A Slap, a Kiss, and a Guardian Who Has Not Read the Script
A high school director working with students aged 14 to 18 has chosen a contemporary drama whose climax includes one character slapping another and a brief, non-explicit kiss. District policy requires written guardian notification for staged intimacy and violence, requires that stage combat be supervised by a trained fight choreographer, and requires administrative review if a student or guardian objects. The area's certified fight director charges $100 per hour with a four-hour minimum and is available on two evenings. The drama budget has $640 remaining after royalties. One of the two actors in the scene turns 18 during the run; the other is 15. The principal has already fielded one complaint about "the kissing scene" from a parent who has not read the script. Opening is five weeks away and tickets have not yet gone on sale.
1. Build the safety and rehearsal plan for the slap and the kiss with the money and time available. What gets documented, and by when?
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Spend the money on the violence; solve the intimacy with process.
The four-hour minimum at $100 per hour is $400 of the $640. Book both evenings early: one to build the slap and any grab, one during tech week to refresh. That leaves roughly $240 for a second refresh call, mats, knee pads, and a spare rehearsal garment.
Slap. Staged slaps are distance-and-angle illusions. The receiver's head snaps on the giver's cue, the hand passes the ear, a clap or vocal sells impact, and there is no contact. Rehearse at half speed and mark it; run it at full only in fight call, which happens before every run and every performance, from the fight director's written sequence posted at the stage manager's desk.
Kiss. District policy requires written guardian notification. Both actors also need a documented, revocable consent agreement covering hand placement, duration, angle, and a stop word. Block it concretely and rehearse it as choreography, never as impulse - "let it happen in the run" is how students get hurt.
Documentation before the first audience: fight director's notes, the posted fight call, the signed consent agreements, and the guardian notification log, all in the stage manager's book.
2. The parent who complained has not read the script. How do you respond, and where does the decision actually get made?
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Separate the objection from the request.
First move is information, not defense: offer the script, a page-level summary of the specific moment, and an invitation to a rehearsal. Most complaints of this kind are about surprise rather than content.
Then give the educational rationale concretely - what the moment does in the story, why it survives in a play the students are studying, and what the students learn by staging it responsibly: consent, boundaries, choreography, ensemble trust. That is a different argument from "the play requires it," and it is the one that holds up.
Route it correctly. District policy calls for administrative review when a guardian objects; do not negotiate a compromise in a hallway. Put the policy, the notification log, and the choreographer's plan in front of the administrator and let the review run.
Keep students out of the middle. The two actors should hear about the complaint from you, factually and first, and should not be asked to justify themselves to a parent. Reaffirm that their consent agreement stands regardless of the outcome of the review - that is what makes the agreement meaningful.
3. The principal directs you to cut the kiss entirely. What are your options, and in what order do you pursue them?
Read the worked answer
This is a licensing question before it is an artistic one.
Standard amateur licenses typically prohibit altering, cutting, or adding to the script without written approval, and many name the prohibition explicitly. So:
- Read the license. Confirm exactly what it says about text changes, and keep the answer in writing.
- Ask the licensor. Request in writing whether the moment may be handled differently. Many will approve a non-contact staging or a specific alteration; a written approval protects the school.
- Explore staging that keeps the text intact. The contact can occur with backs to the audience, or be played as an embrace that reads as a kiss from the house. That is a directorial choice, not a textual change, so long as the line and the beat survive.
- If the directive is absolute and the licensor refuses, the real options are: change the play if the calendar allows, perform as written and accept the consequences, or cancel. That call belongs to the administration, and it belongs in writing.
Do not cut silently under pressure. The undocumented cut is the one that surfaces later as a complaint or a license dispute.