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