An East Village theater had to shut down after its owner, the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, canceled plays it deemed “objectionable,” an advocacy group said on Tuesday.
PEN America, a nonprofit that supports free expression, said the historic Connelly Theater on 220 East 4th St. had to cancel several major productions over the previous year and suspend operations amid the Archdiocese’s “increased scrutiny” of the scripts.
Among the canceled productions over the year was Kallan Dana’s “Racecar Racecar Racecar, Becoming Eve,” by Emil Weinstein, based on the memoir by Abby Chava Stein about a rabbi who comes out as a transgender woman.
Additionally, the SheNYC Arts summer theater festival that highlights plays by female, nonbinary and transgender artists is now looking for new performance space.
According to festival organizers, the theater told the group that shows about reproductive rights and gender equity are “not allowed” on the stage going forward.
“The Archdiocese has specifically called out our past shows at the Connelly Theater, calling them ‘inappropriate‘ for discussing issues like reproductive rights and gender and making it clear to us that shows like that will not be allowed in the future,” said Danielle DeMatteo, artistic director of SheNYC Arts. “Especially just a few weeks before our election that could determine the future of our rights, this is a truly shocking development.”
DeMatteo said the theater told her group not to seek a renewal of their contract for next year with the Connelly, which has been its home for nearly a decade.
Staff at PEN America, which advocates for freedom in writing, said the suspension of operations at the Connelly “robs theatergoers of a longtime innovative venue” for new plays.
“This about-face to cancel planned productions because they fail to conform to religious values is nothing short of pernicious,” said Jonathan Friedman, Sy Syms managing director of U.S. Free Expression program at PEN America. “While the Connelly is legally able to set these rules, a venue that leases space to the public for artistic performance ought to assume responsibility to uphold artistic freedom, much in the way the theater long has.”
amNewYork Metro reached out to the Archdiocese of New York but did not immediately hear back.
But Joe Zwilling, a New York Archdiocese spokesperson, told the Catholic News Agency in a statement on Oct. 23, “It is the standard practice of the Archdiocese that nothing should take place on Church-owned property that is contrary to the teaching of the Church. That applies to plays, television shows or movies being shot, music videos being recorded, or other performances.”
The practice may be more intensive than in previous years, given that the pastor of a church in the neighboring Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens got into hot water last year after singer Sabrina Carpenter filmed a racy music video at a church in Williamsburg.
Meanwhile, Friedman of PEN America said that allowing the shows to take place at the theater does not mean one has to endorse them. But he added that canceling the shows is “akin” to censoring them.
“Theater is a collaborative art form that requires long-term planning, and having to scramble to mount a production in a new space is particularly destructive to the artists, playwrights, and performers involved,” he said.
