Use of Pride Flags Spark Debate at Community Theatre Production of “Shrek”
by Chris Peterson
A community theatre production of “Shrek the Musical” in Parker, Colorado is catching heat after members of the cast waved Gay Pride flags during the number “Freak Flag.”
According to reports, after opening night, some audience members complained. Those complaints made their way back to the executive producers of the show, PACE. They met with the team with Sasquatch Productions who is producing the show in association with PACE. The producers suggested adjusting the staging. After a discussing among the creative team, the cast voted in favor of performing the number the way they had rehearsed it with the flags.
Video has surfaced of the performers apparently stopping the show before the number to explain what had happened, then performing it. Pride flags and all.
Cast member Lucas Barta later posted a lengthy statement on Facebook explaining the situation and why it mattered. His video also includes a clip of the performance. The flags are used at the 12:30 mark.
Parker Arts, the venue for the show, released a statement on their Facebook page.
“After the opening weekend of Shrek, the Town received a variety of complaints regarding one of the musical numbers. The Town is not involved in the creative aspects or visions of the shows where it acts only as a presenter. As such, the Town does not take a position on either the creative expression or the concerns that were raised.
As a Town-owned performing arts venue funded in part by taxpayer dollars, the Town has a responsibility to remain neutral. The Town did let the producers know about the concerns brought to the attention of the Town but did not demand or require that any part of the show be removed or modified.”
So here’s my take.
“Freak Flag” is not subtle. It is not subtext. It is not a blink-and-you-miss-it metaphor. It is the show looking you directly in the face and saying, this is what we’re about. The characters claim the thing that makes them different and sing about it at full volume.
If I were directing the show, I might have staged the number differently. But none of that negates the point the cast was making. Not even a little.
Because the real issue here isn’t whether the staging was elegant enough. It’s whether queer visibility itself becomes negotiable the moment someone is uncomfortable.
And that’s where I start getting itchy.
How many people complained? One email? A couple of patrons who couldn’t let it go in the lobby? We keep hearing that complaints were made, but never how many, or whether they represented anything beyond a very small, very loud group. “People complained” has become the most powerful anonymous character in theatre, and it never seems to have to show its work.
What really stuck with me is that the cast felt the need to stop the show and explain themselves before performing the number. That doesn’t read as attention-seeking. It reads as artists who realized the ground had shifted under their feet and chose transparency instead of quietly complying.
There is something deeply ironic about performers having to justify themselves right before singing a song about not hiding anymore.
If the concern is that the discussion around inclusion was “taking away from the production,” then maybe the production was doing its job a little too well.
You don’t wave your freak flag because it’s easy. You wave it because shrinking yourself costs something.
So no, I don’t think this is about rogue actors or a show going off the rails. And I don’t think it’s about bad intentions. I think it’s about how quickly we ask artists, especially local artists in their own communities, to soften themselves for the sake of keeping the peace.
And if Shrek the Musical can’t handle a Pride flag during “Freak Flag,” then the problem isn’t the flag. It’s that we still only seem comfortable with acceptance when it stays quiet.