- John Otte, director of Tarleton State production of “Corpus Christi”
After announcing that they would host a production of the canceled Tarleton State University production of “Corpus Christi” and three other student-directed plays, the Rose Marine Theater has “recinded the offer” to stage the production.
Rose Marine Executive Director Adam Adolfo said the decision was made due to a “combination of factors.” He did not characterize it as a cancellation, since a date had not been set.
The theater made this statement:
Statement Concerning Tarelton State University Theatre Students:
April 8, 2010 – The decision was reached by the Board of Directors of Artes de la Rosa to withdraw the offer of the venue, The Rose Marine Theater, which had hoped to host the 4 theatre student directors from Tarleton State University in their continued Academic Directing Theatre Projects. The Rose Marine Theater will not be hosting these 4 students and their casts at any time in the future. We appreciate the public response on both sides of this debated issue.
Also announced yesterday by QLive was a full-scale production of the play during the summer at the same theater.
“Discussions are occurring,” Adolfo said, regarding that production.
The Christian press has been touting its “non-violent protests” that led to the cancellation at Tarleton. Apparently threats of violence are what they claim are peaceful protests.
Adolfo confirmed that one threat had been received via Facebook.
I find it so interesting that such avid believers in religion are so insecure in those beliefs that they won’t even allow for the slightest deviation from their point of view. Is their faith so fragile? Christianity is 3,000 years old. You’d think that it could withstand the percieved insult of of a low budget college drama production.
This whole unnecessary incident has really angered me, as it should any freedom loving American. This isn’t just about a gay play, it’s about a community allowing itself to believe, if not flat out endorsing, the idea that some ideas are unworthy of the protection of free speech. That people’s sensibilities can some times take precedence over other people’s freedoms.
Have they considered coming over to Dallas? We could help get a venue here.
The Rose Marine Theatre receives a lot of donations from government sources and from liberal arts foundations, and also from corporations that have high HRC scores.
They have clearly violated the Fort Worth anti-discrimination ordinance. The LGBT community should insist that criminal charges be brought against the threatre management for violating the ordinance.
Where is Joel Burns in all of this? Why isn’t he asking for a full investigation into the Rose Marine Theatre for violating the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance?
Another option would be to contact all of their sponsers and ask them to revoke their sponsorship of this theatre.
HRC should contact their high scoring corporate sponsors and ask them to revoke their sponsorship of this theatre.
Here is a complete list of sponsors from their website:
https://www.rosemarinetheater.com/contribute/sponsors.html