The Fates have smiled on us! I am proud to announce (if you haven't heard it already) that The New Colony, the storefront theater company with big dreams that I joined in Chicago, won the first round of the Chase Community Giving campaign on Facebook! This means, as one of the top 100 not-for-profits in votes, we will be receiving at least $25,000 in grant money! That's a huge boost, and like I mentioned in my previous post, will be able to cover the costs of the rest of our season. Not only that, but it means the corners we had to cut in our budget can be resharpened--design budgets have been raised back to target!

But, of course, it's not over! We have a chance at another prize in the second round, this time for one of six prizes valued from $100,000 to $1,000,000! Yeah, you read that right--one million dollars! By Jan 8th, we have to submit a proposal outlining what we would do with a million dollar grant, our so-called "Big Idea" to benefit the community. We've got a lot of ideas kicking around for what to do, including resource-sharing inventories for Chicago theaters, film projects, building a theater, and outreach. But, we need your input! Are these good ideas? Terrible ones? What would you like to see? How should it be done? Leave comments here, or (while it's still active), comment on the status update at http://www.facebook.com/thenewcolony. We really want your ideas!

In other news...I live in Chicago now! Even though I've been here for around seven weeks, I still get hit at least once a day with the realization that I have made it! If you know me at all from before I came here, there's nothing you're more aware of about me than the fact that I want to be here in Chicago, and that I've been wanting that for almost two years.

I was talking with my friend Andy about this--he pointed out how interesting it is that a very specific story has unfolded with almost everyone he knows that moved to Chicago. First, Everyman hears about some cool things that happen in Chicago. Then, Everyman visits Chicago. And then Everyman falls in love with Chicago. Then, Everyman spends most of his energy from that point figuring out a way to start a life here.

Perhaps it's just a certain creative type that cannot resist the draw. There's a type of artist that dominates the scene here: a high-energy, high-dedication firebrand that has only faint dreams of stardom. This artist's goal is instead collaborative work--art for art, with the contributions of many other creatives. The New Colony is a great example of a collection of creatives who simply care the most for absolute expression and craft. The dedication I've seen here in Chicago, tempered by good dispositions and playful spirits, is absolutely incredible, and is not matched by most artists I've known in the other big cities.

So, I am glad to be here!

Future stuff to come: Chase Community Giving Round 2, my lighting design for 11:11, and possibly moving into a new, awesome apartment.

Oh, and by the way, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Your Adventurer,
Nick

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Labels: Big Ideas, Chase Community Giving, Chicago, collaborative, film, filmmaking, The New Colony, theater, theatre

# posted by Nicholas J. Carroll @ 7:07 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Timothy Canty, the principal of Wilton High School, saw things differently. The play called Voices of Conflict, he said, was originally shut down because he thought it “played to political bias.” In this case, he meant an “anti-war” bias.

Wilton High School has made a name for itself in the past few years by enacting some controversial policies in response to the actions of student organizations. According to a recent article in The New York Times, the high school has created policies such as requiring yearbook quotes to be from well-known sources in response to some coded messages, requiring that all fliers be pre-approved by the administration in response to a Gay Straight Alliance effort to wallpaper a stairwell with fliers, and banning people from wearing bandanas in an effort to minimize the appearance of “gang symbols” in school. In the last case, hundreds of students turned up to school the very next day wearing at least one bandana each. The school repealed the policy under this pressure and, if I remember correctly, Mr. Canty (then Acting Principal) issued an apology to the student body.

The issue of censorship at Wilton High School holds particular emotions in my heart. As a senior, I gave up the chance to be in the annual “Senior Show” musical for the opportunity to direct a play I wrote, titled Treatment, with the school’s drama club, the Little Theater Company. After months of revision to bring the content of the play to an acceptable level for the administration to let it go up, on the very day auditions were scheduled to run, it was canceled due to a parental complaint about two secondary characters’ sexual orientations.

The difference with Voices of Conflict is that the topic itself is controversial. In my play, the bit that caused some reservations was not even the focus of the play. I had not written the play for the sake of lesbians, nor was I encouraging people to be lesbians themselves. But just because of these characters, the administration did not believe that the student body was mature enough to act in or be part of the audience for a production of it.

Mr. Canty’s argument for Voices is similar: to protect the student body. If I were not trying my best to be unbiased (and I may have failed this cause already), I would find his motivation misled and his actions to achieve the opposite. By closing down the production, the administration may be further sheltering the potential audience of the play, closing them off from the awareness of what could potentially be the future for some of them. These students are the next generation of potential eligible soldiers. I personally would want to know everything I could about what life in war is like before I signed up for service.

The basis for Mr. Canty’s censorship is two-fold: the school may not represent a political point of view, and the school must be held responsible for protecting the student body, mind, and spirit. The students who put together the play rewrote the script to fit these needs, creating a version that is more reflective, and though at times rough, it allows every point of view on the war. The latest draft quotes US soldiers, family of soldiers, and Iraqis themselves, as well as opening with a reading from a letter written by Nick Maderas, a Wilton High School alumnus who was killed in action in Iraq this past year. Despite these revisions, however, the administration is unmoved.

The controversy of this play is not localized. In addition to the above NY Times article, reports about these events have appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and on Fox 5 New York, as well as sparking discussion on a number of groups on the popular Facebook networking site, including one administered by the people behind the production. More publicity is likely on the way.

The group has received a number of offers from a variety of professionals to produce the play all over the country on their website, where full versions of the early and later drafts of the play can be read.

Labels: censorship, Iraq war, New York Times, plays, theater, theatre, true story, Voices of Conflict, Wilton High School, young writers

# posted by Nicholas J. Carroll @ 8:17 PM 0 Comments Links to this post