Sunday, March 25, 2007

i'll probably never see voices in conflict but i'm still proud of the students who planned it

i'm not sure why i didn't read about this in a connecticut paper. i guess i could have missed it though.

i disagree with the principal in this case. i DO believe the students should have been allowed to perform this piece. however, at the same time, i also believe the principal had every right to say no. i think it rather slimey though he may not have stated the TRUE reason the students weren't allowed to put the play on.

we have to give our young people more credit sometimes. not all of them are constantly thinking about ipods and what celebrity shaved their head this week. it seems like SOME of the wilton students are thinking about what is happening to their country, the citizens of their country and how life is NOT always very easy.

i have no voice in wilton, but i do say to those students involved with voices in conflict, i am very impressed with ALL of you


Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
WILTON, Conn., March 22 — Student productions at Wilton High School range from splashy musicals like last year’s “West Side Story,” performed in the state-of-the-art, $10 million auditorium, to weightier works like Arthur Miller’s “Crucible,” on stage last fall in the school’s smaller theater.

For the spring semester, students in the advanced theater class took on a bigger challenge: creating an original play about the war in Iraq. They compiled reflections of soldiers and others involved, including a heartbreaking letter from a 2005 Wilton High graduate killed in Iraq last September at age 19, and quickly found their largely sheltered lives somewhat transformed. ............

..............In response to concerns that the script was too antiwar, Ms. Dickinson reworked it with the help of an English teacher. The revised version is more reflective and less angry, omitting graphic descriptions of killing, crude language and some things that reflect poorly on the Bush administration, like a comparison of how long it took various countries to get their troops bulletproof vests. A critical reference to Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, was cut, along with a line from Cpl. Sean Huze saying of soldiers: “Your purpose is to kill.”...........

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