Leadership / 05.15.24

Caution! Trigger and Content Warnings Are Here to Stay!

Teddy Durgin

There’s no doubt that we live in increasingly sensitive times. Whether that’s good or bad is a matter of perspective. But when you are putting on a play or a musical, especially one written and first staged back in times that were . . . uh . . . less sensitive, more and more directors, producers and live event professionals are feeling the need to let audiences know ahead of time what they may or may not be in for.

This means “trigger/content/staging warnings.” You walk into a theater or venue now, and you’re often greeted by lobby cards that caution patrons that they are about to experience a show that may contain such subjective elements as foul language, sexuality, violence, outdated stereotypes and more or such objective elements as the use of strobe lights, smoke and so forth.

Mitchell Klein, National Director of Sales Operations at Broadway Across America, says, “There is a difference between objective content warnings and subjective content warnings. The objective content warnings are things that may be health risks. There are indeed people who are triggered by gunshots. There are people for whom there are health risks to strobe lights. We generally make sure those types of items are called out. But the more subjective warnings are, say, language. There might be people for whom the ‘F bomb’ is ‘pearl-clutching’ and, for others, it’s funny. Nudity might be another one. But, again, that’s subjective. Someone may ask, ‘Is this appropriate for my kids?’ And how do you respond? ‘I don’t know. How were your children raised? Were they raised in a clothing-optional home?’ Those are things we can’t answer because they’re based on people’s experiences and generally do not involve health risks.”

Klein pointed to The Flea Theatre in New York City as an example of a venue getting trigger or content warnings just right. “They had a note when I bought a ticket to a recent show that read: ‘Note on content: Given our commitment to experimental performance, The Flea does not offer advisories about subject matter as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any questions about content, age-appropriateness or stage effects such as strobe lights that may have a bearing on a patron’s comfort, please contact us…’”

Skypp Cabanas, Senior Manager of Ticket Operations for the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, and his colleagues believe in being similarly proactive when it comes to potential content warnings. “We have a set number of items that we alert our patrons to,” he says. “So, when we have a production coming in, we ask company management if any of these items on the list are in the show. We are told which items there are, and we proceed with our ‘Production Content’ procedures by posting the information on our website, in our ticket reminder emails, our one lobby sign, and a special advance email to those who want to be notified specifically about particular production content so that they may get a full refund on their ticket should they not wish to attend their performance.”

Such warnings have filtered down to venues offering not just scripted stage fare. Kacy Woody, Box Office Manager for High Point Theatre in central North Carolina, notes, “I’ve had a few comedians that put an age restriction on their show and promote it as ‘uncut’ or ‘uncensored.’”

Lee Anne Myslewski, Vice President of Opera and Classical Programming at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Virginia, echoes the words of the other interviewees: “For our opera programming, we always place warnings for strobe lights, weapons [and] graphic violence in programs, lobby cards and screens in the venue. When dealing with strong content in an opera production, such as sexual assault, we also place warnings on the website so that patrons are aware before purchasing tickets to the performance. We also discuss as a team prior to deciding on warnings for productions, but generally we are cautious out of respect for our patrons, because we can’t know what past experiences someone might be bringing into our space.”

Still, when dealing with subjective content, complaints are almost unavoidable. For Cabanas, it’s become part of the job. “We've had instances where patrons complain that they weren't given advanced warning of the offending content, and it's that point of contact that we educate them on how we can alert them in the future and what they can do to find the information for themselves,” he says. “This is where a really good front-of-house and box office staff is worth their weight in gold.”

Klein was more specific on his and his staffers’ dealings with the paying public and where the lines should be drawn. “A number of years ago when ‘Spring Awakening’ first went out on the road, we did a huge education campaign,” he recalls. “We wrote a lot of words to try to head off any potential controversy. Our subscribers are generally older people. We go across the country, and we’re playing in a lot of conservative cities and states. But it was overkill. PR people were involved. Legal people were involved. Everybody had some say in it. But ultimately it was overkill. It came across as apologizing. But I don’t know. Maybe we saved ourselves a lot of headaches.”

He continues, “But then there was ‘South Pacific’ a while back. There was a scene where one of the sailors briefly moons another character and also the audience, in essence. Well, we actually got complaints from some people that we didn’t warn them that there was going to be nudity! This was ‘South Pacific,’ for gosh sakes. We thought we were putting the safest show on the planet out there! But that is when you get into the subjectivity. We could have had a nudity content warning that may have drawn people in, and they would have been disappointed because there wasn’t enough nudity!”

And, finally, there is the point of contention that some of the U.K.'s most prolific stage and screen actors have voiced in various media outlets about trigger warnings sometimes giving away story details or at least priming audiences to look for things they would otherwise discover while watching a show. "Spoilers" essentially. Earlier in the year, Lord Voldemort himself, Ralph Fiennes, called for all trigger warnings to be scrapped in The Independent. Sir Ian McKellan, meanwhile, described trigger warnings as “ludicrous” in The Guardian. In that same publication this past week, Dame Judi Dench urged any audience members who are so sensitive as to need trigger warnings to simply "stay home." 

How do our interviewees feel in this regard? Klein thinks it’s “an overreaction. These actors have been in movies where there are trailers, right? So, are they opposed to trailers giving away moments and plot details? ‘Oh, I just saw the two leads kiss. I guess they’re going to hook up. I’ve been spoiled!’”

Woody’s take? “I don’t think older source material like Shakespeare needs any type of warning other than the smoke/haze type. [chuckling] Putting a ‘Warning: Homicide’ label on a production of an Agatha Christie mystery? Unnecessary!”

Cabanas concludes, “My personal opinion is that we need to treat our audiences with respect while they are experiencing our institution so that they continue to frequent our shows. And while we don't hit our audience over the head with these trigger warnings, we should at least have the information out there for those who need it. And honestly? If the production is popular, or a show that's been done before … chances are the spoilers have been spoiled by everyone else already.”

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Tags: Leadership , Trigger Warnings