Issues in Censorship
Theatre 597
3/6/2008
Anelise Bergin
Mary Curphey
Jaimi Kolarik
Emily Sankey
Our research on censorship at Southern Utah University included contacting those individuals that were involved, the background of the university, situations involving censorship at SUU, the background and details of the case, and possible reasons for the conflict. The project included emailing the students and professor whose play was censored, and finding information online about the culture and demographics of Southern Utah University.
The conflict began when a directing class and play writing class at SUU decided to combine their final project. The play writing class was to write a play that students in the directing class would cast, stage, and direct. The arguments began when students from the directing class insisted that some of the offensive language in the plays be changed or eliminated. Through interviews with both a student of the play writing class and the teacher of this class, we were able to get a closer look at the situation.
Our group received two email responses to our inquiries about what happened at Southern Utah University. One was from a student, Valerie Mechling, and the other was from the professor of the Playwriting class, Dr. Kay Cook. Both offered a unique interpretation of the situation, yet both were remarkably similar in thought and summary. I will focus first on Valerie’s perspective of events, her summary of what happened, and her individual thoughts on the issue. Next, I will look at Professor Cook’s opinions, summary, and attitude toward the situation.
Valerie Mechling is a student in the Playwriting class taught by Professor Kay Cook. Her summary of events begins with her stating that the students in the class started off the semester writing 10-minute plays that would be used for their final exam along with the Directing 1 class. The Playwriting class wrote the plays, and the Directing 1 class directed these plays. According to Valerie, nothing in the Playwriting class was censored. The students in the Playwriting class were warned that their work may encounter problems once it was handed over to the Directing 1 class. They were also told by Professor Cook to expect respect for their words and work. Vince, another student in the Playwriting class, wrote a play that was a commentary on a post-apocalyptic world. The director directing Vince’s play, Jim, wanted to change it into a farce, going so far as to rewrite the script, simply because he wanted all the swear words taken out. He also stated that the audience “wouldn’t understand” some of the play. Vince refused to allow changes to the play. Unfortunately, even though the script remained the same, Vince’s play was directed in such a way as to change the mood of the piece, and most of the jokes were lost. Valerie’s take on the situation was that the director didn’t respect the words of the playwright. He objected to the language without trying to understand the purpose they served. Valerie offered a significant piece of information that was extremely relevant to the understanding of the situation. She said that Utah has a “thing” about swearing—many actors refuse to take roles with swearing in them. Sometimes this resulted in script changes or even recasting.
Professor Kay Cook is a 68-year old Playwriting class professor at Southern Utah University. She summarized the events that occurred as follows: Her Playwriting class and the Directing 1 class collaborated on a 10-minute play festival that served as the final for both classes. The playwrights submitted their scripts on November 1, and the plays were performed in mid-December. Dr. Cook also stated that Utah is a religiously conservative state, but at SUU, they do not censor. Professor Cook gave two explanations for why the playwriting class was caught off guard during this controversy. First were the directors who didn’t want to direct a play w/ “language” in it. Secondly were the actors who didn’t want to have a part w/ “language” in it. Dr. Cook explained that there were several incidences of directors wanting to change the scripts the playwrights submitted, resulting in hard feelings between the director and the playwright, and some actors quit because of the language in the plays. She outlined the difficulty for her writers, saying the people who refused to do the plays considered the playwrights’ word choices to be flippant, non-essential, and there for shock-value only. It was also difficult accepting the concept that listeners would be corrupted from hearing foul language. Lastly, they were discouraged that some people focused on the language alone at the expense of missing what the play actually had to say.
Professor Cook gave a few parting words to the audience at the end of the 10-minute play festival. They went as follows: “Each damn, fuck, hell, and shit we write is there for a purpose. Thank you for respecting that.” She said the reaction was silence, then applause. Professor Cook felt her role throughout the ordeal was to listen to students and let them talk through their frustrations to the challenges of their work. She supported them as the person in authority who backed up their plays and stood firm with them. Some people in Utah, very religious Mormons, etc. can be very easily offended. If she ever had student who didn’t want to read an assigned text, Professor Cook would not change the assignment for that student. She explained that if they are “principled” people, then living up to those principles means taking the consequences for them instead of asking a professor to change an assignment just for them.
Southern Utah University is located in Cedar City, Utah and was originally founded as a teacher training institute in 1897. There is a large population of Mormonism in the state of Utah, and most of the students who attend the University are from Utah and many of them follow Mormonism. The student body is largely middle class, Caucasian, and Mormon.
In general, the theatre department at Southern Utah University is open to art that expresses all different ideas and thoughts. The mission statement for the theater department at the University of South Carolina says,
“The mission of the department of theatre arts and dance is to provide a nurturing and challenging educational environment which celebrates our history, propels us towards our future, and excels in practical application of theatrical and dance techniques. A rich diversity of theatrical disciplines, dance techniques and technologies combine with an ever-changing array of production opportunities and personalized mentoring by our entire faculty and staff. Central to our focus as a department is superior teaching; our classroom encompasses the studio, the stage, and the technical laboratory.”
This statement is interesting because the play in question seems to support this mission. The information and perspectives gained from both Valerie Mechling and Professor Cook contributed significantly to our presentation. Their succinct summaries and personal thoughts were invaluable to our research on this topic.
There is a great deal of background information that must be explained before realizing what happened in the particular director and playwright class and what caused such an uproar among students and professors. It is possible that the culture of Southern Utah University plays a large role in explaining why a few curse words caused such a commotion.
Part of what makes this case really interesting is the history of censorship at Southern Utah University. Being such a conservative school in such a conservative state makes it an easy target for censorship issues to arise. There are two cases that stood out and will be relevant to our case. One deals more with general censorship issues and the other deals directly with playwright censorship as our case does. Looking back at these instances will give a better perspective as to what happened in our case.
The first example occurred in September of 2002 and was an issue regarding censorship of the student journal. At SUU the administration has control over the student journal and has the final say over what gets printed and what doesn’t. The student’s protested saying this violated their first amendment rights. They also argued that being a state-funded public institution should allow them to have the opportunity to print what they would like. Some of the students that work for the journal published an editorial expressing their feelings on this issue and asking students to take a stand. They had many arguments for their point especially emphasizing a case at Kentucky State University where administrators tried to censor their student newspaper and yearbook. The court ruled that the precedent that allowed high school principals to censor their school publications did not apply to university publications. The student’s at SUU fought hard against the administration but didn’t seem to get anywhere. The president of the university stood strong and to this day they still have control over what gets published.
The second case of censorship is even more relevant to our topic and actually stems from an incident at The University of Utah. There was a student who sued the university claiming discrimination because an acting class she was taking required her to use language she was uncomfortable with. The school argued that just because the words may offend her does not mean she can object to the curriculum based on her religious beliefs. The court ruled that the university did not violate her rights because the words were not created to single her out or deprive her of her religious rights. This case stirred a lot of emotion at Southern Utah University and students began to express their similar feelings.
Many of the professors at SUU have very strong feelings against censorship and believe that it is the students’ responsibility to be aware of the plays they may find offensive. Changing a person’s words is something Professor Kay Cook believes is out of the question, “Words are powerful. You don’t ever fool around with someone else’s play without permission”. Professor Cook is actually the staff member involved in our case. The theatre department has made it clear that it believes in academic freedom regardless of the plays content. This policy will come into play during the case as well.
Southern Utah University is undoubtedly comprised of many religious and conservative students, making issues such as censorship much more relevant. At many other schools, such as Ohio State, this kind of conflict would never arise. It is interesting to look back at other similar cases to get a better idea of the schools history in this domain. By learning about these instances it provides a good backbone to the content of our case and some insight on why it may have happened.
When researching the incident at Southern Utah University with the directing and writing classes, we found it necessary to research the Mormon religion. It is very clear that Mormonism is intricately tied to the state of Utah, especially Southern Utah University which directly affects its students and faculty. The prevalence of Mormonism had an undeniable role in the dispute at SUU. To understand the culture and values of the Mormon religion, we explored some of their key beliefs and principles.
Mormonism, or the Church of Latter-Day Saints is based on the 13 articles of faith outlined by their profit, Joseph Smith. They believe that other religions have corrupted and changed the word of God after the death of the disciples, but they have remained true to the word of Jesus and his original teachings. They also believe that they lived before their life on Earth with God in His Heavenly Kingdom and that they will return to Him someday. Their belief system and general way of living has often been seen as very strict and demanding, but most account from followers of the Mormon religion claim to feel more free by knowing the truth of the Lord.
One key principle that Mormons qualify as extremely important in their lives is that of accountability. The website www.mormonism.org defines this principle as “the ability of each person to choose right or wrong and to act freely.” This is ironic though because the followers of Mormonism are only allowed to act freely as long as they still follow all the other principles of the religion.
Another important belief that Mormons follow is obedience. This is a statement that the women of men of God must follow all the laws of the religion and comply with all “the truths of the Lord.” Another commandment listed by the Mormon faith is “Live the Law of Chastity.” This is one of the most strictly enforced commandments and states that “keeping it brings peace, self-respect, and strength from self-control.” It promotes abstinence and prohibits any kind of homosexual relations, abortions, infidelity in marriage, and pre-marital sexual relations and living with the opposite sex before gender.
Word of Wisdom is another important aspect of Mormonism and is defined as “a strict code of conduct Mormons follow, regarding the care and respect of their physical bodies. Mormons believe their bodies to be sacred gifts from God and that Satan is trying to destroy that in their children.” This law includes the prohibition of tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine. It is stated by www.mormonism.org that it is a sign that Satan is attacking a child when this child starts to believe that his or her body is their own and should be able to do whatever they want with it. This is based on the fundamental belief that all people are children of God and their bodies are temples for Jesus Christ, not their own.
These are only a few examples of many commandments that the Mormons abide to which also include “Follow the Profit,” “Observe the Law of the Fast,” and “Study the Scriptures.” It is clear that Mormonism follows a very strict way of life where there is forgiveness for small falters, but no room for disobedience. This obviously played a huge part in the conflict that aroused between students when foul language was used in the short plays. Although the plays were only meant to be part of a final assignment, it delved much deeper into the lives of the students by testing their morals, values, and beliefs.
The censorship of the plays by the directing class is a direct result of a conflict between freedom of speech in universities and the concrete values of Mormonism. And this causes us to question: where does censorship by religious belief become inappropriate in a learning environment? Or to have another viewpoint: how far is too far in a learning environment when the content offends the majority of a class?
Our group came to a mutual conclusion about the conflict at SUU: if a student deems class material to be inappropriate, sinful (according to their religious beliefs), or offensive, it is their own right to drop the class, change majors, or even transfer schools. While religion will continue to play an increasingly crucial role in censorship, limitations must be enacted. If universities in America allow censorship to affect class materials, it will only be so long before any religion that feels offended in school (or possibly other social situations) will act out to have the “sins” eliminated. Cases like that of the play writing and directing classes at Southern Utah University are a constant reminder that we do live in a country where freedom of speech should always be respected, and that includes any kind of speech that contradicts one’s own beliefs.
Works Cited
Andrus, Jackie. "Taking Offense." University Journal. 21 Nov. 2002. Southern Utah University. 23 Jan. 2008
"Basic Beliefs." Official Web Site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 2007. Intellectual Reserve, Inc. 31 Jan. 2008
"Censorship: Stand Up, SUU." University Journal. 23 Sept. 2002. Southern Utah University. 23 Jan. 2008
Cook, Kay. "Plays Being Censored." Email to the author. 27 Jan. 2008. cook@suu.edu.
Mechling, Valerie. "Plays Being Censored." Email to the author. 28 Jan. 2008. mamavalerius@gmail.com
Why Mormonism. 2006. 31 Jan. 2008
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