voices in conflict

it's NOT about the war, it's about the troops! (and mr lanza is correct. that IS what it's about) oh yeah, and principal canty is a giant weenie


Canceled school play about Iraq brings out real drama
Connecticut students find themselves in the national spotlight when their principal shuts down their play.

By Harry BruiniusWilton, Conn.

Stone-faced and grim, six boys from Wilton High School are marching in formation, stomping out the ominous rhythm of foot soldiers, and saluting from their chests. Together, they stop to shout: "For all the free people that still protest, you're welcome! You're welcome!"
It's a defiant rap, first written by U.S. Marines in Kuwait to taunt those who protested the first Gulf War, and now incorporated into a spring play, "Voices in Conflict," a dramatic series of monologues taken from interviews and letters from real soldiers in combat. This scene, however, has the most complicated stage directions, and Courtney Stack, a junior in charge of the choreography, is barking out orders, showing the boys how to move their feet and swing their shoulders as the pounding march becomes a flowing hip-hop groove. ........


Kids' Iraq Play Hits Big Stage After School Bars It
Wilton, Conn., Kids Get Standing Ovation for Off Broadway Performance

A group of high school students in a small Connecticut town wanted to perform a play telling the stories of actual soldiers in Iraq. But their school said no, afraid it might offend members of their community.
Although the students were silenced on their own stage in Wilton, Conn., they were given another -- Off Broadway in New York City.
Nick Lanza, a performer in the play, said it isn't about the war, it's about the troops.
"For us, it's pro-troops," Lanza said, "It's about the troops' feelings, what's happening to the troops, not whether or not war is an issue."..........

original posting and more voices

voices in conflict is indeed going to be performed

OFF-BROADWAY! (so take that you members of the wilton school board)!

i'm so very happy for the students and teacher-advisers who are involved with the play

High School play, canceled in Wilton, heads to off-Broadway

WILTON, Conn. --A high school play about the Iraq war and canceled by the school's principal is headed for an off-Broadway production in New York.
The students are set to perform "Voices in Conflict" at The Public Theater and The Culture Project in June.
The play, a collection of readings that students in an advanced theater class assembled from interviews, letters and blogs from war veterans, was canceled by principal Timothy Canty after a student whose brother is serving in Iraq complained that the production lacked balance.
Canty and Gary Richards, Wilton schools superintendent, have said the students' script did not provide enough context to explore a complicated subject and may hurt families who have lost loved ones in the war.
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, which was founded by Joseph Papp as a Shakespeare workshop in 1954, said he believed it was important to provide a venue for the students.
"Just the fact that you have high school students who are willing to take this kind of leap and actually engage in the big issues of the world, they have to be supported," he said.
The play fits the theater's mission, Eustis said. The theater is staging a play, "In Darfur," about the conflict in Sudan.
In 1985 it put on Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart," about AIDS in New York City.
Bonnie Dickinson, who teaches the 15 students who created "Voices in Conflict," said they were honored to be offered a chance to perform in New York............

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.”...........