Letter to the Editor

C’mon, Daily Pilot Community Forum! Your headline about Newport Harbor

High School’s “Grease” production reads “Play tears away at

family-oriented values” [Mailbag, Feb. 1]. Really?

A reader [Amy Powell] cites that “the values of responsibility,

self-control, respect and abstinence that will continue to foster a

family-oriented society seem to be undermined by the instruction received

in the classroom.” Wow -- what power bestowed [on] teachers and exploited

by the students. Society, hide your members.

I saw the production, just as I saw Newport Harbor High’s “The

Importance of Being Ernest” (Oscar Wilde) and “To Kill a Mockingbird”

(Harper Lee) and others. I remind the Pilot and Powell that “Grease” is

not a play about responsibility, self-control, respect and abstinence.

That does not mean conversely, however, that it “tears away” at family

values. Nor does it mean that our children are in trouble of being

corrupted by classroom agendas.

Newport Harbor High’s drama program is among the finest in Southern

California. Check the record. Give them some credit. They have brought

the community credit.

I might agree with Powell about some of the interpretations by the

director and players in this production, but it’s “Grease,” for goodness

sake -- played by high schoolers -- and emerging identities in an obvious

theme for them. No need for hemlock!

JOE GERARD

Newport Beach