The recent post about my experience in a small town lodge brought more traffic to the Burning Taper than we've ever seen. My thanks to all who've stopped by and to all who have linked to the article.An article about a school teacher in a small town in Missouri got my attention today. Fulton High teacher Wendy Devore is also the school's drama coach.
Devore is being run off — threatened with being fired if she doesn't resign — for having her drama students perform such "tawdry" plays as Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Shakespeare's A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, and the musical Grease, made famous by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in 1978. Grease depicts highschoolers in the 1950s.
A handful of Callaway Christian Church members complained about scenes in Grease that showed teens smoking, drinking and kissing.
Bending to the pressure, Superintendent Mark Enderle told DeVore to find a more family-friendly play. She chose A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, which features suicide, rape, and the loss of one's virginity.
Enderle and the school's principal now decline to discuss the matter.
Publicity has spilled over to the mainstream press. A front-page story recently ran in the New York Times, calling Fulton, Missouri, an intolerant small town.
"We have become a laughingstock," teacher Paula Fessler told the Fulton Sun.
Oh, yeah... there's trouble in River City.
Wendy Devore | Callaway Christian Church | Fulton, Missouri
A Mid-Summer Night's Dream | Small Town Intolerance | Grease
The Crucible | Shakespeare
Well, A Mid-Summer Night's Dream is the best the could do? Sheesh.
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