Gadfly was very much a
community event. The play brought together current students, former students
who had gone to school with Sam Steiner, and even Sam Steiner and Sue
themselves. The people in the audience baffled me by remembering the days when
they were directly involved with Sam Steiner’s story. It blew me away.
As in any story to be
told, directors and writers must choose what parts of the story to be told, and
I thought they chose well. They could have focused more on the aspect of homosexuality;
they could have focused on Sam’s other male writing accomplices, James Wenger,
Lowell Miller, and Tom Harley; they could have took the angle of an over-strict
Goshen College president’s board and former president Paul Mininger’s regret
later on. I feel all of these issues and aspects of the story are important,
but not all are important to the story the Theatre of the Beat wanted to tell.
They weren’t out to call attention to injustice and discrimination toward
homosexuality or reprimand a former president for a harsh decision. They told
the story of a young man encountering life in a unique way; they shared a personal
testimony meant to give meaning to and take insight from a life of turmoil and
counter-conformity. With this goal in mind, they did well in choosing which
characters to include and which parts of the story to emphasize. Even in
showing to non-Mennonite audiences, the play captures ideals and insights
beyond that of community which both represent Mennonite culture through common
threads and relate to the non-Mennonite audience on its level.
Kolton, I think you're right on about what the play was trying to achieve. I also loved the extra dimensions you mentioned--the presence of Sam and Sue, their participation in a talk-back session, and the presence of many people who remembered or were a part of the incident. Some of those in our class who had read Dan Hess's account of the MennoPause incident were disappointed that the homosexuality theme was not addressed. I can also understand that. However, I think you're right that Rebecca Steiner and the Theater of the Beat set out to tell a different story. What the play script did was highlight women characters who were absent in Dan Hess's account. So clearly, artists tell stories for a particular reason, and not all aspects are always included. I appreciate your participation in the blog discussion of others, and wish there was more response to your post.
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