High School Production
of
Rent

Canceled for Gay Content?

A Southern California high school production of Rent has been shut down over concerns about the show's "adult content."

Corona Del Mar High School students found out last week from their drama teacher that after a meeting with the school's principal, Fal Asrani, and a teachers union representative, the play was canceled due to objections about the gay characters.

Drama teacher Ron Martin told students he had chosen Rent for their spring musical, partly in response to overhearing teens using homophobic slurs around campus.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the school district maintains Asrani merely asked to review the script, a common practice for any principal, and did not ax the production.

But Martin said that in his five years at the school, Asrani had never asked to review a script once, even for plays with adult themes like A Streetcar Named Desire.

Students have been vocal and visible, taking to the Web in an attempt to correct what they believe is an injustice. There has been online criticism of the cancellation from LGBT adults as well as the students.

Monique Danser, a senior active in the school's drama productions, told the Times, "We're not trying to preach to an audience -- we just wanted to do something that was a little different. I think it speaks a lot for the student body in a positive way, saying that we're not people who are going to take this lying down."

Martin and his students will be staging You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, in place of Rent.