Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 8-6-2007 To Hold as T'were the Mirror Up to Hate: Terrence McNally's Response to the Christian Right in Corpus Christi Richard Kimberly Sisson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Sisson, Richard Kimberly, "To Hold as T'were the Mirror Up to Hate: Terrence McNally's Response to the Christian Right in Corpus Christi." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/20 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. TO HOLD AS T’WERE THE MIRROR UP TO HATE: TERRENCE MCNALLY’S RESPONSE TO THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT IN CORPUS CHRISTI by RICHARD KIMBERLY SISSON Under the direction of Matthew C. Roudané ABSTRACT In 1998, the Manhattan Theatre Club’s staging of Terrence McNally’s play Corpus Christi ignited protest and virulent condemnation from various religious and politically conservative groups which eventually led to the cancellation of the play’s production. This led to a barrage of criticism from the national theatre, gay, and civil rights communities and free speech advocates, including the ACLU and PEN, which issued a press releases about the cancellation that decried censorship and acquiescence by the theatre to neo-conservative religiously political groups.