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OPINION

'Angels in America’ at UNCG vulgar and vile

Thursday, October 29, 2009
(Updated 3:00 am)

I attended “Angels In America” at UNCG with my daughter. She is a student at UNCG and her attendance was required for a class in order to graduate. I went on my own accord.

We were assaulted with vulgar language and actions. The performance was vile and profane.

The playwright, the actors and the university exercised their freedoms of speech and expression. My daughter was denied her right to choose not to be assaulted by what to us is the most offensive of words and actions.

As Christians, we do not use the Lord’s name in vain and do not choose to hear it. Shortly after intermission, we walked out.

By definition, an academic community embraces all backgrounds, creeds, cultures, preferences, religions, etc. UNCG should be ashamed of its total lack of respect and disregard for some of its students.

Martha Hicks
Greensboro

Comments

This letter has been closed to new comments. Comments are accepted on select letters to the editor between the hours of 7 AM and 5 PM, EDT, Monday through Friday.

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rahrah

October 29, 2009 - 3:56 am EDT

You walked out...good for you. How old is your daughter and where is her letter, since she was the one 'denied the right to choose'?

J Peterman Reality Tour

October 29, 2009 - 8:18 am EDT

Didn't we just do this . . . over at A&T home comming?

rightwingnemesis

October 29, 2009 - 9:55 am EDT

Obviously the message of the play was totally lost on Ms. Hicks. The play is a prize winning production with themes most ultra conservative "Christians" would never choose to see anyway. I've seen a production of this, and while I enjoyed seeing it, it is not one I would rush to see again. With that said, I am amazed at the Puritanical comments made by people who have never seen this. I'm no fan of Mel Gibson, but I went to see "The Passion of the Christ" so that I could actually be astute enough to discuss it.
Seems to me that those with closed minds will remain that way. Like the overly used saying goes, "A Mind is like a parachute--it only works when open".

danagain

October 29, 2009 - 12:23 pm EDT

"Obviously the message of the play was totally lost on Ms. Hicks." = Ms. Hicks is an idiot.

"The play is a prize winning production with themes most ultra conservative "Christians" would never choose to see anyway." = "Christians" in quotes = so called Christians.

***********************************************************

Attendance to a play required to graduate? If she left at intermission does she still graduate?

Slaan

October 29, 2009 - 12:36 pm EDT

Its most likely a liberal arts class, likely a literature, that you had to take. My school requires a literature and a writing class, for instance. The Professor probably made students watch at least one play, from anywhere. Sounds like this student waited to the last school sponsored play she could get credit for to watch... instead of going to the Shakespeare Festival, another play, w/e.

brian444

October 29, 2009 - 1:16 pm EDT

Your daughter received a syllabus on the first day of class indicating the course requirements. If she found them objectionable, then she should have dropped the course. There's no difference here between the requirement to see a Pulitzer-Prize winning play and the requirement to read Huck Finn (which has the n-word) or any of thousands of novels that use the Lord's name in vain. If your goal is to protect your daughter from all forms of vulgarity as you perceive it, I would suggest that a nunnery is a more appropriate place for her than a college campus. Neither are obligatory.

Course requirements are precisely that. Most people wouldn't investigate differential equations if their calculus class didn't require it. Most people wouldn't study benzene rings if it weren't on the biology syllabus. Big deal.

danagain

October 29, 2009 - 2:47 pm EDT

Makes sense but I wonder if she can pass the course w/o having seen the entire thing. Frankly I'd be embarrassed if my mom wrote this ltte.

Lakeshia

October 29, 2009 - 3:58 am EDT

So very many of those in campus audiences are there under duress - as a student @ Guilford College & UNCG I, and my classmates, were "strongly encouraged" to attend campus performances - I'm guessing if students were not "required" to attend campus performances college auditoriums would make use of curtains much like those often used to make the Greensboro Coliseum look not so empty -

mamaboilermaker

October 29, 2009 - 7:10 am EDT

If a performance is excellent, people won't have to be coerced to attend. Was this a course in "culture?" Perhaps the professor could have found an example of excellence rather than decadence? More important, did the profane performance have any educational value to offset the profanity? I am willing to pick out a few bones (bad language or violence, e.g.) if the bulk of a book, play or movie has a profound message or important information to offer me. If profanity is used as a substitute for creativity, however, I don't bother to listen.

Evergreen

October 29, 2009 - 8:10 am EDT

Bravo Martha! You did the right thing! Evidently the folks at UNCG think that the more vulgar their "art" is, the more meaningful it is. There is so much good entertainment available these days, yet they chose to ignore it, as your daughter's teacher chose to ignore her rights and those of her classmates. You sent them a message, but I doubt they're listening.

GHSWhirlie1974

October 29, 2009 - 9:14 am EDT

the theatre dep't at uncg has presented in the past other work that has also been called vulgar and vile or if not, could have been called...college campuses as we know are liberal as are the large majority of professors/teachers and apparently this theatre dep't has chosen to kick it up a notch to radical and left....it would seem that the theatre dep't director jim wren and other decision-makers have decided to prepare their students for careers in hollywood and broadway where it is normal to be radical and left and well, dark and out of touch....

sheerah103

October 29, 2009 - 10:08 pm EDT

What a shame that "Jim Wren and other decision-makers have decided to prepare their students for careers in Hollywood and Broadway."
Really, why would a university theatre program prep its students for profitable careers? The audacity! The nerve!
Surely it is in the best interest of their students to perform more wholesome fare like "Crimes of the Heart" or perhaps "The Fantastiks". That way once they graduate and move on to a real job they will be fully prepared to muffle their discontent in the stock roles of community theatre.

Don't misread me, "Angels in America" had a number of flaws, but the script wasn't one of them. It may well be argued that the theatre department has some flaws too, but preparing their students for a career in the arts isn't one of them.

Slaan

October 29, 2009 - 10:57 am EDT

Oh, noes! A play had bad words and an opinion other than mine! Whatsoever shall I do??

J.M.W.

October 29, 2009 - 11:15 am EDT

I had rather my child be exposed to life as it is rather than to nuture in them the opinion that they should be sheltered from reality. If the dead soldiers in Iraq were piled in the streets of D.C., the war would've been called off years ago. But no, they're zipped in opaque sacks and then saluted by dry cleaned uniforms on their way to eternity. And this keeps the machine running.

Martha Hicks should sit in a foxhole for a day, "Angels in America" would seem just that.

truth

October 29, 2009 - 3:50 pm EDT

You hit the nail on the head. Great post.

rightwingnemesis

October 29, 2009 - 9:08 pm EDT

Mr. or Ms. J.M.W.,
You are a very enlightened person and I appreciate your insight. To brag about ignorance rather than making it a teaching moment, this letter writer shows the shallowness of understanding and the fear of having ones sensibilities marred forever by a night at the theater. If one feels material is inappropriate, they have very clear "teachable moment" and should utilize it on the drive home. Stomping out and then criticizing the play is tantamount to condemning an author whose work you've never read. The last quarter of Angels in America is probably its most poignant part, but this letter writer will never know. If I had paid a dime to see it, I would have sat through it so I could at least be concise in my criticism.

Rollo

October 29, 2009 - 1:06 pm EDT

I can only imagine, if it were the other way around (a religious professor making students attend a type of service, church,temple, mosque or otherwise) there'd be leftists up-in-arms about violated 1st amendment rights.

I don't agree with the professor that required the play for graduation, and I certainly don't agree with my own example above. Judging from most of these comments, it's very telling that the left doesn't give a damn about anyone else's point-of-view if it differs from their own.

Slaan

October 29, 2009 - 1:18 pm EDT

Ah, you see, religious services being required for a public school's graduation requirements is unconstitutional.

This is a play that can be studied by a (probably) literature class with benefit to everyone who watches. Capiche?

Rollo

October 29, 2009 - 10:06 pm EDT

Slaan, thanks for proving my case about LIEberals. Have a review the first amendment. You'll find they're both unconstitutional.

Slaan

October 30, 2009 - 2:39 am EDT

Oh? Where does it say that art is unconstitutional?

firerescuechick

October 29, 2009 - 3:04 pm EDT

I am currently taking a world religions class and we are required to attend a religious service that is not of our own faith and write a 5-7 page paper comparing the service that we attended to the "textbook" version of that religion. It is required for this class and is 40% of our grade. We knew about it from day one yet no one seems to have a problem with it. Part of the college experience is being exposed to different people, religions, cultures, and ideals. I don't think that the play itself was required for graduation. I believe it was required for this class and if she wants to graduate, then she needs this class. Depending on how much of her grade is dependent upon whether or not she attended this class will determine if she passes or not. Another question is was it really required or was it simply an extra credit opportunity that the student needed?

pragmatist

October 29, 2009 - 2:58 pm EDT

I admire you for sheltering yourself and your daughter from profane language. Clearly, she is on a campus and in a world where that does not happen, so why should it take place in the arts? To avoid any other exposure to blasphemy, please avoid sporting events, WalMart, Michelangelo's David and getting your thumb caught in the car door.

danagain

October 29, 2009 - 3:52 pm EDT

You can avoid this by not going to Walmart:

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Slamming a thumb in the car door, ouch. Last week my 7 year old daughter grabbed the handle of the open van tailgate and descended the tail gate right onto my head. Before I even realized it, I yelled out G D it and she looked at me in fear. First time I've ever said that in front of my kids, ooopppss.

mamaboilermaker

October 29, 2009 - 6:49 pm EDT

One of my kids years ago closed an automatic sliding minivan door on me--I got out before I was trapped, but had a nasty bruise for a while.

truth

October 29, 2009 - 3:54 pm EDT

I've heard from several people who have walked out of UNCG plays in the past based on what they perceived as obscene.

A lot of times, people really don't know what a play is about. It might be helpful to carry a warning, much like the movie rating system that states something like: Contains adult language, nudity, drug references, etc.

Thespie7

October 29, 2009 - 4:52 pm EDT

All productions at UNCG that may be ojectionable to some patrons have warnings and notices posted in the Box Office and the Theatre lobby for all patrons to see. The posting outside of ANGELS IN AMERICA clearly read:

NOTICE: This production contains STRONG LANGUAGE and SEXUAL SITUATIONS. It is not appropriate for those under age 17.

Now...if Mrs. Hicks found that this notice did not speak to her Christian beliefs and sensibilities...I'm not sure what to say to her. Clearly she was OK with entering the theatre and witnessing STRONG LANGUAGE and SEXUAL SITUATIONS even with the warning. What then did she find vulgar and vile? If it wasn't the STRONG LANGUAGE and SEXUAL SITUATIONS that she was clearly warned about...then it must be the viewpoints of the author which do not agree with her Christian beliefs and sensibilities.

Also, any assignment such as this, comes with alternative choices. I am fairly certain that attendance at this production was a choice made by this student...either that or the student waited to complete the assignment until no other choice was available.

I personally found this production beautiful, thought-provoking and very well done.

Yvonne

October 29, 2009 - 4:59 pm EDT

I cannot speak with any knowledge about UNCG's production as I did not see it. However, the movie of the same name was, indeed, thought-provoking and well done.

Evergreen

October 29, 2009 - 5:16 pm EDT

I should have walked out of the UNCG music department's presentation of "Picnic, The Musical" last April. It was awful.

2fer

October 29, 2009 - 5:24 pm EDT

Music, lyrics, and book - a triad of protracted awful. But suffering such is necessary to keep artists employed and off the streets, where they tend toward all manner of trouble and crime.

2fer

October 29, 2009 - 5:21 pm EDT

It's hard to justify the "out" that the student waited too long to fulfill a requirement. Angels in America was the first production of the season, not the last. What is amazing is that a student and a responsible adult went to a performance and didn't know anything about the work or playwright. Angels in America has won several awards - all publicized, it was presented on Broadway - with publicity, it is in print at the G'boro Public Library and one presumes in the UNCG Library, and it was an HBO presentation, the DVD of which is available at the GPL and also likely the UNCG Library or theater department. There are probably Cliff notes for it and certainly numerous web reviews and discussions. Tony Kushner is one of the most frequently produced living American playwrights.
Does being a good Christian always have to equate with being uninformed and otherwise blissfully or willfully ignorant? Does this poor, unfortunate student also walk out of biology classes when evolution is taught, or chemistry when it becomes obvious that wine can't be made from water, or physics when thermodynamics is taught? Has she ever read and understood an uncensored Hamlet or King Lear by Shakespeare?
This is just another example of Idiot America, an emotional shout to drown out reasonable consideration of a controversial issue. The production was, BTW, excellent, and for those students who claim resentment at being "forced" to become educated, everyone should note that the theater was never full for any performance - not nearly enough students involuntarily went to seriously boost attendance. Many students apparently willingly helped boost attendance in a smaller venue for Living Dead, The Musical, which has much worse language, banal music, and few if any redeeming concepts to discuss beyond cast quality (excellent) and production values (mixed).
Without understanding why what Tony Kushner creates is quality theater, one can only with difficulty distinguish it from trash or "only" entertainment. I'm sorry the student was deprived of this learning opportunity by her mother.

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