[NEohioPAL]Smoking Ban in Public

[Christopher Fortunato]

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Two seasons ago, I was in a professional musical production that had a number of injuries from young dancers who were giving it their all.  My experience with producers is that they make sure treatment and paperwork is successfully carried out.  Worker's compensation in Equity productions has always been faithfully adhered.
   
  One of my first jury cases as a lawyer was securing worker's compensation benefits for a ballet dancer.  The testimony of what a ballet dancer had to go through for warm ups, practice, basic positions esp. turnouts of the hip will lend to osteo arthritis in middle age and, subsequently, the diminution of a dancer's career into character parts in dancing.
   
  I really think the comparison of smoking to other stage hazards does not bear scrutiny.  Speaking as someone who smoked Lucky Strikes with his mother for nine months, the theatre going public and fellow actors are not going to suffer deleterious affects from such smoking.  It is a wonder, though, that so many actors smoke on break when one's lungs are so important to ensuring one's voice is heard in the back row.  (I was trained before there were stage microphones.)

  As for obscenity and nudity on stage, the two concepts are not necesarrily the same.  One of my first Broadway shows I saw, back in 1981, "The Elephant Man" had Carole Shelley bare her breasts on stage to the Elephant Man when he lamented he had never seen a women's breasts and would most likely never do so.  Obscene, no.  Nudity, partial, yes. Acceptable?  Absolutely.  Other examples of nudity include "The Lisbon Traviata", "Hair", "Oh, Calcutta" and "Jeffrey", a Paul Rudnick comedy where this writer ended a scene clad in nothing more but a jock (thank you, Brian Z.) 
   
  Obscenity is usually determined by community standards, but the consensus of the law on that subject will define obscenity as contact between partners or ejaculation.
   
  Some conservatives (many in acting who are too afraid to say they are for fear of not getting cast or losing friends) have the discernment to know the difference.  
   
  Christopher Fortunato
  
TONY BROWN <TBROWN at plaind.com> wrote:
  actors and other performers are asked to make many sacrifices. chevy chase and jerry lewis have suffered damage to their bodies from taking pratfalls. ballet dancers, from an early age, contort their bodies into unnatural postures. opera singers risk their vocal chords with demanding scores. smoking a cigarette, or an herbal cigarette, onstage once a night (or twice on matinee days) hardly constitute a life-threatening undertaking, unlike using a loaded gun or an unbuttoned epee. as for obscenity and nudity on stage, plenty of right-wing nut-cases who believe that they are unhealthy, possibly even enough so as to cause eternal damnation.

at any rate, the first ammendment is likely to prevail here.

tony 

>>> "" 4/15/2007 3:44 PM >>>


Mr. Brown, From my perspective as a member of the Cleveland theater community for almost two decades as well as a former health care professional, I find the comparison of the smoking ban in public places, to attempts to censor language and nudity onstage almost laughable. Language and nudity do not constitute a public health hazard, while the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke are well documented. I wonder, would any of the directors mentioned in your article ask an actor to take a loaded gun on stage? Or stage a fight with sharpened/pointed swords or knives? Of course not. According to the Center for Disease Control smoking related illnesses killed 10 times more Americans than guns in 2006. Not only is the ban now the law, it is also the will of the people, many of whom patronize our theaters. I've been involved in numerous productions where lines were cut/edited or situations adapted because of length, time, or whatever need the director felt had to be met. Why is 
this different? Change is an inevitable part of life. Our challenge as artists is to embrace the changes and to adapt.Compared to the welfare of actors and audiences, what should our priority be? After all...it is just a play. Very truly yours, Robert J. Williams

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<div>Two seasons ago, I was in a professional musical production that had a number of injuries from young dancers who were giving it their all.  My experience with producers is that they make sure treatment and paperwork is successfully carried out.  Worker's compensation in Equity productions has always been faithfully adhered.</div>  <div> </div>  <div>One of my first jury cases as a lawyer was securing worker's compensation benefits for a ballet dancer.  The testimony of what a ballet dancer had to go through for warm ups, practice, basic positions esp. turnouts of the hip will lend to osteo arthritis in middle age and, subsequently, the diminution of a dancer's career into character parts in dancing.</div>  <div> </div>  <div>I really think the comparison of smoking to other stage hazards does not bear scrutiny.  Speaking as someone who smoked Lucky Strikes with his mother for nine months, the theatre going public and fellow
 actors are not going to suffer deleterious affects from such smoking.  It is a wonder, though, that so many actors smoke on break when one's lungs are so important to ensuring one's voice is heard in the back row.  (I was trained before there were stage microphones.)<BR></div>  <div>As for obscenity and nudity on stage, the two concepts are not necesarrily the same.  One of my first Broadway shows I saw, back in 1981, "The Elephant Man" had Carole Shelley bare her breasts on stage to the Elephant Man when he lamented he had never seen a women's breasts and would most likely never do so.  Obscene, no.  Nudity, partial, yes. Acceptable?  Absolutely.  Other examples of nudity include "The Lisbon Traviata", "Hair", "Oh, Calcutta" and "Jeffrey", a Paul Rudnick comedy where this writer ended a scene clad in nothing more but a jock (thank you, Brian Z.) </div>  <div> </div>  <div>Obscenity is usually determined by community
 standards, but the consensus of the law on that subject will define obscenity as contact between partners or ejaculation.</div>  <div> </div>  <div>Some conservatives (many in acting who are too afraid to say they are for fear of not getting cast or losing friends) have the discernment to know the difference.  </div>  <div> </div>  <div>Christopher Fortunato</div>  <div><BR><B><I>TONY BROWN <TBROWN at plaind.com></I></B> wrote:</div>  <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">actors and other performers are asked to make many sacrifices. chevy chase and jerry lewis have suffered damage to their bodies from taking pratfalls. ballet dancers, from an early age, contort their bodies into unnatural postures. opera singers risk their vocal chords with demanding scores. smoking a cigarette, or an herbal cigarette, onstage once a night (or twice on matinee days) hardly constitute a life-threatening
 undertaking, unlike using a loaded gun or an unbuttoned epee. as for obscenity and nudity on stage, plenty of right-wing nut-cases who believe that they are unhealthy, possibly even enough so as to cause eternal damnation.<BR><BR>at any rate, the first ammendment is likely to prevail here.<BR><BR>tony <BR><BR>>>> "" <BOBBYWMS1 at EXCITE.COM>4/15/2007 3:44 PM >>><BR><BR><BR>Mr. Brown, From my perspective as a member of the Cleveland theater community for almost two decades as well as a former health care professional, I find the comparison of the smoking ban in public places, to attempts to censor language and nudity onstage almost laughable. Language and nudity do not constitute a public health hazard, while the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke are well documented. I wonder, would any of the directors mentioned in your article ask an actor to take a loaded gun on stage? Or stage a fight with sharpened/pointed swords or knives? Of course not.
 According to the Center for Disease Control smoking related illnesses killed 10 times more Americans than guns in 2006. Not only is the ban now the law, it is also the will of the people, many of whom patronize our theaters. I've been involved in numerous productions where lines were cut/edited or situations adapted because of length, time, or whatever need the director felt had to be met. Why is <BR>this different? Change is an inevitable part of life. Our challenge as artists is to embrace the changes and to adapt.Compared to the welfare of actors and audiences, what should our priority be? After all...it is just a play. Very truly yours, Robert J. Williams<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com <BR>The most personalized portal on the Web!<BR><BR>Sign up for FREE breaking news updates at cleveland.com/updates<BR>_____________________________________<BR>Support Neohiopal - learn how here:
 http://www.fredsternfeld.com/neohiopal.htm#support<BR>______________________________________<BR>Neohiopal is SELF-SERVE. If you need to unsubscribe, change from digest to one-at-a-time delivery or vice-versa, go on hiatus while out of town, switch from mime to plain text or vice-versa, etc. check out the FAQS at http://www.fredsternfeld.com.<BR>_______________________________________<BR>Disclaimer: The facts and/or opinions expressed in this message are solely those of the person in the "from" or "reply-to" header. The fact that this message is posted should in no way be taken as an endorsement by the administrator of this list. Subscribers should perform due diligence for all goods, services and activities promoted on NEohioPAL.<BR><BR>NEohioPAL mailing list<BR>NEohioPAL at lists.fredsternfeld.com<BR>http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p> 

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