LOL Surfguy i would do the same thing if i could drive, i cuss all the time but its odd when i am around my parents i just dont seem to do it, my parents cuss so they wouldnt get mad if i did once or twice but i just dont........ weird..........
Since we're on the subject... <i>'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' closed? Director, cast quit musical after board cries foul language By HARVEY RICE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle CONROE -- Thirty years after a Fayette County sheriff made history by defending a bordello and cussing out a television reporter on-camera, those same cuss words are causing another uproar in Montgomery County. After a dispute over the profanity, the Crighton Players board of directors said Wednesday that it may cancel production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas after the director and 32 of the 34 cast members resigned. The 1973 confrontation between Sheriff T.J. Flournoy and KTRK Channel 13's Marvin Zindler was made into a hit Broadway musical and a 1982 movie starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. The La Grange-based bordello, known as the Chicken Ranch, also was enshrined in the song La Grange by the rock band ZZ Top. Zindler's reports led then-Gov. Dolph Briscoe to shut down the 100-year-old house of prostitution. The word "g--damn," used by Flournoy's character in the musical, offended a majority on the Crighton Players' board. On Monday, the board ordered director David Fernachak to get rid of them or resign, Fernachak said. Fernachak, who also is a board member, resigned as director and the cast followed after learning of the board's decision at a meeting Tuesday. "I don't think they really expected the whole cast to walk out," said Ric Sadler, 49, a police officer who would have spoken the profanities in his role as Sheriff Earl Dodd in the musical. Fernachak, who teaches drama at Conroe High School, said he received a phone call Wednesday morning saying that the board probably would cancel the production, which was scheduled to open May 31. Board president Don Hampton read a statement announcing Fernachak's resignation and saying that the board would issue a decision today on whether to go forward with the production. He declined further comment. The play was to have been marketed as an adult production and those with season tickets were to receive a refund if they deemed the show too risqué to attend, Sadler said. Fernachak said that the board asked him to direct the musical and that he assumed it would not be controversial because it had been performed at the Crighton Theatre 15 years earlier. "Not one issue of concern over language or casting was discussed with me until after rehearsals began," he said. The board met several times after rehearsals were under way and began questioning the propriety of the profanity and the casting of several teen-age girls as prostitutes, he said. Fernachak added that rumors had been swirling in the community that he intended to shock the community with a pornographic production. At least two members of the community approached him during rehearsal to complain, he said. "It's just a musical comedy," Fernachak said. "It's not pornographic in any way." He said board members were satisfied when they learned that the parents of actors younger than 18 were at the auditions and were aware of the musical's content. Board members insisted that the profanity -- the ultimate four-letter word was used three times in the script and g--damn 27 times -- be removed from the script, Fernachak said. Fernachak agreed to remove the four-letter word, Sadler said. "He had even come up with some places where we could soften" the other profanity, he said. But Fernachak refused to remove all of them, arguing that they were central to the understanding of the play. According to the play, the Chicken Ranch closed after an outcry over the sheriff's use of profanity toward Zindler while the cameras were rolling. "In a scene following that, other characters talk about how nobody would have cared how we had a whorehouse, but the one thing you can't do is say bad words on television," Fernachak said. But Zindler said Wednesday that the profanity was bleeped out when the clip was shown on TV. He said he referred to the Chicken Ranch as a bawdyhouse because the word whorehouse was forbidden. "I feel like they could change that word ... to goddanged," Zindler said. "When he says, `You goddanged little pissant,' which is what he said, you get the sense of what he said." Zindler, however, acknowledged that artists have their own way of looking at things and that much of what was forbidden 30 years ago is now accepted. Fernachak said the board wanted too many changes. "I also felt strongly that changing 27 words was excessive," he said. "I felt a sense of integrity about the protection of the author's intent and I feel strongly about censorship anyway." Sadler said the profanity suited his character. Without it, he said, "I think you lose the impact of the character. It's all centered about the sheriff running the reporter out of town." Fernachak also said he was concerned about breaking copyright law and asked the board to get permission to make any changes. Charles Van Nostrand, president of Samuel French Inc., which owns the play, told the Associated Press that anyone who contracts to produce it must make an official request and receive approval before making any changes. Van Nostrand said he hadn't received a request from the Crighton Players' board. He said profanity often is used to add to what a playwright is trying to achieve in a particular scene. "Usually, a more stringent community wouldn't be doing a play about a whorehouse anyway," he said. The board issued Fernachak an ultimatum at a Monday meeting: Delete the words or resign as director, he said. Fernachak chose to resign and Hampton agreed to break the news to the cast at Tuesday's meeting. Learning of the decision, some of the teen-age cast members called Hampton's attention to the name of the play and how its title advertised its adult theme. "What were you people thinking?" he recalled one teen asking. Sadler said cast members were asked to sign a document indicating whether they would continue under another director. With the exception of a dancer and a board member who also was a cast member, a dejected cast sided with their director, Sadler said. "I was so upset last night," he said. "My feeling is, I think it's sad. I know the cast members have lost." Fernachak said he was considering resigning from the board. "Part of me wants to and the other part wants me to stay on and fight for what is right," he said. </i>
