NYTimes: Opposition to a Book Inspires More Art
In the surreal young-adult novel “The Metal Children” by Tobin Falmouth, one by one the teenage girls of a middle-American town become pregnant and vanish, only to reappear as inanimate statues in a nearby cornfield. The book ends with a horrific act of self-inflicted violence that can be seen as either martyrdom or tragic folly, […]
In the surreal young-adult novel “The Metal Children” by Tobin Falmouth, one by one the teenage girls of a middle-American town become pregnant and vanish, only to reappear as inanimate statues in a nearby cornfield. The book ends with a horrific act of self-inflicted violence that can be seen as either martyrdom or tragic folly, a provocative ambiguity of the sort that teachers are wont to exploit in the classroom. But when “The Metal Children” showed up in the high school curriculum of a town called Midlothia, the school board took exception to its content and banned it, unleashing a torrent of angry reaction.
Actually, “The Metal Children” is not a real, published novel; it is a fictional novel, as it were — a playwright’s invention, the catalyzing agent of a play about what happens when a self-involved writer encounters naïve and biased readers and discovers the unintended consequences of art. Tobin Falmouth is an invention, too, the brooding, troubled lead character, and in the play he travels to Midlothia to confront a feverishly divided populace…
Artists
Adam Rapp
(Playwright and Director) An Obie-award-winning playwright and director. He is the author of numerous plays, which include THE METAL CHILDREN (Vineyard Theatre), NOCTURNE (American Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop), FASTER (Rattlestick), ANIMALS & PLANTS (A.R.T.), FINER NOBLE GASES (26th Humana Festival, Rattlestick), STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS (A.R.T., Edge Theatre), BLACKBIRD (The Bush, London; Edge Theatre), GOMPERS, (Pittsburgh City Theatre), ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE (Playwrights Horizons/Edge Theatre), AMERICAN SLIGO (Rattlestick), BINGO WITH THE INDIANS (The Flea), KINDNESS (Playwrights Horizons), and RED LIGHT WINTER (Steppenwolf, Scott Rudin Productions at Barrow Street Theatre), which was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has published seven novels for young adults, including The Buffalo Tree (Front Street Books, 1997), which was struck from the curriculum at Muhlenberg High School in Reading, Pennsylvania in 2005, and Punkzilla (Candlewick Press, 2009), which was recently named a 2010 Michael J. Printz Honor Book. He is also the author of the adult novel, The Year Of Endless Sorrows (Farrar Strauss & Giroux, 2006), and the graphic novel, Ball-Peen Hammer (First Second Books, 2009). His playwriting honors include The Helen Merrill Award, The 2006 Princess Grace Statue, a Lucille Lortel Playwright’s Fellowship, and The Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This summer he will direct a workshop production of his new play, WELCOME HOME DEAN CHARBONNEAU, at Seattle Rep.