Fabritzcio

Religion has once again raised it's ugly head. Yesterday at school the group of fluent English speaking 9th graders put on a play they had written. Patty had given them the freedom to write a play which incorporated the phrasal verbs they had been studying as part of their exam. The play's plot consisted of six couples who were competing to get married on a game show and a host who interviewed each couple to determine who was worthy of winning the prize of an extravagant television wedding.

The play was set to be performed to the other not so fluent group of 9th graders but just as the play was about to begin the 8th graders arrived along with several members of the prepa (10th-12th graders). Fabrizio, dressed in drag with his blue balloon boobs and veil, played the host of the show. The audience loved the play and the cast did indeed incorporate phrasal verbs in their script. All seemed to have been a great success but later in the day I looked out my classroom window int0 the courtyard and saw the English coordinator and Patty engrossed in a serious discussion. I could not hear anything but it didn't look good. I was to learn later from Patty that the Spanish coordinator was very upset that Fabrizio was dressed in drag and had been parading about the school in full view of the primary school children on his way to the performance.

After the play the cast had apparently been formally disciplined about the inappropriateness of Fabritzcio's costume. The students pulled together and made sure that Ms Patty, who allowed them to put on such a play, was not impuned. (She had no idea of what the costuming would entail.) Fabrizio made the point during the inquisition that in Shakespeare's time, men had to play woman's parts because women were not allowed to act. (Harry of course taught them this in their Shakespeare class and he also told them in all likelyhood Shakespeare was bi-sexual after a close reading of some of the sonnets.) Fabrizio has come out as gay to his classmates and is accepted, not ridiculed, by the enlightened group. I am not sure but think the powers that be at the school yesterday sent Fabrizio home early because I did not see him at the school Valentine's Day party in the afternoon. We are a fundamental-type Christian school after all and the students have told me that they are taught with great furvor in religion class that being gay is a sin. I would argue the sin was making Fabrizio and his classmates feel that their play and actors were in the wrong.

Proving once again that the shortest distance between two points is from one ear of a bigot to the other.