By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sourcs (www.originalsources.com)
February 18, 2000
Christina Axson-Flynn, an eighteen year old freshman at the University of Utah, has brought a federal lawsuit against members of the university's theater faculty on the grounds that, as a condition for remaining in the University's Actor Training Program she was required to perform classroom scenes containing language that offended her religious beliefs. Her attorney, James McConkie said that "a state agency doesn't have the right to try and force a person to NOT live their religion."
The Salt Lake Tribune reported: "At issue is the responsibility of public-university professors to present courses that give students broad exposure to works of contemporary and classical theater that will prepare them for master's programs elsewhere in the country, and that will equip them for the realities of employment in the theater.
"At issue too is the young woman's personal standard of integrity. Axson-Flynn, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says she is not comfortable 'taking the Lord's name in vain' or 'saying the F-word.'"
The Tribune then reported that "there are legal matters regarding the arbitrary alteration of artistic works." However, for classroom use, when there is no paying audience, copyrights have a "fair use" provision which would allow such alterations of profanity or vulgarity.
Elizabeth Diggs, a playwright on the theater faculty of the Tisch School of Arts at the University of New York says she has had students who objected to strong language because of religious beliefs. In her classroom she says she "would have someone else read a role if a student felt uncomfortable with the language." However, she said, "I remind them that they'll have to turn down roles that contain that language. You'd be in serious trouble if you couldn't say the F-word or name of deity. There is so much of it (in contemporary theater.)"
Now, lets see if we can sort this out. An increasing number of people recognize that the major problem facing our nation today is the deterioration of our culture. Even President Bill Clinton, who made "oral sex" a household word, said on October 15, 1999, "We have asked every sector of our society to get involved in the search for solutions to youth violence, to hatred, to the absence of the control, to environmental and cultural factors that need to be dealt with. We've asked people to help at home and school, in Hollywood and in the heartland, in our state capitals and in the nation's capital."
In the almost full page story in the Salt Lake Tribune on the lawsuit by Axson-Flynn, there was no mention of any kind about what requiring reluctant students to "use the F-word, or "take the name of the Lord in vain" might be doing to improve the minds and "self-control" of the students. In fact, Robert Rees, a professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz was quoted as saying that the lawsuit would contribute to "the polarization between the Mormon community and the university.
"If she wishes never to use language or express behaviors that are contrary to her religious beliefs, then one wonders why she has chosen acting as a career and a state university in which to pursue it," Rees said.
This opinion appears to be widely held by people in the theater, even among some who have found ways to avoid the very kind of conflict Christina Axson-Flynn is confronting. A couple of my own children are accomplished actors and singers, so I checked out the issue with them. Gay Grooms, playwright, director and producer of Performing Arts North in suburban Atlanta, Georgia said, "If you don't agree with the standards and the program you are in, go find another program!" That, apparently, is exactly what her son, a sophomore with a full scholarship in drama at a Texas University plans to do. Her recommendation was to be more careful about checking out the quality of the program before enrolling.
Knowing that Gay only produces clean, quality theatrical productions I asked her how she chose scripts for the various age groups she teaches. "I write my own stuff!" she retorted. "My students know from the outset - use your imagination, but certain things are not acceptable. When you teach, you touch a life forever." Some of the things that are simply not acceptable to her are vulgarity and profanity. Performing Arts North's motto is: "If you can get up on a stage and sing and dance and act - you can do ANYTHING!" Many of her students over the years have been children with mental or physical handicaps. She says, on her website (Click here for plays4kids) that "Parents and teachers have been amazed at the changes in a young person who climbs that mountain and reaches the top."
Can young people really climb that mountain and reach the top with vulgar scripts that use violence, indecent behavior, swearing and sex in lieu of well written scripts with real plots? She doesn't think so.
Neither does her brother, Gavin Grooms, who is also an accomplished actor and singer and who is now publisher of the Reagan Monitor. Gavin questioned the ability of the actors and directors who feel the need to "shock people into emotions." Those defending the "need" to use material sprinkled with vulgar expressions, sex and mindless violence, were using a "cheap attempt at entertainment because neither the script nor the actor is artistically capable of bringing up emotions."
Going back in history Gavin pointed out that the fall of great civilizations - Greece, Rome, and British - was preceded by "art, theater and music becoming vulgar. It usually marks the end of great civilizations. When someone throws elephant dung on a picture of the Mother of Jesus Christ and calls it 'art' - we have lost the understanding of true art. Art mimics life and life mimics art as we become more accepting of vulgarity masquerading as 'art.'
"It is disturbing to me as a taxpayer that a State run University is presenting as 'art' a lifestyle that is unacceptable in a civil society. The State is responsible for public health and safety. Sponsoring, with my tax dollars, the notion that to be an artist you must be vulgar is very disturbing."
What is even more disturbing to me is that young people like Christina are being told to not even think about a career in the theater unless they are willing to perform in badly written plays which use sex, violence, swearing and vulgarity to cover up the fact there is really no plot. In fact, I stopped watching movies in the 1970s because it was getting harder and harder to find a movie with a real well-thought out plot. With most of the junk on TV today, if you removed the violence, the sex, the vulgarity and the swearing - there wouldn't be anything left, because the badly written scripts actually have no plot.
Hopefully more young people will stand their ground in the entertainment field as Christian Axon-Flynn has done. I don't know how the lawsuit will come out but she certainly has brought the deplorable level of drama education at the University of Utah to light. Suddenly, with the Columbine and other school shootings, it has begun to dawn on many people that our culture is, as Alan Keyes puts it, "in the throes of a national moral identity crisis." He points out that "Crime, rampant illegitimacy, the deteriorating environment in many of our schools, and especially the spectacle of national shame that has unfolded in the Clinton White House, all these can be traced to lack of respect for moral principle."
It is totally ridiculous that while people are deploring the conditions that have led to things such as the Columbine school shootings, and wring their hands about sex and violence in entertainment still continue to support and even DEFEND the notion that "good, professional theater" MUST include what Gavin calls "cheap thrills - foul language, sexuality and naked bodies."
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
Gavin Grooms: ggrooms@ctrpublishing.com
Gay Grooms: ggrooms@plays4kids.com
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