'James and the Giant Peach' field trip canceled after complaints of 'drag'

Elementary school students in Houston were supposed to take a field trip to a local theater this week so they could see a theatrical adaptation of Roald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach." Over the course of 70 minutes, they were to watch a 7-year-old orphan boy befriend talking bugs and go on magical adventures while living in a house-size peach.

But the Spring Branch Independent School District said last week that it was scrapping all future field trips to Main Street Theater's most recent production because of "concerns raised about the age-appropriateness of the performance."

Although officials didn't answer questions from The Washington Post about how the production was inappropriate for elementary schoolchildren, the cancellation came after a parent told school board members that she was worried about her 5-year-old daughter's upcoming field trip to see the play, in which male actors play female characters.

"My kid's going to Main Street Theater and gets to go see drag queens perform the 'James and the Giant Peach,'" Jessica Gerland, 37, told the seven-member board during the public comment portion of its April 24 meeting.

Gerland told The Post she's disappointed that she had to speak to multiple people at the school district and the theater to figure out what her daughter was scheduled to see on May 5 - a man dressing up as a woman to play a female character.

"It's just not appropriate for 5- to 6-year-olds," Gerland said, adding that "the parents should have been more informed, and the parents want to be involved."

No one dresses in drag during the performance, theater spokeswoman Shannon Emerick said. Rather, the theater uses "cross-gender casting" in which actors play multiple roles, sometimes playing characters of other genders.

That's par for the course in the world of theater, she said. The practice of men playing women, or vice versa, dates back to the ancient Greeks, continued with Shakespeare and his contemporaries on the Elizabethan stage and carried through into modern theater. Main Street has been doing it for years, Emerick said. In some productions, actors play as many as a half-dozen roles, and in "James," they take on as many as four. Some of those require playing a different gender.

"That's just how theater works," Emerick said, adding that playing different genders doesn't make it drag, which she described as "a completely separate animal."

Drag events have emerged as a new front in the nation's culture wars. They have become a target of Republican lawmakers around the country, with some accusing performers of trying to "groom" children, according to an analysis by The Post. Legislators in at least 14 states have introduced a slew of bills aimed at drag events, part of a larger backlash to the expansion of LGBTQ rights.

Drag has also moved into the mainstream in recent years, including an expansion to hundreds of libraries through Drag Queen Story Hour readings. At the events, drag queens read to children, aiming to teach them about gender diversity and encourage acceptance. Many Republican lawmakers say they're not trying to ban drag events themselves but rather limit children's exposure to them.

But none of that is relevant to Main Street's current production because "James and the Giant Peach" doesn't feature any drag, Emerick said. The company has been in business for 48 years and has produced shows based on children's literature for 43 of those. Each year, about 100,000 children come through its doors to watch performances during the season, after which the company tours across Texas to perform for another 50,000 to 80,000, Emerick said.

During the week, the area outside the theater is a sea of black and yellow, she added.

"School buses come to us by the bazillions," she said.

The theater has performed "James and the Giant Peach" several times in years past. This season's production opened on April 19 and is scheduled to run until May 19. During the week, the theater puts on three performances a day for school groups, which can swell to 300 kids each. Then it puts on two shows over the weekend for the general public.

The theater recommends the show for students who are in first grade or older, although some schools decide to bring younger students. Most of the children who come as part of school groups are between first and fifth grade, Emerick said, dismissing the district's concern about its "age-appropriateness."

Main Street has not canceled any performances and has no plans to do so, she said. And although a handful of schools outside of the Spring Branch Independent School District have also scuttled field trips, the company has hardly noticed while it focuses on performing for nearly 1,000 students a day.

"This is not slowing us down," Emerick said, adding: "We're true to the script, and the script is true to the book. And we're just continuing to tell the story."