Two High School Theatre Controversies Make National Coalition Against Censorships's List of Top 40 Free Speech Defenders of 2014

High schools in Connecticut and Pennsylvania made national news this year when their principals canceled productions of "controversial" musicals Rent and Spamalot. Now the National Coalition Against Censorship is honoring those who stood up for the shows' performances on their list of Top 40 Free Speech Defenders of 2014.

Trumbull High School's Thespian Society was ranked third on the NCAC's list of the Top 40 Free Speech Defenders of 2014. The Connecticut school gained the attention of national press when principal Marc Guarinol deemed the Thespian Society's planned production of the school edition of Rent too controversial and put it on "indefinite hold." The group's president Larissa Mark, with support from parents, students, the NCAC, the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, and even Goodspeed Musicals, who offered the use of their stage, eventually convinced Guarinol to reverse his decision, and the show went on, as scheduled, this past March. See pictures from Trumbull High School's Rent here.

Ranked 36th on the list is Howard Sherman, Interim Director of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts in New York, who wrote a blog post expressing his sadness at the cancellation of South Williamsport High School's production of Spamalot and the firing of drama director Dawn Burch for speaking out about it. The principal of the Pennsylvania high school deemed the musical inappropriate because of its "homosexual themes." Sherman called Burch a hero for standing up for the production, and the NCAC agreed. Read more here.

See the full list of Top 40 Free Speech Defenders here.