River Fall Journal. Note mention of smoking on state of Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.

"Never mind the secondhand smoke that assaulted me during a recent trip to the Jungle Theatre on Lyndale Avenue (MINNEAPOLIS). Secondhand smoke is apparently OK if it’s in the Service of Art." http://www.jungletheater.com/

http://www.riverfallsjournal.com/articles/index.cfm?id=86414&section=Opinion
Woodworking: Smokers: Just put on your acting capsDave Wood, columnistRiver Falls Journal - 03/14/2008
Just when you think there’s no spirit left in the American psyche, you read something that makes your heart leap up.
As some of you may know, Gov. Jim Doyle wants to make the Badger State just like Minnesota, where nothing is allowed.
Doyle wants to make Wisconsin smoke-free, turning a deaf ear to all those tobacco farmers in Vernon and Trempealeau Counties (most of them are Republicans anyway) and prohibiting all of us blue-collar folks from enjoying a cigarette with an after-work beer at our favorite watering hole.
Doyle and the other Badger busy bodies tell us it’s for our own good and that if we all stop smoking medical costs will plummet, even though a recent European study discovered that non-smokers are the ones who cause medical costs to increase because they live longer.
Anyway, that’s where it stands. Minnesota’s law has been in effect for more than a year now and the saloonkeepers of Hudson are all on their way to the Riviera because Gophers have to come over here to have a smoke.
If Doyle has his way, they’ll have to come back from the Riviera, so they can turn their bars into dollar stores when drinkers stop coming, as they already have in Madison, where bars are closing every week.
It’s a dismal picture for those of us who are reprobates and still enjoy an occasional cigarette.
So my heart leapt up with glee when I read in the Star Tribune last month about one Mark Benjamin, a Cambridge, Minn., attorney and non-smoker, has discovered a loophole in the Minnesota law.
When the solons in St. Paul were writing the bill, a whole bunch of influential artsy folks got worried about the Guthrie Theater and the Park Square and the other thousands of theatrical sites in the Twin Cities.
What, they asked their congresspersons, if a play called for an actor to smoke on stage? It would be a shame, they said, if someone had to suck on a candy cigarette.
So the lawmakers in their wisdom attached a rider to the bill which said that actors could smoke on stage in the theaters all around the Gopher State. Never mind the secondhand smoke that assaulted me during a recent trip to the Jungle Theatre on Lyndale Avenue. Secondhand smoke is apparently OK if it’s in the Service of Art.
Mark Benjamin told the Star Tribune that, “In a bar you get a $300 ticket but in a ‘theatrical production’ you get applause and accolades.” Fortunately for us reprobates, the Legislature in its haste to suck up to the arts crowd forgot to define where “theatrical productions” could be performed.
Benjamin reminded the Tribune that Shakespeare once wrote: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players….so if you’re a bar owner and don a beret, declare your bar a stage, hand out scripts and direct your patrons – ahem — performers to fire up….then you’ve got a bonafide production going on.”
In conclusion, Benjamin told the Tribune he was going to stage a “tobacco troupe” production at a Cambridge bar that very night. I hope it goes well.
That would present all sorts of opportunities for the soon-to-be beleaguered tavern keepers in River Falls. So I hope when Doyle brings his bill before the Wisconsin legislature, droves of cast members and stagehands from the St. Croix Valley players will descend on Madison and demand access to smokes on stages at UW-RF’s Kleinpell Fine Arts.
Should they succeed, think of how this little town on the Kinni would be submerged in culture.
Johnnie’s Orpheum would be presided over by theatrical impresario Dave Dinteman and the “Little West Wind Off Times Square” would feature dinner theatre in its grand dining room.
Same for the Bo’s and Mine Belasco, Emma’s Emporium of Drama, the Mainstreeter Pantages and the Brave New Copper Kettle.
Another advantage to the plan is that the owners wouldn’t have to worry about a writer’s strike, which shut down Broadway. That’s because, for simplicity’s sake, there’ll be only one play at all the taverns, a fairly simple one.
You’ll be greeted at the door by the likes of Dinteman and Kevin Pechacek and Lynn Johnson. They’ll each hand out the same script:
MEETING ST. PETER AT THE GOLDEN GATE
A PLAY IN ONE ACT BY PHIL HARRIS
Stage Directions: All players belly up to the bar and smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette.
THE END.
Dave would like to hear from you. E-mail him at wood8722@sbcglobal.net.