A Kiss is Not Just a Kiss When is by Two Guys in The School Auditorium
Cast members of "Zanna Don't!" perform for students at… (MICHAEL McANDREWS | mmcandrews@courant.com)
HARTFORD — — When the fictional football quarterback shared a brief kiss with another male actor on stage in the Hartford Public High School auditorium, the sudden cacophony of cheers, screams and bits of dissent seemed to rocket to the roof.
Several hundred students witnessed the gay kiss last Friday afternoon, and a few dozen near the back got up and left the auditorium. Some wore the Owls' school football jerseys.
Their reaction would eventually be known throughout the country and beyond the Atlantic.
Among the students who stayed to watch the rest of "Zanna, Don't!" — an ironic musical in which homosexuality is not only accepted, but the norm — was a gay boy who wept at his seat because of the stark reality of his own world, said Adam Johnson, principal of the school's Law and Government Academy.
Another spectator was 15-year-old Jordan Spruielle, the Owls' starting quarterback.
This week, after a CBS News website wrote about the play following The Courant's story, news outlets such as The Guardian of London and The Huffington Post posted their own online versions, drawing more than a thousand comments from readers around the world. The blog Gawker went with the headline "Jocks Walk Out of Musical Over Gay Kiss."
The title of a blog post on NBCSports.com similarly began, "Football players walk out of school play …"
The controversy does not sit well with Spruielle, a sophomore in the Law and Government Academy who helped lead the Owls to a win against Manchester last weekend. The outcry over the musical has included calls and emails to the school system, mostly from conservative out-of-towners convinced of a homosexual agenda at the school.
Attendance for a second "Zanna" performance for students this Friday — reserved for Hartford High's freshmen and those in the Engineering and Green Technology Academy — is now considered optional, school officials said. The musical was organized as an anti-bullying initiative by Leadership Greater Hartford's Quest program in partnership with True Colors, a nonprofit group that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.
The self-described "fairy tale" is intended to expose prejudice.
Spruielle said Thursday that he had a few words for teammates who walked out. He believed that they had been disrespectful.
"I was like, you guys missed out on a good play," Spruielle said. The musical "just shows that everyone is different in this world. You have to accept people for who they are. … I know people who are gay. They're funny people. They are cool people to be around."
Sophomore Richard Jernigan, 16, a punt returner for the Owls and a law and government student, said he was "shocked" because until Friday he had never seen two guys kiss.
"Open your eyes up, because stuff is real," Jernigan said of the play's message. He stayed for the whole musical. As for those who did not, "it shows people's true character," he said.
Superintendent Christina Kishimoto said the performance "hits on some core family values, so our students aren't all going to be in agreement." For those who choose not to watch or decide to "speak out, that reaction is appropriate," she said.
Comments