Author says parent complaining about non-binary character led to Indiana high school canceling play at last minute

GAS CITY, Ind. — Popular author Jodi Picoult said that one parent’s complaint about a non-binary character led to a last-minute cancellation of Mississinewa High School’s planned performance of “Between the Lines.”

Upset parents said they’ve now had to console their teary-eyed children who spent countless hours and several months preparing for opening night, only to have the rug yanked out from beneath their feet just days before the planned premiere.

“Do you know how it feels to have your child calling you, bawling their eyes out because the thing they put ALL their free time into was pulled away from them?” said parent Meg Berg in reacting to the news on social media.

The decision has drawn some national attention as the theater world takes note of the perceived censorship while school administrators claim the play contains “inappropriate content.” Others, however, lambast the decision as “pearl clutching.”

“These students aren’t naive. They have heard about and encountered these issues before this play. The school system is protecting them from nothing,” said one woman in a post by Channel 27 News and Entertainment that announced the sudden cancellation.

Officially, Mississinewa High School Superintendent Jeremy Fewell said the last-minute cancellation was due to content “not appropriate for a public school-sponsored performance.”

He told Channel 27 News and Entertainment that this “inappropriate content” was “sexual innuendos and alcohol references that I couldn’t, in good conscience, allow in a public school performance.”

Yet both innuendo and the appearance of alcohol are common occurrences in most plays performed by high schools, including frequently appearing in the works of William Shakespeare, whose plays have been a staple of high school performances for generations.

Author speaks out

Picoult, who is co-author of the novel “Between the Lines,” spoke out about the cancellation in an interview with FOX59/CBS4.

Picoult is a best-selling American author whose books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. She also isn’t a stranger to censorship. Last year, her novel “Nineteen Minutes,” a number one best seller about a school shooting in a small town, was the most banned book in the United States.

The author said she was in England when she heard about Mississinewa High School canceling the “Between the Lines” performance at nearly the last minute. She saw the superintendent’s claims of “inappropriate content.”

“There is absolutely nothing in ‘Between the Lines’ that a high school student has not seen on their phone every single day,” she said.

Worse, Picoult said the version of the play Mississinewa High School was set to perform was already a sanitized version.

“Which we offered as creators because we were well aware that some schools might be in climates that politically might not be as open as others, and we wanted to make sure that kids had the opportunity to hear the message in this story. So they already were performing a sanitized version of ‘Between the Lines,'” Picoult said.

With the “sanitized version” in hand, the school let the students rehearse and prepare for months until a supposed single parent’s complaint suddenly changed everything.

“Allegedly, the parent who complained was upset about a gay character, which is so interesting because it isn’t a gay character, it’s a non-binary character,” explained Picoult. “That character’s gender orientation, actually, with our own hands as writers, was edited out in the version that is licensed to schools so that it is never mentioned. So already there is some weird misunderstanding here.”

So despite this non-binary character allegedly playing no part in the version of the play obtained by Mississinewa High School, the character’s mere existence upset one parent so much they took their concern to Superintendent Fewell, who decided to pull the plug on the entire play.

“There is nothing wrong with a parent saying that their child should be allowed or not be allowed to read something or to perform in a show,” said Picoult. “There is a colossal problem when that parent makes a decision for everyone else’s children. And that is what we’re talking about. We are talking about a loss of freedom of expression, and we’re seeing it encroaching in many very dangerous ways in this country. And this is the latest example.”

Community reaction

Not all parents were critical of the cancellation, but most were critical of how the school handled it.

Some in the community sounded off in the comment section of the post announcing the cancellation by saying they agreed the subject matter was inappropriate for high schoolers, but expressed anger or disappointment that the issues weren’t caught right off the bat when picking the play.

Instead, students spent months preparing for a performance only to have the rug pulled out from under their feet at the last second.

“The board should have read the entire play and edited everything ‘inappropriate’ before the first audition ever took place,” said Tim Gerstorff in a comment. “The play was obviously deemed appropriate for high schoolers to perform when they spent countless hours rehearsing and building stage props. To allow all of that hard work and then, at the last minute, cancel it is preposterous.”

In a statement, Fewell said the school is “implementing a more robust review process for proposed productions” moving forward to help prevent similar situations. He reiterated it was his decision to cancel the play, not any other member of the school’s staff or board.

FOX59/CBS4 asked Fewell for clarification on whether the decision stemmed from a single parent’s complaint about a non-binary character existing within the original material the play is based on. Fewell has not responded to the inquiry.

Hope yet for a performance?

Despite Mississinewa High School canceling the performance. The student’s hard work may not all be wasted.

Author Jodi Picoult said she and her co-creators, along with the Educational Theatre Association, have reached out to the affected students to try and set up another location where the students’ performance of “Between the Lines” can take place.

“We are doing everything that we can to make sure that these kids get to have that moment on stage that they deserve,” she said.

And the message of this play that some have deemed inappropriate?

“The message of the play is to live the story you want if it’s not the story you’re in,” Picoult explained.

A rather benign message, which many parents defended.

“My son played the lead male role in the high school pilot premiere of this show. It honestly is the most beautiful, wholesome show. There is no ‘sexual innuendo.’ It is a sweet, innocent love story and a story about finding your voice and figuring out who you are—an important message for high school students,” said Loren Jacobson in the comment section.