BOULDER — A firestorm of controversy blew up May 4, following a parent complaint about Jefferson High School’s performance of “Grease.”

The parent, Marian Olsen, who hadn’t seen the play, wrote a letter to the administration criticizing cigarette smoking (using fake cigarettes) and foul language in the performance. She questioned why student behavior in the drama wasn’t held to the same standards expected of the student body. Her letter concluded by questioning “if a second show is even necessary.”

Following the complaint, the cast and drama coach Linda Piccolo made last-minute changes, rewriting lines and removing smoking from several scenes. They performed before a packed house and received a standing ovation.

News of the censorship spread rapidly through the school, across town, to Helena and then across the state.

In the aftermath, several issues were still smoldering a week later:

n how the complaint was made;

n how the administration handled it;

n the furor it caused; and

n whether it will lead to closer scrutiny of plays or censorship.

Discussion of “Grease” is expected to take place at Tuesday’s school board meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Jefferson High School Library.

Drama department concerns

For the cast, the complaint and last-minute changes added stress to an already stressful day.

Kayce Flathers (Sandy Dembrowski) said, “Sometimes we stumbled over lines because we were afraid to say something wrong.”

“Maybe, if you are offended, get a refund,” she suggested. “You weren’t forced to be here. You chose to come. Just one person was offended. We got a standing ovation.”

For senior Branna Giulio (Rizzo), she was afraid she wouldn’t get a chance to perform at all. She shared her role with another student, and Giulio’s sole performance was the Friday night show.

There’s a difference between a play and reality, Giulio said. “The behaviors in the play don’t affect the students. We’re acting. We’re not actually doing this. That’s why it’s called acting.”

“I’m student body president. I played one of the meanest parts in the play — one of the bad girls. I’m not doing that myself,” she said.

She knows Marian Olsen and said, “It offends me that she couldn’t say it to my face.”

Senior Andrew Erickson (Kenickie), described the students’ reaction. “Everyone was in awe, shock and very angry. They were upset with the letter we received.”

“The complaint actually surprised me,” said senior Matt Bullock (Sonny). “If you’re going to complain, you should actually see it.” There shouldn’t be any surprises about it, he added. “It’s the same as the movie.”

“She (Olsen) should have brought it up earlier.” The plays are chosen months in advance and publicized on the school’s Web site and in publications, Bullock said.

“If someone is offended, they just need to be direct,” he said. “We worked extremely hard on this play and it just surprised us a lot, when it’s a successful play and it’s been done two times before (at JHS).”

“I thought it (the complaint) was completely ridiculous,” said Kyle Sayler (Doody) “A lot of people know about this play. They smoked back then and flaunted it. Now people keep it (smoking) away from children. What I thought was ridiculous was that she wanted us to censor our play.”

“I do respect Marian Olsen for trying to keep her son’s society pure around him, but she shouldn’t censor a play,” said Sayler

Another student said, “My grandparents saw it. They thought it was hilarious. They said, ‘Someone’s making a fuss about this?’” They grew up in the 1950s, and her grandfather said, “That’s what it was like.”

Piccolo said she is open to talking about play selection and that she lists the play titles early in the school year.

If people have concerns, they need to speak up early on. By the end of January, she had already paid $720 to perform the play. “I was monetarily committed.”

“Up till then I could listen to her objections. I would have liked to have heard from her.”

They’re two-time national champions,” she said of the drama students. “We don’t do garbage and we don’t do smut.”

I’ve been here 17 years and this is my 127th play.” The only other complaint she’s received in that time, she said, was in 2003 from Marian Olsen’s husband, Don Olsen, the biology teacher and boy’s basketball coach. He complained about a line in the Pulitzer-prize winning play, “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”

Piccolo said she’s upset that “one person can disrupt a production that 35 people have worked on for three months.”

Administration view

In an interview Friday that included Don Olsen and school administrators, Superintendent Bob Klein said the administration didn’t just respond to Marian Olsen’s complaint. They followed up by speaking with several teachers who attended the Thursday performance.

Don Olsen said the letter was not demanding cancelation of the play and accused the IR of “yellow journalism.”

However, Piccolo said in two different interviews that she was approached by JHS Principal T.J. Eyer Friday morning, May 4, who told her that he’d received a letter requesting canceling of the play. Eyer also told her he didn’t intend to cancel the play.

Instead, Piccolo and her students volunteered to make changes in the script and scenes.

Klein and Eyer both said Friday that the script wasn’t changed, but that students’ ad libs were.

Piccolo, however, disagreed. She said in a follow-up interview that there had been no student ad libs Thursday night, except for one instance when a student momentarily blanked on one line.

Policies for complaints

When asked about a school policy addressing such complaints, Klein said that he knew of no JHS policy dealing with objections to a play. There is a policy for complaining about objectionable written materials. It requires the complainant fill out a form. A committee of school and community members then reviews the complaint and the material.

This procedure wasn’t followed for the play because the complaint dealt with student conduct and behavior, Klein said.

Future plays

Will future JHS plays face greater scrutiny? Will high school classics, such as “West Side Story” be considered suitable for production? The answer to this question wasn’t clear.

Piccolo said no one has approached her to discuss the topic.

During Friday’s interview, Eyer proposed a committee could review the plays. However, he didn’t know who would serve on such a committee.

Klein said such action wouldn’t indicate any lack of confidence in Piccolo, whom he praised.

Klein then spoke about artistic license in plays, but also JHS’s expected standards of student behavior.

“We’d be severely limited (in selection of plays) if we had to take into account every innuendo —sexual or otherwise,” he said.

But a few minutes later, he also said, “We are not trying to censor free speech or retard artistic expression, but we have to hold things up to a slightly different standard because of an obligation to these children’s parents, as well.”

He concluded, “I think this was an unfortunate interplay of circumstances that could have been dealt with better. I didn’t think anyone here thought the general public would get worked up about it. We thought of it as an internal thing rather than what it turned into.”