Segal Center Talk Addresses Censorship of THE CHILDREN'S HOUR Today

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Presents: The Censorship of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour: The ACLU's First Gay Rights Case, featuring excerpts from the play and the 1936 Court Case. The presentation is set for tonight, December 12 at 6:30pm in Elebash Recital Hall.

In response to the recent Supreme Court decision striking down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act in the ACLU's Windsor case, the Segal Center will present Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. The play, directed by Ashley Kelly Tata, will be interspersed with dramatic reinterpretations of one of the first court cases to focus in the censorship of gay and lesbian content in literature and art.

The 1934 play was the subject of one of the first court cases to address the censorship of gay and lesbian subject matter; after meeting huge success on Broadway, it was slated to run in Boston but was banned by the city's public censor because of its "lesbian content."

In 1936, the play's producer and the ACLU teamed up to challenge the ruling in federal court, marking the ACLU's first "gay rights" case and bringing the public censor under intense public scrutiny. While the play's ban was upheld by the courts, gay rights and the censorship of gay and lesbian themes in the arts became part of the public conversation.

Followed by a discussion with Amanda Goad, Staff Attorney, LGBT and AIDS Project, American Civil Liberties Union, and Jordan Schildscrout, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance at SUNY Purchase, moderated by Jim Wilson, Professor of Theatre at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is located at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave at 34th St., Free! First come, first served.