Subject: RE: PUPT: Eureka!
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 09:45:54 -0500


Speaking of violence, our Forest Floor Players (Bil Bug, Solly Salamander,
et al.) have done Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, albeit severely edited
for time, scope, characters, and so on; pretty much a spoof with a lot of
the songs, nothing done very seriously I'm afraid.  Once the FFP gang got a
very nasty comment from an audience member (via end of summer feedback to
the booking agent)about the innappropriate content--a suicide (throwing
oneself in the river), and talk of a beheading by the Mikado.  Given the
cartoonish nature of this rendition, how anyone could have missed the humor
(present in G&S, and pulled even further by the FFP gang) was beyond me.
Well, it was only one comment, but it felt crummy.  I guess Wiley Coyote and
Roadrunner have their detractors, too.

Wayne Krefting
www.otisrabbitcom
wayne-AT-otisrabbit.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
[mailto:owner-puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu]On Behalf Of Mary
Robinette Kowal
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 11:00 AM
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: PUPT: Eureka!


We performed "Snow Queen" through the North Carolina schools and came
narrowly close to being blacklisted.  It seems that a parent, (one,
single, lone) was telling people that there was a scene with a knife
fight in our performance, and that a robber stabbed several people with
her knife.  She took it upon herself to call all the other schools and
"Warn them about the violence."  We didn't change our show, but I did
have to call every school that we were booked at and explain, "There is
a knife in the scene, but it's paper.  The robber girl waves it
threateningly, but doesn't touch anyone with it, and sees the error of
her ways."

The rest of the schools said "Is that it?"  and re-booked us for the
following year.  Now I will admit, that when I market the show, I now
avoid selling it to kindergarten.  Once a booking happens, I reference
the knife scene and the "funny" blacklisting incident.  We've been fine
since.

Ironically during the writing process we had we had toned down that
scene slightly to avoid such things.  Makes no difference- the people
who want to be offended will be.

Such as the guy who wrote a letter after a public show that said
"Threats and implied violence, indeed!  I am very disappointed."
Without a threat, where's the conflict?  The rest of our audience loves
the show, I fine with loosing a couple of oddballs.

Mary
--
Mary Robinette Kowal
Other Hand Productions
http://www.otherhandproductions.com


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