non-smoker in a smoking role
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Acting
Forum Discription: Q&A about auditions, character development and other aspects of the craft
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4272
Printed Date: 4/29/24 at 1:25pm
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Topic: non-smoker in a smoking role
Posted By: drewnkc
Subject: non-smoker in a smoking role
Date Posted: 9/27/09 at 12:34am
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I am in a role that the script calls for a near chain smoking habit on stage. I am not a smoker and have no intention on starting now. The play is "Catch Me If You Can" by Weinstock and Gilbert. The plot requires the character to smoke because he is threatened with poisoning through an injection of Nicotine. I had an idea of working in nicotine gum or the patch, but am not sure if the director will approve. I read of another company doing the same play and taking out the chain smoking, among other things and was just wondering if any has done the show and has any advice.
thanks for any help.
drewnkc
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Replies:
Posted By: Tallsor
Date Posted: 9/27/09 at 12:43pm
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Well, there is the option of clove cigarettes, which was what one of the theatres around here used, as well as the 'fake' cigarettes (you can usually order them from prop shops - it gives out smoke for about 2 minutes).
Also, I read an article once about the banning of smoking in a theatre district and how that would affect parts, and one comment said something to the effect of 'the audience knows a sword fight and blood isn't real: why can't we just let the audience have that same sense of suspension of disbelief about smoking - and just have the cigarette there without lighting.' My two bits,
Angie
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Posted By: drewnkc
Date Posted: 9/27/09 at 3:06pm
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very good points. I was thinking about just carrying a cigarette around and never actually lighting it. Making a bit of it and sneaking in a comment about trying to quit.
Thanks for replying.
Drewnkc
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Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 9/27/09 at 8:13pm
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The young lass who did the lead role in 'Stepping Out' for my mob here, did this to great efffect. She would take out a smoke & even go to light it, stop shake her head & put the lighting & put the smoke back in her back or hold the smoke, unlit in her hand, then go to drag on it, realising it wasn't lit & put it away again.
Here the physical act of smoking any substances, in a public building, is banned - Unless the script calls for it, is the only exception.
Tobaco is a herb along with all the other weeds.
This is probably what Tallsor post eludes to;-
http://www.noveltieswholesale.com/fakecigars.html - http://www.noveltieswholesale.com/fakecigars.html
------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 9/27/09 at 8:37pm
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I'm working on a play now that requires a lot of pot smoking (Soccer Moms frm Hell)...we're just using the props without lighting them. Actually, no choice, as here if you use ANY open flame on stage (which a match or lighter would be) we're required to hire a fireman to sit offstage the entire production. It would be absurdly expensive.
------------- http://tristanrobin.blogspot.com |
Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 9/29/09 at 4:53pm
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We did Company, both the pot scene and Joanne's bar scene without lighting up. Did all the lines, all the motions, everything only nothing was lit. It didn't seem to bother the audience at all.
As already mentioned, in theatre we ask the audience t suspend belief. ------------- KEB |
Posted By: ozzieparker
Date Posted: 3/25/10 at 12:17pm
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You're an actor, so act like you are smoking. If you are a good actor, the audience will see the smoke. We don't ask the audience to suspend disbelief, they ask us to make them believe. ------------- You never know what's comin' for you. |
Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 3/25/10 at 6:47pm
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When I did 'Irma La Douce' back in the 60's, most on stage smoked Gauloises The smell of which was difficult to tell between 'Reefers' & puff 'n stuff fags. Those in the cast that did not smoke just blew thru the cigarette rather than inhale, which to the punters it looked like they were smoking. ------------- [western] Gondawandaland "Hear the light & see the sound! TOI TOI CHOOKAS {may you always play to a full house!} |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 3/26/10 at 2:14pm
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We just closed Odd Couple and of course it calls for cigar and cigarette smoking. We had several people tell us how believeable our actors were in the smoking. All they uesed were those "prop" items. They were the kind that if you "puff" out, it sends out a little puff of powder that looks so much like smoke. plus the ash end had some kind of a glasseen glitter efect that the lights caught and made look like it was really hot. ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: Spectrum
Date Posted: 3/28/10 at 12:00pm
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They are expensive (around $80), but there now exists a fake cigarette, designed to help real smokers get off the habit. They look very realistic. (i.e. Smart Fixx) For the actual smokers there is a little cartridge insert with nicotine, but they also have inserts with NO nicotine. (There are some cheaper, disposable versions of the so-called e-cigarette that DO contain nicotine, so you'd have to find one with a ZERO drug option.) They glow on the tip when you draw on them and the 'smoke' is only water vapor, but it looks real, too. It's a shame they're so bloody expensive, because they would be a really nice solution for all thespian non-smoking smokers and theatres with strict open flame ordinances.
Actually, it's a shame that filthy habit exists at all, where people who smoke even NEED to be portrayed on stage, but that's only my opinion.
 ------------- Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. |
Posted By: Ray Faiola
Date Posted: 5/20/10 at 2:26pm
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Well, depending on the intensity of the play and the character; and the level of immersion you are employing, I think it would be a good idea to experience the sensations of smoking - especially since the character is a chain smoker. If it were an incidental habit, it would not be important. But chain smoking is a psychological as well as physical habit and I don't think you can create a full-blooded characterization without it. Whether or not you wind up subjecting the audience to cigarette smoke, I believe deference to the author's character delineation pretty much requires you to, at the very least, be familiar with the smoking experience.
------------- Ray Faiola http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 5/21/10 at 8:59am
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Well, partial good news, partial bad here in Ohio.... In Ohio, there is NO smoking allowed in a public place, and theater stages are NOT exempted. So, the non smoking actor has no choice but to "act it" or use a substitute device. And the audience knows about the prohibition, so they seem to immmediatly allow for it... ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: Ray Faiola
Date Posted: 5/21/10 at 9:16am
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"It seems that fate has taken a hand....!"
------------- Ray Faiola http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com |
Posted By: tech_director
Date Posted: 7/17/10 at 10:52pm
We would be dying here if we had to do that. Just opened "Fiddler on the Roof" where we have 45 actors holding lit candles for "Sabbath Prayer".
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