Last week, in the midst of news stories about a Florida school district banning more than 1,600 books, Izzy Eastman gave an impassioned speech about the power of reading.
“It’s just a book until someone picks it up, until someone opens the cover and starts to read. And then it becomes a window,” said Eastman, a freshman at Firestone Community Learning Center. “It’s not just a window to what I see in the world but to how others see it too.”
The monologue Eastman recited is from “Trial by Fire,” a new play by local playwright Eric Mansfield. It follows a high school English teacher named Georgia Grimm and her five students, who become ensnared in the debate about book banning. When Grimm gives her students books from the state’s list of banned titles, she – and her students – find themselves under investigation. Eastman plays Clara, one of the five students.
For Mansfield, a play that leans into newsworthy current events is right up his alley. He worked as a broadcast journalist for almost 20 years, primarily at WKYC-TV in Cleveland. With a career spent writing copy for television and a love of storytelling, playwriting was a natural fit.
“I look at issues that I think people can relate to and put themselves in that same position,” said Mansfield, who also serves as an assistant vice president in Kent State University’s communications and marketing department. “And I’ve been watching this book banning thing taking off in other places. And now we hit 2024 and red states and blue states are fighting over it.”
Books bans are nothing new, but in recent years, they’ve become more prevalent as conservative politicians and parental rights groups pressure school districts to remove books they deem inappropriate. Oftentimes, these books are written by women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people. In a report from PEN America, the advocacy organization said it recorded “3,362 instances of books banned” in the 2022-23 school year, “an increase of 33 percent from the 2021-22 school year.”
The report goes on to state, “Overwhelmingly, book bans target books on race or racism or featuring characters of color, as well as books with LGBTQ+ characters. … Notably, most instances of book bans affect young adult books, middle grade books, chapter books, or picture books — books specifically written and selected for younger audiences.”
Many of the banned books are titles familiar to teenagers everywhere, including the cast of “Trial by Fire.” (The previously mentioned PEN America report recorded no book bans in Ohio for the 2022-23 school year.)
As the students sat on the stage during a break from rehearsal last week, they discussed banned books that resonated with them. Sophomore Maggie Vollman mentioned the Judy Blume classic, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” Senior Tamirah Coleman mentioned Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” And junior Jordan Benjamin mentioned “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky.
“When I was younger, reading the book and watching the movie ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower,’ that represent[ed] some of the issues that I had seen or faced in my own life,” said Benjamin, who plays Audrey, one of the five students. “As a kid, [it] made me feel so much less alone. The fact that there are kids in areas where these bans are more restrictive, who are maybe questioning their gender identity or their sexuality and aren’t allowed to even read books that say those words must be so isolating.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Mansfield.
“You’re a parent; you get to make decisions for your kids. But should you really be making a decision for every kid that’s out there? Banning ‘Gender Queer’ is punitive,” he said, referring to Maia Kobabe’s memoir, which was banned in 26 districts in the previous school year.
He continued, “A kid that needs that book is a kid that’s on that journey. And the suicide rate of our LGBT community and certainly of our trans community is much higher than normal. They are already chased and disputed and hit obstacles at every turn of their lives. And now you take a book that could maybe enlighten them a little bit away from them? Now you’re telling them that there’s something wrong with them.”
Yes, “Trial by Fire” is a play about freedom of expression and the dangers of censorship. But it’s also a play about the determination of young people when pushed into a corner. And the characters in the play – as well as their real life counterparts – aren’t giving up easily.
“I think this generation right now, all of us are so powerful, because we’ve all been through so much, because our world has changed so much since when our parents were younger,” said cast member Cecilia Bailey. “Since we experienced it at a younger age, we have such a different view on life. And I think that’s why we all believe that we have so much power as kids — even though we’re young.”
Firestone Theatre will present “Trial by Fire” Thursday at 7 p.m., with additional performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Performances take place at the Black Box Theatre inside Firestone Community Learning Center. Tickets are $10.
