Dramatists Legal Defense Fund

Each year at the #DramatistsGuildAwards the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund presents the Defender Award in recognition of an individual's or a group of individuals' efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts. We are thrilled to celebrate the recipients of this year's DLDF Defender Award: Liberty Welch and Maggie Lawson! On September 2, when their upcoming theatrical production was unceremoniously canceled by the administration of the University of Central Oklahoma, theatre students Maggie Lawson and Liberty Welch decided that the show must go on. They posted a TikTok video that went viral and set up a GoFundMe account to raise the money to produce the play off-campus. They ended up receiving five times the amount they needed to license the play, pay the student actors and crew working on the show, and rent a nearby venue. The students donated the remaining funds to local queer charities, such as the Youth Homeless Alliance. Liberty Welch (She/They) is a Junior Theatre Performance major at the University of Central Oklahoma. They are currently completing their B.F.A. and plan to pursue an M.F.A. after graduation. She graduated from Classen School of Advanced Studies at Northeast with a diploma certification in Drama. Following that, at UCO, they have been part of over 11 productions as a performer. They also founded and are the current president of the UCO Theatre Society for the 2025-26 School Year. She made her directorial and producer debut in 2025 with Boy My Greatness by Zoe Senese-Grossberg, presented by herself and her co-director, Maggie Lawson. They were also a 2025-26 ACTF Irene Ryan Scholarship finalist for Region 6. She continues her work in theatre in the hope of making and advocating for theatre to be more accessible and inclusive for low-income and queer individuals in her home city, OKC! Maggie Lawson (She/Her) is currently a junior Theatre Performance Major at the University of Central Oklahoma. She has been doing theatre for 4 years, and made her directorial debut with Boy My Greatness! After graduating she plans to attend graduate school for performance, and continue to learn as much as possible!

Every Thursday this month we’ll be sharing a resource for theatre educators to use in the classroom! Today, we’re uplifting our toolkit for producing theatre on college campuses during turbulent times: Dramatic Changes. This resource was compiled by the DLDF and explores how students and educators can work to resolve tensions between the importance of free expression and the need to advance values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access when producing shows on college campuses. John Weidman, President of the DLDF, explains more on slide 2. To access Dramatic Changes, head to the link in our bio! #TheEducatorsStage

Congratulations to this year's recipients of the DLDF Defender Award! The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund presents the Defender Award each year to recognize an individual, group, or organization’s efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts. This year, the board of the DLDF has selected the Santa Rosa theater community, including teachers and students at Santa Rosa High School, a local theater, and other theater artists, for coming together and pushing back against the administrators who sought to cancel the school production and then helping the students write and perform a play in response, using theater itself to highlight the impact of such censorship. For their actions, the DLDF board has named drama teacher Jereme Anglin, on behalf of the ArtQuest theatre program at Santa Rosa High School, as one of this year's recipients. The other recipients selected are Dean Jahnsen and Leila Paine, on behalf of their fellow students at Santa Rosa High School, who led a fight against the school's attempt to shut down their production of Dog Sees God and then helped create a new theatrical work, [REDACTED], to comment on their experience; Brent Lindsay, artistic director of The Imaginists theater company of Santa Rosa, who helped the students create [REDACTED], and The Mercury Theater of Petaluma, for providing a new home for Dog Sees God after performances were suspended at the high school.

The DLDF Action Task Force invites you to take action alongside fellow dramatists to confront censorship and related issues through our targeted Action Alerts. For clickable links and a version of the message that you can copy and paste, visit the link in our bio!

This #GivingTuesday we wanted to say THANK YOU to all of our supporters, donors, and champions of #freeexpression. We could not do it without you. . . . . . . . . . @javiermofficial @judykuhnofficial @fouadofny #censorship #broadway #theater #theatrecensorship #theatercensorship #becausewordsmatter #theaterkids #

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund

More speech not less. We are glad to learn the students at @srhspanthers will be able to finish their production of #DogSeesGod. after the district tried to cancel it. Controversial works belong on stage, even if they are difficult. Learn more in our #dldftoolkit /college-theatre-toolkit

No good deed: Broadway's underlying texts are #banned in FL schools @wicked_musical @wickedmovie @funhomemusical @bwaycolorpurple @w4emusical See the full list: /4nfthnzt You can help by visiting: #theatre #broadway #censorship #anticensorship #theater

From @ucberkeleyofficial "Two centuries later, performance spaces still struggle with ‘soft censorship’" Read more: https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/24/two-centuries-later-performance-spaces-still-struggle-with-soft-censorship/

Thank you to all who participated, supported, and advocated with us this #BannedTheatre week. Our mission is to advocate, educate, and provide aid to indigent writers and artists who cannot defend themselves. This aid and advocacy may take the form of letters, articles, and lectures in public fora, intervention in litigation through amicus briefs and expert testimony, or finding affordable representation for those caught up in these disputes.   Follow Along at or consider making a donation today. #linkinbio

It’s time to act. Donating to the DLDF this #bannedtheatre week is not just an investment in individual artists but an investment in the broader landscape of free speech and artistic innovation. Every dollar provides crucial legal aid for writers. Help us stop censorship by donating today. Because words matter.

For Banned Together 2024, we bring you three stories from across the world that highlight the undeniable dangers of censorship. Part Three: FOUAD DAKWAR Fouad Dakwar is a Palestinian-American musical theater writer. He describes his work as “punk-rock”. He also has a deft hand at blending humor and politics in his art. “There is power in laughter,” Dakwar says. In the full length interview Fouad describes his time in the New York theater industry; the difficulties he’s faced when sharing his work, the supportive community he’s found, and the hope he has for the future. Discover the full conversation at #linkinbio