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7814. judithathome - 8/26/2005 4:19:03 AM This appeared in my paper today. Welcome to the American Taliban:
Audiences are staging protests
By ANDREW MARTON
STAR-TELEGRAM SENIOR ARTS WRITER
The play was called The Kiss at City Hall and, at least in the mind of one Circle Theatre patron, its unsparing look at abortion was just too much to stand. So she did just that: stood up in the middle of the production and clomped out.
"But she first stopped in front of the stage," says Circle executive director Rose Pearson, recalling the incident two years ago. "And said to one of the principal actors, 'Young man, you should be ashamed of yourself.' "
An extreme reaction, perhaps, but emblematic nonetheless. Over the last five years, with more and more local theaters -- from Fort Worth's Stage West and Circle Theatre to Dallas'Theatre Three and the Plano Repertory Theatre -- brashly portraying nudity, violence and "adult themes," some audience members are voicing their unequivocal displeasure and dismay.
Fort Worth's Stage West had a scene of full-frontal nudity in its recent staging of The Coming World, and there is a healthy dose of salty language in its current presentation, Port Authority, which finishes its run Sunday.
At last year's Plano Repertory Theatre production of Shakespeare's R&J (based on Romeo and Juliet), several audience members stormed out after a kiss between two men. And last year, Dallas Theater Center's production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog sparked numerous walkouts during several of its scenes heavy with adult language and sexual content. Meanwhile, Theatre Three's January 2004 musical production of The Wild Party, with its staged orgy, unleashed a tidal wave of e-mails and phone calls.
One audience member actually called the director a "spawn of Satan" in an angry e-mail, says Kimberly Richard, the theater's director of publications and communications.
In an e-mail to the Star-Telegram, Mary Ann and Ray Scheel aired some of their discomfort with Stage West's Port Authority.
"There isn't any real reason to be so blunt either in word or action," they wrote. "I believe that it is just as harmful for adults to continually hear this in plays, TV or films as it is for children. It does damage to us mentally whether we are conscious of it or not, and this in turn [a]ffects our relationship with our spouses and offspring . . ."
Stage West's producing director, Jerry Russell, who directs Port Authority, is often the target of either audience adulation or outright rejection of his theater's grittier work.
"In Port Authority, a young man uses the language of young people today, talking openly about sexual things, and certain parts of that really bother some in the audience," says Russell, 69. "The protests we get reflect the much sharper divide right now along moral lines in the country as a whole."
Circle Theatre's Pearson says theatergoers are much more blunt these days about expressing their scalding displeasure with material they deem offensive. "They don't mind disturbing the performance and just leaving in the middle -- it's all about immediate gratification in making their complaint," says Pearson.
Anticipating these more barbed reactions, local theaters are warning their audiences with greater clarity -- through a movie-rating-like system, plus a barrage of brochures, postcards, e-mails and recorded box-office messages -- about every element of a production, from foul language to smoking on stage.
"We all now have an obligation to let people know what they are in for," says Terry Martin, producing artistic director of WaterTower Theatre in Addison, whose May 2006 production of Take Me Out will be publicized as containing "locker-room nudity."
While some theaters are concluding that their audiences desire a stronger mix of lighter fare with some more jarring social drama -- Fort Worth's Circle Theatre's next two productions are the decidedly sudsy Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie and Guys on Ice, a musical about ice fishermen -- other theaters understand that controversial subject matter can produce controversy -- and boffo box office.
Kitchen Dog Theater, which will present Bug in September, with its 20 minutes of male and female nudity, certainly recognizes this. Its production of The Dead Monkey, which featured darkly comic adult situations, incited audience outcries but also became one of the theater's biggest sellers.
"Oh, yeah," agrees Richard Hamburger, artistic director of Dallas Theater Center. "From our Topdog/Underdog to Big Love, Six Degrees of Separation and Angels in America, pretty much all of our shows that have been controversial, and moved from the arts pages to the news pages, have all ended up doing one thing: selling more tickets."
7815. judithathome - 8/26/2005 4:20:33 AM It does damage to us mentally whether we are conscious of it or not, and this in turn [a]ffects our relationship with our spouses and offspring .
Then stay home and avail yourself of Reader's Digest. 7816. Ulgine Barrows - 8/26/2005 8:04:25 AM Ms. No 7808, I am avoiding Coldplay because I'm smart enough not to be media victim, heh. It just seemed to be hyped too much, as you pointed out. I might buy it later.
I'd shoot you a scornful Styx look, but I really like their early stuff, so I won't. Death to Mr. Roboto, however. I hate that song. Bunch of juvie punks sneering at their Depression-era parents' hard work. Nothing like Styx's earlier work; that they came out with the roboto song after they were 'stars' is no surprise. They just got caught in a different machine than their parents did.
One of the first rock concerts I went to was when Styx released Equinox. After Grand Illusion, we parted ways.
I have a 1975 Bad Company concert t-shirt, too, and I melt every time I hear those first strains of
"Johnny was a school boy
When he heard his first Beatles song"
I cut that t-shirt up real fancy in the flashdance days. Hmm. Wonder what it'd fetch on ebay.
I really like the new Liz Phair "Everything to Me".... her fans have been disappointed in her, too. Said she didn't live up to "Exile in Guyville." And her response was, she was moving on to other things, to paraphrase.
Perhaps Styx will redeem themselves with me. They just turned psycho when they made it big, it seemed. 7817. Macnas - 8/29/2005 9:46:26 AM Styx were never popular here in the old world, the odd tune would chart now and then, much like Toto and Speedwagon.
I did hear enough of a tune by one of the Styx band members to detest it forever. Desert Moon it was, an awful radio friendly thing, truely dire in all respects. 7818. Magoseph - 8/29/2005 1:57:05 PM John G. Roberts Jr. could have easily ignored the letter from E. F. W. Wildermuth that came across his desk in December 1982. The correspondent, an octogenarian lawyer from New York, made an obscure procedural point about the Senate's jurisdiction based on his interpretation of the 17th Amendment; it was not the sort of question that would typically require serious attention from the White House counsel's office, where Mr. Roberts worked at the time.
The Grammarian 7819. Macnas - 8/30/2005 1:47:00 PM For Billie Holiday fans, some music.
7820. Macnas - 9/5/2005 4:31:23 PM Turners "The Fighting Temeraire" has been voted the greatest painting on display in England.
Good choice, it's on my picture wall already. 7821. Magoseph - 9/6/2005 10:34:15 AM Nick Spitzer on New Orleans' Cultural History 7822. jexster - 9/6/2005 5:32:00 PM Don't know him...I moved from NO to DC in 1973 7823. Ms. No - 9/6/2005 9:52:11 PM Juditha,
Back in the 70's in Spartanburg it was the done thing to show up to the local production of Hair in order to storm out in a dither after the nude scene......which everyone knew was coming.
If people don't want to be offended then they ought to just stay the fuck home with their Precious Memories statuettes and Church approved reading.
Honestly, the very idea that your personal offense meter is more important than my enjoyment of live theater is beyond absurd. I paid my money to see this, I'm enjoying it. If you need to masturbate your ego by causing a scene do it on your own dime.
I think people should be fined and penalized for disturbing live performance.
"You're not grown-up enough to watch live theater. Sorry, there's a $50 fine for disrupting the production and you're now barred from attendance." 7824. Ms. No - 9/6/2005 9:52:36 PM Mac,
No, I haven't heard of him. I'll keep an ear out. 7825. Ms. No - 9/6/2005 10:14:59 PM Ulgine,
The problem was that Dennis DeYoung lost his freakin' mind. The Roboto album killed the band. They hated the album, they hated the concert and they hated DeYoung when it was all said and done.
Tommy Shaw left the band, John Panozzo died, JY and DeYoung both went solo and DeYoung gave us Desert Moon (gag!) . Then they got back together to do a greatest hits album and a re-recording of Lady. They did a reunion tour, hit big and decided they still didn't like DeYoung. So they replaced him as lead singer and went on tour without him. Then Chuck went public with his HIV status and he left the band mostly ---but played some of their live dates. They settled their lineup cut two albums and apparently have an album of covers out right now that kicks ass.
Best Thing, Blue Collar Man, Snowblind, Suite Madame Blue, Crystal Ball....those are the songs I love, but I can still sing along to every word of every album since Tommy Shaw joined the band up through Kilroy. I'm such a geek. 7826. Ms. No - 9/6/2005 10:22:06 PM Oh, hey! Ulgine, if you like the older stuff best (and who doesn't) the Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings came out earlier this year. It's a double album CD with 35 re-mastered cuts for $20. Good deal! 7827. Macnas - 9/8/2005 7:06:46 PM I am now listening to Linton Kwesi Johnson, Independent Intavenshan.
Thank you. 7828. alistairconnor - 9/9/2005 11:34:45 AM A top natch poet.
Mmmm I need to pirate those 80s LKJ albums. I own the vinyl, after all, it wouldn't be a breach of copyright would it? 7829. Macnas - 9/9/2005 11:55:42 AM I won't tell if you don't.
I've rediscovered my reggae stash, and am overdosing on the likes of Johnson, I Jah Man and Big Youth.
Hey, I know I'm Irish and dead fish belly white, but you'd have to be deaf not to like that dub. 7830. Ulgine Barrows - 9/17/2005 8:31:58 AM Ms No, Suite Madame Blue, OK I'll play that card. Maybe. I abhor Mr Roboto so badly, you see. I liked reading your summation of the band's end credits.
eMusic has Peter Murphy 'Love Hysteria'.
You can join for a free two weeks and get free 50 tracks. I think you are smart enough to read the sign-up, you initially have to give a credit card and if you don't like the serive then you quit. If you forget, they charge you.
If you do decide to join, please email me, as I will also get free stuff, but no pressure if you don't like the service. They have no Britney Spears or Nirvana, current big names....it is all indies. Or they have bought out the rights of older stuff as with Peter Murphy, and the first Coldplay and 50 cent, also some excellent jazz and classical cuts.
Love Hysteria
http://www.emusic.com/album/10766/10766765.html
ulgine@hotmail.com 7831. Ulgine Barrows - 9/17/2005 8:56:10 AM Oh good grief, I forgot how much I like his Indigo Eyes.
I have his albun with Cuts You Up. 7832. Ms. No - 9/23/2005 4:33:04 PM Hmmm....I just might give that a try. I'll let you know if I do, Ulgine.
7833. Ms. No - 9/23/2005 4:33:47 PM Connor,
I don't think it's wrong to download stuff you already paid for. Especially if you bought it on cassette!!! I've got no qualms about replacing old worn out cassette recordings or backing up my vinyl so I can travel with it.
One of my favorite albums ever Thanks I'll Eat It Here --- Lowell George's only solo effort --- I've bought twice on CD. The first one disappeared and the second one was so badly mistreated during a raucus house party that most of it won't play anymore. The man is dead, he's got no children and I've already paid for the right to listen to it twice.
Now if only it were all actually available online.
Sheesh.
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