Font Resize
The board of the Arts Council of Windham County is unanimous in condemning the shutting down of Zeke Hecker's play, "The Lift." We are appalled by what appears to be an act of intimidation that has robbed the public of the opportunity to see a production that took many months to bring to the stage, and who knows how many months, even years, to write. The situation reeks of censorship, and this in a town that takes pride in its creative spirit. It seems to us entirely inappropriate that one person's sensibilities should dictate what may or may not be seen. If this is not the case, we hope that the details of the matter will be brought to light.
If the issue is, as is our understanding, that a member of the audience felt the age of the individual playing the part of the "younger man" was too young, we feel strongly that artistic integrity is paramount, and that the casting seems to us entirely justified in the context of the play.
It is very possible that this incident could have a chilling effect on the arts in town. As an organization that exists to support local arts and artists, we are deeply disappointed and decry the kind of pressure that apparently caused the closing of this show.
Kate Anderson,
Arlene Distler,
Eva Grubinger,
Marie Procter,
Adam Silver,
Ede Thomas
and Greg Worden,
ACWC Board, May 14
Fans missed out on production
Editor of the Reformer:
I am delighted to see that the Reformer is keeping the news of the cancellation of "The Lift" in front of its readers.
I would love to fathom the thinking of the man or woman who was so shocked at the fact that an 18-year-old actor would be exposed to a sexual situation on stage that he influenced the closing of the play after one weekend. This meant that my wife and I (and a number of other people we know) did not get to see the musical despite the rave reviews from several other of your readers. Does he or she really believe that an 18-year-old today is not aware of sex and its implications or that he would be damaged by playing such a role?
Let's hear from you, sir or madam, since I believe many would be enlightened by your logic.
Tom Lee,
Guilford, May 14
Cancellation a disappointment
Editor of the Reformer:
I am one of those who was very disappointed to get the call from the Vermont Theater Company telling me that the show had been canceled. The caller did not state the reason. So it was unnerving to learn from The Reformer that the cause was a complaint from one person in the audience. The last thing we need in these pervasive secretive times is yet one more mysterious anonymous whisperer of potential danger with a threat attached. I say let the complainant come forward, identify him or her self and make his or her case. If he/she is unwilling to do so, then let the show go on.
Mareka Ohlson,
Newfane, May 12
The community has not been served
Editor of the Reformer:
It is reported that during the bombing of London in WWII, Winston Churchill was asked if the theaters should be closed to blackout the lights. He ostensibly replied in the negative: "What do you think we are fighting for, man."
Throughout history, theater has been a forum for moral debate and societal change. We do not always agree with what we see onstage. Sometimes we are outraged. Indeed, many theater artists will argue that it is the purpose of theater to disturb, to challenge, to dare audiences to question themselves. Most of the theater that we, today, consider great actually infuriated audiences in its own time. When Ibsen, the father of realistic theater, presented his work to Swedish society in the 1880s, the audience was shocked. Ibsen opened Sweden's psychological closets and the audience did not want to see what was inside.
I have not seen Zeke Hecker's "The Lift." I was planning to go. I cannot say what I would have thought, either artistically or morally. Now, however, I will not have the opportunity to make up my own mind. Perhaps I would have seen an offbeat period comedy (Thomas Mann's original "Felix Krull," on which "The Lift" is based, is a dry satirical piece). Perhaps I would have seen a daring comment on intergenerational love. I don't know what I would have seen. The point is that I won't get to see for myself.
It does not serve any society or community to have a self-appointed censor. Each member of a theater audience brings his or her own sense of perception and moral standard to the experience of watching theater. This is part of what makes the theater experience vibrant. And the forum that theater creates helps to keep a community in dialogue with itself. Theater brings this dialogue into the open.
The person whose threats resulted in closing "The Lift" has not served this community, contrary to what he or she believes.
Eric Bass,
Putney, May 11
'The Lift' vs. 'South Pacific'
Editor of the Reformer:
In Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play "South Pacific," Bloody Mary offers Lieutenant Cable the sexual favors of her teenage daughter, Liat. When Brattleboro Union High School last staged the work, the student playing Lieutenant Cable removed his shirt, knelt beside the student playing Liat, and started to embrace her, at which point the stage faded to black.
A controversial scene in Vermont Theatre Company's recent production of my musical play "The Lift" presented a comparable relationship, though with the ages reversed, and was similarly staged by the same director.
One notable difference was that in "South Pacific" both actors were minors under the age of 18.
Zeke Hecker,
Guilford, May 9
A slippery slope
Editor of the Reformer:
I've not had the opportunity of seeing Zeke Hecker's play "The Lift," prepared for the stage by Bob Kramsky, because performances were cancelled abruptly after someone in the audience complained of "inappropriate" material; namely, a segment involving aural suggestions of sex between an 18-year-old and an older woman. I sympathize with Bob Kramsky's decision -- no doubt a difficult one -- to cancel future performances, but can't help wishing that this had not been the case.
I know both Bob and Zeke to be men (and colleagues) of impeccable taste and character, and have no doubt whatsoever that, whatever the nature of the complaint by this single individual, it was not based on sound value and reasoning. Yet I can't help feeling that, perhaps, this is also symptomatic of a larger condition in our current state of affairs -- a condition which leads towards more and more repression and censorship.
Although less obvious than overt regimentation, moral rectitude and righteousness can also indicate a totalitarian bent of mind. Even so, and assuming that the segment in question is inappropriate (an assumption I'm not willing to make), the question remains why, in a work of art, such inappropriateness cannot be tolerated. To reveal the inappropriate, the unconventional; indeed what some might call the ugly and discarded, can arguably be posited as one of art's incidental or main functions.
That art needs to disturb and challenge should be seen rather as a good thing, especially in a society which is more and more dominated by political correctness and narrow convention. We're all too familiar with the alternative -- a society where many aspects of human thought and behavior are rigidly controlled by dull consensus or orchestrated by the state. Just because our present administration is trying hard to move us in this direction (with some success, no doubt), doesn't mean we here in Vermont have to acquiesce.
Michel Moyse,
Brattleboro, May 12
_300.jpg)
