Theater offerings should reflect morals

Editor,

In response to an editorial run last Monday entitled “Headline was uncalled-for,” I am both saddened and shocked to see the low state of our moral and ethical values and the acceptance with which vulgarity is being met at USU. This editorial slammed the use of a headline depicting the degenerate moral state of a theatrical performance. The article- “Awful ‘Anton’: Theater-goers have no business going to ‘Anton in Show Business.'” I doubt hardly anyone viewed this as being proscriptive to our right to attend the play, and I think the headline did its job well. It certainly caught the eye of many readers.

I don’t think it was a fair analogy asking how many people would complain seeing a headline saying, “USU Aggies‚ Play Stinks! Fans have no business attending USU football games.” I personally have never seen a USU football game that could be rated PG-13 for language and sexual content. This review, which did give credit to the talent of the actresses, suggested that the content of the play was a little less than desirable to an institution that promotes intellectual integrity.

I hope that this article did “raise some eyebrows” and give the performing arts pause to reflect on the subject matter they are portraying. I mean in no way to belittle the performing arts. However, these groups have a great ability to influence their audiences, and I believe this power is being terribly abused. Sadly, the idea that education elevates and ennobles individuals is being lost. Now in order to be educated, one must broaden his horizons, view the world objectively, and watch and accept immorality and obscenity as art. USU has so much more that it can offer its students in the way of intellectual, artistic, and ethnic diversity. I would hate to live in a world where everyone thinks that humor has to be crude. I wonder if introducing such indecent content so thinly veiled as art to university students is “unethical, unconscionable, and absolutely reprehensible at a time when we are experiencing the erosion of so many other” moral anchors.

Ben Johnson