What a beautiful and impactful show! We just did The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time for our fall play in November. It was a joy to direct! Initially, I had planned to keep the language in the show, thinking mostly high schoolers would be cast in the play. However, I ended up with several middle schoolers in the play (who were exceptionally talented), but the amount of swear words felt larger with the younger kids on stage.I made a phone call to Dramatist Play Services and explained our situation and asked what could be done to tone down the language. Very quickly they were able to give me permission to remove the words "shit" and "fuck" - but no others. As a cast we met and went over the script, discussing the purpose of each use of "shit" and "fuck" in the play and how it affected the dramatic moment. Then we voted on whether we felt each one was necessary or if we could portray the true intention of the moment with acting choices without the swear word. We probably cut the amount in half in the end.An example a moment that the cast & I felt that a word was necessary was in scene 22 when Ed hits Christopher. We felt it was vital Ed say "What the fuck am I going to do with you?" which comes a few moments before Ed hits Christopher. We felt that this father, grappling with his own frustration would turn to <g class="gr_ gr_2683 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="2683" data-gr-id="2683">swearing</g>
before he would turn to <g class="gr_ gr_2684 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="2684" data-gr-id="2684">hitting</g>
his son.
Also I have heard an abridged version exists - I have NO EXPERIENCE with this version, but it is an Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time-Abridged-ebook/dp/B07QG34HC9I hope this helps - best of luck!Exit Stage Right, Becky Beth Benedict------------------------------
[Becky Beth [Benedict]
[Theater Teacher, Director & Arts Dept Chair]
[The MacDuffie School
[Granby] [MA]
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-15-2019 11:14
From: Zachary Magan
Subject: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
Yes, thank you! For anyone interested, I emailed nonpro@dramatists.com and asked for the removal or alteration of language. I had read in past post, on EdTA, to be very specific. In my email, I stated the page and word I was wanting to remove or alter. They emailed me back the following day, giving me permission.
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Zachary Magan
Theatre Director
Elk Grove CA
Original Message:
Sent: 07-15-2019 07:29
From: Sharon Chadwick
Subject: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
I emailed and asked to take out the F word and other curse words. They granted permission in an email.
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Sharon Chadwick
Theatre Director
Henderson NV
Original Message:
Sent: 07-10-2019 22:26
From: Zachary Magan
Subject: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
Hello All!
I'm planning on doing THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME this fall, but I was wondering, from those of you who've produced the play, how did you handle the language? Were you successful in requesting permission to tame it? I've heard some directors were granted to use bloody instead of f*%#$. I look forward to reading what your experiences were.
Thank you,
Z
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Zachary W. Magan
Theatre Director
Elk Grove CA
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