Utah Hates Theater

Congratulations, Utah, on a hitting a new low: banning classic works of the Greeks. Namely, one of the best plays from Euripides, from 405 B.C.E., The Bacchae (or in this case, The Bakkhai)



Basically, the University of Utah (for what it is worth, they do usually earn my praise) hosted a production of the play at Brigham Young University (for what it is worth, they usually never garnish my praise), only to have BYU officials call curtains on what they deemed “inappropriate for the BYU audience” because of the sex, alcohol, and violence that is portrayed in the play. Good thing there is nothing like that in the Bible…oh, wait…no, hold on a sec…

This particularly angers me because I was once put on the chopping block myself for performing theater that the majority of Utah audiences (read: strict Mormons) had a problem with. True it was in a public high school, but it was an extracurricular project. Anyone who wanted to come paid five dollars and the rest of the school just went on calling us “fags”. Plenty of people walked out, too, because of plays I had a hand in: 1) an original play by me called The Copyboys Revolt, which only made innuendo towards a certain part of the male anatomy and 2) Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, where I played a character who had, at one point in his life, had a homosexual experience.

Anywhere else in the country, typical drama geeks trying to be crazy (and doing a damn good job of it, I might add). But in Utah: Shocking! Scandalous! Shut down! After the first night of the run, I was called in with the rest of the cast to the vice principle’s office where we were told that we might be suspended or the show was going to be shut down. I casually reminded him that my parents were connected to the press—the only time I’ve played that card—but it was that comment that probably made up the V.P.’s decision for us to go black for the rest of the run. Ironically, Copyboys was awarded Best New Play in 2003 by Utah Theater Association and we took Zoo Story to the regional and state drama competitions, taking both for first place, Olympus High’s first win ever for a theater festival. So, a show that the school itself shut down got it more press and accolades than any other sporting or academic event between 2003 and 2004.

Still, I don’t feel like I won. It is obviously still happening today in my home state, against a play that is over 2000 years old. Don’t force me to smear my mascara as I ball into a camera: “LEAVE THEATER ALONE!!!”