shonno
There were words such as:
pissed, minger, queer, fishbait, like a bit of rough, had blokes like you for breakfast, stuff you sunshine - just a bit of what was there.
Scenes involved:
- Aggressive, homophobic bullying that leads to violence.
- Drug taking. One 9 year old girl had to make reference to LSD. It's still there but the line has changed.
- Punching
I arrived at school this morning to find a brand new script in the staff room. Lee Hall AGREED to do what we asked - remove the word 'queer' and replace it with 'gay'. This has been our argument from the start but he claims we wanted the entire character removed which is completely false. He claims on his FB page that he has won?!? How that can be I do not know because he has backed down and agreed to our terms. He still claims that we backed down by agreeing to keep the gay character. We NEVER EVER said we wanted the gay character removed and we have written evidence to support that. We also found out that this whole episode coincided with Hull's Gay Pride Movement.
Lee Hall writes gritty, controversial and sensational drama and as a writer, nobody doubts his talent. However, he was asked to pen this libretto KNOWING that 3/4 of the cast were primary aged children and he didn't understand that gritty, controversial and sensational drama has no place in which is fundamentally an opera written for children. It is the general opinion in Bridlington that he has done this for publicity purposes but sadly the whole episode has overshadowed two years worth of hard work we have done with Opera North.
During the past two years, we have worked with Opera North on a variety of projects, knowing that it would end with a big show piece. Sadly, WE didn't receive the script until the end of May and our head teacher has been in talks with him from the beginning of this time to change a lot of the wording. During this time, rehearsals (which began at the beginning of May for this production) still went ahead as nobody envisaged what would happen. I believe (I could be wrong) that he refused to change anything at first and then backed down but last week refused point blank to remove the word 'queer'. We said we didn't allow it in any part of school life and that included the opera. He then went to the press (his friend at the guardian) and when we were informed, we THEN decided to pull out as we couldn't support something that had been thrust into the public domain so viciously.
Despite his 'come down' and the opera now going ahead, many parents feel humiliated and offended by his actions and have pulled their children from rehearsals. At the end of all this I cannot see how this has done his reputation any good because now I think schools and LEAs will be reluctant to commission him as a writer. The trust that was there has now long gone. It can't be salvaged, especially as he is refusing to publicly apologise to our school for the accusations of 'homophobic' and 'bigots' that was made.
Poor Opera North have also had to ensure a lot of grief. They were caught in the middle. I told them today that it is unlikely to get the backing of the majority of parents, even if the script has been changed because of the manner in which he has handled this. They don't want their children to be part of his publicity stunt. I respect their decision fully. On the otherhand, I am torn. I don't want to attend because of what he has said and done, but I also want to support those who choose to go because they've worked so hard. I may find out tomorrow how many in my class are going. One child has been puled out of rehearsals!
Sorry for the long post. I NEEDED to get across our version of events as it has been so frustrating to watch this whole sorry saga unfold and listen to the lies and manipulation that has gone on during the past four days. To many it seems an insignificant story but to us who have experienced it, it has been an utter nightmare - especially when you receive hate mail and phone calls from people who base their opinions on one side of the story and ultimate misconceptions. It's a good job we had a night out planned for tomorrow to celebrate our hard work and our head teacher's first year as our head and a successful OFSTED in February. The timing couldn't be better!!