Character issue: smoking

“Put out that cigarette!”

A woman shouted these words from the second row of the audience at a Nov. 13 performance of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” in Mestre, Italy, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The actor who had just lighted a cigarette, in accordance with his role in Miller’s ‘50s drama, stopped the show for 15 minutes, then returned to the stage to resume his performance, no longer smoking and using a slightly modified script.

The incident, which occurred in the wake of a sweeping Italian anti-smoking law that went into effect in January, is one of the most dramatic examples of the uncertainty in theatrical circles over smoking onstage.

Modern concerns over the health risks of tobacco smoke -- for actors, stage crews and audiences -- are frequently clashing with artists’ assertions that smoking is an important and revealing aspect of the characters and eras they are depicting.

In California, the state Labor Code was amended to ban tobacco smoking “in an enclosed space at a place of employment,” effective Jan. 1, 1998. However, No. 7 on a list of 12 enclosed areas where smoking could still take place is “theatrical production sites, if smoking is an integral part of the story.”

So far, “integral” is defined by producers and the artists who work for them. But this hasn’t prevented their decisions from being second-guessed -- particularly by audience members.

In the Geffen Playhouse’s production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” John Goodman’s Big Daddy twice lights a cigar during the second act and takes a few puffs. Big Daddy refers to his own smoking with these words: “I must have taken in too much smoke. It made me a little dizzy.”

Psychologist Lyn Greenberg, who says her respiratory illness precludes her attendance at plays where actors are smoking, contacted the Geffen before the production opened and requested that Big Daddy use a fake, unlit cigar. Another “Cat” revival she had seen used such a prop, she said.

After a series of e-mails between Greenberg and the Geffen, and offers by the Geffen to change her seat location or refund her ticket, the playhouse management finally decided to offer a smoke-free performance of “Cat” on Sunday. Goodman was expected to wield the cigar but not smoke it.

During the intermission after the smoking scene at a recent performance of “Cat,” several theatergoers in the first and second rows said the smoking hadn’t bothered them. One was Celia Albala, who was drawing oxygen from a tank throughout the performance. Albala said she suffers from emphysema, even though she stopped smoking 22 years ago. “I love the smell, but I can’t smell it,” she said. But Albala’s daughter, Marlene Dutton, said Big Daddy’s puffing irritated her throat.

Not far away, Marcia Jacobs said she had smelled the smoke from candles on a birthday cake more than the fumes from the cigar. From the second row, Bob Recht said he not only smelled the cigar but “loved it. I could tell it was a Cuban cigar.”

Geffen artistic director Randall Arney said directors usually question whether smoking is “integral to the character.” In the case of Big Daddy, who’s dying of cancer, the answer is yes, he said. Geffen productions with cigarette scenes often use herbal substitutes for tobacco, but no substitute for a cigar could be found, Arney said. Fake cigars, possibly with tiny lights designed to simulate flame, “would cause the audiences to pull themselves out of the play.”

Greenberg, in an e-mail, scoffed at such concerns. “Actors simulate all kinds of other activities (including, but not limited to, sex, driving, consumption of alcohol, use of intravenous drugs).... Advancements in theatrical technology have made it progressively easier for actors to simulate smoking rather than burning tobacco on stage.”

Arney, however, cited other kinds of technology in defending the use of tobacco. The recently renovated Geffen has “much improved ventilation, with new smoke hatches on top of the stage and advanced air-conditioning that isolates the auditorium from the stage house.”

The Geffen is hardly alone in dealing with the issue. Center Theatre Group artistic director Michael Ritchie has banned tobacco from CTG stages in favor of herbal substitutes.

Heidi L. Brown, a veteran properties supervisor on Broadway, says she faces an array of requests by actors for different kinds of tobacco and herbal cigarettes. Herbal brands are increasing in popularity, but some actors reject them because their distinctive smells are either annoying or too reminiscent of marijuana or incense. “It would be simpler if everyone would agree,” Brown said.

She also has to think about such details as disguising filter tips on cigarettes for productions that take place in periods before filter tips were common. For “Saturday Night Fever” dances, she dipped plastic cigarettes in glitter to create a flame effect. But cigars are hard to fake. “Cigars have always just been cigars,” she said.

One of the most acclaimed plays of recent years, Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Anna in the Tropics,” is set in a cigar factory in the ‘20s and includes a scene in which employees take turns puffing on a new product. Smoking is “absolutely integral” to “Anna,” said South Coast Repertory producing director David Emmes, who produced the play’s Southland premiere in 2003. “If they’re puffing on cigars and there is no smoke, it would erode the credibility of the play.”

“It’s hard to roll a cigar with anything but tobacco,” added Tom Ware, producing director of the Pasadena Playhouse, which presented “Anna” this year.

Pasadena Playhouse and South Coast Repertory usually try to minimize onstage smoking. Emmes cited a practical reason in addition to health concerns: “If someone lights up onstage, there is almost always an automatic coughing reaction in the audience.”

Many theater companies now post warnings of smoke scenes on placards that audiences pass as they enter the auditorium. But antismoking activists argue that such notices are too little, too late, and most theater managers agree that seldom does anyone ask for a refund in response to such signs. Arney said the Geffen plans to issue warnings to recipients of its regular e-mails and encourages patrons to ask about the subject before they order tickets on the phone.

In the intimate confines of L.A.’s many theaters with fewer than 100 seats, smoking is more likely to bother audience members, yet just-pretend smoking could look more obviously fake. The latter concern doesn’t bother playwright, director and ex-smoker Del Shores. In his last two shows, he directed actors to light matches that never hit the cigarettes. The actors “made it look very, very real,” he said.

Director Nick DeGruccio is more tolerant of onstage smoke. For “My Way,” a revue of Sinatra hits seen this year at the 1,251-seat La Mirada Theatre, he asked the actors to smoke because “I wanted that ‘50s club feeling,” even though the script didn’t require it.

DeGruccio appreciates the visual qualities of onstage smoking. Cigarettes can make great props, he said, adding variety to the choices an actor can make. And the smoke itself can add a certain allure to the stage, he maintains: “The smoke going up in the air, you know what it does with lights? I love it.”

Offstage, however, DeGruccio doesn’t smoke.

In “My Way,” the actors were singing as well as smoking. One of them, Damon Kirsche, said his first voice teacher “would have been horrified.” But Kirsche didn’t always inhale the smoke, and he could time his puffs “so that I could get a lung full of fresh air” before bursting into song.

Kirsche said the smoking decreased during the two-week run because of audience complaints.

He said he wishes “there were a convincing way to make a cigarette that isn’t really a cigarette.”

Inventors, light your fires.