Yale: "No Bang Bang on Stage"

Just after praising the spirit of university theatre this morning, I'm saddened to learn that a college no less prestigious than Yale has taken the lame high ground of banning weapons from all student productions. That's right, prop-weapons. Unless they're obviously fake.

Undergrad Sarah Holdren was all set to open her production of Peter Barnes' "Red Noses"--about the middles ages!--when she was told she'd have to make do with big wooden play-swords, instead of the already fake-metal ones.

Says young director: “I understand the university’s need to react to Virginia Tech and display sensitivity, but dealing with it this way is ineffective.”

Or to put it another way: lame.

Who needs Nazi choir school teachers to oppress theatre artists when "well-intentioned" ivy-league administrators will do it for them?