Ms Students Heckle Laramie Project

[Lucky]

Boys will be boys! We know that sometimes people new to the theater do not react appropriately, but at the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, audience members heckled performers during a performance of The Laramie Project, a theater presentation about the death of a young gay man, Mathew Shepard, by bigoted young men.

The bigoted young men at Ole Miss seem to have been largely from the football team, but not entirely. It was not easy identifying exactly who the hecklers were. But they did not show theater etiquette, and one wonders if this is endemic to the region. Yet we (occasionally) have posting here a resident of the state who shows great dignity and comportment, so go figure!

According to a report in today's nytimes.com:

There are conflicting reports about whether a derogatory word for a homosexual man was used, but several people who attended agree that catcalls, giggling, inappropriate coughing and burping began during the first act and escalated in the second act.

The harassment included making fun of the weight of one of the actors and commenting on the body of the stage manager who told the audience after intermission to silence their cellphones.

FoxSports.com seemed to have no problem concluding that the problem was the football players, and called for a strong message to be sent to those who heckled that this cannot be tolerated and the offenders should be suspended: http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/ole-miss-football-players-homophobia-heckling-school-play-laramie-project-matthew-judy-shepard-100313

The student newspaper seems to have as full an account of the incident as anyone: https://thedmonline.com/um-students-football-players-disrupt-play/

[TotallyOz]

I have read this story with disgust. If any group would think the content of that play is something to laugh or joke about, shame on them. And, shame on the administration for not banning them from the school.

[Lucky]

A NY Times photo shows Garrison Gibbons, an openly gay theater major at the University of Mississippi. The Times says that he was one of the biggest targets of the bigots at the performance before the football players.

The line below Mathew Shepard's photo gains more meaning in the context of new bigotry among young men.

[TotallyOz]

I have been to this school 20 times over the years. One of my girlfriends (yes, Oz use to date girls) from high school went to this school and I spent some time there.

There was a reason I chose to move to the East Coast and go to a "liberal" school. Bigots like this are nothing new in the South. I was hoping that many of them would change over time and while I do see some changes in this part of the country when I visit, there is a great deal more work to do to get out these hateful people from society!

[RA1]

I think this is mostly bravado. Unfortunately, many from the South have not learned the full expression of tolerance but there is still hope. Some of those demonstrating are themselves gay or otherwise willing to believe in the acceptance of same BUT until and unless their friends and fellow travelers get to this point, there will be strife among us.

I urge all to keep trying and being willing to think that better things are yet to come.

Best regards,

RA1

[MsGuy]

Football players, sigh...

The NCAA gets all huffy nowadays when you stuff their schedule with courses like remedial basket weaving so you put them into a gimme like Theater Appreciation 101 and, my God, they fuck that up too!

Well, I guess if you plunk a bunch of 18 year old small town jocks in with the Theater department , you gotta expect a little drama.

[Guest EXPAT]

When I was a senior in high school back in Indiana, I was ranked 1st in my class and I was in all the clubs and while I wasn't out (frankly at that time I didn't know what gay was even though I knew I liked guys), I was called all of the typical slur words you can imagine in high school (fag, gay, etc.). But I rose above it all because I only viewed high school as a stepping stone and I knew 99% of those people would never leave that small town.

Anyway, I was student director of the drama production. And the fall production was a play/comedy and I had the lead as the main character. For the first time in our school's history the two night performance that we had was sold out. So the principal of the school asked me if we would perform it for the school. I agreed but it petrified me to do this in front of the school, especially since I had to walk out on stage by myself at the beginning to do a 3 or 4 minute opening by myself on set. So when I did it and walked out, I heard from the back of the auditorium yells of "faggot, girl, sissy etc" and I kept going. I decided that I was going to give the best performance I could give and by the end of the play, our cast got a standing ovation. I felt vindicated if only a little bit. For me that was the real victory over those idiots.

The principal put some of those boys in detention and told me later that he was proud of the way we dealt with it.

Interesting lesson learned by me at 17 years old.

[Lucky]

Very interesting story, EXPAT. And first in your class, too!

[Lucky]

Football players, sigh...

The NCAA gets all huffy nowadays when you stuff their schedule with courses like remedial basket weaving so you put them into a gimme like Theater Appreciation 101 and, my God, they fuck that up too!

Well, I guess if you plunk a bunch of 18 year old small town jocks in with the Theater department , you gotta expect a little drama.

Once went to a Broadway show- Joe Egg, or something like that, and they filled the balcony with high school kids who had obviously not been to a play. When the character on stage would ask a question, they would shout out an answer. It went downhill from there. But somehow we have to introduce the young to the theater. Perhaps the musical version of The Return of Ms Guy? Singing, dancing, what more could you want?

[MsGuy]

Perhaps the musical version of The Return of Ms Guy? Singing, dancing, what more could you want?

I envision it with a high stepping chorus line of Bel Ami models. Kinda like the Radio City Rocketts but naked.

ps I would have included an appropriate illustration at this point but I recently switched to Foxfire and find that I no longer know how to post pictures. Sigh...

[lookin]

ps I would have included an appropriate illustration at this point but I recently switched to Foxfire and find that I no longer know how to post pictures. Sigh...

Good gosh! I've been reluctant to post since AdamSmith said number 1917 is inauspicious, but this is important enough to take a chance on something awful happening.

To post an image, the first thing you do is find the image you want and copy its URL. Then you click on that little TV-like icon in the lower-middle of the posting tool bar. Paste the image URL in the window that pops up and click OK. You've posted a picture.

Now I just hope AdamSmith was wrong about 1917 being a bad number to use on a post.

[AdamSmith]

I observed it was an inauspicious year.

Insufficiently plausible deniability?

In any event, you can now move on to 1918.

If you think that one was any better.

[Lucky]

If we only knew that the camera was going to provide every guy a chance to pose naked in 2013...

But, 1918 was also a good year for chocolate malts.