Students in the Copley Thespian Society have beaten their crowdfunding goal and will stage their canceled fall production on their own, announcing that “She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurer’s Edition” will go on at a venue connected to the Akron Civic Theatre. The student-led revival caps weeks of turmoil that began Sept. 16, when Copley High School scrapped the show just days into rehearsals — after the cast was set and performance rights were already secured.
Superintendent Aimee Kirsch said the production was canceled because it had not passed through the district’s proper administrative vetting, not because of its content. But the timing drew national attention: the cancellation followed a parent’s emailed complaint about the play’s LGBTQ themes, and the school quickly substituted “Alice in Wonderland” into the fall slot.
Playwright Qui Nguyen publicly backed the students, and the cause drew a prominent hometown voice — Copley High School class of 1999 graduate Carrie Coon, star of HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” who spoke out against the cancellation and joined a conference call with the student cast. Their support helped push the crowdfunding campaign past its target.
District officials have since announced a new theater-production approval rubric aimed at preventing a repeat of the episode. With the venue set and funding in hand, the cast that lost its stage in September will raise the curtain after all — this time on its own terms.
