The Ugly Hand of Censorship

OK, this just seems wrong on so many levels. You'd expect a college campus to be a place to explore new ideas, be creative, that sort of thing - not the kind of place you'd expect to find the heavy hand of censorship. But here's a story about a show that was shut down by the school's administration - it comes to us from the InsideHigherEd.com website:

"A student production of Assassins, the award-winning musical, was to have premiered Thursday night at Arkansas Tech University, but the administration banned it - and permitted a final dress rehearsal Wednesday night (so the cast could experience the play on which students have worked long hours) only on the condition that wooden stage guns were cut in half prior to the event and not used. Assassins is a musical in which the characters are the historic figures who have tried to kill a U.S. president."

I have to admit that I've never seen this Sondheim musical (it premiered on Broadway in the 1990s), so I can't comment on its merits or failings (though several friends have seen it and loved it), and I'd be the first to admit that I don't like the idea of any attempt to glorify an assassin (if the show even does that). But I'd really love for someone to explain to me how cutting prop guns in half accomplishes anything.

Oh, and at the same time on campus they ran the film American Gangster, which offers lots of realistic shootings with "real" guns. Double standards, anyone?

Of course, the school's administration can cancel any show they want, I suppose - but you'd think they could make these decisions before the cast and crew spends weeks of their time rehearsing, making costumes, building sets, printing tickets, etc.

OK, I'll stop venting now.