a parent complained a character in the school play might be gay. carrie coon's old high school canceled it two days into rehearsal.

Photo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The letter was short and it did the job. The play, a parent wrote to the superintendent of Copley-Fairlawn schools in Ohio, "is about one sister discovering that her deceased sister was attracted to girls, and the play explicitly explores sexuality and LGBTQ identity." Then: "I know many of my Copley neighbors would be upset to find this production in our high school."

The play is She Kills Monsters, Qui Nguyen's 2011 comedy about a young woman who finds her dead sister's Dungeons & Dragons notebook and follows it into the fantasy world her sister built. Copley High held auditions on Sept. 8 and started rehearsals on Sept. 14, the Beacon Journal reports. On Sept. 16 the cast was told it was over.

why she kills monsters was canceled

Superintendent Aimee Kirsch says the parent is not why. She says the letter prompted her to look, and that she then found the play had never been vetted by administrators. "Exploring diverse characters, stories or perspectives is not the reason for this decision," she told both the Beacon Journal and WKYC. "Unedited scripts were handed out before our administrative team evaluated the complete production or confirmed necessary content adaptations," she told WKYC.

A new committee met and chose Alice in Wonderland, still Nov. 13 and 14. So a play about a girl chasing her dead sister into a fantasy world has been replaced by a play about a girl falling into a fantasy world. The only thing cut was the girlfriend.

Parents are not buying the paperwork explanation. TJ Jamison, whose daughter was cast, told WKYC that the director had to submit a purchase order for the rights, which was approved, and "nobody said, 'Let's take a look at the play.'" Her conclusion: "I do feel like it is based in discrimination."

what carrie coon said

Copley's most famous graduate heard about it. Carrie Coon, class of 1999, now of The Gilded Age, told the Beacon Journal: "I find it absurd and offensive. I just find that a wild abridgement of their First Amendment rights." She also got on the phone with the cast. "I loved my little productions I did at Copley High School," she told them, according to WKYC. "It changed my life." When a student said the adults who were supposed to protect them had not, Coon answered: "That's a really important part of the story: that you guys don't feel protected."

ohio keeps doing this

This is at least the third Ohio school to pull the same play. Hudson and Hillsboro both canceled it in 2021, as the Buckeye Flame reported at the time, and the Beacon Journal adds cancellations in Wisconsin in 2024 and Iowa in 2025. It is also the seventh most produced full-length play on American high school stages, per the Educational Theatre Association figures the paper cites. And Medina High School, also in northeast Ohio, is staging She Kills Monsters the very weekend Copley does Alice.

Kirsch says she will discuss the decision at the Oct. 20 board meeting. Students told WKYC they plan to be there. Theater kids, famously, do not miss a call time.