"Oregon high school halts Steve Martin's 'Picasso' play"

Absolutely ridiculous...
School does nothing for kids- it does not give them the chance to be "truly creative" and express themselves. I've always been fascinated by profanity. They're just words, like any other words. They have a meaning behind them... The word f*ck is that of a sexual act. Something completely normal that every human engages in. When used in a profane way, they generate a desired response. By telling an eleven year old these words, what will happen? He may repeat them, like everyone else in society does. There's nothing wrong with these words, it's ridiculous that someone could get so offended based on hearing a basic sound. Like many other irrational things in life, it's all about societal expectations and unjustified beliefs.

Updated On: 3/2/09 at 01:54 AM

If you are upset by language, don't see the show but don't prevent others from seeing it! That woman and her 137 signatures can sit at home pretending profanity does not exist in everyday culture. People are stupid.

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"Let's be honest here," Cahill said. "You have not been coming (to the plays)."

Love it.

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Another shame. At least this time, however, the principal was going to bat WITH the director; it was not a matter of ONE person making the blatant decision (as in the Rent issue of a week or so ago.)

I think banning for the lanugage or for them TALKING about sex is ridiculous. My own students are allowed to use whatever language they choose in their creative writing -- assuming that it suits the situation/character to do so. HOWEVER, many feel there is a difference between realizing kids USE that kind of language and promoting it. (Because kids are bound to have sex, you wouldn't expect the school to provide beds, would you?)

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She warned that if the play is performed, many conservative families would move their children out of the district and into charter or online schools.

Sounds like even more of a reason to proceed forward with the production!

Seriously, though, when I was in elementary school, we had a mother so upset that we read "Bridge to Terabithia" -- which had a "damn" or two in it, I guess, though it never really struck me at the time -- that she pulled her kid out of public schools and proceeded to home school him for the rest of his school career. Poor kid.

Yet even in that conservative Texas community, the local theatre performed "Picasso" without a squeak from the public.

And as the principal said (I think it was the principal) the folks complaining weren't even audience members.

If you are going to use some of the subject matter as a measuring tool...you had better get ready to ban Shakespeare!

I directed Taming of the Shrew a few years ago and used the verbal foreplay between Kate and Petruchio to its physical limits. Not a single complaint to Petruchio "mounting" her.

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Unbelievable. If you aired PICASSO on network television, you wouldn't have to cut that much. Absolutely absurd. This is how powerless people feel useful.

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