Last night the Auburn High School History Club's production of “An Enemy of the People” premiered to a packed house and ended with a well-deserved standing ovation. Normally a high school play wouldn't be the subject of a whole column, but this weekend's production is intermingled with a controversy at the high school over a photo that appeared in recent edition of the school's newspaper, “The Lake Ave Times.”

Both the History Club and newspaper share the same advisor, history teacher Gerald E. Martin, who has been teaching for most of his 38 years at Auburn. As a former student (as were two of my siblings) he is the teacher you dream of - not because he was easy (he wasn't) - but because he was engaging. He made you think about what you said and to be prepared to defend what you said.

For the last several years he has picked plays to make not only his actors who will deliver lines think, but also the audiences that attend. Long gone are the days of “Sunrise and Campobello” that featured the polio stricken Franklin Roosevelt. Recent plays include pieces on inner city schools, civil rights, the 1960s and anti-nuclear demonstrations.

In a reworking of a work by Henrik Ibsen, by the late Arthur Miller, the play examines what cost a person is willing to pay to take a stand. While Martin and Company cannot, for production reasons, update the play to today where many are decrying the decline in civil liberties, another venue has come into play to update the story - the school's paper that has been knee deep in controversy for more than a month.

At issue is not the piece written by a student entitled “Bill of Rights Under Attack,” but the morphed drawing that accompanied it, portraying President George W. Bush as Adolph Hitler. Mr. Martin inserted the drawing and takes full responsibility for its inclusion. He has been more than a little surprised by the personal attacks on him both directly and indirectly. He contends that what is at issue is what may be best portrayed in “An Enemy of the People” - not so much defending what is said, but the right to say it.

Whether you agree with his decision (and a legion of hate mail and student comments in the newest edition that was released on Wednesday don't), you have give him credit for approaching Superintendent of School's J.D. Pabis in advance of printing the January edition and offering to resign as the newspaper's advisor.

While Mr. Martin denies that the morphed artwork was used to generate interest in or the sale of ticket for the play, it likely has. “An Enemy of the People” runs tonight and Saturday at 7:30 PM and on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Auburn High School.

 

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com.