www.broadwaynews.com: Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) and the League of Live Stream Theater (LOLST) will stream a live capture of Broadway’s “School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play” during its final week of performances. “School Girls” is currently playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where its limited run began previews on Sept. 8 and opened on Sept. 28.
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There has been a noticeable increase in the amount of modern productions that are starting to create filmed versions of their performances, and more recently these filmed shows are starting to find their way into streaming services. I absolutely love what this production is doing with its livestreaming, because this show is partnering with LOLST to allow high school students to stream these performances for free. Over 70 high schools have already registered for access to these performances. I think that this initiative is a great example of making Broadway more accessible to modern audiences. Many people have been arguing that Broadway itself has become more inaccessible in the past few years, and several productions have started to take steps to combat this problem, just like this show. This is also the first production I have heard about that is livestreaming multiple nights during its actual show run, which also makes this show more accessible (due to the nature of its limited run). This was honestly a very positive and enjoyable article to read!
This is such wonderful news. I had the opportunity to see “School Girls: The African Mean Girls Play” a little over a week ago, and although the play wasn’t necessarily my favorite, I am thrilled to hear it will be streamed. More importantly, I’m thrilled about the educational reach it will have to students, and 70+ schools and 6,500+ having the chance to see this show is really great. The play tackles some very heavy themes of race and beauty standards in an accessible way, so the more outreach it can achieve the better. The play also employs an entire cast of Black women, all of who are incredibly talented and really make the story come to life. This representation is so important, especially for young girls to see themselves on stage, and to inspire them to get involved in theater themselves. I hope this decision creates a buzz around the play and furthers its outreach even more.
I think it's awesome that modern streaming, with its many flaws, has found ways to support and increase the accessibility of theatre to the masses, especially with a play that deals with culturally significant topics, especially for younger people who are more likely to be on streaming services. Especially looking at the success of Hadestown, it becomes evident that theatre can work incredibly well for the big screen even when the plays deal with heavy themes and have context. One thing I find a bit concerning, though, is that this does not always seem to be the case for straight plays, and American Commercial Theatre may be staying too far away from supporting these straight plays and that may have consequences for the industry as a whole as streaming becomes much more prevalent. Even though I love musicals, I feel that with streaming, the risk of leaving them increases substantially because there may be considerations of what to perform, and streaming could start becoming one.
I think that this is such a fantastic idea for school girls: the African mean girls play to be available for streaming during its final week of performances. Even though this play was always supposed to be a limited run, it is still really unfortunate to see it so soon after it closed, even after there was so much hype surrounding its opening. In this rising trend of broadway shows having shorter and shorter runtimes, it is inspiring to see a show do something to make it their own and go out with a bang. Making theater accessible is truly what it is all about, and the fact that it is free to highschools is amazing. What is even more amazing is that along with free viewings, they are being provided with educational resources to encourage classroom discussion and discourse about the themes of the play. I will definitely be seeing how to get access to watch the livestream in november.
One thing I am excited about is the streaming of School Girls towards the end of the production run. As mentioned previously with many limited runs, there tends to be a very limited number of people that get the chance to attend. For School Girls to be made available on demand worldwide from November 10 to 15 seems like a considerate decision to end the production. My main excitement is for the free streams that will go to schools. More than 6,500 students have registered, and they even provide educational material on discussing issues like colorism and body ideals presented within the play. It makes a lot of sense considering what the show is about. What intrigues me further is the fact that they are showing behind-the-scenes designs done by Qween Jean and Stacey Derosier. It is very rare that someone attending a high school will ever be exposed to professional theater work.
In my opinion, this is a very smart decision, and I wish more final productions would kind of adopt this strategy in their operations rather than just letting the production end unnoticed without allowing others to experience the show outside NYC. Streaming the show in its final week seems to be a choice specifically aimed at generating a surge of popularity and revenue as the production comes to an end, but not actually affecting ticket sales in the earlier part of the performance. It will make the show accessible to viewers who previously couldn’t attend, which is particularly important in a case of a production addressing significant cultural issues related to colorism and identity. It’s super exciting to think about how many more people will get to experience the show now that its screenings do not solely depend on the prices of tickets on Broadway nowadays. I hope that other productions will implement a filmed final week or some form of proshot in the future!
I think it is amazing that so many shows are choosing to go live to increase accessibility during the last few showings. It always made me sad when a show would close and to know that the performance would never be viewed again. I think this ephemeral production is extremely important to the creation of theater; however, this limits the accessibility to theater as a whole. This subtle shift in the way shows are closing gives me hope that we can find a way between the budget cuts and waves of AI media to sustain theater both in person and online. As someone who performed in dance shows, it was always a nice experience to watch my shows after the fact and learn about my ability from an audience perspective. I think this recording can be helpful not only to larger audiences but to the actors and technicians themselves.
I do always like to see when large theatrical productions come to streaming. The simple fact is not everyone has the disposable time and income to attend a large scale Broadway production. I personally love the idea of allowing a production to be streamed around the time of its closing. Viewing a recording of a theatrical production during its last week of shows gives a feeling like you are a part of the closing of the show without physically being there. On top of that based on this article the theatrical production is also prioritizing schools and students with the stream-ability of the production, and I love that the production it also providing classroom materials for student engagement. Its these kinds of student engagement programs that show students how amazing theater can be, and that it may be what they might want to do in life that they would not have known otherwise.
I went to New York a few weeks ago, and the one show that I was told to see was "School Girls". I heard a lot about it from the Alumni network and all my friends who are currently living in the city, but I just didn't have time to see it. I think it's really fabulous making theater more accessible and making it a live stream option or filming the pro shot and putting that on streaming platforms, so I'm really happy that the show is doing it. Because I didn't get to see it, I do plan on live streaming it, and I think it's fantastic that it is being live streamed. I think there's something a little more ephemeral about that versus just posting a recorded video on Disney Plus. I think this not only was a super smart marketing move and will make them some money back, but I also think this will make it accessible to people across the country and the world, which is a really beautiful thing.
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