QCTC Responds to the Doubters

Is "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" uproar a PR stunt?

Yesterday's blog post (Note to boss: I am working Saturdays AND Sundays!) drew more comment than anything else I've written for Charlotte magazine. Which is to say two people commented on it. Thanks, guys!

So excited was I to have written anything that sparked a comment, I became hungry for more. So, I asked Queen City Theatre Company's Glenn T. Griffin to comment on the comments. His response is below.

"On Thursday, the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, renter of the venue, called QCTC to inform [us] there was an obvious organized protest going on regarding The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.  I was getting ready for rehearsal and was completely unaware that anything was going on, nor did I think that anyone would be interested in protesting this production … 

"The BPAC … informed us on Friday morning that they had received more than 10,000 emails overnight.  They even advised that we enlarge our inbox capacity due to the overwhelming number of emails.  

"All Friday and all Saturday and into today, QCTC has received email after email. They are from members of TFP and America Needs Fatima (an affiliate organization) … This protest appears in their web blog directly asking all their supporters to email QCTC … Many other blogs throughout the nation list the same protest urging their members to email QCTC. 

"The generic emails we have been receiving in the thousands read as follows: 'I vehemently protest your showing the blasphemous play The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, which among other unspeakable blasphemies, refers to the Virgin Mary as a lesbian. The Holy Mother of God is most pure and holy.  To refer to her as a lesbian, or even to insinuate it, is an unspeakable blasphemy, which I reject with all my soul.  I fear God's wrath will fall upon us if reparation is not make. [sic] If you continue this presentation, we Catholic Christians, will urge Catholics to oppose it loudly, peacefully and legally, in as large a protest as we can help make possible.'

"A small example of emails that also keep arriving every couple of minutes to the QCTC inbox read as follows: 'You are doing Satan's work,' and 'You will rot in Hell for Blaspheming against Our Blessed Mother,' and  'Stop it now, while you still have a chance, before you incur the wrath of God.'

“Honestly, I wish that there was no protest going on about this show. The show doesn't need it. The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is an amazing script with a group of incredible actors putting it on. Protest or no protest, audiences will hopefully come to this production and enjoy themselves. With opening night being only a week and a half away, I have more on my plate than I need, and having to deal with this issue is one more nuisance. Hopefully you will see that QCTC didn't ask for these emails, want these emails, or make-up these emails. But again, I appreciate your comments and you are entitled to your own opinions.

"QCTC will not further engage in this controversy, will not reply to fundamentalists, and will focus solely on our mission and the creation of art."