
run high, he admits, because so many
area Muslims have family members in
the Middle East or have lived through
the conflict.
"When you see biases propagated
against you, people claiming this is the
truth and it's a balanced view — when
you know it's not true — it's hard to
stay calm," he says.
The PEN American Center (an associ-
ation for poets, playwrights, essayists,
editors and novelists) has urged Stern to
reconsider his decision to cancel Paradise.
The playhouse commissioned the
play and no doubt knew it would be
controversial, wrote K. Anthony
Appiah of the PEN Freedom to Write -
Committee and Larry Siems of the
PEN Freedom to Write Program.
Thus, "... it is hard to comprehend
how the theater could abandon the
project at the first hint of protests."
Forum For Dialogue
The final chapter on Paradise is far
from written, says Rabbi Michael
Zedek, chief executive officer of the
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, who
recently read the draft of the play.
He hopes the playhouse will present
Paradise as a reading or staged production
at the theater or at some other venue
where members of the Islamic and Jewish
communities could talk about the play.
The play has some inaccuracies,
notes Zedek, such as saying Israel
became a state in 1946. "That doesn't
mean I don't want it heard.
"I am concerned about free expres-
sion. I would prefer it be experienced,
commented, talked about, seen for
what it is, in an effort for people to
talk with each other."
The cancellation of Paradise recalls
the infamous 1990 controversy when a
Hamilton County, Ohio, sheriff raid-
ed an exhibit of the late Robert
Mappelthorpe's photographs at the
Contemporary Arts Center in
Cincinnati. The arts center and direc-
tor, Dennis Barrie, newly named head
of Cleveland's planned Jewish
Museum, were indicted (and later
acquitted) on obscenity charges.
There are about 10,000 to 15,000
Muslims in Cincinnati and about
22,000 Jews, says Michael Rapp, exec-
utive director emeritus of the
Community Relations Council of the
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.
Freedom of expression was trampled
upon in his city, he says. A group of
Muslims, who by no means represent
the majority of the Islamic communi-
ty, went to the Human Rights
Commission to have the play stopped.
"There are elements in the commu-
nity," he says, "who would willingly
engage in prior restraint [censorship
before performance] to achieve ques-
tionable goals." ❑
the %
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