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HCT RATINGS EXPLAINED
Hickory Community Theatre provides content advisories to help patrons make informed decisions about which productions are appropriate for themselves and their families. These ratings are guidelines, not restrictions, and are based on the presence of adult content, language, violence, and other sensitive themes.
Each production is assigned an age advisory: 3+, 10+, 13+, 16+, or 18+. (21+ events are specialty events featuring alcohol such as the annual wine tasting, but do not typically feature into productions.)
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What factors go into deciding the rating?
Using language, violence, and adult content as the criteria to establish ratings, HCT sets a number based on all three factors. There of course may be instances where the language may warrant a higher age rating, while the same show features almost no adult content. As a rule, we aim to use the higher advisory number out of an abundance of caution. Below are some of the factors that go into each age rating based on those three criteria. We also wish to acknowledge that these are not the only things audiences may wish to know about when it comes to the content of productions. Sometimes there may be other factors that audience members could find triggering or uncomfortable. As much as possible we always attempt to provide information on our show pages and in preshow features such as curtain speeches and programs. We always encourage audience members to look not only at our resources, but outside information to be the most informed when choosing to attend particular offerings from HCT.
LANGUAGE: There is no profanity. There are no references that should be inappropriate for most young children.
VIOLENCE: Show may contain mild slapstick and characters may face brief moments of mild peril, but nothing that would be considered disturbing to the vast majority of young children.
adult content: Content is appropriate for most younger children, but could reference adult subjects like death.
LANGUAGE: Could contain infrequent adult language (mild).
VIOLENCE: Show may contain highly comedic violence. Show may contain situations that could be frightening to young children.
adult content: May directly address adult topics, including death and divorce. May contain mild adult situations, such as smoking or drinking. May contain indirect references to sexuality.
LANGUAGE: Some adult language (moderate), may contain mild references to adult topics.
VIOLENCE: May contain infrequent violence, such as slaps or swordplay. Show may contain situations that could be frightening for younger children.
adult content: May address adult content, including drug use, violence and suicide. May contain adult situations such as substance abuse. May contain direct references to sexuality and mild sexual situations.
LANGUAGE: Contains adult language (heavy). Language may be frequent. Production may also contain some adult references not appropriate for children. Could feature some pejorative/derogatory language (including slurs) which may be triggering to some audience members.
VIOLENCE: Show may contain frequent and moderate violence, including gun violence and death. May contain situations that are intense and frightening for children.
adult content: Show may contain suggestive sexual content. May directly depict adult content such as suicide, illegal activities, and drug use.
LANGUAGE: Contains adult language (severe). Language may be frequent. May contain graphic descriptions of adult content. Could feature frequent pejorative/derogatory language which may be triggering to some audience members.
VIOLENCE: Show contains graphic violence, and may be disturbing for some adults. Not appropriate for children.
adult content: Show may contain explicit/graphic situations. Minors may not be admitted depending on content without parental consent.