The choice of the show by Ms. Spillane and her theater group had always been an independent decision, but Guarino advised Spillane that, after consulting with his vice principals, the PTA, and the school superintendent, the production was to be canceled. in late November, he announced his decision to the troupe to put the production on indefinite “hold.”
This is the kind of story we’re hearing way too often these days, where schools, universities, and regional theaters appear increasingly susceptible to pressure about the types of shows they are able to present, but that is not the end of this particular tale.
Larissa Mark is a Trumbull senior and president of the Thespian society. rather than fanning the flames of “Rentbellion” that was already burning through the school’s halls and on social media, mark got her classmates organized. Toning down the rhetoric, she started petitions, put up a website, spoke to the media, and focused community resistance in a remarkably effective way. The story started to get press… national press. parents were unhappy. The community resented being portrayed as a small-minded town that couldn’t handle the same version of Rent that had been performed around the country for years without incident, including in neighboring Connecticut towns like Greenwich, Woodbridge, and Fairfield.
Principal Guarino reiterated his cancellation with a statement to the school board in December. But pressure started to mount on the school to reconsider its decision, and it did. at first, Mr. Guarino said they needed time to prepare the community for this show, presumably with a seminar or forum, or series of educational programs, to sensitize everyone to the show’s content (which was deemed controversial and cutting edge…twenty years ago). but he didn’t say why such outreach had to take the rest of the school yearto plan and implement, and why the production schedule couldn’t be reinstated in the meantime. he later proposed a delayed production in May, but that would have conflicted with the students' many other activities, including ap exams, and so appeared to some to be more a ploy than a solution.
That’s when we got involved. As an officer of the Guild’s new Dramatists Legal Defense fund (the DLDF), I had been tracking the story. With the Guild’s approval, and the advice and support of the DLDF, as well as input from the national coalition against censorship (of which the guild and the DLDF are both members), I wrote a letter to Principal Guarino (see below), and signed it on behalf of the Guild. I did not reference the DLDF in the letter because contact from an organization calling itself a “legal defense fund” might have made him too defensive to be a useful or constructive approach. so, in as non-combative a tone as I could muster, I offered the school the guild’s support to present whatever educational programs he deemed necessary to get the production back on schedule. When we did not hear back from him, or from anyone else at the school, we copied the letter to the Trumbull parents, the superintendent, and the media, as well as Larissa Mark, so they were all aware of our proposal.
To his credit, principal Guarino ultimately decided to reinstate the production on its original march schedule. The DLDF applauds the principal in his willingness to listen to his constituency and to reconsider his position. it is not always the case in these situations. but there have not been, to date, any specific programs scheduled by the school to bring the Trumbull community into the late 20th century, so we can assume they skipped that step and jumped instead right into 2014.
We were all certainly gratified to hear about this outcome, but we had no way to know if our letter hadany effect at all in its resolution. We hoped that it did, but the timing of the reversal may just have been coincidental.at any rate, the DLDF wanted to recognize the heroic efforts of the Trumbull student, Larissa Mark, for her mature and effective leadership in challenging the school’s initial decision, and so we voted to present her with our first “DLDF Defender award, in recognition of her efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts.” Larissa was thrilled about the honor and wrote to us that “I would be incredibly remiss not to mention how much the Guild’s letter struck Mr. Guarino and aided our cause. The day after he received it I had a meeting with him where he mentioned the letter, and how much it affected him.”
Well, how about that?
And so, the ball is moved, one yard at a time, a little further down the field. and now we expect the DLDF to build on this success and grow as a resource for advocacy and education in support of free expression in the theater, as well as a robust public domain for all. you can help us, too, by going to DLDF.org and finding out more.
Playwrights have no army, but they have words… and words matter.