Students at Mississinewa High School in Gas City, Indiana, were set to take the stage this week for opening night of “Between the Lines,” the musical based on a Jodi Picoult book about living “the story you want, even if it’s not the story you’re in.”
But the show was canceled just two weeks before the teenagers were set to perform for their families and friends in what Picoult criticized as an act of censorship.
She said she learned about the cancellation while she was in London for an adapted production of “The Book Thief,” a novel about censorship in Nazi Germany.
“It all felt on the nose,” Picoult told NBC News.
‘We’ve already lost freedom of expression’
An email sent Oct. 16 to parents by Jeremy Fewell, superintendent of the Mississinewa Community School Corporation, said the show “contains language and content that are not appropriate for a public school–sponsored performance and do not align with the expectations of our community.”
He also told the local Facebook news group Channel 27 News that he met with students who were “understandably upset” after having hear of the cancellation.
“Even with the licensed edits, there were still sexual innuendos and alcohol references that I couldn’t, in good conscience, allow in a public school performance,” Fewell said.
Picoult, one of America’s most banned authors, emphasized that there is “nothing objectionable” about the musical and that Mississinewa High School had licensed an amended version that “plays a little easier in a conservative area.”
The play centers on a lonely high schooler named Delilah who seeks comfort in her favorite book, but the lines between fantasy and reality blur when the characters start speaking to her. According to the play’s website, Delilah has to confront whether she “has the power to rewrite her own story.”
In a Facebook post this month, Picoult alleged that the complaint about the play came from a single parent who objected to the original text’s having a nonbinary character. The amended production did not refer to the character’s gender identity, Picoult said.
“But when one parent makes a decision that affects every other parent’s child, that is censorship, and one person should not be allowed to determine what is or is not appropriate,” she said.
The email announcing the cancellation and Fewell’s interview with Channel 27 did not mention the nonbinary character or say a parent complained, as Picoult has alleged. Fewell did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“The problem is that when people start censoring the arts, you are suggesting that only certain kinds of stories and certain kinds of people’s stories are worth telling, and that is problematic, because that means we’ve already lost freedom of expression,” Picoult said.
‘Where does it stop?’
Kim Spicer Sandoval had already bought tickets for her family to see her teenage son, Luke, perform in the show. His older brother was planning