Elmira High play loses profane pair.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

ELMIRA - Something will be missing when Elmira High School drama students deliver their lines in Thursday's opening-night production of "All My Sons," by renowned playwright Arthur Miller.

At the behest of Principal Karen McKenzie, the words "hell" and "damn" have been excised from the script.

McKenzie's decision - spurred by complaints over language in the theater department's fall production of a different play - has sparked a debate at the school and in the community over whether students' First Amendment rights and the play's artistic integrity have been trampled in the name of censorship.

"I'm in AP English and one thing I've learned is that with every writer, every single word they put in their book means something," senior Shannon Mulloy said before an afternoon rehearsal Monday. "I think to take it out is diminishing the work."

In "All My Sons," set just after World War II, a son discovers his father's complicity in the wartime deaths of many men. The play has a rawness and intensity that places it among drama coach Sarah Etherton's favorites, and she says students love it, too.

Students were well into rehearsals when Etherton received a letter late last month, a follow-up to an earlier conversation she'd had with McKenzie. Etherton had already agreed to omit the use of "goddamn it," which occurred four times in the play, she said. But McKenzie's letter said the only profanity that could stay was the word "helluva."

"I realize removing profanity will have impact on the delivery of the play, however, other words could be substituted for the profanity in an acceptable manner and keep the play in line with expectations of our student handbook," she wrote.

McKenzie has an unlisted home phone number, and did not reply to messages left on her office phone and e-mail Monday, which was a school holiday.

In the letter she also asked that a warning of potentially offensive material be included in any promotional flyers - something Etherton was happy to do.

No such warning was included on flyers for last fall's play, a comedy called "Unhealthy to be Unpleasant." Elmira High School parent Bonnie Wright and her mother, Sharon Dowling, attended the play in November. Both later wrote letters of complaint.

"What I was upset about is it had cussing all the way through it, and it didn't add to the story," said Wright, who has a son and a daughter at the high school, neither of whom is involved in theater.

Wright saw a contradiction in school policy.

"They don't allow kids to cuss on the school grounds, but they allow them to cuss (in the theater)?" she said. "They're getting a double standard."

Superintendent Ivan Hernandez, who stands by McKenzie's decision, said the school received other complaints, too, though none in writing. The school should be consistent about rules on profanity, he said - whether it's in a classroom or on a stage.

The fact that "damn" and "hell" pop up all the time on daytime and prime time television "doesn't make it right," Hernandez said, "though it dictates how far the media and other elements of the culture have taken those kinds of values."

Thurston High School drama director Mike Fisher said the words "damn" and "hell" are commonplace in high school theater, and even appear in pieces written specifically for high-school-level drama. But "every place is different," he said, and drama teachers and administrators should make sure they've communicated about what's appropriate.

While he wouldn't think to edit those particular words, Fisher said he often tones down language, even though it's strictly a copyright violation.

"The authors and the publishing companies are more than aware that schools are doing it," he said.

Ken Paulson, executive director of the Tennessee-based First Amendment Center, got wind of the flap last week and has pushed to get the word out to media and First Amendment advocates.

He said school administrators too often point to the case Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of a school district to censor stories in a school newspaper. But the court also found that a district must show it is censoring for valid educational reasons - something the Fern Ridge district has not done, he said.

However, he added, "The school's position is probably legally defensible, but it certainly flies in the face of the spirit of Hazelwood."

Etherton, 26, said she would have chosen a different play if she'd heard any objections; in fact, she said, McKenzie declined to review a copy of the play at the beginning of the school year, soon after McKenzie hired her as the part-time coach.

Etherton, a theater student on leave from Western Oregon University, said she regrets some of the furor unleashed by an article published last Wednesday in the West Lane News.

"Some of the kids (around school) are using it as an opportunity to be disrespectful to the principal," she said.

Etherton plans to consult with other high school theater directors and address the Fern Ridge School Board on Monday. "I'll say, let's have a better way of handling this," she said.

CAPTION(S):

Elmira High students Drew Soderberg (left), 18, Shelly Steward, 17, and Gavin Bruce (right), 17, rehearse the play "All My Sons."