Related: Superintendent Releases Statement, Refuses to Answer Questions about “RIFT, or White Lies“
A faculty member shut down a performance of “RIFT or White Lies” at Montclair High School Monday morning, leaving students shocked and confused.
“RIFT or White Lies” opened Thursday at Luna Stage. Playwright Gabriel Jason Dean drew inspiration from his relationship with his own brother, a currently-incarcerated, high-level member of the alt-right. The play follows the two brothers attempting to mend their estranged relationship. Dean leaves the audience with the question, “Is it possible to love someone whose beliefs you hate?”
Luna Stage regularly partners with schools to give students the chance to see their productions. Montclair High School and Luna Stage came to an agreement to perform an excerpt of the play for students. After the play, the actors were also going to hold a post show conversation. That didn’t happen.
What Happened?
Ari Laura Kreith, Luna Stage’s artistic director and director of the play, estimates that the performers were approximately eight minutes into the play before a member of the faculty intervened.
“My understanding is there may have been somebody who believed they heard a certain word spoken on stage that was not actually spoken on stage,” Kreith said.
Luna Stage brought the performance to Montclair High School students as a program for students in the Center for Social Justice program (CSJ). Students were vocal about their disappointment about faculty’s action.
“As a Black student, I didn’t find the play offensive. I thought it was insightful. It’s important to have difficult discussions of racism,” a junior in Montclair High School’s CSJ program said. “I wanted to see how it would end. When it was stopped abruptly, I felt really uncomfortable. There was a lot of profanity, which may have been too much, but we’re high schoolers and have seen and heard much of this in the media already. If we had the chance to see the whole play, we could have discussed it. But we didn’t get that chance,” she said.
Another student who saw the program said, “I was honestly confused about what was happening. The sudden and abrupt stop of the scene made the situation even worse. I believe it could’ve been handled differently.”
Moving Forward
Despite the confusion at the high school, Kreith is hopeful. She and members of the Montclair High School faculty spoke shortly after the incident. “We’re exploring ways this might evolve into a learning experience. We’re just trying to figure out what the path forward is,” Kreith said.
The actors, Matt Monaco and Blake Stadnik, offered to perform or hold a conversation with students. Meanwhile, Kreith is offering free tickets to any Montclair High School students who wish to see the remainder of the play. Students are welcome to attend the Feb. 16, 17, and 18 showing of “RIFT or White Lies.” Kreith believes the show is suitable for children 16 years of age and older.
Luna Stage is no stranger to holding thought-provoking productions that introduce social issues. “Somebody recently described Luna as a space for dangerous conversations. The question for me always is ‘how do you balance audience safety, while also inviting inspiring, guiding people who like to develop the skills to navigate the complexities of our world?’” Kreith said. “And to understand the ways that listening doesn’t equal acceptance, and empathy does not equal forgiveness.”
The Montclair Local reached out to the school district for a comment but did not receive a response.
Kreith hopes the production empowers people to believe they can change the world, and themselves, for the better.
Alongside introducing challenging conversations to audience members, the play also recommends a reading list. Books such as “Beloved” by Toni Morrison and “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin are on the list.
Montclair High School students who would like to receive a free ticket to the play should email info@lunastage.org.
“RIFT or White Lies” is showing at the Luna Stage, until March 8. Tickets are available for purchase here.
Student names withheld for their privacy.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article mentioned that CGI students were at the event.
What a powerful word.
Why is the teacher unnamed? What harm could a teacher come to in a nice suburban world like Montclair’s?
Likely because this was a field trip by the tykes that was not authorized.
I can understand that a teacher might do this in the world we are living in right now. Everything is so tense. People are so divided. We are dealing with trying to reconcile with all the hate and racism and all the other isms that hurt far too many. It must have felt uncomfortable and there was a reaction that probably shouldn’t have happened. No one was hurt. Let’s all learn from this.
We need to hear from the faculty staff, rather than ascribing the benefit of the doubt that a white female director of a play with two white men discussing race and the humanity of white nationalism to a diverse faculty and student body. The fact that this article highlights “Black” student without even declaring race or ethnicity for any adult listed asserts white as a default, which any adult who studied race or sociology at an undergrad prestigious as Yale would be aware of.
People with good intentions can still deserve to be checked, and putting myself (a Black man) in the shoes of the faculty, if the play in front of my students was more or less and unfettered dialogue out of American History X, with no precursor discussion led or even influenced by Black people, and “n*gger” got dropped on stage in normalized manner, I would very much stop the show.
As for the director herself and the author of this article, please never borrow the ethnic credibility of a teenager to vindicate your own narrative. For a balanced review, share the faculty’s reasons for shutting down the play, and let your readers decide.
– a Black uncle
French: All good points, to be sure, but I’m not being facetious in comment #2 above: I still don’t know what the offense was, or what the danger was, if it was a clear and present threat or a matter of semantics or perhaps a slip of the tongue from a particular patois, even who the teacher was, or the specific or aggrieved or endangered parties. When you say “…all the hate and racism and all the other isms…” you must assume we are all singing from some similar sheets of music. Me? I’m frankly lost. Perhaps we get divided when we make assumptions. In this case, are we doing a disservice by not providing the full story because we are so well-intentioned?
You end by suggesting, “Let’s all learn from this.” Okay. How?