Plainfield High School Central Campus Cancels Production Of Rent

By Amy Cavanaugh in News on Oct 20, 2012 8:15PM

The Plainfield High School Central Campus administrators have nixed students' plan to perform "Rent: School Edition" for the spring musical, calling it "inappropriate, based on some of its content.”

"Rent" is Jonathan Larson's Broadway musical about a group of young artists and musicians living in poverty in New York under the shadow of HIV. Some of the characters are gay and some do drugs. Patch reports that though the musical's "School Edition" tones down physical affection and drug use, administrators felt that it was still inappropriate. District 202 Community Relations Director Tom Hernandez told Patch in an email that,

“The [high school] version is indeed ‘reworked,’ but after reading the entire script some elements were still considered inappropriate. For example: the show gets into drug use, disrespect for the law and sexual promiscuity, among other topics. While some of the profanity is toned down from the ‘official’ version, the rest of the script still caused significant enough concern to make this decision, which was not done lightly.”

Students tried to fight the decision—senior Topher Otake, 17, started a Facebook page, which asked people to email the high school prinicipal in complaint. Students and their families then met with Plainfield School District 202 to ask officials to overturn the administrators' decision. The school board sided with the administrators, and Superintendent John Harper said,

the district does not discriminate against sexual orientation or deny alcohol or drug use. The district is also not trying to hide from the “realities of the community, state and world,” he said.

“We typically shine lights on problems,” he said.

But some of the lyrics, which include lines such as “I’m like a cat in heat,” or “I didn’t notice you without the handcuffs,” were inappropriate for high school students, Harper said.

Many of the themes, including being anti-middle class or anti-authority, were also among the reasons cited to deny the play. He said the play was rejected as a matter of appropriateness, and the building principals know the school best.