Utter Stupidity

Those who favor banning books like Huck Finn must be gleeful at this news:

Some bureaucrats at the Wilmette Park District are so aghast at the language in a planned production of the musical Ragtime that they've cancelled the show.

I'm not sure what upsets me more: that, or the fact that the ninnies actually tried to get permission to change the script.

Now, the only experience I have as an actor was in high school and community theater productions, but even a one-time amateur like me knows you simply Can't. Do. That.

(Interestingly enough, the same is true of the liturgical rubrics. Just as a priest has no right to change the prayers at Mass, so too an actor or director has no right to change the words of a play.)

I wonder how often the company that owns Ragtime's rights receives such transparently stupid requests.