Trigger Warnings For Live Theater Productions

[+ bigjoey]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/theater/trigger-warnings-plays-theater.html

 

How about a warning the production may have bad writing, acting and singing :)

[+ WilliamM]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/theater/trigger-warnings-plays-theater.html

 

How about a warning the production may have bad writing, acting and singing :)

 

I suffered a concussion eight days ago, so looking at all the warnings the play would not be right for me.

[+ g56whiz]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/theater/trigger-warnings-plays-theater.html

 

How about a warning the production may have bad writing, acting and singing :)

That’s Ben Brantley’s job. Lol

[alkan]

Perhaps the Politics Forum should have had a warning about the possibility of reading views that one disagrees with.

[+ E.T.Bass]

I remember seeing Fun Home and some older man next to me would sigh now and then as if "how soon does this end?"

Apparently his wife didn't clue him in about lesbian love and a gay father storyline. He needed a GAY WARNING.

[N13]

I remember seeing Fun Home and some older man next to me would sigh now and then as if "how soon does this end?"

Apparently his wife didn't clue him in about lesbian love and a gay father storyline. He needed a GAY WARNING.

 

Or he was bored by one of the most boring plays I have ever seen!

[bostonman]

I remember seeing Fun Home and some older man next to me would sigh now and then as if "how soon does this end?"

Apparently his wife didn't clue him in about lesbian love and a gay father storyline. He needed a GAY WARNING.

 

Back in the 90's, when there were still magazines like "Theater Week," I remember an interesting exchange in the letters section. An irate father had written in about the Broadway production of Falsettos, complaining because he had taken his young daughter to see it, and they were completely unaware of the subject of the show, and were shocked. He said that next time, he wouldn't risk taking her to a new show, but something "proven" and "safe" (my words and quotes, but that was his gist) such as Oklahoma.

 

Someone replied that in that case, they hope he'd be ready to explain to his daughter about Ado Annie's behavior...

 

In terms of the trigger warning thing, although I understand the basic principle, I also feel it can be and will be (and already has been) abused. When are such warnings reasonable, and when are they overreaching? It will be too easy to go down that slippery slope of searching for the smallest thing that could offend the smallest amount of people. Or, that moments in a show will be so micro-over-analyzed as to be ridiculously overcautious. After all, if someone can be hugely offended by Daddy Warbucks saying "damn" (this was mentioned in the NY Times article above), where do things stop?

 

I did a production of Billy Elliot a few years ago, for a theatre company that caters to young and family audiences. The show has a lot of raw language, as well as some frank talk about homosexuality and crossdressing, etc. There's also a very funny moment involving a male dancer's endowment. We all wanted to keep as much as we could, feeling that the frankness of the show is truly one of its raison d'etres. We ultimately decided that the sexuality issues (even including the ample dance belt) would stay as is, and we would soften but not eliminate the swearing, especially in terms of the boys' vocabulary. (The script also makes alternative suggestions, so this is all allowed by the authors anyway). We added one more thing - in the pre-show speech, the producer gave a short and professional explanation that this show involved characters going through very difficult and tense times, both personally and as a community, and their language was sometimes understandably rough.

 

If there were any complaints about anything seen/heard in the show, I was never aware of it. The audiences seemed to eat the show up, as a matter of fact. I think we handled everything with just the right balance.

 

The funniest thing was that our young actor playing Billy had done the show before, as written, and in rehearsals, he would keep forgetting not to swear.

[+ E.T.Bass]

Or he was bored by one of the most boring plays I have ever seen!

I doubt it.

Edited November 24, 2018 by E.T.Bass

[+ E.T.Bass]

Back in the 90's, when there were still magazines like "Theater Week," I remember an interesting exchange in the letters section. An irate father had written in about the Broadway production of Falsettos, complaining because he had taken his young daughter to see it, and they were completely unaware of the subject of the show, and were shocked. He said that next time, he wouldn't risk taking her to a new show, but something "proven" and "safe" (my words and quotes, but that was his gist) such as Oklahoma.

 

Someone replied that in that case, they hope he'd be ready to explain to his daughter about Ado Annie's behavior...

 

In terms of the trigger warning thing, although I understand the basic principle, I also feel it can be and will be (and already has been) abused. When are such warnings reasonable, and when are they overreaching? It will be too easy to go down that slippery slope of searching for the smallest thing that could offend the smallest amount of people. Or, that moments in a show will be so micro-over-analyzed as to be ridiculously overcautious. After all, if someone can be hugely offended by Daddy Warbucks saying "damn" (this was mentioned in the NY Times article above), where do things stop?

 

I did a production of Billy Elliot a few years ago, for a theatre company that caters to young and family audiences. The show has a lot of raw language, as well as some frank talk about homosexuality and crossdressing, etc. There's also a very funny moment involving a male dancer's endowment. We all wanted to keep as much as we could, feeling that the frankness of the show is truly one of its raison d'etres. We ultimately decided that the sexuality issues (even including the ample dance belt) would stay as is, and we would soften but not eliminate the swearing, especially in terms of the boys' vocabulary. (The script also makes alternative suggestions, so this is all allowed by the authors anyway). We added one more thing - in the pre-show speech, the producer gave a short and professional explanation that this show involved characters going through very difficult and tense times, both personally and as a community, and their language was sometimes understandably rough.

 

If there were any complaints about anything seen/heard in the show, I was never aware of it. The audiences seemed to eat the show up, as a matter of fact. I think we handled everything with just the right balance.

 

The funniest thing was that our young actor playing Billy had done the show before, as written, and in rehearsals, he would keep forgetting not to swear.

I just saw a production of Billy Elliot where the artistic director explained that the children would be using certain words, so I suppose that was a warning to the crowd to try not being shocked by it. Would be a shame to censor such things like the F word that are a key element. I'd rather have the warning. There was no warning at all about the cross dressing and gay kiss, which is a sign of the times right?

[+ poolboy48220]

A local high school put on "Spamalot: The School Edition". Some of the lyrics were sanitized ("I'm here you twat" was changed to "I'm all you've got" in the "I'm So Alone" number), Sir Lancelot's coming-out disco scene was completely omitted, the number about not succeeding on broadway because the show didn't have any Jews was changed, but they did include the gay marriage scene at the end. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think the show's writers were involved in writing the school edition.

[bostonman]

I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think the show's writers were involved in writing the school edition.

 

I think the original writers are always involved in these school adaptations. Or, at very least, I'm sure that they get final approval of the changes, even if someone else does the work.