This March will mark College of the Canyons' fifth annual production of the New Works Festival, a weekend-long event that stages performances of student-written plays. This is only my first year involved with New Works Festival, but already I've noticed a few big changes and improvements towards the festival.
To start, this is the first year that plays have been accepted from non-students, in an attempt to get the community involved with College of the Canyons and its programs. Director David Stears has said that community college is based around the idea that everyone in the community is welcome and that he wanted this festival to give a voice to the many other Santa Clarita residents who are not students, but have something to share. Playwrights of this year's festival include students, parents, teachers, and even a 12 year-old and her play about a play disaster.
Next, this year's festival is aimed at really embodying the concept of a "festival," rather than one production staged over the course of a few days. The first night of the festival, March 22, will include a Playwriting Symposium that will showcase the ideas and opinons of playwrights from all over Southern California. Also, following each performance of plays will be a discussion between playwrights, actors, audience members, and College of the Canyons professors who can comment on the subject matter of the plays. This will give play-goers the opportunity to express their feelings about a certain performance, and playwrights the chance to accept constructive criticism and explain anything that was unclear.
Lastly, this production has been given an extra amount of attention due to the content of certain plays and the issues that they raise in the community. One such play, Construction and Deconstruction, by Joe Camhi, is about a father-son mafia duo, and though sentimental at times, the play is set in a backdrop of murders, guns, and violence. The play also includes offensive language, derogatory stereotypes, and a farcical scene involving the explosion of human excrement; however, authorities at College of the Canyons had the biggest problem with the violent situations represented in the play.
Uncomfortable with the idea of using fake guns that looked like real ones, representatives from College of the Canyons suggested using bright orange guns to let everyone in the audience know that they were absolutely fake. Camhi seemed to oppose this idea more than anybody, and argued that the use of outrageous props would take away from the content of his play and sacrifice the overall seriousness of theatre.
This poses a serious issue not only for College of the Canyons, but for school theatres everywhere: is it more important to be politically correct and safe from all risks and threats of violence, or should freedom of expression and the sake of art and theatre come first over all? It is unfortunate that after numerous school shootings across the country, high schools and colleges now must take every precaution when it comes to the use of weapons, even when they are fake.
Perhaps schools can allow the use of fake weapons in certain theatre productions, but keep them secured by the drama director or teacher, so that no one will mistake the fake weapons as real ones. Will the use of imaginary arm swords sacrifice the seriousness of a Shakespeare play, or will it further force students and the audience to use their imaginations in different ways? Either way, the fact is that schools don't mess around when it comes to violence, even if it is staged and phony. It is a shame that art must be censored due to past tragic events in schools, and students will continue to face restrictions on self-expression when it may risk the school's security in any way.
The cast and crew of New Works Festival will just have to wait and see how this issue will effect our final production in the Blackbox Theatre on Thursday, March 22, through Sunday, March 25.
I think theatre has become more and more myopic in the past years, focuing on outlandish acts of violence and sexual deviance (scripts where a man tells a woman all about having sex with a sheep - for those of you out there who don't think this is deviant in the least, please, keep it in your own bedroom.... or barn, as it were).
While Theatre istelf came about as a form of Dyonisian worship, I think it is at its best when it focuses on things that the common man is more likely to encounter, and less about "tough issues facing society today." Old Vaudville was a powerful force during the depression, when it rallied people to better spirits, and it sounds like the festival at your college is seeking a similar effect. By trying to include everyone, not just college students who experiment in more areas than theatre, the art is going to be much more powerful and far-reaching.
I do think it's interesting that the all-evil gun is shunned in college theatre, while in plays like "little girls don't do that," it is acceptable when one actor humps another under the covers of her bed in a rape scene.
jane,
i am also intrigued by the double standard in theatre and film between sex vs. violence vs. drugs and what is okay vs. what is not okay. In history last year, we watched Forest Gump, and were allowed to watch the characters snort cocaine and get blown up by bombs in war, but we were not allowed to watch a scene that even remotely had sexual undertones. i also saw a movie called "This Film is Not Yet Rated," about the rating system in the movie industry and how it can be very unfair. Films that include sex and or vaguely unusual sex scenes are automatically rated R, but films that contain violence, drugs, and derogatory language can get by with a PG-13. Maybe I am getting off topic here, but your comment at the end made me think of this movie and how people's standards of what is "wrong" for audiences to see can differ so widely.
jenn
First, is this being staged at the school or at a theater in the community? If it's at the school, then the no guns rule is obviously in effect, and that's life. But if it's a separate theater, I see no reason why they can't have fake guns on stage.
The play in question sounds far out enough as it is that obviously fake weapons wouldn't harm it. Exploding excrement does a pretty good job of undermining its own seriousness. But maybe the stage weapons can help to highlight the the unreality and numbing quality of excessive stage violence. Or how about a compromise, with guns that look real but have the hammers removed so that even if they were real it would be impossible to fire them?
Finally, regarding stage weapons in general, it depends on the situation. Your mention of Shakespeare immediately reminded me of a quote from Louis Fantasia's "Instant Shakespeare" that was quite apt:
"The only better swordfight I've seen on stage was in Stephen Berkoff's modern-dress version of Hamlet. Here Hamlet and Laertes went at it without swords, instead pointing their index fingers accusingly at each, as children do on a playground. The SOUND that the actors made as they fought-- "whoosh-whoosh, swish-swish"-- electrified the scene and allowed them to fight and to act at a pace that would have been impossibly dangerous had they actually used weapons."
Such restraints may sometimes work to a play's advantage. Whatever happens, break a leg and all that jazz. We have a playwrights conference every summer where I'm from, and it's always a blast.
"CONSERVATIVE, n.
A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others."
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
You've brought up a ton of great points and i also loved the quote, well both quotes, actually. although i think the restraint on fake weapons is a little bit ridiculous, i totally agree that we can work with the ridiculosity of it and use it to the play's advantage. one of the actors suggested a footnote in the playbill that says something like "due to the policies of college of the canyons, we cannot show weapons on stage and must use our fingers as guns" or some sort of statement that poked fun at the policy. the playwright himself jokingly suggested using pillows as guns, and the director suggested making the play even more farcical by using blocks of wood as guns that said on them "GUNS." there are many possibilites to work with, and thanks for your feedback!
I think a simple disclaimer in the play bill or on advertisements should alert people to the situation and remove the squeemish from the audience. I think the "No guns in school" policy clearly applies to personally owned pieces brought for violent/show off reasons, not stage props. The play should be done to the fullest extent that the director and writer want it done. It isn't anyone's place to censor or alter things.
While restrictions may sometimes lead to better performances, I think it is up to the director and writer to choose those restrictions. If the school finds the play objectionable they shouldn't run it. Neutering it isn't an answer.
This is a community college. I think most of the attendees can handle a little violence and refrain from worrying about being murdered by stage actors.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memor mori, mahalo.
Dr. Gonzo,
I agree with you on this! School policies about weapons should not apply to stage props. Although I don't think that restricting realistic-looking fake weapons on stage will completely neuter the play, as there are many other possibilites that may in fact make the play more outrageous.
jenn
To me, not allowing prop weapons to be used in shows is like having sex with your clothes on. It just doesn't work. It requires too much suspension of disbelief on the audience's part and it completely bastardizes all of the hard work that the cast and crew have put into the show.
I'm majoring in music theatre in college and I can't imagine putting on a show without realistic props, especially weapons. How is a viewer supposed to take the content of (for example) "Les Mis" seriously when the Barricade Boys are waving around bright orange guns? Yeah. They can't.
-Paige
If the play is meant to be a realistc - slice of life then yes use, like I we have used in several productions at the University of South Carolina, unloaded guns. The idea that we have had is that the audience is never going to expect a gun is loaded, they know that the theatre is not supposed to be so realistic that we would risk the life of audience members. If it goes so far as to where you are not allowed to use guns and it runs the risk of losing the concept created my the playwright then I say scrap the show. I would rather you do proper justice to someone's show, considering its most likely the first time anyone will ever see it, than try everyway you can to get around weapons and lose any meaning the show had.
All in all this proves to be a great discussion for the group discussions you had planned after each performance haha.
good luck, break a leg.
two years ago we had a play at my high school where somebody got mad at this girls lover and shot him. the play was good and nobody really cared that we had a gun. the last play we did this year involved a gun but the type was a gun where the pellets are plastic so they dont really hurt anybody.