And today...

Happy Ides of March!

Imagine tones. Imagine an 'A' and a 'B.'

Bird 1: A A B

Bird 2: B B C

Bird 1: A A B

Bird 2: B B C

Bird 1: A A B

Bird 2: ...

Bird 1: A A B

Bird 2: ....

Bird 1: A A B

Bird 2: B B C

Yes, they got back together. Isn't that amazing? I love nature. And I love what you can hear on a spring day if you just take the headphones out of your ears.

Ahhhhh.

So yeah. Good weekend. Good Friday, Good Saturday, awful Tornado Sunday... Productive Monday, Busy Tuesday.

The staff likes my writing! Eee!

Even Shakespeare can raise eyebrows, if the casting is done right. Fulton High School’s Saturday production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” proved just that. The ‘popular girl’ kissed a lesbian classmate in drag on stage. Later, two boys, one wearing a size zero dress and red wig, kissed. During that scene, an audience member whispered, “Now that just makes me sick.” Despite the recent conclusions of the New York Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, this is why the Fulton High School Drama department is under scrutiny.

Fulton made front-page news in The New York Times on February 11th, because Superintendent Mark Enderle canceled ‘The Crucible’ due to complaints concerning the fall production of ‘Grease.’ Reasons cited: the play, rated PG-13, marijuana references removed, was too racy. The Times article painted a picture of a close-minded community, which recoiled at suggestions of teen sex.

Let’s be honest. Fulton, a town of 12,000, is small, but it isn’t that small. Teenage sex and drinking were not foreign concepts until Sandra Dee and Johnny took the stage last November. And though “The Crucible,” a play about the Salem Witch trials, can be controversial, it does not promise the promiscuity Grease reveled in. Its cancellation has nothing to do with censorship. Its cancellation was a peace offering. The real issue is that Wendy DeVore, the new director of the theater department is not only providing a very welcoming environment for ‘untraditional students’, but she has also scandalously allowed these students to freely express their sexuality on stage, from portraying lengthy make-out sessions in Grease to cross-gender casting.

Cross-gender casting has not been a problem before, says senior Clayton Miller. “We’ve had men playing girls parts and girls playing men’s parts before, and it hasn’t been a problem until it was homosexuals playing opposite gender roles.”

While the cast of Fulton’s theater department feels that DeVore has simply assigned roles to the best actors, the very fact that these students are on stage in drag is a statement. DeVore is refusing to hide what has always been a part of high school theater. According to university director Suzanne Burgoyne, “Quite often when cross gender casting is used it is to make a political statement.” She herself supports DeVore’s casting. “I believe that all art is political, in some degree or another, in the sense that it either supports prevailing culture and attitudes, or it challenges those attitudes…I admire [DeVore’s] courage. I think she is putting herself in a vulnerable position, and I admire her for it.”

Fulton produces two plays a year, one during each semester. And since DeVore’s debut as director last year, the sets have become more creative, the costumes have wowed the audience, and quality is apparent in every scene. Yet, there is a discomfort hovering.

The community is experiencing firsthand the gap in attitudes between Fulton’s generation of parents and their children. While current high school students are much more accustomed to open homosexuality, and don’t seem to see a controversy, parents are still struggling to either relearn or defend their attitudes. “I think as a small community, as a conservative community, it’s going to take us a while to come around, and from a personal standpoint, I’m not sure we want to,” says Kathy Woodson, mother of a recent Fulton graduate.

What the ‘concerned’ members of Fulton need to see is how important this theater department and DeVore really are. Even with the increasing acceptance of homosexuality, the state of Missouri has a long way to come. As the fifth state to make same-sex unions illegal with a constitutional amendment, and with current denials of homosexual couples’ applications to adopt children, Missouri is not a friendly place for sexual minorities.

Fulton has a rare asset: a place where students can be accepted, and express themselves freely through on-stage roles. Instead of supporting DeVore’s work to make her theater department a loving place, Fulton adults and parents are rejecting these students, by taking offense to cross-gender casting and the occasional sexual on-stage act.

The Midsummer Night’s Dream cast shirt quotes Puck at the end of the play: “If we shadows have offended…” The quote is apt. If Superintendent Enderle cancels any play that will offend, then there is not one that will be left for these students to perform. For what the ‘concerned’ community is offended at is the blatant refusal of these students to dissemble, their audacity to act as they are.

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Comments and criticisms are always appreciated.

Blah. The week is busy. I am pooped. I go to Colorado in... 10 days.

I like Kashi Crunch.

There goes applying to the Christian youth camp in Texas. Fortunately, I am an outdoorsy female, so there are plenty of other possibilities. And that wasn't one until 2 hours ago, and lasted for an hour. But still.

Okay.

Also sent an application to Abbott Pharmaceuticals. They are running a kick-lots-of-booty PAID internship this summer in CHICAGO. I told them I could kick booty for their booty because not only do I currently work in a PR position, I worked less than a year ago at the UM's department of Radiation Oncology, and I am extraordinarily comfortable working in a medical environment. Thanks to the Latin, I can speak medical too.

Jon/John/Jahn is having a roaring party. I can barely walk. Le sigh. Birthday party tomorrow, should probably get over this phobia of drinking, or the phobia of telling people that I am a non-binge drinker. Le sigh. Choices.

Um. It's beautiful outside. An article will be about my fabulous paper in the city's paper tomorrow. More may follow.

I have a spiritual crisis. What else is there to do? I am fantastic. I do everything. I am still unhappy. I am homesick. I feel as if everyone is content with not making a home out of where they live, and I love my home.

Poop.

Party.

Goodnight.

Mah dogs are barkin'.

This feels like the end of another marathon. Except, instead of 26 miles at a fast clip, it has been 200, with a 50 pound backpack over the course of two weeks.

To summarize: The Boyfriend-But-Not-A-Boyfriend showed up. We broke up. We broke up again. We had awkward pauses. He got jealous. I got self conscious. We broke up. We rescued a man late on a Thursday night and made the world a better place. I bought ridiculous shoes for everyone else but him. We broke up. He left early. We 'ended' on good terms, no matter which end you choose.

Follow with me picking up all the work/life/relationships I put on hold during that week. They all converge tonight:

- Column is published tomorrow

- Paper unveils AMAZING International Edition tomorrow

- Send out press releases everywhere with my name on the top as 'Press Liason.'

- Quiz in math tomorrow

- Homework in Accounting, Math, due tomorrow.

- Resume tutoring.

- Hold hours and hours of interviews for summer positions at summer camps for girls.

- Realize that I must decide whether learning how to drive (I am a excruciatingly green closet hippy) and taking Calculus and a science class will outweigh the benefits of helping girls at a camp realize how famously wonderful they are.

- Decision making ensues.

- It is 8:38pm on a Thursday night. I have been out of my dormroom since 6am this morning. The exception is when I stopped back in order to pick up 50lbs worth of books to carry around everywhere.

- It's drunk lesbian night. "Hey, sexy!" As they nearly run me over with a white pick-up at 7pm.

My dogs are barking. My feet are aching. I am in the library, sequesterd in floor 2a west, which I had no idea existed, and I ought to be doing accounting homework, but it was collected last week, and I have been producing brainwaves for 14 hours straight and I just can't anymore.

You know, I take pleasure in being squeeky clean.

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Those fingers in my hair

That sly come hither stare

That strips my conscience bare

It’s witchcraft

And I’ve got no defense for it

The heat is too intense for it

What good would common sense for it do

’cause it’s witchcraft, wicked witchcraft

And although, I know, it’s strictly taboo

When you arouse the need in me

My heart says yes indeed in me

Proceed with what your leading me to....

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Oh please. You know you laughed.

*hums*

I am so silly tonight, lovelies.