The so-called artistic director Burgess Clark at the Boston Children’s Museum apparently not happy with producing plays and productions for children wants to push the envelope. In his recent production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest he decided to add a nude scene to the show. The theater goers watching the cast consisting of children between 15 and 25 years-old were treated to a man of 21 years of age walking around nude.
A column about the show tells how the artistic director wants to push the limits of what is shown to children. I suggested previously that if he is bored with producing productions for children he should get another job in a non-children’s theater where he can treat himself and the audience with as much nudity as he wishes. I believed a theater that called itself the Children’s theater should stick to performances appropriate for children.
According to a recent report five trustees who believed that the Children’s Theater should be an appropriate place for children have resigned as they too apparently thought that theater should let children be children. The theater management oblivious to the idea that it is advertising itself as a place for children and has an artistic director that apparently is bored came out with a statement. It said: “When an organization is expanding as quickly as we are — growing its audience and its following — sometimes not everyone is on the same page with the pace of change.’’
The Children’s theater has been around since the 1950s. The recent expansion is apparently changing the idea of what is appropriate material to present to children. Perhaps a word of advice from the former First Lady Michelle Obama is in order.
You might have known that Michelle was behind the initiative to improve the health of children by providing restrictions on the types of food that they could be sold at school. She was bothered by the increase in obesity and illness among children. The Trump administration isn’t. They have allowed schools wanting to fatten up their students by serving them unhealthy foods to do so.
Michelle said: “Think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap.” She continued: “You have to stop and think: why don’t you want our kids to have good food at school? What is wrong with you?”
Continuing she said: “And why is that a partisan issue? Why would that be political? What is going on? You know, now that’s up to moms. Moms, think about this. I don’t care what state you live in. Take me out of the equation. Like me, don’t like me, but think about why someone is OK with your kids eating crap. Why would you celebrate that? Why would you sit idly and be OK with that?
“Because here’s the secret: if somebody is doing that, they don’t care about your kid, and we need to demand everyone to care deeply about kids. That’s all we have. So we should be driving this and every elected official on this planet should understand: don’t play with our children. Don’t do it.”
This leads me to my point. Why would you want to run a children’s theater and show the kids crap? Crap is material that is inappropriate for children such as nudity. Are there any moms out there that would be comfortable with their pre-teen kids seeing this?
Again to paraphrase Michelle: “we need to demand everyone to care deeply about kids. That’s all we have. So we should be driving this and every elected official on this planet should understand: don’t play with our children. Don’t do it.”
The Boston Globe columnist said the artistic director “has raised questions about censorship and whether there should be limits on freedom of expression in a children’s theater.” Those aren’t the real questions. The real questions is whether we are going to play with out children? Just like they need to be guided in what they eat they also have to be guided in what they see. Are we going to protect them or not?
Where are the Boston mothers? Where is Boston’s media or mayor or councilors on this? Where is our governor or state legislators? Tadzio would call them as he calls me: “card carrying wimpy liberals.” They cannot even act to protect children.
One final point. It is that such an event could happen where the morals of children are to be balanced against the “freedom of expression in a children’s theater” that has embittered many Americans. They see a land where all morality is slipping away. The vulgar rising up to crush the few standards we live by. In their rebellion they turn to people like Trump because the Democratic Party as is shown by the reaction of our public officials here (Yes, Smiley Baker is a Democrat in all but name) no longer has any standards or backbone.
The lack of outcry on this issue by public officials is easy to explain. Just as the most important question to ask about any story is why it was written and published, it is equally important to ask why is an issue not covered. The fake news industry, dominant in the Boston market of ideas, is not asking public officials about adult nudity for children for a reason. The “journalists” know how the officials will react, so a non-event has occurred. The greatest power of the fourth estate is the ability to ignore. Silence.
You might consider emailing a dozen or more public officials a terse, easy to answer, binary question on adult nudity for children while informing them that their reply or non-reply will be published. This blog is part of the new media. You may not be a Westbrook Pegler yet but crossing out the “wimpy” on your liberal card was a great first step.
I do believe that this guy Clark should find a new job, but “innocence of youth”? Nah. Let’s see. Jesus was cursed, whipped and spat upon before he was publicly executed in a shockingly cruel and painful manner. Catholics and other Christians seem to think it’s cool to endlessly drill this story into the heads of the smallest of children. Kids who’ve been toughened up by the story of the crucifixion won’t have any problem handling 25 seconds of nudity, or so it seems to this
fallen-away Catholic. That said, to each his own .
To Matt and other Civil War history buffs:
Trump’s Golf Course, in Sterling Virginia, is 10 miles downriver of the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in Leesburg Virginia. That battle did result in the Potomac becoming “a river of blood”, as many were killed and wounded crossing the river and many drowned trying to swim across it.
Here are two pertinent quotes from Civil War History sites:
1. “After a prolonged firefight, the Confederate pressure broke the Federal line, and the assault pushed the Union troops down the difficult terrain and onto the river bank, killing Baker and 222 others, wounding 226, and eventually capturing 553. The few boats available became quickly overloaded and some capsized due to overcrowding, so evacuation became impossible. Some swam across to nearby Harrison Island, but 161 went missing, many of them drowned in the swollen Potomac. Bodies of Union troops who had drowned floated downstream towards Washington, D.C. for days after the battle.”
2. “Numerous Union soldiers were massacred retreating down the bluff and while trying to swim in battle garb. Others drowned, and for the next few weeks, bodies were fished from the Potomac, some as far downriver as Fort Washington, 50 miles distant.”
You could rightfully call the Potomac a “river of blood” during the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, as many of the 223 Union troops who were killed were shot in the river and many drowned crossing the river fleeing Confederate sharpshooters atop the 80-100 feet high bluffs.
No doubt many bodies floated past Sterling, and this, maybe, was the source of local lore about a river of blood. Bodies from that battle were found not only in Washington D.C. (50 miles downriver) but also in Mount Vernon Va (60 miles downriver.)
About 20 years ago my wife and I were birding in Leesburg, Virginia. We stumbled upon The Battle of Balls Bluff Battlefield. Its more like a battle cliff. I became a Civil War buff back then and still am today. Growing up in the Boston area I had so little education about that war. It was Fort Sumter, Gettysburg and then Appomattox. The huge amount of information that was missing in my education was an embarrassment. Now that I have been immersed in the history of The Civil War (The War Of Northern Aggression), I can say that studying that war is a huge asset in understanding the history of America.
I doubt that Washington is 50 miles down river from Balls Bluff. But like the distance mentioned, the statistics about that battle vary from source to source. They do for many battles in the war. What doesn’t vary and what is important is the blood that was shed. Also what stands out is the unbelievably powerful will and determination of those that fought.
Matt:
The Culture Wars continue. Too bad our society has lost the instinct to protect the “innocence” of youth. Today, innocence is under assault and undermined in movies, T.V., cable, the Internet, the classroom, government-enforced orthodoxies, and now “in Children’s Theaters.”
1. I’ve read that 30-year-old Burgess Clark of Beverly boasts that his is the first Children’s Theater to present a gay-teen in a positive light; his other first: live nudity for a teen audience. Can’t imagine what his next “first” will be!
Conservative families won’t patronize the Children’s Theater. Liberals will push for more R-rated productions. Remember, though, that even R-rated movies may be seen by children under 17 who are accompanied by “a parent or adult guardian.” Some folks go to nudist colonies. Mores vary! We’ve been reminded of Cole Porter’s (1934) refrain: “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now heaven knows, anything goes!” That’s a song! In real life, there should be boundaries!
But look on the bright side: Some folks are defending traditional values! Kudos to the five trustees who resigned! And bravo to the critics who forced the resignation of a liberal middle school teacher who prevented pro-life students from expressing their views outside “his” public school.
2. As far as Michelle’s “healthy” food program—- none of the school kids were eating the bland blase meals. You can’t get healthy by not eating.
Of course, the liberals spin giving more control to local schools as Republicans not caring about the health of children. (See photos of Michelle’s meals on the Internet; many parents and children complained the meals were inedible.)
3. Obesity is a huge problem: A 2012 CDC study showed 80% of Black women were “overweight or obese.”; 46% of black women over 20 have high blood pressure; and their rate of diabetes is 60% greater than whites; obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes are factors increasing the incidence of maternal deaths.
For obesity alone in American women who are over age 20 (from 2011-2012 CDC study):
57% black woman; 49% Mexican-American; 43% Hispanic; and 33% white woman.
“Houston, we have a problem!” Michelle’s fix wasn’t working!