Open Forum

Over my 35 years in the classroom, I was regularly astonished at the varying ways that my fellow Theatre Arts teachers handled published scripts.  The attitudes and practices ranged from apparently thinking that the script was so sacrosanct that even the idea of deleting a word was unfathomable to thinking the script was merely a suggestion of a starting point.    

I taught in several very conservative schools and one fairly liberal one.  The reality in those conservative communities was that my high school students would have been relegated to performing only children's plays if we were not allowed to delete certain words.  Some of the words in shows I really wanted to produce would have warranted a two-day suspension had a student said one of them to a teacher.    

I requested and received permission to delete (rarely replace) what my community would consider offensive language many times in order to do plays that I thought would resonate with our student population and speak to the moment when we produced them.  I always listed my specific requests, and I pestered the publishing company representative to forward my requests to the playwright until I finally received an answer.  Call after call, email after email, until I got an answer. 

Sometimes the answer isn't what you want to hear.  For instance, A.R. Gurney agreed to all of my deletion requests, but refused to let us change "spring riots" to "spring unrest."  Fine.  Gurney had a specific time period in mind, one none of my students had been alive to witness, but we honored his request.  Of course.

Playwrights want their work to be performed.  My experience was that playwrights understood when a teacher wrote that she could not produce a play unless a few f-words were deleted.   Neil Simon allowed us to delete the entire praying scene from Fools when I wrote that we would need to select another show unless he approved the deletion.  Tina Howe allowed us to delete the objectionable language from "Museum"--and I seriously doubt that the audience missed the numerous instances of "f---ing" being used as an intensifier before an adjective, adverb, or noun. 

By the way, Ms. Howe was "thrilled" that we wanted to update the dates of birth and dollar amounts in Museum when I directed it again in 2017.  I explained that the dollar amounts that had seemed outrageous when we did it in the early 1990s and early 2000s had lost their power to shock as art prices had skyrocketed.  I asked to set the play in the current time, use an equivalency calculator to change the dollar amount of the year the play was first produced to the current year, and do the same math for the artists' bios read in the script.  I had to contact the rep at Samuel French multiple times, asking them to forward the pdf letter I had written to Ms. Howe and attached to an email to our rep.  Once Ms. Howe received the letter, she responded immediately and enthusiastically. 

I encourage you to honor the playwright's work and not make changes unless you receive permission.  I know that for many schools, the idea that you could be sued is laughable and not an incentive to stay true to the work.  But the script is not merely a suggestion.  We teachers should model respect for the playwright's work, word by word, line by line.  But if a few words mean the difference between you being able to perform a work or not, ask very specifically to delete what you must, and be prepared to go with another show if the playwright cannot grant permission for those changes. 

Keep up the good work!  

          

Over my 35 years in the classroom, I was regularly astonished at the varying ways that my fellow Theatre Arts teachers handled published scripts.  The attitudes and practices ranged from apparently thinking that the script was so sacrosanct that even the idea of deleting a word was unfathomable to thinking the script was merely a suggestion of a starting point.    

I taught in several very conservative schools and one fairly liberal one.  The reality in those conservative communities was that my high school students would have been relegated to performing only children's plays if we were not allowed to delete certain words.  Some of the words in shows I really wanted to produce would have warranted a two-day suspension had a student said one of them to a teacher.    

I requested and received permission to delete (rarely replace) what my community would consider offensive language many times in order to do plays that I thought would resonate with our student population and speak to the moment when we produced them.  I always listed my specific requests, and I pestered the publishing company representative to forward my requests to the playwright until I finally received an answer.  Call after call, email after email, until I got an answer. 

Sometimes the answer isn't what you want to hear.  For instance, A.R. Gurney agreed to all of my deletion requests, but refused to let us change "spring riots" to "spring unrest."  Fine.  Gurney had a specific time period in mind, one none of my students had been alive to witness, but we honored his request.  Of course.

Playwrights want their work to be performed.  My experience was that playwrights understood when a teacher wrote that she could not produce a play unless a few f-words were deleted.   Neil Simon allowed us to delete the entire praying scene from Fools when I wrote that we would need to select another show unless he approved the deletion.  Tina Howe allowed us to delete the objectionable language from "Museum"--and I seriously doubt that the audience missed the numerous instances of "f---ing" being used as an intensifier before an adjective, adverb, or noun. 

By the way, Ms. Howe was "thrilled" that we wanted to update the dates of birth and dollar amounts in Museum when I directed it again in 2017.  I explained that the dollar amounts that had seemed outrageous when we did it in the early 1990s and early 2000s had lost their power to shock as art prices had skyrocketed.  I asked to set the play in the current time, use an equivalency calculator to change the dollar amount of the year the play was first produced to the current year, and do the same math for the artists' bios read in the script.  I had to contact the rep at Samuel French multiple times, asking them to forward the pdf letter I had written to Ms. Howe and attached to an email to our rep.  Once Ms. Howe received the letter, she responded immediately and enthusiastically. 

I encourage you to honor the playwright's work and not make changes unless you receive permission.  I know that for many schools, the idea that you could be sued is laughable and not an incentive to stay true to the work.  But the script is not merely a suggestion.  We teachers should model respect for the playwright's work, word by word, line by line.  But if a few words mean the difference between you being able to perform a work or not, ask very specifically to delete what you must, and be prepared to go with another show if the playwright cannot grant permission for those changes. 

Keep up the good work!  

          

Over my 35 years in the classroom, I was regularly astonished at the varying ways that my fellow Theatre Arts teachers handled published scripts.  The attitudes and practices ranged from apparently thinking that the script was so sacrosanct that even the idea of deleting a word was unfathomable to thinking the script was merely a suggestion of a starting point.    

I taught in several very conservative schools and one fairly liberal one.  The reality in those conservative communities was that my high school students would have been relegated to performing only children's plays if we were not allowed to delete certain words.  Some of the words in shows I really wanted to produce would have warranted a two-day suspension had a student said one of them to a teacher.    

I requested and received permission to delete (rarely replace) what my community would consider offensive language many times in order to do plays that I thought would resonate with our student population and speak to the moment when we produced them.  I always listed my specific requests, and I pestered the publishing company representative to forward my requests to the playwright until I finally received an answer.  Call after call, email after email, until I got an answer. 

Sometimes the answer isn't what you want to hear.  For instance, A.R. Gurney agreed to all of my deletion requests, but refused to let us change "spring riots" to "spring unrest."  Fine.  Gurney had a specific time period in mind, one none of my students had been alive to witness, but we honored his request.  Of course.

Playwrights want their work to be performed.  My experience was that playwrights understood when a teacher wrote that she could not produce a play unless a few f-words were deleted.   Neil Simon allowed us to delete the entire praying scene from Fools when I wrote that we would need to select another show unless he approved the deletion.  Tina Howe allowed us to delete the objectionable language from "Museum"--and I seriously doubt that the audience missed the numerous instances of "f---ing" being used as an intensifier before an adjective, adverb, or noun. 

By the way, Ms. Howe was "thrilled" that we wanted to update the dates of birth and dollar amounts in Museum when I directed it again in 2017.  I explained that the dollar amounts that had seemed outrageous when we did it in the early 1990s and early 2000s had lost their power to shock as art prices had skyrocketed.  I asked to set the play in the current time, use an equivalency calculator to change the dollar amount of the year the play was first produced to the current year, and do the same math for the artists' bios read in the script.  I had to contact the rep at Samuel French multiple times, asking them to forward the pdf letter I had written to Ms. Howe and attached to an email to our rep.  Once Ms. Howe received the letter, she responded immediately and enthusiastically. 

I encourage you to honor the playwright's work and not make changes unless you receive permission.  I know that for many schools, the idea that you could be sued is laughable and not an incentive to stay true to the work.  But the script is not merely a suggestion.  We teachers should model respect for the playwright's work, word by word, line by line.  But if a few words mean the difference between you being able to perform a work or not, ask very specifically to delete what you must, and be prepared to go with another show if the playwright cannot grant permission for those changes. 

Keep up the good work!  

          

Over my 35 years in the classroom, I was regularly astonished at the varying ways that my fellow Theatre Arts teachers handled published scripts.  The attitudes and practices ranged from apparently thinking that the script was so sacrosanct that even the idea of deleting a word was unfathomable to thinking the script was merely a suggestion of a starting point.    

I taught in several very conservative schools and one fairly liberal one.  The reality in those conservative communities was that my high school students would have been relegated to performing only children's plays if we were not allowed to delete certain words.  Some of the words in shows I really wanted to produce would have warranted a two-day suspension had a student said one of them to a teacher.    

I requested and received permission to delete (rarely replace) what my community would consider offensive language many times in order to do plays that I thought would resonate with our student population and speak to the moment when we produced them.  I always listed my specific requests, and I pestered the publishing company representative to forward my requests to the playwright until I finally received an answer.  Call after call, email after email, until I got an answer. 

Sometimes the answer isn't what you want to hear.  For instance, A.R. Gurney agreed to all of my deletion requests, but refused to let us change "spring riots" to "spring unrest."  Fine.  Gurney had a specific time period in mind, one none of my students had been alive to witness, but we honored his request.  Of course.

Playwrights want their work to be performed.  My experience was that playwrights understood when a teacher wrote that she could not produce a play unless a few f-words were deleted.   Neil Simon allowed us to delete the entire praying scene from Fools when I wrote that we would need to select another show unless he approved the deletion.  Tina Howe allowed us to delete the objectionable language from "Museum"--and I seriously doubt that the audience missed the numerous instances of "f---ing" being used as an intensifier before an adjective, adverb, or noun. 

By the way, Ms. Howe was "thrilled" that we wanted to update the dates of birth and dollar amounts in Museum when I directed it again in 2017.  I explained that the dollar amounts that had seemed outrageous when we did it in the early 1990s and early 2000s had lost their power to shock as art prices had skyrocketed.  I asked to set the play in the current time, use an equivalency calculator to change the dollar amount of the year the play was first produced to the current year, and do the same math for the artists' bios read in the script.  I had to contact the rep at Samuel French multiple times, asking them to forward the pdf letter I had written to Ms. Howe and attached to an email to our rep.  Once Ms. Howe received the letter, she responded immediately and enthusiastically. 

I encourage you to honor the playwright's work and not make changes unless you receive permission.  I know that for many schools, the idea that you could be sued is laughable and not an incentive to stay true to the work.  But the script is not merely a suggestion.  We teachers should model respect for the playwright's work, word by word, line by line.  But if a few words mean the difference between you being able to perform a work or not, ask very specifically to delete what you must, and be prepared to go with another show if the playwright cannot grant permission for those changes. 

Keep up the good work!