This is a story I promised to Blue_Summer.
I was a theater major. There, that's out of the way. I just graduated a little less than a year ago. The school I went to was a somewhat conservative Christian liberal arts college. Being a theater major, I felt that I was constantly pushing the limits of what was acceptable at our school. Just in general. I never tried to outright offend people, but I wanted to push their comfort zones as far as I could.
My junior year I directed a one-act play as the culmination of a directing class (Edward Albee's
The American Dream if anyone's interested).
Now, I'm going to preface what follows with this statement: the use of the banana as a phallic image was a conscious choice on my part. A barely conscious choice on my part, but a choice nonetheless. It was supposed to evoke the repressed, The problem was how it played out in our final dress rehearsal.
The artistic director for the department (and the prof of the class) was there to make sure everything fit together nicely. I had a good, smooth show. However, once my "Young Man" (character name) picked that banana up out of the fruit bowl...I knew that nothing good was going to come of it.
The banana was too big. I mean look at that thing... That's a huge banana!
Anyways, the problem was that the "Young Man" had problems finishing eating more average sized bananas in the time he had. If he didn't finish them in that amount of time...well...this always ended up happening:
Anyways, as soon as he started pealing open that huge banana, I knew we had a problem. I started blushing and giggling under my breath; looking around nervously to see how many of the more innocent actors and theater people I was to visually violate and whether they were picking up on it. And then, of course, the moment came.
My play was last in the order for that final dress rehearsal. After it was over, my prof came up to me as I stood on stage.
"The bananas have to go."
"Yeah, I kind of figured as much."
"It would have been a great touch, if you were doing it somewhere else."
"You know, the banana isn't usually that large."
"Uh huh."
I was really happy with that outcome. I knew I had pushed the envelope, because I had to be censored. It's a good feeling.
And the "Young Man" ended up eating grapes during the real performances.
That moment was honored at the next two end of the year banquets we had. The first award was the "Where is *our dean of student life* when you need them?" Award. The next year they gave out that award again- and we won it again. I was so proud.
Sooooo.....Phallic imagery. Anyone have thoughts or experiences they want to share?
Comments (8)
The pics are not visible.
@hecticmuse - Thanks, I'll fix that.
Good going pushing the envelope!
I'm from Puerto Rico. There was a comedian that had a variety show. He did stuff that Howard Stern would be proud of. He was constantly harrassed by religious groups and Morality in Media.
One time, he did a tour of different pubs, staging a contest for the ladies. It involved putting on a lot of lipstick, grabbing a banana, and shoving it in their mouth. They would leave a lipstick mark on it. Then the scantily clad models would measure from the mark to the end of the banana. Whoever had shoved the longest stretch of banana in her mouth won. Nice, eh?
Ha. That's priceless. I could make so many comments, but I'm behaving. *grin*
Thanks for sharing this!
@Blue__Summer - You are? Dear God why?!? Where's the fun in that?
Thank you for sharing this. It definitely made me smile. ;)
@hecticmuse - Thanks, I try. In moderation usually.
@Blue__Summer - Yeah, why do you feel the need to repress those comments? Come on, I bet you could make them subtle. Or not.
@AnamcharaConcepts - Glad it made you smile! :D
This made me laugh... It does sound similar to the Christian college I went to (the banana... would not have made it to the final production.) But ... you said you used grapes, instead? I'd love to have read or seen the entire play - because I'm sure I'm taking it out of context, but in the banana to grapes shift... I could still find a sexual context in that (which is why I'm surprised it made the final cut.) Yet - obviously, I'm missing the entire story... still, it was funny to read about this experience!
Hey, that's me in those pictures and story! I did it!