“Most people would be surprised by most of the work that goes on behind the scenes,” says Linda Comm, director of the spring musical at Hempfield Area High School. “If we're doing it right, they have no idea that it was that much effort.”
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Months of hard work go into high school musicals
“Most people would be surprised by most of the work that goes on behind the scenes,” says Linda Comm, director of the spring musical at Hempfield Area High School. “If we're doing it right, they have no idea that it was that much effort.”
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4 comments:
It’s crazy how many people are getting involved in this high school musical. High school theatre, I think, always takes a vary long time to make because the students have to be in school the whole day before they can start rehearsing and making and designing unlike in college where if you go for a theater major you are working on making theatre all day. The article seemed very “no duh” to me, maybe because I lived this life in high school, just on a smaller scale people-wise, but we put in very similar hours. This article tried to make everything seem really impressive and special, and it is, but it’s also just how theatre is. It was like it was trying to describe high school theatre to the concerned parent. But it will always stand that you don’t get a good show unless you put time into it, and in high school you have less time so it takes longer.
While this article makes several valid points, I would like to point out that a high school musical doesn't need to be as much of a production as the article describes to still be of value to those involved. Whether because of budgetary or space or time restrictions, my high school never put as much research into productions as the shows the article featured. And yet, the productions my school left enough of a lasting impression to spur me to pursue Design and Production. Managing shows taught me the most and the most useful things while I was in school. And though shows are prioritized differently at different schools, and look different from county to county, there are certain indelible features of producing a show that transcend these hard restrictions. The importance of interacting with people and effectively managing what you have to work with - I believe - should be much more emphasized than the actual, ultimate quality of the production. And, as I have often found - especially while working on productions outside my school - if the right emphasis is placed, the production that is ultimately put on is much superior to the production that was developed emphasizing the production itself.
This article, I have to say, kind of annoyed me. High school musicals do take a lot of work, but the "village" the author describes is a little ridiculous, if you ask me. Theatre was a huge part of my life in high school. I worked on crew for almost every show (5 per year including the 5th and 8th grade plays), and stage managed the musical for 3 years. I know the drill when it comes to high school theatre. There is no need for a production to have quite so many people. Granted, I did go to private school so there weren't as many people at our disposal, but our production team of about 9 (4 of those being student positions), did just fine. Our director directed and designed, our "producer" (the teacher who directed the fall play) managed the build process, and then we had a choreographer, a dance captain (student), a musical director and assistant, a student technical director, and two student stage managers who often served as dramaturgs as well. People just did what needed to be done. Our cast usually fell between 18 and 30 depending on the needs of the show. Everything else was done on sort of a volunteer basis. Crews would come in on work calls when they wanted, were given pizza, and had a good time. Rehearsals were right after class and went until 6:30. And we put together really strong shows. There was not nearly the village and year of effort that the author here talks about. That strikes me as somewhat unnecessary. At that point, I think you're just trying to create unnecessary work.
As someone who was very (two years ago) immersed in this cultural that we know as high school musical I can confirm and truthfully say that it is all kinds of crazy, and that I am happy to no longer be part of it. The first thing that really annoyed me, is that no one takes it seriously. I could care less if you care or do not care about the production, but please have respect for the people who are putting in the long hard hours to make production look somewhat decent. Also, the new thing is to have award shows for high school musicals, and it might seem that these are great things because they are raising the standard for high school musicals. However, what is really happening is that high school musicals are becoming very competitive. This completely changes everyone’s attitudes in a very negative way. All in all, I think that high school musicals can be really fun but are taken a little too seriously now, and need to go back to being the fun extra circular that they were designed to be.
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