Dear Father Vincent Cooke,
President
Canisius College

As a Polish American, president of the Polish Arts Club of Buffalo and a graduate of Canisius College I find it appalling that the play "Polish Joke" will be staged on the campus of Canisius College. This play is an insult to all Poles. You have no idea what the Poles endured under the Nazis and the Russians. I do. I have relatives who were in Nazi labor camps. Many died there. I have relatives and friends who were persecuted under Stalin and the Russians.
There is no place for this kind of play in our society.
The Polish Arts Club of Buffalo has 400 members. Many are graduates of Canisius College. They have told me that they will no longer contribute to the college because of the play. You have no idea what negative feelings this play has caused in the Polish community.

All ethnic backgrounds should be outraged about any production that insults their heritage.
I ask that the curtain be brought down on this play as soon as possible. The college has always supported Polish art and culture in a positive way. Let it continue to be positive.

Thank you.
Stanley Nowak, President,
Polish Arts Club of Buffalo

Rev. Vincent Cooke
Canisius College
2001 Main St.
Buffalo, NY 14208

Dear Rev. Vincent Cooke,

On behalf of the Polish American Congress, WNY Division, which represents close to 250,000 Polish-Americans in Western New York, I write to you to protest the upcoming production of the play entitled “Polish Joke” that will be presented at the College on June 11, 12, 13, 19, 2009.
The play has been roundly protested during its appearances around the country as an insult to the Polish-American community. While the playwright David Ives claims to be of Polish descent and claims that he sees “Polish Joke” as a positive story of redemption, the amount of crude Polish jokes in the script seems to outweigh any redeeming qualities, Mr. Ives claims.

Because Canisius College has been always looked upon by the Polish-American community in a favorable way, has established a Permanent Chair of Polish Culture, and has educated many youth of Polish-American descent, we are shocked that a play such as “Polish Joke” would find a home at Canisius as well. We venture to guess that Canisius College would be much more timid in hosting a similar play entitled “Black Joke”, “Jew Joke”, or “Catholic Joke”.
We in the Polish-American community, condemn ethnic slurs of any people. We are all God’s children, created in his image, and we hope that a Catholic institution of higher learning condemns them as well. We will let all our people know about the staging of “Polish Joke” at Canisius, and we are considering a public protest on the campus during the production. We urge you to stop this production at Canisius College. We consider the play an insult to our community which is largely Roman Catholic and an insult to all ethnic communities here in Western New York.
Enclosed please find a commentary on the outrageous play “Polish Joke” which was produced at the West Hartford Park Road Playhouse in Connecticut in 2005. This commentary is one of hundreds that we have received. I invite you to a discussion on this issue at your earliest convenience, before the planned staging of the play.

Sincerely,
Richard B. Solecki,
President,
Polish American Congress,
WNY Division

The Polish Joke - American's shame
Roger Puchalski

The issue of the play “Polish Joke” being performed at Canisius College by Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions made its way onto the internet blog for Buffalo Spree magazine last week. The writer, Darwin McPherson, stated: “Based on some out-of-context imagery and second/third-hand accounts, an unidentified writer in the Am-Pol Eagle is calling for their readers to support boycott efforts against Canisius and Kaleidoscope.”
Besides accusing us of censorship, McPherson wrote: “I can understand the Poles’ frustration, but I do not see stifling expression as an answer. Please don’t let ignorance silence creative voices in our community.”
I felt these false assumptions deserved a reply and submitted the following response which was posted on the blog:

***
I strongly beg to differ with Darwin’s interpretation of the Polish-American community’s objections to the play Polish Joke. If he’d like other perspectives, here’s one from a Polish-American who saw the play.
Marek Czarnecki: “From the first scene, Poles are caricatured as fat, dirty working class drunks, sometimes crawling out of pipes with toilet plungers, at other times pulling shiny, greasy kielbasas out of their pockets. The Polish psyche is repeatedly called one of ‘disappointment, discouragement, and despair.’ While the actor Brian Morrell was able to very clearly enunciate Polish expletives, the same actor (as was true of the rest of the cast) was unable to correctly pronounce the name of ‘Kosciuszko,’ even while playing the part of the great Polish-American patriot himself as part of a ‘dream sequence.’ This helped me understand that the priority of the playwright and cast was not one of honor but explicit ridicule.”
If that’s not enough, here’s the last line of NY Times theatre review by Bruce Weber published March 19, 2003: “There’s something way off when the most memorable moment in a zany comedy makes you want to do anything but laugh.”
Or, how about, Martin Denton’s NYtheatre.com review written March 15, 2003: “But too often Polish Joke feels like a gagfest, and a second-rate one at that.”
Maybe African American James Howard penned it the best in June 2008 on Broadwayworld.com: “How does a whole nationality of people feel about being represented by mean stereotypes? Were this play called Jew Joke or Black Joke or Gay Joke, and all it did was portray the stereotypes associated with those cultures, Spotlighters probably wouldn’t present it. And if they did, they would probably be shut down for it. Maybe I’m being sensitive, but on behalf of Polish people everywhere, I’m offended. Maybe the joke’s on me.”
I don’t think those plays mentioned by Mr. Howard will be produced by Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions and shown at Canisius College anytime soon. But, I guess it’s still okay in Buffalo in 2009 to force Polish Americans on radio and in television here to change their names because they’re too ethnic and it’s okay to make fun of us for a few pieces of silver.
***
On Tuesday, as we went to press, Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions’ website no longer had the “Polish Joke” listed. Instead “Grand Slam,” a comedy about baseball, is scheduled to run June 8 to 23. However, if you call for tickets, the message says “Polish Joke” will run June 12 - 27.
It’s too bad in Buffalo with well over 200,000 Polish-Americans, time after time we are still treated like second class citizens particularly in the media and by the media. Here are two quick examples.
WGRZ-TV recently ran a report about a young pop singer from the area that was making a name for herself. However, she couldn’t use her own name. She was Polish-American.
The anchorwoman seemed to endorse the idea of the girl not using her real name. The anchor then proudly pointed out that reporter Dave McKinley wasn’t using his real name either. And, I know of others in radio locally that are forced to change their name in order to take an on-air job.
On a grander scale the following slight was committed by Andre Rieu the Dutch violinist, conductor and composer, while in concert in Wilkes-Barre, PA on May 15. A person who witnessed the peformance wrote: “a number of female cast members walked onto the stage in Dutch folk costumes…One of the women appeared to act ‘stupidly.’ She had her hat on backwards and was acting in a comedic way. Rieu walked over to her, re-adjusted her hat, turned to the audience and said ‘She’s from Poland.’ ”
Enough already.