The Taliban Lives in America

___________TEXAS STAR THEATER CLOSED_______________

Late Wednesday I received an email (copied below) from Stephen Bishop Seely, who is the Associate Artistic Director of TST. I called him that very day and we had an almost two hour phone conversation about the nightmare that he and Artistic Director Thomas Morrissey were going through.

At the very moment we were on the phone Thomas was having a meeting with the Granbury City Hall/Council about the theater, the problems, etc. surrounding it.

GREASE and GYPSY both received glowing reviews, and GREASE broke all box office records (at that time). It was such a big hit that is why Stephen and Thomas were able to transfer it over to the Courtyard Theatre in Plano (not associated with PRT as the City of Plano owns it).

My email address was attached to the mass email that Stephen sent to the Granbury board, City Council, media, and "powers to be" as well as concerned theater supporters.

So when I came back from Canada there were so many emails regarding this it took forever to read them all. Many were supportive of TST, Stephen, and Thomas.

But there were also several evil, vicious, mean, and cruel emails/ letters attacking the theater for its productions of filth, vulgarity, sexual innuendo, and promoting the gay agenda.

Um.......GYPSY? GREASE? I don't remember Gypsy Rose Lee making out with the "Gotta Have A Gimmick" ladies. Was Danny Zuko having an affair with the T-birds? And if I'm correct, every friggin high school in America has done a production of GREASE. So I'm lost here.

TST was advertising in the DALLAS VOICE, so to show that they welcomed ALL types of people, they put a small rainbow sticker on the door.

A patron during an actual performance of GYPSY complained to the box office about this and threatened to tear the sticker down. They told him he could not do that. Several days later it was gone. Someone tore it off. So they put up another.

This resulted in the Hood County paper putting a picture of the sticker and article about it on the FRONT page of their paper, right next to the horrors of Hurricane Katrina articles and the death of a local motorcyclist.

From this came a small, minority group of people emailing, calling, and demanding the theater change its policy, productions, etc. Oh, and a majority of these complaining were season subscribers (according to Stephen).

I have posted the "official" statement from TST and the email from Stephen and let you decide on your OWN terms who is right or wrong.

I have my own personal feelings, opinions, and views of all this. But I want you to decide on your own.

Here is the email that was sent LAST Wednesday by Stephen, the Associate Artistic Director of TST:

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Theatre People,

The new TST is about to shut its doors. Not due to money or finances, but due to a small, vocal "red state", conservative, ignorant, religious right group that is very determined and very organized. These "censorship terrorists" have exhaustively mailed, emailed, phoned, met, conspired, complained, contacted, harassed, and have begun to break through the VIPs of Granbury that support this theatre. This support team taking the heat includes all the members of our Board of Directors, reporters, writers, newspaper publishers, government officials, school board members, merchant owners, and general audience members.

Their biggest complaint, among many, is that the new TST is promoting pornography, sex, bad language, vulgarities, obscenity, and encouraging the demoralization of an old historic town. It all started with the use of 'g*dd*mmit'. It was used on this stage for the first time in 30 years and has made Texas Star Theatre a target of their close minded, racist, homophobic, right wing attitudes. These people won't stop until the theatre is closed down and they have booted us out of town.

Thomas Morrissey, an incredible new staff, and I have turned this dying theatre around and have brought a new and broader audience (that has broken box office records) to Granbury and has revived our theatre. Since we have taken over in June, we have had more people attend our shows than any other show in the last three years. We have quadrupled our season subscribers. We have made significant progress. We have just started turning a once "melodrama driven community theatre" into a world class regional theatre and for the first time; people under the age of 55 are packing into our seats.

We opened our season with Gypsy (which have 4 'g*dd*mmits' in the script). We followed with Grease (which was the highest attended show in the last 3 years). Stars Over Texas, a musical revue of new music, was next and currently, we are in the middle of a four week run of The Boys Next Door.

The Board of Directors and local supportive businesses have been bombarded with phone calls and emails demanding everyone in Granbury boycott the Texas Star Theatre. The ironic thing is that 80% of our audience is from out of town and we will not be significantly affected by a boycott. The Board of Directors is very concerned with our next show, the very popular I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. The cast is here and we are in the middle of rehearsals. Although this show ran for 3 years in Dallas, a mere 50 miles from Granbury, the 'Christian Citizens' of Granbury demand that we shut our theatre doors before the show opens on October 6th. This would cause many people, a staff of 15+, actors, designers, directors, etc., to lose their jobs and shrink the job market.

I ask you from one passionate theatre artist to another to please email the list below (together or individually) and let them know you support our cause. Express to them that the audience for theatre is diverse and larger than the local Baptist church. Please let each one of them know what theatre does on a larger scale, locally and nationally. We need your support. Just one email to let the locals know that you support the efforts of Texas Star Theatre and its commitment to bringing plays and musicals as written to an audience that craves theatre. That in no way our season should be misconstrued as pornographic or that a performance of Grease or I Love You, You're Perfect . . .should ever be confused as an evening of "sex on stage".

We here at Texas Star Theatre have worked too hard to have a thriving theatre in an upswing taken away from us because of a small minority that likes to bully community officials.

Texas Star Theatre will not be censored. We will not become another target. I Love You, You're Perfect. . . will not be silenced or sanitized. Locally, we will continue to fight for First Amendment Rights including freedom of expression and will not fall victim to bible beating, homophobic, racist, & sexist hypocrites. If we allow this to happen with the mildest of shows, how are we ever going to be able to produce great theatrical work in the future?

Thank you for your time.

Peace,
Stephen Bishop Seely
Associate Artistic Director
Texas Star Theatre