While theater aficionados are familiar with many titles and shows the average theater goer can only name a handful of show titles that aren’t musicals. Bluntly put, musicals fill seats, for the most part they are less risky as well.
Read More
I want you to imagine something. Imagine huge crowds of people filing into a special venue to witness a display by professionals working at the highest tiers of their field. The tickets were expensive, the seats aren’t quite comfortable, the drink prices are outrageous. Specialized, high-powered lights illuminate the playing area and loud music fills the air. The professionals emerge, dressed in specialized clothing and equipment, and begin their hours-long display. The action is intense, sometimes exciting, sometimes heartbreaking, and about halfway through, there is a break for everyone to recover and chat. When it’s all over, the crowd will cheer for a job well done and grumble if their expectations weren’t met, but they’ll probably go to a similar event in the future. Those same fans will gather around their televisions once a year in a celebration of the best of the best, usually with friends, food and drinks at the ready.
Now, here’s my question: did you picture a Broadway show, or a sporting event?
Read More
This weekend, students at the Heritage Private School in Cyprus are going to be performing a world premiere musical of sorts. The original musical is titled “As You Wish” and it’s directly based on the book and film “The Princess Bride.”
The problem with all of this? By taking a work this specific work and adapting it the way these teachers are technically violating copyright owned by the William Goldman estate and even bigger, the Walt Disney Company.
Read More
What’s your damage? For many students it’s the crippling fear of social pressure to succeed and prove themselves at a young age. Through the struggles of weaving through relationships and college applications while simultaneously trying to find who they are in this world, being a teenager can be the most stressful and worrisome time of a person's life. Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe write a beautiful story of the raw reality that is the high school experience in Heathers the Musical: High School Edition.
Read More
For a medium built on community, collaboration, and connection, I fear I am experiencing and witnessing a lot of scarcity minded behavior in the theatre. As I travel and direct around the country I am seeing more and more artists, myself included, being asked to work for less and less compensation. Worse so than that what often people report to me or I hear from potential employers is that as much as they would like to hire someone, they just don’t have the resources. “We accept volunteers!”
Read More
For many people, the beginning of a new year also marks the time of year in which people try to come up with resolutions, in the hopes that these specific goals in their lives will have been achieved by this time next year. Those of us who are highly active in theatre most likely have already come up with such resolutions related to theatre. However, there might be a few additional ideas for resolutions that some of us might not have thought about and should be willing to consider to make their year in theatre even better than last year.
So without further ado, here are just a few New Year’s resolutions – in no particular order – for all of us in the theatre community to consider…
Read More
So frequently in my rehearsal rooms, or in my classrooms, I hear theatre artists decry politics. There seems to be an idea that one must learn their craft in a hermetically sealed bubble, lest the influences of the banal and mundane workings of the outside world impose themselves upon the art. In the theatre, though, nothing could be farther from the truth.
The fact is that ALL theatre is political. The Public Theatre’s Oskar Eustis has said that it can be no coincidence that theatre and democracy were invented in at the same time. He says “I think that theater is the democratic art—it's no mistake that they were invented in the same city in the same decade. It's the proper place to exercise democratic virtue, for the contesting of different points of view, identifying with other people, what citizens need”.
Read More
After spending 22 years in a cast of a Broadway show, one deserves a curtain call worthy of that achievement. It could be a standing ovation during the final bow. Or a backstage celebration. Or parting gifts from the cast, creative and producers.
But instead of being recognized for a rare achievement in New York theatre, Jeff Loeffelholz ended his own life with a mixture of painkillers and alcohol.
What led Jeff to this point is going to be the subject of investigations by multiple organizations and their results could lead to a complete reshaping of working conditions in professional theatre.
While Jeff's alleged treatment behind-the-scenes at Chicago is horrific, for many other performers, it's all too familiar.
Read More
As adults, is it 'cool' to hate competitive theatre festivals and events? Is it in our moral DNA to say it's not right to judge art?' Does our stance change if we are also thrilled by it, and would we have a different point of view if we were the ones winning?
Read More
Last week, I wrote about over whether or not high school theatre awards actually help or hurt high school theatre departments. Reaction to the piece was mixed with some sharing their positive experiences and others who had quite the opposite.
In the past few days, an uproar in Pittsburgh regarding their high school theatre awards proves how these types of awards can create issues and cause students and parents to lose focus on what's really important when it comes to the performing arts.
Read More
While many high school students are taking finals and getting ready for the summer, many of their thespian classmates are getting ready for the most important time of the year, high school theatre competitions.
Over the years many of these awards have provided more than just bragging rights for area schools. They have provided scholarships and resume highlights for these students. The schools themselves also benefit from having tangible achievements that come in handy when budget season comes around.
But with any competition, whether it's on the field or on the stage, there are negative elements that can create toxic environments and poor choices on the part of the educators. It also reveals an uneven playing field where the richer schools benefit while the lower budget ones are ignored.
Read More
For many high school students all over the world, induction into the International Thespian Society is viewed as a crowning achievement. It certainly was for me.
But after almost 90 years and multiple generational attitude shifts, does being a member of such an organization still matter the way it might've used to? Yes, but it all depends on how you and your school values it.
Read More