SHOW’S OVER

School Theater Trip Canceled Over ‘Age-Appropriateness’ Fears

A parent reportedly worried the performance in “James and the Giant Peach” featured an actor playing both male and female characters.

A Texas school field trip to see a Houston theater performance of James and the Giant Peach was canceled over “concerns raised about the age-appropriateness of the performance,” a school district said. Students in the Spring Branch Independent School District were supposed to see the production—which had been marketed as appropriate for those in first grade and up—but parents were notified this week that the trip had been called off. Cheri Thomas, a Spring Bridge parent, told KTRK the decision may have been informed by a recent school board meeting in which another parent said they were concerned about the Roald Dahl play featuring elements of drag because actors in it play both male and female characters. Main Street Theater’s marketing director said the show is not drag. “Drag is a different art form,” Shannon Emerick said. “There is a whole art form that is drag.”