A Fort Worth theater that had agreed to show a student-directed play with a gay Jesus character has withdrawn its offer.

The board of directors of Artes de la Rosa, which runs The Rose Marine Theater on North Main Street, decided Thursday against offering the venue for the production of Corpus Christi, just one day after saying it would. A March performance set for a directing class at Tarleton State University in Stephenville was abruptly canceled after the school received threatening emails.

"The decision was reached by the Board of Directors of Artes de la Rosa to withdraw the offer of the venue, The Rose Marine Theater, which had hoped to host the 4 theatre student directors from Tarleton State University," said a statement posted on the theater's Web site Thursday. "The Rose Marine Theater will not be hosting these 4 students and their casts at any time in the future. We appreciate the public response on both sides of this debated issue."

Adam Adolfo, executive director of Artes de la Rosa, said one "violent" threat had been posted on the Rose Marine Facebook page on Thursday.

"Fiscal repercussions and patronage were anticipated, but in terms of violence, we only received one" threat, he said.

"The combination of producing or hosting a production of this caliber and commentary is always difficult," he said. "The board of directors felt at this time that this was not the appropriate venue or appropriate organization to be hosting this particular play."

Adolfo declined to give any other specifics regarding the board's decision to not stage the play.

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