Exactly, David! It never hurts to ask. And the way you ask matters.
Listing what you want to change, line by line, citing the page in the acting edition you will be using, shows the playwright that you are being selective, and hopefully have thought about the necessity of each change in your own environment.
Simply asking if you can remove (or worse,
change) offensive language is far too broad a request for any playwright I know. What is offensive in your community? How is the playwright to know? He or she certainly does not want you to rewrite the play.
When I lived in NYC in the 1980s, I heard the dreaded F word used as every part of speech on virtually every subway car I ever rode in. I left there to teach in a Tennessee school where a student could be suspended from school for using the F word even once. I knew that that using "f-ing" was often the playwright's way of emphasizing the word following, and I was not hesitant to ask playwrights to let me delete specific words entirely in order to be able to perform a play in that community.
I have taught in a really liberal school for 18 years, but our parents still don't want to hear our young actors use that language on stage. And I respect that. Theatre reflects life, but it also models life.
------------------------------
C. J. Breland
Asheville High School
Asheville NC
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 04-28-2018 03:41
From: David Ellis
Subject: Rumors - Neil Simon
I directed Rumors last fall and was given permission to change some of the script. I wrote the playwright's people with hopes of contacting the playwright to ask for some flexibility with some of the stronger language. I was sent a very specific line by line list of changes that Neil Simon would allow, but was asked to try our best to change as little as possible as to not have the language sound silly. I signed an agreement and this was forwarded to SF and it was added to our contract. It never hurts to ask.
------------------------------
David Ellis
Drama and Language Arts Teacher
Auburn Mountainview High School, Auburn, WA.
Original Message:
Sent: 04-23-2018 15:45
From: David Valdes
Subject: Rumors - Neil Simon
Hi there - I directed Rumors at an Independent day school and a Independent boarding school and never changed any of the language. I was hoping to do it again but this time I am at a private independant (very conservative) school. I know that Neil Simon states that you may NOT change or delete any of the text and the show must be done as is. Has anyone had issues with this? I have the perfect cast but am afraid to go against the contract.
David
--
David ValdesDirector of Theatre
UNIVERSITY LAKE SCHOOL
4024 Nagawicka RoadPO Box 290, Hartland, WI 53029
ph: 262.367.6011 x1322 fax: 262.367.3146