Anti-free speech “hysteria” is infecting more than just America’s college campuses. While the Left donates even more generously to the New York City public theater group that nightly depicts the assassination of the President of the United States, leftwing voices in the theater industry in Chicago are attempting to silence those they deem to be espousing ideas or facts that might disrupt the social justice narrative.
The theater community should be one of the most fierce defenders of free speech, yet in a shameful sequence of events, a significant segment of the theater community in Chicago is now trying to silence a widely respected, long-time theater critic, Hedy Weiss. The reason Weiss has become persona non grata in Chicago’s liberal theater scene: she mentioned in a single sentence in one of her reviews the objective, undeniable fact that black-on-black crime, not police-related shootings, is responsible for “the lion’s share of the violence” in the black community.
For this unforgivable sin against the racial grievance narrative, a petition with thousands of signatures is demanding that theaters no longer invite Weiss to their productions. Dozens of theaters now back the boycott of Weiss; one actor has even vowed to refuse to perform if she is in the audience.
The paragraph that has potentially destroyed Weiss’ career was included in her June 13 review of “Pass Over,” a racially charged play based on “Waiting for Godot” that makes the protagonists black and the antagonist a racist white police officer.
To be sure, no one can argue with the fact that this city (and many others throughout the country) has a problem with the use of deadly police force against African-Americans. But, for all the many and varied causes we know so well, much of the lion’s share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself. Nwandu’s simplistic, wholly generic characterization of a racist white cop (clearly meant to indict all white cops) is wrong-headed and self-defeating. Just look at news reports about recent shootings (on the lakefront, on the new River Walk, in Woodlawn) and you will see the look of relief when the police arrive on the scene. And the playwright’s final scenes — including a speech by the clueless white aristocrat who appears earlier in the story — and who could not be more condescending to Steppenwolf’s largely white “liberal” audience — further rob the play of its potential impact.
Weiss’ claim that “the lion’s share of the violence is perpetrated within the community itself” is an objectively true fact. Here’s The Chicago Tribune‘s Dahleen Glanton (who happens to be African-American) in September 2016:
Over the Labor Day weekend, Chicago hit that tragic number: 500 homicides.
Nearly all of those killed were black men, shot to death in alleys and on street corners by other black men. It’s time to have a talk with African-Americans.
It should be clear by now that no one is coming to our rescue.
Regardless of the factual nature of Weiss’ statement, her race (white), and her directness has now resulted in an orchestrated attempt to banish her from the theater scene. The Chicago Tribune provides a detailed and depressing account of the liberal theater community’s punishment of Weiss for bringing up the issue of black-on-back crime which is worth the read, but below are some of the highlights/lowlights:
The petition at Change.org was created by a group of local artists calling itself the Chicago Theater Accountability Coalition, which claims 70 of the city’s 200-some theaters have agreed not to offer Weiss complimentary tickets to review a show…
Steep Theatre representatives announced on Facebook they will suspend offering complimentary tickets to Weiss, reversing a decision theater leadership made more than a month ago when they were asked by members of the arts community to stop inviting her to their productions. Artistic Director Peter Moore said the company revisited the issue after the “Pass Over” review and determined “it’s a stance that we felt we needed to take.” He added that the theater may reconsider its position if Weiss responds to the criticism.
On its Facebook page, the Broken Nose Theatre posted a link to the petition and said it already has a policy of “not inviting any critic who utilizes their reviews to unapologetically espouse and propagate racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted and malicious views.”
But according to two sources in the Chicago theater community who asked not to be named, the theater coalition, known as ChiTAC, made repeated phone calls and sent emails to local theaters asking that they join the petition. Some theaters reportedly felt pressured to do so. Smith said the coalition’s main course of action was writing letters and the movement “has always been about love, respect and protection.”
The Tribune notes that in their efforts to destroy Weiss’ career as a theatrical critic, ChiTAC dug up a few statements from her past reviews (including one from 13 years ago) which they claim prove she is guilty of “body-shaming” and bigotry:
Weiss’ critics point to what they feel are some notable transgressions over the years. These include a 2004 review of Tony Kushner’s play “Caroline, or Change,” in which she referred to the playwright as writing “in the classic style of a self-loathing Jew”; a 2013 review of a work about the racial profiling of Muslims in which Weiss cited the Boston Marathon bombing and wrote, “What practical alternative to racial profiling do you suggest?”; and of body-shaming for this, about a recent production of “Mamma Mia!”: “Theresa Ham’s character-defining costumes make the most of the many ‘real women’ figures on stage, just as the gold and silver spandex outfits outline the perfect bodies of the terrific chorus dancers.”
Bryan Renaud, Random Acts artistic director and Other Theatre Co. associate artistic director, celebrated the targeting of Weiss, which he portrayed as the beginning of a move to force publications to “rethink the voices” they allow to speak: “We’ve seen responses from many, many big theaters now, so I think that that just shows how much we are changing now, and I think that it’s going to force publications to rethink the voices that they give a platform to.”
The only glimmers of hope in the saga are the responses of the Tribune and Weiss’ own publication, the Chicago Sun Times, which issued a statement that stood behind her, well mostly.
The Tribune came to Weiss’ defense and shamed the “crybabies” targeting her:
The deal between professional artists and critics is that artists create art and critics critique. Artists don’t have to like the reviews, or even read them, but they have to suck it up and take them, assuming they are delivered in good faith, as longtime critic Weiss does. Complain too much, theater people, and you look like crybabies, especially if you also accept praise.
The Tribune‘s theater critic, Chris Jones, also smacked the crybully theater community, arguing that “anyone who writes such an incendiary play — wherein the police are, by symbolic implication, murderers — and any theater that produces it, should not try to silence strong oppositional reactions. It should welcome them. The solution to this problem requires us all to come together.”
Educator and long-time local music and theater “fixture” Lloyd Brodnax King, who is African-American, chastised those targeting Weiss as giving into the “new hysteria” and resorting to “infantile” tactics:
You can agree or disagree with Hedy’s opinions, as you may with any critic. You can even be disappointed in her so-called lack of sensitivity, if that’s the way you see things. But I’m disappointed at Bellinger’s and Steppenwolf’s responses. What? They couldn’t write a letter to the editor? No, they’re unable to resist joining the new hysteria — be it on the left or the right. Bellinger and Steppenwolf are all “We won’t play with you anymore because you called us names.” It’s infantile, but we live in a slam-the-door climate.
Finally, here is an excerpt of the concluding paragraphs of the Chicago Sun-Times ‘ defense of their critic:
Could Hedy have been more nuanced in her comments? Should her review of “Pass Over” been edited better? Was it tone-deaf? We are all free to complain, defend and debate. But Hedy Weiss is a theater critic of integrity who writes from a place of honest good faith. Nothing she wrote comes close to what Steppenwolf assessed as “deep-seated bigotry.”
What troubles so many of us in journalism, who live and die by the First Amendment’s right to free speech, is to see so many people in the theater community, who also live and die by that right, falling in line to try to keep a critic from doing her job.
To try to silence a theater critic who is passionate about her work is not healthy for journalism or the theater.
We understand, at the Sun-Times, that we have room to grow when it comes to covering the diverse communities we serve, including in the arts. Our promise every day is to continue to do better. We do that, always, in the best of faith.