We may lose our lighting person - there are two things in the script that bother her and which she feels hurts our character from being a role model. Needless to say, this is odd to me - she is not a dramaturg, she's a lighting designer. If I'd wanted to write a show that would be pablum and watered down so that not one person could take offense at anything, well, I would never write that show - that kind of "safe" drama does not interest me. So, here they are: She doesn't like that Molly talks about her period and how awful it is, how she feels and her wondering why boys don't have to have periods. It's a half-page monologue that leads into a monologue about sex education being taught to twelve year olds. Yes, we go there. Yes, Sami loves those monologues and much of the content came from her experiences. Frankly, I think most fourteen year old girls would tell you they don't like having a period. The fact that our character goes there is because that's who she is - she'll talk about anything. Now, is the audience taken aback when she first says, "Here's a question I think needs answering - who here thought girls having a period was a good idea?" When no one reacts, she says, "Exactly." Now I will tell you when the word period comes out of her mouth you can feel the audience going "Did she really just say that? Is she really going to talk about that?" It happened at our reading and it happened at the workshop and I LIKED that it happened. But as Molly continues and they realize "Yeah, she is going there" they start to laugh and they're completely with her by the end of it as we go into the sex ed monologue, which, in content, is stronger than the period monologue, but again, they TEACH this crap to twelve year olds so my feeling is - fair game to yak about. The other thing is Molly doesn't love science and she hates math, and this lighting person took exception to that. Well, sorry, there are probably hundreds of thousands of students who will tell you the same thing. Should I rewrite Molly and have her say "I love all my classes and teachers and all my fellow students." - I don't think so. First off, she likes one specific aspect of science (dissecting frogs) and second off, yes, she hates algebra and doesn't understand when it will ever help her in her life. So what? She DOES algebra, she passes algebra but she doesn't, in my opinion, have to LIKE it or understand it. However the POINT of that monologue isn't algebra at all - it's to get us to the demonstration of Common Core math - that is its sole purpose, to set that up.
So, I've been told all day I'll hear from this woman and that has yet to happen. My stage manager, who has worked with her and who brought her to me has told her everything I've just written above and STILL she's hinky about it. I feel she made a commitment and should stick to it - I also feel it's a lot different reading text on a page without having a single idea of how it will be read or the actor who'll be reading it or the director who'll be directing it. I would hate to see what she thinks about the musical 13, which has as its young protagonist a kid who just wants to fit in and be accepted by the goons in school and to be popular, and to that end he hurts his two closest friends. Now, in the end he comes around, but we've spent the entire play not liking him and by the time he came around I was not interested. Then there's all the cliche stuff about kissing and tongue - I avoid all of that cliche crap completely in our show. But objecting to a character's CHARACTER means that this woman must have problems with ninety percent of every play in history. I just do not get it and I wish she'd just call and we can see if this is going to work out or not - and if she's not behind it I really don't want her to light it. When I told Sami and her mom about it, they were like, "WHAT?" People. I gotta tell you.
