Missouri High School Makes the NYT

By MARC ACITO
Published: April 3, 2006
Portland, Ore.

WITH the Disney Channel's "High School Musical" fast becoming the download of choice for tweens, it looks like we theater geeks are finally getting the attention we deserve.

And some we don't. Like in Fulton, Mo., where three members of a local church objected to the high school's fall production of the musical "Grease," even though one of them hadn't even seen it. In a response that would have made Joe McCarthy proud, Mark Enderle, the school superintendent, then proceeded to overturn the choice of "The Crucible," Arthur Miller's indictment of McCarthyism, as the spring play.

Instead, the students in Fulton just finished performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream," that wholesome frolic about youthful rebellion, pagan magic and bestiality. As Dr. Enderle told Wendy DeVore, the drama teacher, her actors "shouldn't do anything on stage that would get a kid in trouble if he did it in a classroom."

Next up, "Algebra! The Musical."

On second thought, one thing that will certainly get a student into trouble in a Fulton classroom is not reading "The Crucible," which is part of the 11th grade curriculum. I guess, like school prayer, reading "The Crucible" is something that has to be done silently.

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