The Jimmy Kimmel controversy is only the latest in America’s long-running debate over how free “free speech” can and should be.
Ari Edelson has spent his career thinking about issues like that. After earning degrees at both Yale University and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the 1994 Staples High School graduate earned international fame as a producer and director in the US and Europe.
In 2008 Edelson took the helm of the renowned Jean Cocteau Repertory, and reimagined it as the Orchard Project. The unique endeavor grew rapidly. In 2015 it moved to Saratoga Springs, New York.
During 10-day-long residencies, companies and artists are provided room and board, staff support and technical resources.
The program hosts 8 to 12 projects at a time, supporting up to 40 projects every summer. Participants range from playwrights working alone on drafts, to full ensembles in large rehearsal spaces.
Most works are cutting-edge. Some skirt free-speech boundaries or norms.
This summer, Edelson was part of an ACLU panel on censorship in the theater. Part of his remarks were about “Falsettos.”
But he was not talking about the Broadway version of the Tony Award-winning show, with its savage and touching exploration of family, love, religion and AIDS. Edelson remembered the production 31 years ago in Westport.
The one that was censored by the Staples High School principal.
Keith Haring designed the “Falsettos” logo.
In 1994 Edelson — a senior, president of Staples Players (and, in his spare time, chair of the Staples Governing Board) — wanted to cap his high school career by directing his first show ever: a Studio Theater production of “Falsettos.” Like one of the characters in the show, he had had a bar mitzvah at the bedside of a dying relative.
Players director Al Pia helped him secure the rights. On a Monday morning, Pia told him Staples was chosen for the first amateur production anywhere of “Falsettos.” Despite its complex themes and demanding score, it would be entirely student-run, from direction and sets, to lighting and music. Edelson was ecstatic.
An hour later, he was devastated. Principal Gloria Rakovic told him he could not do the show.
“The school had already been subject to controversies about sexual orientation,” Edelson recalls. “She didn’t want the school to be exposed to any more.”
His initial reaction: “You can’t tell me what to say.”
His second: “I’ll find a place to do it.”
Edelson went to a pay phone near the fieldhouse, and called his parents.
Then he called his rabbi, Robert Orkand.
“I wasn’t very religious,” Edelson says. “But I wanted him to know. He said he’d support any decision I made.”
Surreptitiously that afternoon, Edelson held auditions. Forty students — an enormous number for a small-cast show — were there.
The next morning, he posted the cast list. Meanwhile, an English teacher alerted the American Civil Liberties Union. The story was gaining attention.
That same day, the town’s interfaith clergy organization had a meeting with superintendent of schools Paul Kelleher. They told him they would support the students’ right to put on the show.
On Wednesday morning, Pia offered to introduce Edelson to Westport Country Playhouse artistic director Jim McKenzie. The Playhouse, he said, was eager to host “Falsettos.”
Westport Country Playhouse artistic director Jim McKenzie, and Ari Edelson. (Photo/Susan Warner)
That afternoon, the administrator in charge of theater told Edelson that the decision was reversed. He could produce the show at Staples.
Uncertain whether the school would change its mind again, or impose certain restrictions, he stuck with the Playhouse.
“I felt I was in a community that encouraged people to speak out,” he says. “I was trying to speak out for what I thought was right, and not be afraid.”
The 17-year-old could easily have avoided the problems he faced from adults who doubted his and his troupe’s ability to handle a show about homosexuality and religious faith.
The young ensemble could have avoided involvement too. John Newman had to juggle his duties as a baseball co-captain, while other actors and musicians were preparing for a European concert and orchestra tour.
“Falsettos” cast. Top (from left): Joelle Heise, Lindsay Meehan, Roby Cygan. Middle: Joanna Bloomer, John Newman, Charles Carleton, Conor Loughridge. Front: Ari Edelson. (Photo/Susan Warner)
None needed to face questions from friends and parents about why they were so interested in learning about AIDS and gays (and bar mitzvahs).
But they did. And — empowered by community support — “Falsettos” had a 2-week run at the Westport Country Playhouse. It played to full houses, earned rave reviews, and left grown men and women in tears.
During rehearsals, the cast had been inspired by meeting and hearing the stories of AIDS patients at Bread & Roses, the Georgetown hospice. Edelson donated half the proceeds there. The other half went to the Mid-Fairfield County AIDS Project.
The director calls those months “a real learning experience, in a world we were only just learning about. We were 16 and 17 years old. We met optimistic characters, in a time of great uncertainty.”
From top: John Newman, Roby Cygan, Joanne Bloomer. (Photo/John Voorhees)
Not everyone agreed with the decision to produce “Falsettos.” Local media — the Westport News, Minuteman and Norwalk Hour — became “a town square for arguments about whether it was appropriate for kids to be telling these stories.”
It was appropriate then, Edelson believes. And now — more than 3 decades later — he believes it more than ever.
Ari Edelson (right) and Charles Carleton.
“To this day, nothing has been more inspirational, and foundational, in my life.”
Censorship had been defeated.
But in 2025, it remains an ever-present threat. Jimmy Kimmel was one of the most recent examples.
He won’t be the last.
(“06880” occasionally looks back at Westport life — to illuminate the present. If you appreciate stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
One other thing that we learned through this process was the importance of acquiring a pulse oximeter, a tiny little finger meter used to measure 02 circulation. With consistent use it kept us on top of this horrible virus as best we could, highlighting my luck in maintaining sufficient lung function and providing the light and sanity that kept us focused on convalescing and not taxing precious healthcare resources.
