They include life's tragedies, hardships and woes. They are elevated and presented on stage usually in a rather realistic manner, which is frightening to the audience due to the human nature's instinct to avoid what scares them the most.
There has never been a widespread restraint system in the United States in relation to theater due to the fact that works like this are treated the same as any other idea printed on a piece of paper and the constitution protects the productions under freedom of speech. Even with that, that is not saying there has never been a censorship of theater within the United States, it has just been done on a local level. In this sense, it is communities of people that are challenging the works that theaters are doing and because of this, the major conflicts have been spaced out over time and there has not been one specific place that this occurs. Looking at theater censorship in its earliest forms dates back to the colonial times when the English influence made people weary and scared of theater and acting. The theater was outlawed for a rather long time and in doing so, the culture grew which also expanded religious diversity amongst the colonies during that time. With the expansion of America came an influx of religious and community diversity, which would of course mean that some group would demand theatrical productions in one sense or another. By doing so, it did not seem to make any sense to have a law that banned all theater across the country because of the high demand. .
Because certain communities wanted it more than others, the censorship and feeling the communities had made it so that they were the only ones speaking out about their concern for what was being performed and how. Demographics began to form, as they would naturally among any newly formed country or region. With that came the varying views and religious beliefs of different communities, which resulted in what we now know very well to be censorship amongst different communities due to the leaders and the members.