Catholic High School Censors "Rock of Ages" After Parent Complaint

A Pennsylvania Catholic high school has decided to censor their production of “Rock of Ages” after reportedly a single parent complained that the show promoted gay values and prostitution.

According to sources, officials at Bishop Shanahan High School in Downington, took the complaint seriously and have forced the director to alter scenes between the character or Dennis and Lonny to try to downplay their relationship and eliminated physical contact between them.

While there weren’t any changes to the script, I’m told the changes had more to do with staging. I’m also told that school administrators went as far as to sit in rehearsals to make sure the changes were made.

I’ll be honest, even though they apparently were doing the “High School Edition” of the show, I’m still surprised that a Catholic high school would do Rock of Ages. Even though much of the show is toned down, I think it still might be a bridge too far for conservative religious schools.

But apparently the situation at Bishop Shanahan is that school officials didn’t know the content of the show until after the show was about to open. That shows a lack of oversight which only creates more problems than it prevents.

And before we start criticizing the changes based on the complaints of just one parent, when it comes to private Catholic schools, sometimes changes like this are made depending on who that parent i$.

Now I could certainly call out Catholic high schools for being intolerant of LGBTQ issues. However that would be like saying the sky is blue. While I wish that they would be more open minded when it comes to their theatre programs, I’ve come to expect that they are going to be very picky about what type of material is suitable for their school.

But it is unacceptable for schools not to have knowledge about what is being presented in their theatre productions as late as tech week. If they aren’t aware, that’s on them. And the students involved should not be punished for that.

While it doesn’t appear that Bishop Shanahan did this, obviously changes to scripts to satisfy parental complaints should be something that is cleared with the license holder first.

Interestingly enough, Rock of Ages high school edition has permission to cast all gender identities in any role. That’s something that I hope more schools explore.