Students
must accept roles in which they are cast and production positions that are
assigned to them.
The theater program at Mason Gross School of the Arts prepares students for the
wide variety of roles they will encounter in the professional entertainment
industry: theater, film, and television. The goal is to develop highly skilled and versatile theater
artists.
Theater,
film, and television encompass the full range of human behavior and experience
and there will be times when students may be asked to perform in roles or work
on plays that may contain language and describe situations distasteful to
some. Students in the Mason Gross School
of the Arts Department of Theater Arts must be able to portray characters and work
on plays even if the values and beliefs therein may be at significant odds
with their own.
Students
in the program are not at liberty to choose the assignments or roles they are
cast in according to how congruent they are with their personal belief systems.
In addition, altering a text or changing the language of a play in order to
sanitize language or character behavior creates an inauthentic performance of
the play that falsifies the artistic integrity of the playwright's work. It also cheats the audience who came to see a
legitimate performance of the play. Altering the text of a play is unacceptable in our program and will
result in a failing grade for the work in question. Failure of any core course
can result in artistic dismissal.
Actors
are required to attend all auditions for which they are called. If a student wishes to audition for a role
for which they have not been called, the student may request an audition. At the discretion of the chair/vice chair,
the student may be granted the audition.
All issues of nudity
or smoking in rehearsals and performances (including special effects) must be
approved by the Executive Committee in order to make sure departmental policies
are followed. The stage manager or director prepares a photocopy of the
relevant pages in the script, highlighting necessary nudity or smoking and
provides the Executive Committee with a copy as well as an explanation of the
request.
Nudity during a
performance may be permitted if it is essential to the logic of the play, but
it may not be gratuitous. Actors cannot
be required to perform in the nude. During casting, only the student's primary
acting teacher may discuss performing in the nude with the actor. The director cannot have this conversation
with the actor. The chair/vice chair is
the final arbiter of taste and adherence to the Executive Committee policy. An
actor's refusal to perform nude will be individually negotiated by the primary
acting teacher and will not affect the student's status in the program. If nudity is to occur, the department will post a sign in
the theater lobby and box office window so that patrons with sensitivity to
nudity may be apprised.
Smoking during a
performance is only permitted within strict limits if it is essential to the
action and logic of the play. Electronic cigarettes will be used wherever possible and a sign will be
posted for the audience advising of their use. If real smoking is to occur, the department will post a sign in the
theater lobby and box office window so that patrons with sensitivity to smoking
may apprised. If smoking is approved the ventilation systems will be run during
those scenes and during intermissions to dilute the concentration of smoke in
the atmosphere. This may cause noise which would affect the audience's ability
to hear some of the scene. An actor's refusal to smoke onstage will be
individually negotiated by the primary acting teacher and will not affect the
student's status in the program. Nontobacco products will be used if the
materials are lit.
