Usually, at Hampshire Excessive Faculty, the scholars within the annual spring musical gear up for his or her efficiency with spirit put on, posters at companies round city, and bulletins of the present in school and on social media.
However within the weeks earlier than the opening night time of their manufacturing of The Promenade, the choice for this 12 months’s musical that ran for 3 performances over the weekend (March 15-17), that pre-show buzz was noticeably absent. Simply two and a half weeks earlier than performances, the scholar forged and crew had been knowledgeable by the college district within the small city of Hampshire, an hour outdoors of Chicago, that they weren’t allowed to promote the musical outdoors the college constructing: no posters, no social media posts, not even a point out the identify of the musical of their faculty bulletins. They had been informed they may check with it solely as “the musical.”
Moreover, tickets had been solely allowed to be bought to the general public on-line and just for one week previous to the efficiency, with all gross sales ending on March 10, six days earlier than opening night time of their one-weekend-only run. No tickets had been allowed to be bought on the door.
These had been simply a number of the restrictions and mandates applied by the district particularly for this manufacturing of The Promenade. The manufacturing nearly didn’t occur: Initially, when the present was introduced final October, the district canceled the manufacturing. Their clarification on the time was that The Promenade—a musical based mostly on the true story of a lesbian scholar banned from attending promenade along with her girlfriend—would possibly draw protests and anti-LGBTQ+ violence or bullying. In a public assertion, the district cited anti-LGBTQ sentiment domestically and nationally and considerations for college students’ security as the explanations for the present’s cancellation. Canceling a present about an lesbian woman being banned from her promenade was deeply ironic, mentioned senior pit crew member Ainsley Bryson, who was topped homecoming queen at Hampshire Excessive alongside along with her girlfriend Belle Eckert simply final fall.
“The plot of The Promenade the musical is actually like my life,” mentioned Bryson, whom Eckert requested to be her promenade date throughout one of many rehearsals for the musical. “There are children and likewise adults residing in Hampshire day-after-day which can be homosexual. It’s one thing that we do each single day, and it’s by no means a difficulty.”
After substantial pushback from the Hampshire group, and help for the present garnered by nationwide media consideration, the district relented, permitting the present to go on, however provided that a security plan was developed. The households of The Promenade‘s forged and crew mentioned the measures put in place are unprecedented.
“My children have been concerned in musicals since center faculty,” mentioned Mandy Hanson, guardian of two forged and crew members. “I’ve been concerned in numerous completely different performs and musicals, and this expertise has been fully completely different than every other expertise.”
Hanson, who mentioned the viewers was electrical throughout a spirited opening night time for the present, doesn’t consider there was an actual menace to the scholars in any respect. Even when there have been, she mentioned, this isn’t the way it ought to have been dealt with.
“I don’t suppose that we must always ever inform college students in any much less represented group that they must be quiet in order that the bullies don’t trigger a difficulty,” she mentioned. “I believe the message we must always ship is that we help you, and if somebody has an issue with it, we’ll cope with that individual.”
Based on an electronic mail from the district, all facets of their security plan for The Promenade had been “guided by the district’s dedication to keep up a safe setting for our college students, employees, and group members.” Countered Bryson, “I don’t really feel like I’m being protected. I really feel like my district administration is afraid to face behind me and everybody else.”
How It All Started
When the district canceled the present on Oct. 20 final 12 months, a closed assembly between Hampshire college students and district superintendent Susan Harkin and the Director of Range of Fairness and Inclusion Adrian Harries was held to elucidate the district’s determination. Afterward, the district revealed a press release saying that, attributable to group suggestions, they had been reconsidering the choice to cancel the manufacturing, noting in a press release that the choice had been “unrelated” to college students’ “need to show their faculty’s progress towards supporting the LGBTQ+ group. As an alternative, the postponement mirrored a priority held by our administrative crew that the bigger District 300 group is probably not ready to completely help this efficiency with out risking potential harassment, bullying, and violence concentrating on our LGBTQ+ college students, performers, employees, or group members.”
Wrote superintendent Harkin within the assertion, “Sadly, there was an increase in harassment, bullying, threats, and violence directed towards the LGBTQ+ group, domestically and nationally.”
However the Hampshire group didn’t let issues relaxation. They confirmed up in drive at a college board assembly on Oct. 24. Roughly 100 individuals attended the assembly, a few of them having to maneuver to an overflow room, and 25 college students and group members spoke out in opposition to the district’s determination, telling district leaders how the musical helped LGBTQ+ members of their faculty group really feel represented. One scholar mentioned on the assembly that canceling the play for security causes “doesn’t make sense,” based on public minutes from the board assembly.
“I’ve participated in a number of Days of Silence in school with no security plan,” the scholar mentioned, referring to the annual occasion throughout which observers take a day-long vow of silence to characterize the silencing of LGBTQ+ college students via bullying and harassment. “I’ve acquired no backlash concerning my participation. Why is that this extra harmful?”
Even the Hampshire Village president Mike Reid, who graduated from Hampshire Excessive Faculty, confirmed up on the assembly and took challenge with the Hampshire group implicitly being blamed for the cancellation of the present.
“It’s arduous to grasp why the Hampshire group ended up with a goal pointing at us, based mostly on a choice we had no communication about,” he mentioned, based on board assembly minutes. “The perceived characterization of the Hampshire group instantly correlated from feedback by district employees is unsuitable, hurtful, not inclusive, and never within the spirit of working collectively. Hampshire is altering by the day, and the group will proceed to vary.”
Talking final week, Reid mentioned he meant to attend the present along with his household in addition to a number of employees from the Village workplace and the Hampshire police chief.
Within the Oct. 23 assertion, the district cited cases by which group members tried to “out” college students within the Homosexual-Straight Alliance (GSA), hate-filled emails concerning the district’s Day of Silence, and threats associated to the LGBTQ+ Studying Area assembly held at a college within the district. Certainly, Kane County, the place Hampshire is situated, isn’t any stranger to anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment. In July, 20 minutes away from Hampshire, an LGBTQ+-owned bakery in Lake within the HIlls closed after the store was vandalized and the proprietor acquired threats associated to the bakery’s makes an attempt to host a drag brunch.
However there have additionally been robust showings of help for LGBTQ+ residents in the neighborhood. The close by metropolis of Elgin hosted its first ever Satisfaction parade and pageant in June final 12 months, and roughly 4,000 individuals attended, based on Elgin Satisfaction founder Kayla Bates.
“The concern is louder than the fact,” mentioned Bates, who famous that Elgin group members had been very supportive, although some had been nonetheless afraid of protests and pushback. Bates believes the concern comes from the abundance of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents within the information.
“Concern and hatred and controversy are newsworthy,” mentioned Bates. “Love isn’t.”
Elgin Police, Bates mentioned, had been out in drive on the day of the parade in case of anti-LGBTQ+ violence. However, Bates mentioned, apart from just a few indignant feedback on Fb, there was no pushback.
Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment could be very actual within the U.S.. The Anti-Defamation League reported 356 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents between June 2022 and August 2023, whilst a 2022 Gallup Ballot indicated that nationwide help for same-sex marriage elevated to 80 %.
The Hampshire Excessive Faculty group has sometimes been notably supportive of LGBTQ+ college students, mentioned Mandy Hanson, guardian of two The Promenade forged members. In September final 12 months, simply 20 days earlier than the district canceled the manufacturing of The Promenade, Hampshire Excessive Faculty college students voted to crown queer couple Ainsley Bryson and her girlfriend Belle Eckert as homecoming queens.
“Faculty is and was the place that I really feel protected being homosexual,” mentioned Bryson, who got here out in her sophomore 12 months. “Earlier than I got here out to anybody in my household, I used to be out in school. I informed my band director, ‘I’m popping out to my dad and mom at the moment.’ If anyone in Hampshire wished to trigger hurt to me or anybody else for being overtly homosexual—this sounds morbid, however they’ve had each alternative to.”
Not all threats to LGBTQ+ People take the type of violent assaults. One of the vital threats to LGBTQ+ youth is suicide. Based on a 2022 survey by The Trevor Venture, surveying 34,000 LGBT+ youth within the U.S., 45 % of LGBTQ youth significantly thought of making an attempt suicide prior to now 12 months. The bsurvey additionally discovered that LGBTQ youth who felt their colleges and communities had been LGBTQ-affirming reported decrease charges of making an attempt suicide.
Bryson mentioned that, till the district’s actions round The Promenade, she has felt supported by her faculty and group.
“I’ve all the time felt accepted and protected in school, and this complete scenario has tried to inform me that my expertise isn’t true,” mentioned Bryson. “I simply see this as, actually, a humiliation for our higher administration, as a result of they’re making an attempt to position this label and instill this concern in a group that they clearly don’t know something about.”
Pupil forged members met with superintendent Susan Harkin once more on Oct. 25 after the present’s cancellation garnered nationwide consideration and help from individuals far past the borders of Hampshire. The subsequent day, the district relented, asserting that it might enable the musical to proceed, contingent upon the event of a safety plan to maintain college students protected from anti-LGBTQ+ harassment.
“Whereas the district and every faculty have efficient security plans in place, I felt this manufacturing required an extra degree of safety,” superintendent Harkin wrote in an Oct. 26 assertion, once more citing “a nationwide rise in bullying, threats, and violence directed towards the LGBTQ+ group.”
With that, The Promenade forged and crew thought the combat was over and their story would have the uplifting ending befitting, nicely, a musical. As an alternative, just a few weeks earlier than the efficiency, they discovered themselves preventing to even simply say the musical’s identify in school.
Safety or Silencing?
Two days earlier than opening night time, the district relented on one factor: College students had been now allowed to put on the shirts they’d bought to advertise the musical. This small concession was too little and too late to chill the ire and frustration of the forged and their households.
“I really feel just like the district didn’t hear the considerations dad and mom and college students gave on the faculty board assembly,” mentioned Hampshire Excessive Faculty Music Dad and mom board president Amy Driscoll in an electronic mail in regards to the district’s restrictions. “They proceed to behave out of concern and ignorance.”
The district insisted that the principles and restrictions had been in place to guard college students from potential anti-LGBTQ+ harassment. Along with the restrictions on promoting, forged members mentioned that nobody outdoors of musical employees and forged members was allowed into the rehearsal room, that three non-musical-affiliated employees members needed to be available to look at all rehearsals, and that on efficiency days, ticket holders needed to current a photograph ID that matched the identify on their ticket.
Dad and mom and college students, who say they weren’t consulted within the growth of the security plan nor given advance discover of the restrictions or the main points of the plan, felt these measures had been primarily discriminatory. Serena Bryson, Ainsley Bryson’s mom, shared her disappointment in a letter despatched on the finish of February after the advertising and ticketing restrictions had been made clear.
“What you’re giving our college students and kids is isolation and silence. You’re telling them they’re ‘lower than’ simply by your actions. I understand you suppose you could be ‘preserving them protected,’ however you may have induced extra hurt than you understand,” wrote Serena Bryson.
“Your ‘safety’ is SILENCING who they’re.”
Dad and mom like Bryson and Hanson had been very vocal when the present was canceled final fall, they usually pushed again in opposition to the district’s restrictions within the weeks earlier than opening night time too: writing letters, posting flyers for the musical on social media, and asking their group for help. However they grew extra hesitant because the efficiency weekend drew nearer, afraid that their actions might need penalties for his or her kids. Each college students and their households had been afraid the district would cancel the efficiency if college students didn’t adhere to the restrictions or in the event that they talked to the media (together with American Theatre) and information tales had been revealed earlier than the play closed.
“There’s no method to actually know,” mentioned Ainsley Bryson in an interview earlier than the present. “However I simply don’t need to danger it, as a result of that looks like a worse consequence to me.”
Within the meantime, Serena Bryson is simply dissatisfied by how all the restrictions impacted what was presupposed to be a joyful expertise for her daughter. “My coronary heart aches for my daughter as she is coming to the top of her highschool profession,” Serena Bryson wrote in her letter. “That is what she is going to keep in mind.”
The district mentioned in an electronic mail assertion that “whereas the district’s precedence is security, we’ve strived to make sure our security plan doesn’t compromise the inventive integrity of the manufacturing.” In addition they famous that “ticket gross sales for The Promenade point out every efficiency might be nicely attended.”
Makes an attempt to contact the highschool’s musical director Chris Cherry, who chosen The Promenade alongside his employees, had been referred to the district’s communications division.
The restrictions and battle surrounding the musical have had impacts past ticket gross sales and “inventive integrity,” mentioned senior forged member Henry Hanson.
“Firstly of this, they informed us that they’d failed us in not letting us do that present,” he mentioned. “I believe they’ve failed us now, in these restrictions that they placed on us. It appears like they’re making an attempt to inform us, ‘You are able to do it, however it’s important to be quiet about it—you’ll be able to’t be pleased with who you’re.’”
Nonetheless, he mentioned he’s come away from this expertise with pleasure.
“I’m upset about all of the restrictions and the preventing I’ve needed to do to have the ability to placed on the present,” he mentioned, “however I’m additionally proud to say that I used to be capable of combat for it. I imply, it’s the very best civics lesson I’ve ever discovered from faculty,” he added with amusing. “I actually acquired to see the facility of individuals coming collectively and preventing for what they consider in.”
That preventing spirit confirmed on opening night time.
“There have been tears on individuals’s faces,” mentioned Mandy Hanson, who labored the “forged gram” desk, the place viewers members may buy items and ship notes of help to forged and crew backstage. The desk, she mentioned, was slammed. “It’s been an extended, difficult street to carry the present to stage, and so to have the ability to do it was thrilling.”
Outdoors the auditorium there have been drones, a video command middle, and not less than six police automobiles, based on Mandy Hanson, in addition to roughly a dozen district employees, together with the DEI director and superintendent Harkin.
“I hope that they got here in and watched the present, and I hope they actually listened to it and listened to the message of it,” Mandy Hanson mentioned. “As a result of that is actually like, we had been residing this. It’s wild how life imitates artwork which imitates life.”
What does the long run maintain for related performances at Hampshire? The district mentioned they “stay open to exploring varied themes,” and mentioned future LGBTQ+ occasions might be be “evaluated individually.”
District superintendent Susan Harkin, who has been the face of the district’s challenges to the musical and the champion of the security plan, is retiring later this 12 months. Moreover, the district’s director of effective arts, Sheila Crotty-Kagan, and Hampshire Excessive Faculty principal Brett Bending, who was a powerful proponent of the musical and who college students mentioned supported their combat to have the musical reinstated, each introduced their resignations in February, based on the district’s Feb. 13 HR Report, although each might be ending out this faculty 12 months.
Regardless of all the things, Ainsley Bryson is longing for the way forward for LGBTQ+ performances at Hampshire.
“I hope that this modifications issues for the higher,” she mentioned. “That our administration realizes that in the event that they try to do one thing like this once more, it’s not going to go over nicely.”
Crystal L. Paul (she/her) is a Chicago-based journalist and editor, specializing in group journalism and reporting on race and tradition and the humanities. @cplhouse; crystal.l.paul@gmail.com.
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