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  • 1.  Radium Girls Last Scene Cigarette

    Posted 01-24-2019 07:33

    Some solutions to this one?
    We present Radium Girls next week.  When our principal saw prop cigarettes on our purchase request, he nixed the purchase.  After I wrote an extensive email to him explaining the importance of that one puff at the end and how it plays into the hypocrisy and irony of the show - and the implicit anti-tobacco message - he said to convey that mood without the use of cigarettes.  
    I am at a loss as to how to do that.  
    Does anyone have any suggestions?

    Thank you so much!



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    Dorothea Hackett
    DuBois Area Senior High School
    Troupe 6949
    DuBois, PA
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  • 2.  RE: Radium Girls Last Scene Cigarette

    Posted 01-24-2019 08:36
    First, the real answer. While it's a nice touch, it doesn't directly impact the story, so do the scene without that subtext.

    Now, the realer answers.
    Ask your principal to trust the intelligence of the audience.
    Have the daughter pull out a meth pipe instead of a cigarette.
    Show the daughter refusing to get vaccinated.
    Include a note in the program explaining that Cigarettes have been responsible for more deaths in one day/week/year than radium has ever.

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    Ken Buswell
    Drama Teacher
    Peachtree City, GA
    http://mcintoshtheater.org/

    Theater kills ignorance
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  • 3.  RE: Radium Girls Last Scene Cigarette

    Posted 01-25-2019 08:40
    I agree with Ken--the message of the show is already communicated.  We recently did the show in November and that line got a few chuckles at best.  I don't think it's worth the battle honestly.  

    Break a leg!

    ------------------------------
    Laura Russo
    Teacher/Director of Theatre Arts
    School District of The Chathams
    Chatham NJ
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  • 4.  RE: Radium Girls Last Scene Cigarette

    Posted 01-25-2019 14:21
    How about a hookah pipe!? Just kidding! Seriously?! I am so sorry that you have to justify something as simple and benign as a cigarette prop, especially when it is used as a key moment in the play. I am wondering if you could have another conversation with him and come to some sort of compromise like a  disclaimer in the program about the choice of and importance of the cigarette, but that you are not supporting or encouraging the smoking itself.  Or, can you use a fake pack of cigarettes and have the last moment with her taking the pack out? Or somehow look as if she has already smoked it?

    Good luck!

    --
    Jennifer Jordan
    Director of Theater & Dance
    Miss Hall's School
    413-395-7023