by Chris Peterson
Earlier this week, I reported that a girl was cast as Seymour in a high school production of Little Shop of Horrors, and somehow that became a problem requiring intervention from district leadership.
Grand Prairie ISD in Texas canceled South Grand Prairie High School’s production after student Ana Mota was cast as Seymour. The district cited concerns about compliance with Texas Senate Bill 12, which restricts school instruction, guidance, activities, and programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.
There’s some debate over who is ultimately responsible, a debate I frankly didn’t wade into in my original story strongly enough, but I should have. My bad, I will happily make up for this now.
The answer to who is responsible is the MAGA movement.
They have helped make this kind of ignorance politically respectable. In their worldview, anything that slightly “violates” traditional gender norms in any aspect of life becomes grounds for outrage. Even the basic distinction between an actor and a character gets dragged not only into culture wars, but into legislation. As a result, students lose, and that is an overall failure. .
Now of course, MAGA didn’t personally cancel this musical, nor did any elected official directly responsible for the legislation. But, as we have covered extensively, school officials are among the most risk-averse people you will ever meet, and there is zero question that the legislation in question was written to scare off productions like Little Shop of Horrors from doing anything unconventional.
This cancellation shows what happens when broad legislative restrictions meet administrators unwilling to defend the educational value of their own programs.
Meanwhile, I have to ask:
Who was protected by this legislation? A boy who lost out on Seymour? We have to assume he wasn’t the most talented person for the role. Even if he was, there is certainly educational value in casting (I assume) an equally talented female student as Seymour.
Why on earth does there need to be legislation that impacts individual school casting choices? What danger did this district eliminate?
This is why I’m comfortable placing blame on the MAGA movement and its leader, President Trump. MAGA politics inherently encourages people to mistake fear for judgment, and this is what that looks like when it reaches a school theatre program. And make no mistake; the administrators who cannot weather a drizzle, never mind a storm, going along with it deserve as much criticism
But it all starts with the driving force of this type of toxic legislation, the MAGA movement.
Elections matter, folks. We have just as much of a vote as anyone else. We have to vote in every election, local, state, or federal. But we also have to persuade others too about how stupid all of this is.
Be vocal. Make your voice heard. And most importantly, persuade others. Because the ones who are ultimately harmed by this are the students, who have no voice in elections. We have to make their voices be heard at the voting booth.