FANNIN COUNTY, Ga. – After Friday night’s performance of a play at Fannin County High School, the school cancelled any further performances and left many upset and with questions as to why.

Numerous social media posts poured in after the May 16, performance of “The Crucible”.

The posts gained a lot of attraction as they informed the community that after the one night performance of the play, the students were told by the school that they would not be allowed to continue with any other planned performances of the play.

The play is a relatively popular play to be performed in school as has been performed at Fannin County High School in years prior.

The school issued a statement in response to the uproar and gave reasoning for the cancelation.

The school stated, “After Friday night’s performance of The Crucible, we received several complaints as to an unauthorized change in the script of the play. Upon investigation, we learned that the performance did not reflect the original script. These alterations were not approved by the licensing company or administration. The performance contract for The Crucible does not allow modifications without prior written approval. Failing to follow the proper licensing approval process for additions led to a breach in our contract with the play’s publisher. The infraction resulted in an automatic termination of the licensing agreement. The second performance of The Crucible could not occur because we were no longer covered by a copyright agreement.”

According to Fannin County High School senior, Caden Gerald, the cause of the cancellation was not immediately known.

In response to the community questions, Gerald posted a video to social media explaining his reasonings for finding issue with the last minute cancelation.

He stated that the school informed the student director of the play that they had found out about the copyright issue on May 19, three days after the performance was cancelled.

Gerald raised issue with the timing and stated that not only were they given this answer days after the play was canceled, but that administrators had seen the play numerous times before any public performance and had no concern leading up to the May 16 show.

Some members of the community stated that this was a form of ‘censorship’ and that they felt the play was canceled due to ‘religious views’.

The school has not replied to any of questions of concern but restated the copyright issue as the reason for cancelation.

Gerald had also noted in his video that the change to the script was a scene for context that was regularly added by other schools and has been included in the play before.

The schools reasoning behind the cancelation has left many divided.

While some agree that the school did the right thing to avoid possible fines for breaking the copyright laws and a potential for being ‘blacklisted’ from the play rights and potentially more, others state that the school gave a ‘bogus’ excuse and were searching for a reason to give the public.

Regrdless of the reasoning, the cancelation of the play has shed light on some recent events that the public now want answers for.

Gerald mentioned that the students have been without their drama teacher for two weeks after the teacher was removed due to “reasons [they] have not been told.”

He stated that they may have had more guidance had they not had to work by themselves for the last two weeks without a teacher.

Fannin County High School has not stated publicly the reason for removing the drama teacher.

See the full video below of Senior Caden Gerald that was posted to social media:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=9771367882916148&id=100068186834839&mibextid=v7YzmG