A school district in Texas suddenly cancelled a field trip to go see a stage production of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. The Spring Branch Independent School District sent parents only the briefest email to let them know the trip to see the play at Main Street Theater in Houston was cancelled. Why? A good old homophobic panic, it seems.
One parent in the district, Cheri Thomas, told KTRK-TV that the email said something to the effect of “We are not going to be able to participate in this. We are going to do something else,” but with no details. Thomas speculated that
this may have started during the public comment portion of a recent school board meeting. She said a parent shared her concern about the actors playing multiple roles that were both male and female, saying it’s drag.
That … isn’t drag, you dopes. Or maybe in Texas it is, since everything’s bigger in Texas, even the exaggerated moral panics.
The TV station talked to Shannon Emerick, the marketing director for Main Street Theater, who explained that the show is aimed at first graders and up; she said the play is “full of wonder and curiosity.” You bet we’re curious, lady. We want to know why you’re doing a drag show for first graders!
Emerick must have psychically predicted our imaginary snottiness, since she told KRTK the performance wasn’t drag, although drag is pretty neat, too.
“Drag is a different art form. There is a whole art form that is drag,” Emerick said, adding that the theater has thousands of years of history of casting this way as well. “The amazing thing is the kids just believe the story. They’re not interested in any agendas or anything else anyone thinks is going on.”
So you admit there’s an agenda, do you? (Fine, we’ll stop that.)
Because Yr Wonkette is very diligent about these things, we also checked out the story at the Houston Chronicle, which reported that Main Street Theater “received backlash on social media for the play’s “cross-gender casting,” along with concerns about the use of pronouns by one of the characters in the play.” We searched around on the Twitters and the Facebook but couldn’t find anything like that, just links mocking the cancellation, so darned if we know exactly what was said. So really, we have no idea what’s behind this outbreak of Roald rage.
But we did find this cute “meet the cast” video from Main Street Theater, which the Chronicle notes is a nonprofit that has been producing plays for kids and adults since 1975.
Oh dear. Is this the problem? We are entirely speculating here, but is all the fuss over a cast member named Judy P. Norwood, who has a beard and is playing one of James’s terrible aunts? (In a production last year of Charlotte’s Web, Norwood appeared as the Narrator, Gander, and “the hilarious prized pig, Uncle,” none of which appear to involve drag.) Who knows? Fearful bigots can freak out over damn near anything. We tried to find out more about Norwood, who seems amiable and outgoing, but we found nothing on Charlotte’s Website.
As for the school district, all it would tell KRTK in a one-sentence email was that the “pending field trips” to see the play “are being canceled due to concerns raised about the age-appropriateness of the performance.” Because if a guy is playing an aunt, that just might turn all the children gay.
Or maybe the stupid cancellation will make them want to leave Spring Branch forever when they’re older. We’re pulling for that option.
OPEN THREAD.
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