If it’s problematic, you can’t look away

If the words “This isn’t for you!” spur you to look, look, look and then look some more, the Z Space has sent word of its Oct. 12-14 Problematic Play Festival. These are three “ambitious and provocative plays that have been deemed ‘problematic’ by theater producers and artistic directors” because they were thought to be “too offensive or controversial.”

Announcement of the project says that “audiences will be invited to respond ... as they see fit (with positive reinforcement or by throwing tomatoes against a wall) . ... Rather than dismiss work that scares, offends, confuses or dismays us, can we provide space for playwrights and audiences to honestly communicate about the intention and impact of the work?”

A call for such works that went out on playwriting blogs and forums netted 175 submissions, many of them accompanied by copies of rejection letters received by the playwrights. Applicants were asked to “self-identify what made their work problematic,” said Rose Oser, the Z Space associate artistic director steering the project.

As submissions were winnowed down, the two groups of 10 readers who helped chose the ones to be produced also “did phone interviews with the finalists,” said Oser. “It was important to us that the playwright was willing to talk to an audience and have that kind of conversation.”

According to Oser, most “discussion internally had been about what makes something problematic. The pieces we selected were all pieces where everyone at the table had a different understanding of what was problematic . ... We were looking at nuance and gray areas around whether something should or should not be produced. Work that was held to be offensive for the sake of being offensive was less interesting to us.”

Oser was partly inspired to create the series after directing “#bros” at FaultLine Theater. That play, she said, was “very problematic” as the playwright had written about “ugly and messy” things. “There was no moral center.”

The three plays selected have to do with war, sex and marriage, and already I’m offended. I’d hoped to see something about chocolate chip cookies.

Moved by the newspaper headline over Nanette Asimov’s recent Chronicle story about the new chancellor of UC Berkeley, reader Andrew Smith noted that “Christ inspires optimism at Cal” has a certain “religious tone to it.”

An overheard way too long to fit into the box, reaped by Kelly Zito as she walked along Folsom Street: “How was your weekend?,” a woman asked a man. “It was good,” he replied. “I saw ‘The Meg,’ this giant shark movie. It was really fun, except for this kid near us who made so much noise opening his bag of Red Vines, and swinging it around. He then proceeded to eat really loudly with his mouth open and he kept talking to his mom through the movie . ... With the right jury, I could have gotten away with it.”

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “They don’t work. I don’t like where the holes are.” Teenager to mother, overheard while trying on jeans in department store dressing room by Linda Wardell

As to the modern version of the Golden Rule, Vicki Van-Hanson saw the sign at Flowerland in Albany: “Tweet others as you would want to be tweeted yourself.” And The Chronicle’s Lily Janiak spotted a bumper sticker on a vehicle at 24th and Folsom: “I Consent.”

Summer vacation season is almost over, but some of you may still be camping, and using outdoor conveniences. For those nature lovers, this advice from a mother to a child, gleaned by Laura Bellizzi at the Ice House Lake campground: “Go inside. Lock the door. Don’t look down.”

Longtime correspondent Becky Preimesberger, a justifiably proud mom, wrote to say that her son, Ryan Preimesberger, is in the much-lauded Spike Lee movie, “BlacKkKlansman,” playing a character whose Klan robe bears stripes of authority. He told his mother that at the start of the filming, the real Ron Stallworth, whose infiltration of the Klan is the basis for the movie, stopped by to meet the cast, “then passed his official KKK member card around the table.”

Apparently, the card is featured in the movie, but I haven’t seen it yet, and this is the first I’d heard of such a credential. Does an official KKK member card just nestle there in your wallet between the driver’s license and Costco membership?