APRIL 20 • 2023 | 47
So, I said to him, I said
“Bernie, you pop that gum one
more time …
“And he did. So I took the
shotgun off the wall, and I fired
two warning shots into his
head!”
Even though Douglas
Anderson students performed
the “teen edition” of Chicago, the
script still includes the quoted
lines — in a state where one of
the worst mass shootings in a
school was perpetrated.
Writing to the school’s
administrators, playwright Vogel
reminded them of the important
work theater can do for young
people, in the case of Indecent,
allowing them to explore
antisemitism, intolerance,
censorship, as well as the
Holocaust.
“Disempowering young artists
at this crucial age” she concludes,
“borders on an obscene act.”
Her plea was for naught, and
the students ended up staging
Chekov’s The Seagull. A few
months later, though, the school’s
leaders had to deal with more
than preventing a “dangerous”
play from threatening their
teenaged charges.
Late in March the same
principal, Tina Wilson, tasked
with informing the cast that
Indecent was going to be
dropped, had to explain to
parents that a longtime vocal
arts teacher had been arrested
and charged with “lewd and
lascivious conduct involving a
student.”
In other words, with
indecency.
Robert Franciosi is a professor in the
Department of English Language and
Literature at Grand Valley State University.
Madzhe and
Sholem Asch