Monday, March 24, 2008
Court: Smoking ban extends to stage
The Denver Post: "Would Mrs. Robinson be as much of a smoldering volcano in 'The Graduate' if she could not wave her cigarette so suggestively? Would George and Martha's living room broadsides in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' be equally vicious without their boozy veil of smoke?"
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5 comments:
As the last example shows perfectly, smoking can be very meaningful in a play and a fake cigarette can just ruin that effect. If they are banning smoking because of second hand smoke then they should put a clause in there about ventilation and proximity, if they are banning smoking on stage because it may be encouraging people to smoke, then the ban is going against our first amendment right.
Dave, I completely agree with you. Its true that everything looks better with a cigarette. I'm interested to find out what is going to happen with this in the future.
I really hate all this smoking ban stuff. Theatre is about life, and there is smoking in life. Sometimes it's really the only way to convey a feeling or meaning. Smoking in our society has such a strong connotation and it is such a useful one in theatre. Banning onstage smoking is tampering with our right to display life and comment on it.
I think it's funny if a catch a scene on television where the main character is clearly in a deep sorrow moment in his life and take out a piece of candy or gum. It really takes the audience out of the moment immediately. It really makes me think how much trouble they may have crossed for their attempt to use cigarettes in their scenes but clearly failed.
this is one of the most frustrating things to deal with as an artist. The old, "do whatever you want . . . within these confines." as Dave said elements like smoking, drug use, weapons, etc. are important elements to the play, if they weren't needed the playwright would have made that clear. removing these elements is like removing important dialogue, or characters completely. This is an issue that i think we as artists need to address and stand up for. the reasoning for the ban just doesn't hold.
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