Accusing a bunch of high school drama students of being “demonic” and also in league with Satan, and evil, feels very much like the plot of some movie or or perhaps a play based in Salam in the 1600s. This however is what has just happened at Fannin County High School in Georgia.
To heap multiple layers of irony upon this mountain of religiously motivated superstitious bullshit, the play in question that had these “Demonic and Evil” charges deployed was none other than Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, a play about religious motivated hysteria that inspired false charges of being in league with Satan.
Yes indeed, you should now proceed to couple your stunned silence with a look of utter disbelief and complete exasperation because doing so is wholly warranted when faced with this lunacy.
“The Crucible” is very well known and is also a regular go-to play within many high schools. The plot and material is very familiar to almost everybody, yet apparently it was the first production that came as a shock to some parents who then complained and demanded that it be shutdown.
Did they run with an alternative version or make radical alternations?
Nope, you can’t, that would breach the licensing agreement. To run a production you need to get a license from Broadway Licensing. It costs roughly $100 to $120 per performance, and part of the agreement is that you stick to the script.
Wait, let’s hit pause before we get into what happened and fill in a few essential details.
Most of you are probably familiar with “The Crucible”, but not everybody is, so let’s briefly cover that so that everybody can bask in the true depth of the irony that is in play here.
What is “The Crucible” really all about?
In 1953 American playwright Arthur Miller famously created the play called “The Crucible”. It is set in Salem in 1692, and describes how religious extremism gave rise to hysteria and accusations of demonic activity. Within the plot, it takes hold, escalates, and eventually results in many people being falsely accused of being in league with the devil, put on trial, and then executed.
Briefly, the niece of Rev Parris along with other girls are seen dancing in the forest. To avoid punishment his niece Abigail, starts accusing other women of being witches. This causes fear and hysteria to start ramping up because what she is saying is taken seriously. What we then learn is that a farmer, John Procter, had an affair with Abigail, and his own wife is now accused of witchcraft by Abigail so that she can get her out of the way. John realises what is happening so he brings evidence to court that will discredit the accusers, but the court refuses to listen. John confess to the affair, but to save him his wife denies it and so the court sides with Abigail. Many end up either falsely imprisoned or hanged. John is also accused and faces a choice, give a false confession and live, or be hanged. He refuses to comply and so goes to his death with integrity.
It is not actually a play about the witch trails in Salam, but rather is a vehicle used by Miller to attack McCarthyism. He likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to a witch hunt in Salem in 1692. Offence regarding his play was taken, and so Miller himself was targeted. Not only was he denied a passport to attend the play’s opening in London in 1954, but he was also questioned by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1956. Like John Proctor i the play he had written three years earlier, he refused to cooperate and name names, and so was held in contempt of Congress. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted from Hollywood, and disallowed a US passport. What made it all truly egregious is that part of the agreement he made with HUAC for his appearance is that he would not be asked to name others. They reneged on that and demanded that he do so, hence his refusal.
Yes life literally initiated art.
Speaking of which, we have what has now happened with the High School play.
What happened in Fannin County High School – The “Official” bogus reason
After working hard on the production for months the Drama students did their initial run of the play on Fri May 16th, and then suddenly it was cancelled.
The “official” reason put out by the school was this …
One tiny ever so small flaw – the above is a big bold lie.
The scene of supposed concern was an opening scene of young women wordlessly dancing in the woods and supposedly summoning spirits. That’s part of the actual plot, and is also a common scene used in many other high-school productions. It is also the opening scene in the 1996 movie.
If indeed there really was a licensing issue with this, and we know that there was not because several people checked with the licensing company and they verified it was not an issue, then the resolution for the next production is to simply chop that initial 2 minute scene out and do the rest, and not deploy the nuclear option of cancelling the entire production.
We know all this because one of the mothers checked …
A mother of one of the actors even posted video of her phone call with the company in which a representative admitted that scene didn’t seem like a violation and that if there were any concerns, the company would have warned the director in advance instead of taking the nuclear option of forcing the (high school!) show to shut down:
That’s not actually in the script; it’s referred to in dialogue, and it’s a big deal because it’s the reason certain characters are accused of witchcraft, but it’s never explicitly written into the stage directions. In other words, this was an interpretative choice. Hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. It didn’t change the show.
It’s not even a unique decision. I found multiple versions of this exact scene opening other high school productions of the show. It’s routine.
So what really happened?
What happened in Fannin County High School – The Real reason
Various reporters got a few whispers and so they dug and found the details. Via AVF we learn this …
“Originally, we were told that somebody made a complaint about the show that it was demonic and disgusting,” drama student Aiden McBee said.
… and here via Arts writer Howard Sherman we gain further insights …
Abigail Ridings, the senior who is president of the drama club and was directing the production, told a similar story. “I walked into my mom’s bedroom Saturday morning, the night after our first show, and she told me that the show had been canceled, that she just got off the phone with my principal. He said that certain people had to ‘repent after watching the show,’ as a joke, and that it was canceled due to parent complaints.” Asked about the specific nature of the complaints as explained to her mother, Ridings elaborated saying that the play was “too evil and disgusting and things like that.”
Yep, literally religious hysteria leading to false accusations, the plot of the play itself manifesting in real life.
Does irony even mean anything anymore these days?
How do the students feel about all this?
They put a lot of time and effort into this, and so quite naturally they have learned a very valuable lesson from it – namely that their High School is run by a bunch of cowards who will let religious hysteria run rampant …
Student Caden Gerald, who played John Proctor in the show and who said he was one of eight graduation seniors in the production, posted a five minute video recounting the incident and his feelings. He said, Some people noted, on Blue Ridge Facebook groups and on Instagram, that the show was demonic and disgusting – a show that called out a real issue of McCarthyism, a show that does not ridicule anything religious.” He continued, “I personally believe that this is a disgusting example of excellent PR training, an example of deflecting accountability and blame.”
Channeling the oratory of his character, Gerald said, “John Proctor is being forced to sign away his friends because of one cry against them. To draw parallel to real life, I ask you to ask yourselves, how may you teach us students to walk like men and women in this world when you sell us to lies and opinion, deflecting blame to our good names that we have made. Us students have not lived long enough to make great names of ourselves before you have started to tarnish them – names of us, children and young adults. How may we walk in this world when you have forced us to be sat?”
You can find Caden Gerald’s video – here on Facebook.
Now What?
Since the school had deployed the nuclear option and then later realised what they had just done, they then proceeded to dig an even deeper hole for themselves by crafting a lie to cover up the real reason they killed the production.
So yes Fannin County High School, welcome to the Streisand effect. Instead of pushing back against a silly little bit of a religious hysteria, but instead opted to pander to it, you are now quite rightly exposed to rather a lot of public ridicule.
The plan the school now have is clear – stick with the lie, duck all questions, hunker down, run the clock down to the end of term, and then hope that this all goes away.
What about Next Year?
Will they do The Crucible again? (it is in the Curriculum)
Probably not.
I do however have an excellent alternative suggestion for them (via Hemant).
They should put on a production of “Kingdom City”. That’s a play about a high-school teacher putting on a production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The teacher then faces intense backlash from the town’s conservative residents, especially from the local youth pastor and some parents, who view the play’s themes as corrupting.
They already have had plenty of practise at this so it feels like the perfect production for them.
Side Note: Least you wonder, yes Kingdom City was itself inspired by events that took place in 2006.