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Texas school district cancels trip to see play due to performance that was not 'age-appropriate'

A parent brought her concerns to a board meeting Monday, saying the theater told her actors play multiple roles that are both male and female.

SPRING BRANCH, Texas — Spring Branch Independent School District canceled upcoming field trips to see performances of "James and the Giant Peach."

The move comes after some parents raised concerns about actors who play cross-gender roles.  

Main Street Theater's “James and the Giant Peach” performance is recommended for children in first grade and up. The play, based on Roald Dahl’s well-known children’s book, is a story of an orphan boy who finds refuge inside a magical peach. 

Shannon Emerick is the director of marketing and communications at Main Street Theater.

“We have over 100,000 kiddos come with school groups, families, grandparents and friends," she said. 

Jessica Gerland’s kindergartener was scheduled to go on the field trip. 

“The way that they are normalizing this, especially in front of 5- to 6-year-olds, it just raises concerns for some parents,” she said.  

Gerland says she brought her concerns to the district at Monday’s school board meeting, after calling Main Street Theater to get additional details. She says the theater told her actors play multiple roles that are both male and female.

"She explained to me how they wear flamboyant makeup and wigs to make it fun for the kids," she said. "Do you know what the definition of a drag queen is?" 

Emerick says cross-gender acting is common in theater.

"There's no drag in the show," she said. "You are going to see men playing women and women playing men sometimes, absolutely. That has happened since the creation of theater 1,000 years ago." 

Emerick says they've hosted field trips from several other area districts without incident.  

"We just want to do what we do and doing what we've done for 43 years,” said Emerick.  

"It's something that I thought would be more appropriate for high schoolers, not kindergarteners,” said Gerland.  

Spring Branch sent the following statement Thursday:  

"We received feedback from employees and other adults who attended Main Street Theater’s production of James and the Giant Peach that expressed concern over elements of the performance that were not age-appropriate for elementary students.

Based on the concerns we heard, the decision was made to request campuses planning to attend make alternative arrangements. My responsibility is to ensure that content students are exposed to during school hours is age appropriate. Given the information we had, the decision was made to err on the side of caution. Please understand these decisions are not always easy to make and are always done in the best interest of our students."

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