[NEohioPAL]Re: Smoking

[Michael D Sepesy]

The debate about smoking has gotten somewhat out of hand.  While I
dislike cigarette smoke, am in fact allergic to it, and applaud recent
laws that ban smoking from public places -- especially bars and night
clubs where the quantity of smoke could in fact be injurious, the notion
that a limited number of cigarettes for a short span of time is
physically harmful shows a lack of understanding of why cigarettes are
dangerous.  Recently, a British study listed alcohol and cigarettes as
two of the top 5 most dangerous drugs around.  (I'm curious as to whether
people vehement about cigarettes are also nondrinkers.)  Cigarettes were
listed above marijuana in terms of the damage the cause.  :Looking at the
issue more closely, however, one can see that cigarettes are so
destructive because people use them every day.  No one smokes 4 packs of
marijuana cigarettes a day--that substance is used mostly recreationally,
even by habitual users.  The smoking habit is the problem, as is living
around someone who has the habit.  Smoking for two months for a show will
not cause cancer.  any of the celebrities mentioned in a previous email
were habitual smokers (John Wayne was also exposed to radiation during
his film about Genghis Khan, a project that resulted in many cancer
deaths later, and so his case may not be completely attributable to
cigarettes).

That being said, during the Beck Center's excellent production of Equus,
Dan Folino puffed voluminous clouds of cigarette smoke into the air.  A
note in the program explained why the decision was made to have real
cigarettes on stage.  However, while I didn't fear for my life or the
actor's the act was simply obnoxious.  Theaters will generally go to
great lengths to avoid annoying their patrons.  That's why you don't see
many all-farting productions of Guys and Dolls.  Bang and Clatter's
production of Griller  featured a character who urinates all over an
outdoor grill.  Quite frankly, I didn't mind that the actor didn't use
real urine, or that his plastic false male member was visibly a
simulation.  In that company's subsequent version of Red Light Winter,
the use of an herbal substitute for a joint was perfectly acceptable, and
no one felt cheated that two of the characters did not actually have
sexual intercourse.  (I don't know how the actors themselves felt, but I
imagine they were okay with it.)

Tony Brown is wrong to suggest that smoking might be covered under one's
right to free speech.  Simulation occurs on stage all the time.  We don't
expect real houses on stage or real automobiles.  It's ill advised to run
a real chainsaw in performance and spew gasoline exhaust into the air,
regardless of whether or not the act would constitute a health hazard. 
People use fake knives, prop guns, costumes pinned together to look like
authentic period clothing, iced tea instead of alcohol, stinky herbs
instead of marijuana, etc., etc.  Smoking in and of itself is not some
pure act that must only be performed in its pristine genuine state in
order to provide a show with suitable authenticity.  Murder and birth are
much more important acts and are done artificially all the time.  If an
audience can accept two guys sitting on folding chairs and one guy
steering with a pie plate as an acceptable substitute for driving a car,
crowds would perfectly accept an unlit cigarette to indicate that someone
is smoking.  Smoking, while not necessarily harmful, is quite simply an
annoyance that may be simulated without a great loss to a show's artistic
integrity.