Because my name is on the outside of the building, a lot of people think I own the place.
Truth is, I don’t own it. I rent the space.
I’m a guest of a non-profit and charitable organization that fortunately for all of us believes that a theater on 45th St. is an important part of the local heritage and community, instead of another hotel, parking lot or a Starbucks.
13 comments:
This was definitely not what I expected upon reading the title of the article. I loved the fact that the author felt that it not only did homage to his favorite show, but made him love the Broadway version even more. Maybe the author is just a positive person overall, but I feel like he had an intensely positive view that was refreshing, especially when reading about lower-budget versions of popular, much-loved shows. I especially loved his point about the scale of the production and its effect-- or lack thereof-- on the quality of the show. Obviously a show with more money will have a nicer set, costumes, and technical aspects, but in the end it really comes down to the performers and the show itself. Obviously in high school shows there will be a wide range of talent and ability, but the emotional depth of the show can be present regardless of the external adornments. "Accessibility" is a word tossed around a lot on this blog, and I think one of the core ideas surrounding that is enabling the younger generations of performers to feel welcomed and supported in their theatrical pursuits, regardless of the size of the company.
I can agree with this author on a lot of the points he makes in this article. I did two productions of Les Miz during high school, although it was at a community theater and not my high school. I saw the way the process of this production, did everything that the author says, bring people together and renounces a love of theater for everyone. However, I think that he glorified more things than necessary. Whenever I hear that hundreds of people, at a high school and middle school level and only a few are casted, its really disheartening. If their is so much demand, why not try to make a bigger ensemble, or even with this big a margin while not add a whole other show that has enough roles for the amount of people. I think that with school level shows it really is important to get anyone involved that wants to be.
It's so great to hear a professional saying such great things about high school theatre, as it tends to get overlooked a lot. However this production of Les Miz doesn't seem like it's a typical high school production because of how many schools it draws from. This model seems interesting because it helps to bring theatre kids from all over an area together, but this does seem to exclude some kids. I agree with Annie that it's a little sad that the author highlighted how many people were cut. He did do a great job at showing the potential that local theatre has to move people. Like Lucy, I think that one of the coolest parts of this article was that seeing the high school production of Les Miz reminded him about of how much he loved the show, and even inspired him to see the Broadway version. Hopefully companies will see this and realize that high schools should be given more access to show rights, as it would only increase interest in seeing professional level shows.
"A great show is a great show no matter where it is or who is in it."
YES. THANK YOU.
One thing my high school theatre teachers always did their best to drill into all our teenage minds was that we weren't there to do "high school theatre." We were there to do theatre. Period. And when we sold our tickets and told people to come see our shows, it should never be with the qualifier "come see my school's show." It was "come see this amazing production of this awesome thing I happen to be lucky enough to be in." And that was how doing theatre in that environment made me feel. It didn't matter that we were kids or that we all had a test the next morning, when we were in rehearsal we were co-workers, comrades, and artists. And we all believed that when people came to see our performances they knew they weren't just doing this to be nice. They all wanted to be there just as much as we did and to see this great show just as much as we wanted to do it for them. And every night before curtain our directors would say to us, "We get to do this for these people and they get to watch it, how cool is that?" A great show is a great show. No matter what. The artists making it happen are going to do everything they can to give a gift to their audience, whether they are seasoned pros or seventeen year olds hiding peach fuzz under Ben Nye medium foundation. I am so grateful to this article for acknowledging that.
Les Mis has a special place in my heart as it was the first high school production that I was on the run crew for and involved with. Our technical director, Brad Oberg, was the one that made it special because at the beginning of closing night, he huddled up the run crew and gave us a pep speech saying that we were doing something special, creating magic. And in that moment, I felt a lot of what this article was talking about. To the kids and even the audience, what is happening in that auditorium or theatre, is special. It means everything to so many people in that room that there you can tell something good is happening. It’s hard to describe but I know that I went back to see my school’s musical last year and even though I have now seen so many more shows and know what is possible with theatre, that production was still amazing, for all the reasons that the author of this article lists.
I do not think anyone will deny that high school theater is important. In fact, I’d say it’s the reason 90% or more of us are here at CMU, we had a great high school theater experience. Now what happens when a high school does not have the resources to produce productions like the ones my high school could or the one that this article was about? Well, I don’t know. I could believe that either, they won’t know what its like to use a table saw, or they would only be used to working with 5 par cans or maybe they don’t even have a theater, but they can still make theater and have a great time doing it. And from the other perspective, I think the experience I gained with a table saw, source fours and a professional grade theater space made my experience what it is. So I guess someone in a well funded drama program might have an advantage, the passion to create theater is what is important and visible on stage, not how much money the set costs. So with that I will say it is great to hear that this show was such a hit, and I hope every high school show can have this effect on someone.
It is very refreshing to see someone being positive about high school theatre. Obviously, we as college drama students recognize the importance of high school arts, but a lot of people do not. Having gone to an engineering high school with no arts program, I am always amazed by how well done some other people's high school productions were. Whenever one of my classmates mentions how their school's technical director did this or that, I always am blown away by the fact that high schools had actual sets that were actually built. My high school's sad little drama club had a couple cardboard signs and some curtains as sets. High school theatre is often pretty awful, but considering that they are done on a high school level, with high school skills and high school arts budgets, they're pretty incredible. Everyone has to start somewhere, and for many people, that somewhere is high school.
I also grew up in a community that was allowed to audition for district band, strings, and chorus and to be honest, it was some of the best work done by the high school and middle school levels I have ever seen. So a district theatrical production must be one of the better things of theatre for that age group. I also like the wider age range used for the production. My high school would always draw up kids (often a younger sibling or chorus star) from the elementary and middle school kids when a production called for it. I also love to hear that diversity is becoming a more accessible thing at this level. My high school was virtually all white and the few people of color at attendance had nothing to do with the theatre program (making some productions impossible to put on). Overall, the production sounds groundbreaking and I hope more regions get into it.
I live in Hoboken NJ, which is just next door to Jersey City, I grew up with a lot of friends that lived there and went to middle school there. If there is one thing that I can agree with the writer of the article about it is the diversity of the production. I didn't see it, and I hadn't even heard about it, which was surprising, but Jersey City is the third most diverse city in the country, and I am so glad that that diversity is beginning to seep into theater theaters! It is something that I have always been very thankful for, and something I found throughout my life of adolescent theater that was missing. Personally, I have never seen any adolescent production that I REALLY wanted to see more than once, so I kind of question the author of the article in that respect. Although I hope that he was right, and that the show was great I have done a lot of children theater from high school age all the way down to 4 year olds and it's really never that amazing. Nevertheless, I hope that these kids continue to pursue theater, and keep performing at a capacity that makes adult theater goers want to come back.
I really liked the point the author made about diversity. When his future daughter is singing and dancing on stage, I hope that it's not strange to see huge diverse casts. One of the main detriments of people of different races in theater is lack of opportunity - either when they are just starting their education or career. The lack of opportunity for non white actors deters a lot of talented young people from pursuing theater or arts, and we get a new crop of white actors (which is not to say white actors are bad, but let's balance it out!) This district did a great thing by providing kids of all races an opportunity to explore their talents and interests on stage!
Another thing about the article I liked was the part about not needing to dress up a good show. A good show is a good show is a good show. I didn't really feel like this was specific to high school theater really, but it's true for all types of theater. The actors could do their best performance, the tech could be perfection, but if the script is bad, I'm going to notice. This doesn't necessarily mean "only do the classics" but "only produce well written material." I have seen some terrible shows in my life, and I am not sure who dropped the ball there, but people need to learn to pick it back up.
To date one of the best shows I’ve ever seen was a high school production of Les Miz which brought in its cast from all three major public high school in the district (well, technically four, the guy who played Thenardier was recruited from a high school in a town a hour away.) That show inspired me so much and I am forever grateful because it really pushed me down the path to where I am now. I think drawing from several different high school to do a single show is a great idea, like the author pointed out, the kids will get the chance to form relationships with other people who are passionate about the same thing. Also, when you are drawing from a large pool of kids you have more of a chance to have a widely diverse cast. But above all what I think is the most important thing about really good high school theater is how it can inspire and bring together both the kids in the cast and the community as a whole. I will never forget walking into the huge cafeteria of my brother’s public high school and seeing the line wrapping around to the walls and out the door of people waiting to see the amazing talent of our own high school students.
I think that the idea of all- district theatre is a great one that seems almost obvious in retrospect. Band, orchestra, and choir get to perform with the best of their school district, so why not theatre as well? I would have loved to have the opportunity to work collaboratively with the other theatre students in my area. A lot of what the author said in this article really resonated with me. From an educational, design perspective, I think the advice of looking beyond the “final” stage is important. A lot of things that big theatre companies and commercial theatre can do is not as realistic for a high school or even a medium size regional theatre. Having a show be adaptable is vital for its continuation. All shows eventually close on Broadway, and having a show be available for others to produce afterwards lets the show live on.
I LOVED THIS ARTICLE! Since coming to college I have found that a lot of us have forgotten that we too once worked on high school productions. In fact, that is where most of us fell in love with theatre, and how we got to CMU. Reading this article made me smile because it highlighted all of the important things that being a part of a high school theatre troupe does for you. High school theatre gave me the foundation to continue to learn about theatre, and instilled in me a love for what I do.
I love that the author of this article was so open and excited about the future of theatre, and turns to high school students when making the connection. I only hope that the students apart of this Les Mis production know that they are being written about. I am sure they would be so excited!
The next generation of theatre IS becoming more diverse, and I'm glad it is being talked about. I only hope that this idea carries on through at the university level, and CMU jumps of this bandwagon.
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