My First Time
Written and Directed by Ken Davenport
Opening Night: July 12, 2008
New World Stages
340 West 50th Street
"The final question -- ''If your first sexual partner were here right now, what would you say to him/her?''-- reliably elicits showstoppers, such as these actual audience responses at a recent performance: ''How could you do that to your fiancee?'' and ''Are you still having sex with men now that you have a wife?''"
http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5839592370&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5839592375&cisb=22_T5839592374&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=6742&docNo=14
I personally think this show would be very entertaining. I believe it would be controversial to a lot of people based on its topic, sex. A lot of people are not comfortable talking about their sexuality and this show may embarrass them. I think my generation might have less of a problem with it than an older one.
2. Naked Broadway
Wit
Written by: Margaret Edson
September 1988
MCC Theater
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/08/features/naked.php
"Sometimes nudity can communicate more than words. Speaking of a scene in "Wit," Margaret Edson's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, in which a woman dying of cancer reveals her gaunt body, the producer Daryl Roth said, "The nudity at that moment was so essential to the storytelling and the revelation of character. In that one gesture of her pulling off her gown and her hospital bracelet, we saw her nudity and we understood her freedom, and it said more than the script could have said in 10 pages.""
I think that seeing a woman's body who has been fighting cancer would be very controversial. Nudity in itself makes people uneasy, and to add in the fact that it is a woman who has been very sick could disturb some audience members. Especially those uncomfortable with the everyday nudity in life, such as their own in private.
3. Gay Broadway
Boy Meets Boy
Written by: Bill Solly and David Ward
NYC in 1975
Actor's Playhouse
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.queermusicheritage.us/SEPT2003/gaymusicals/bedboysx.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.queermusicheritage.us/gaymus.html&usg=__6HRkb-Ekhhb2iBTeut2zZXN9XC4=&h=120&w=120&sz=8&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vziuFL_ZAUKutM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBed,%2BBoys%2B%2526%2BBeyond%2Bbroadway%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den
"It's set in London and Paris in 1936-1937, amid the controversy of King Edward's abdication so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. The show is notable in that no where in it is mentioned homosexuality; the relationships are simply taken for granted."
The show was controversial for the fact that is heavily involved homosexuality at a less open time for the subject. It also did not make a huge deal about the romance being any different than others in shows, it never directly states that anything is homosexual although it is. I can see an audience in 1975 being offended, my Mom graduated high school at that time and I know how closed minded she can be on the subject.
4. Racist Broadway
Showboat
Music by Jerome Kern and book (based on a novel by Edna Ferber) and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Ziegfeld Theatre
New York on December 27, 1927
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_Boat
"The show has also come under much attack, primarily because of the use of the word nigger in the lyrics in the first scene, in addition to the historical portrayal of blacks serving as passive laborers and servants. The show opened with the black chorus trudging onstage and singing:
Niggers all work on the Mississippi.
Niggers all work while the white folks play —
Loadin' up boats wid de bales of cotton,
Gittin' no rest till de Judgement Day.[14] "
The language used in the show is historically accurate, but because of the past use of the word it has a strong negative connotation. African Americans of today and vast majority of others get offended at the use of the word. So I can understand the controversy related to the show.
5. Raided or Closed
L.S.D.
November 1984
Wooster Group
http://www.lexisnexis.com.unx1.shsu.edu:2048/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5977739136&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5977739139&cisb=22_T5977739138&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=6742&docNo=4
"A leading experimental theater group has closed its production ''L.S.D.,'' apparently ending the controversy surrounding the show's use of a 20-minute segment from Arthur Miller's ''Crucible.''"
The controversy of this play is that Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, saw the rehearsals of this show and refused the rights of anything related to his work to them. They continued to use a part of his show and that is what mad the show have to close. They did not have the rights to the show, even if they will argue otherwise.
6. Arrested
Eleven Vests
Written by: Edward Bond
Belarus Free Theatre
22 August 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus_Free_Theatre
"'Police used to burst into our performances with machine guns but they disappeared just as fast. A mass arrest like this is a first.'"
I can see how this play disrupted society. It contains one person that is involved in two events; one at school, another as a soldier in the army. Although separated by years, the incidents bear a striking resemblance to each other. Society was not ready for this with a war going on. This playwright tends to reach out of the box and writes a lot of controversial things.
7. NEA 4
Holly Hughes
http://www.lexisnexis.com.unx1.shsu.edu:2048/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T5977766475&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T5977766478&cisb=22_T5977766477&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8213&docNo=4
"One of them, Holly Hughes, issued a statement: ''If (we) were doing pornographic work, we wouldn't bother applying to the NEA. We would be making plenty of money.''"
I understand how this is controversial. Actors doing their own art are being told that their art is not appropriate for the public, when they see that it is. They are denied things that other actors get based on a few things they have done.
8. Regional Theatre
Jerry Springer: The Opera
Written by: Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas
The New Vic Theater, Staffordshire
http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2005/03/07/green-threatens-regional-theatres-gets-response/
"I will continue to programme as I see fit and appropriate for the organisation. Neither I, nor the Trustees, will change the programme or the programming policy as a result of threats, bullying or intimidation from any outside body."
This is controversial to those who are not entertained by the real Jerry Springer Show. I know it is a bunch of red necks fighting over who gets to sleep with their cousin and I have accepted that fact, but others do not find this funny, but offensive.
9. College/University
Stop Kiss
Written by: Diana Son
St. Mary's College
April 10-13, 2008
Little Theater
http://www.saintmarys.edu/~tickets/media/Observer%20-%20Stop%20Kiss%20review_4_14_08.pdf
""Stop Kiss," Saint Mary's spring theater production, was met with initial hesitation due to its
controversial themes of homosexuality and violence but was eventually accepted by the audience. When it was first announced that "Stop Kiss" would be performed on campus, several members of the Saint Mary's student body sent e-mails to the play's director, Katie Sullivan, expressing concerns over some of the play's content."
I think that the controversy surrounding this show was that the lesbian story line involved women who were initially heterosexual at the beginning of the story. This plot would not be recieved well to a christian school, such as St. Mary's College, where in their religious background the students are influenced to think that homosexuality is wrong.
10. High School
Rent
Music and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Corona del Mar High School, Orange County
February 2009
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/martin-play-production-2318401-asrani-high
"A high school production of "Rent," whose cancelation triggered complaints of discrimination and homophobia, will be allowed to proceed, district officials announced today.
Corona del Mar High School drama instructor Ron Martin two weeks ago accused his principal of killing the production because of its "homosexual content" – the play features gay characters and a drag queen."
I am a huge fan of this show and can see how it could be controversial to a high school audience that consists mainly of overprotective parents. It has themes that I believe to be very important to the time period it was written in, and I think those themes make parents uncomfortable. Those parents are the same ones that don't discuss sex, homosexuality, and sexually transmitted diseases to their children and don't want the community to do so as well.
