<p>My last show is next week, ive been in all the musicals since then and i loved it. this one im not loving too much. we dont have that big family connection like we did in previous shows. it’s very depressing, and i know ill have that same feeling in college, but it sucks not being able to have that expierence, being my last year and all. Im just glad to go to college…but im not a MT major, just Acting…but that doesnt mean that i wont be in the musicals, i like them too much haha</p>
<p>I’m doing my last musical right now…it’s Little Shop of Horrors and I’m playing Audrey. It is so much fun and I’m going to miss everyone so much. It’s hard to leave, but I know college theatre is where I need to be. This is a big step in our lives (graduating high school and leaving), and I’m trying to enjoy every minute of it. Glad I’m not the only one feeling nostalgic!</p>
<p>@soozievt – Wow! I can’t begin to imagine the end of your D’s senior year, but the fact that she’s moved forward so beautifully is surely a testament to you both!</p>
<p>D always prefers saving the best for last, so she’s not too sad that her HS experience has had flaws. In Middle school she had the big leads her first 2 years, but the director was chastised for playing favorites and she had to give her a bit part her final year. She greatly preferred HS, where she steadily progressed toward the big lead.</p>
<p>Imagine how disappointing it would be to go from an amazing Performing Arts HS to being unimpressed by a college for which you were paying $60k/year. That would be truly awful!</p>
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<p>All of this will thrill D! Her current HS musical (Cabaret) is already controversial, and it hasn’t even opened yet!</p>
<p>D’s had the chance to do some new works in town, including working with Brian Yorkey (Pulitzer Prize for Next to Normal), and can’t wait to be a part of the AMTP at Northwestern (American Music Theatre Project).</p>
<p>She’s also had the chance to be in student-created works at a regional theatre and has loved every minute of that as well.</p>
<p>We’ll no doubt sob as HS ends, but can’t wait to see what college will bring!!</p>
<p>One thing that seems really unique about high school musicals is the extent to which the performers put themselves out there in communities which may not be particularly supportive of the arts. </p>
<p>D’s high school is in a traditionally working-class neighborhood and is a school with no real history of distinction in theatre. Her new director is bolder than what the school is used to, so it will be interesting to see how the school and neighborhood will respond to the PG-13-rated production opening tomorrow night.</p>
<p>I’m thinking by college, the folks who attend theatre are more apt to be theatre-lovers, true?</p>
<p>MomCares, there is something to that, yes, in my opinion. Our community supports the arts but there have been issues in terms of what some find as acceptable for the school musical. You mention that your D’s show is Cabaret and when I read that, it brought back a flood of memories here. When my D was in 7th grade (12 years old), the high school did Cabaret. Middle school students are permitted to audition (though they have their own musical) and my did was the only middle school kid in Cabaret and she was a Kit Kat Girl. The production was truly very good. The girl who played Sally Bowles has gone onto a major career as a singer and recording artist on a national scale. Anyway, even though the production was so good, the buzz about the show was all about something else. You see, they costumed the Kit Kat Girls in VERY risque “outfits” that even I think were too much. In fact, these girls, including my D, had on much less than Kit Kat Girls on Broadway (and when you think about the era, nightclub girls did not wear as little as these teens did). They outfitted them in basically Victoria’s Secret type underthings. My 12 year old was even not into that. They were assigning costumes (if you call them that), based on bra sizes (my kid was maybe just starting to even wear a bra). I ended up buying her something that worked a bit better that she was willing to wear, less sexy even if skimpy. I mean she was of the age that the idea of appearing on stage in basically underwear was not her thing! But the entire buzz about the show was about what the girls were wearing or not wearing, as the case may be. It was a shame that it became a big controversy in our small community and nobody focused on how good the show was! There were editorials in the paper about it even. Ever since that production, the school seemed to pick “safer” shows such as Joseph…Dreamcoat, Into the Woods, Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, Annie Get Your Gun. </p>
<p>However, when my D went to her summer theater program (out of state), they put on ALL kinds of shows, including ones that are not typically staged by schools for their age. It was GREAT. And it was NEVER controversial to do so because after all, all the kids and parents were into theater. It was a non-issue. I was so glad my kid could do these other sorts of shows. </p>
<p>Skip ahead to a college theater program where age is not so much a factor and people obviously support theater. In college, my kid has been involved in sexual scenes on stage and also appeared nude. Production work was not confined to “safe” topics. This is how she prefers it. </p>
<p>Obviously, public high schools have to stay within a certain guideline. Moreover, school productions are sort of community events for family audiences. I can respect that. However, according to various news stories, I feel SOME schools (not ours) go too far in trying to suppress or disallow certain theater works, including censorship and I don’t agree with that.</p>
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<p>Yes – it is bound to be the case here as well. It strikes me as false morality, when one considers that these are ALL high school kids. One doesn’t have to spend long in the hallways during a school day, at an after-school volleyball match or swim meet… or watch very much after-school TV to see kids dressed and moving in much the same ways, but somehow it’s NOT ok in the service of an important theatrical story.</p>
<p>On the other hand, maybe it’s just so much easier for the community to focus on the costumes and choreography, rather than on the bigger (and ultimately far more important) issues the show presents?</p>
<p>Ah well… the kids all learn from this, and controversy energizes youth, no? Plus IMHO the themes of Cabaret are SO relevant today that the show cries out to be performed… and many of these kids are forming a passion for theatre that would never have emerged doing Little Mary Sunshine.</p>
<p>I might not have picked the show, but my hat’s off to the courageous directors who did. </p>
<p>I guess I will not be sorry to say goodbye to high school audiences.</p>
<p>Cabaret is one of my favorite musicals, and yes, the themes are so important. </p>
<p>In this case, I don’t recall complaints about the choice of show so much. I honestly think it was a poor decision to choose the sort of costumes they did for the Kit Kat Girls. I have seen Cabaret many times. For example, I saw it done at my D’s theater camp by the same age group and the costumes were much better for the Kit Kat Girls. As well, my D was in a production at age 17, the summer after freshman year in college at an Equity theater and again, she was a Kit Kat Girl, and she had more on in THAT show than in the HS show when she was 12. Truthfully, the Kit Kat Girls wear more in the Broadway version too than in our HS’s show. In the era of that musical, sexy women’s lingerie wasn’t nearly as skimpy. Seriously, if you saw what the girls in our HS wore, it was underwear basically. Such a poor choice and it made the attention and buzz about the show focus on that. I don’t know if the selection of the show itself was the big issue. Maybe for some people, but the talk was all about the Kit Kat Girls. Even my own kid, when doing the professional production at age 17 remarked how she was wearing more in the same role than she did at age 12!</p>
<p>This topic is interesting to me because the little upstart community theater company for which I help do costumes, is sponsored by the Methodist Church. This is not to say they are a “church play”, done by a church, or in church (though technically our venue is an old church building’s parish hall) but the shows have to be chosen based on the message and have to be done a bit carefully. </p>
<p>This doesn’t mean they can’t have important serious messages because in fact, that’s the kind of show we like, and the Methodist church being usually more moderate, it hasn’t been all that restrictive really. But also we cast “all ages” so there are kids as young as 8 in the cast sometimes.</p>
<p>So we have to figure out ways to make it pretty much pg and not lose anything. We would love to have an offshoot that wasn’t connected with the church so we could do edgier stuff.</p>
<p>When we did Joseph, we made the seduction scene with Mrs. Potipher to be comical - there was a bed with bed curtains and she dragged him behind it - that old trope with commotion going on and screams of protest and clothes flying out - then an exposed and embarrassed Joseph in heart printed boxer shorts flees the stage. Of course Joseph wouldn’t have worn boxers, but then again Potipher wouldn’t have worn an Egyptian kilt and collar with black socks, garters, Florsheim shoes, a men’s white button down shirt, and a green accountant’s shade, either. lol. The guy who played him is our best actor (you know how community theatres sometimes are lucky enough to have that one man who can play almost anything who always auditions - he’s ours) and rather than playing him as effeminate (not that he couldn’t have done it brilliantly nor would anyone have objected but it didn’t work with the way we did the part as well) he played him as a Thurston Howell III type east coast old money aristocrat, with the stiff jaw and all. It was amahzing. :-)</p>
<p>(I have to say those were probably the best costumes we’ve done yet though - what a fun show that is.)</p>
<p>A couple years ago, the tour of Twyla Tharp’s “Moving Out” came here and we went and during the simulated sex club scene, some people got up and walked out and we say “oh, here we go, cue up the indignant letters to the editor”, which of course, came.</p>
<p>I was seeing it with a very devoutly religious friend of mine but even she understood that the sex part of it was important to the story - if you haven’t seen it, it was about how the Vietnam war kind of ruined the main character’s life and he hit a real low of drugs and going to scummy sex bars. It was not something that could be left out. And it was after all just simulated and they weren’t totally unclothed either. It was probably enough that for children under the age of 14, one would question if that was the show for them, but then, wouldn’t one question that anyway knowing the theme? A group of kids in the sixties, Vietnam, etc? Not exactly The Little Mermaid.</p>
<p>Our ballet teacher just said, “It’s art. It’s theatre. That happens in art and theater.” ha. We love her.</p>
<p>Our high school has been very restricted, even for UIL One Act which nobody in the community even sees. And it’s frustrating for my daughter to go to the state championships and see schools doing Equus (yes they did) and A View from a Bridge and winning, and our school won’t let us do anything even the LEAST bit racy - and it seems like the judges kind of do like edgier stuff. </p>
<p>Oh well - so NOT our problem anymore! lalala, can’t wait for COLLEGE!!</p>
<p>I find it hard to take that people would complain or be indignant about a national touring production because not all theater is meant for family audiences and so it is up to the patron to decide whether to attend or not or what ages to bring and so on. My kids (and I) loved Movin’ Out. My kids also saw shows like RENT, The Full Monty, and Hair as children. If others are offended by such pieces of art, then they don’t have to attend.</p>
<p>This is quite different in choosing shows to present in a high school setting. (then again, in some places in the country, people have protested and tried to censor school shows that are appropriate for teenagers)</p>
<p>soozievt - the joys of living in a very conservative and SMALL town in the buckle of the Bible Belt. 
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<p>We thought Movin Out was fantastic too. <em>shrug</em> However the people walking out were ADULTS!! Which, if it offended them they certainly have the right to walk out, but they were mad that the theater even BOOKED such trash and filth in the first place. Sigh.</p>
<p>Our high school principal is SO WORRIED about offending the town folk that he made them edit Tartuffe fergawdsake. And that was their UIL piece that nobody in the town would even SEE. I guess he was worried they might HEAR about it and object or something, which obviously is ridiculous, and I’d love for them to have gone down there and seen the one act of Equus that D saw in Austin. HAHA!! (she said it was brilliant)</p>
<p>And don’t even get me started on the carryings on when our community college/community rep theater did The Laramie Project a couple years ago. Don’t even get me started.</p>
<p>D will be really happy to be in college, is all I gotta say, and sometimes I think I might go join her. ha.</p>
<p>I’m clearly way more conservative than most folks on this board, but I am one who believes that High School and Youth Theatre productions SHOULD be more careful in their selection of material and in their costuming.</p>
<p>While “edgier” content may be absolutely appropriate for most 17 & 18-year olds and perhaps even some 16-year olds, when there are younger students participating and even YOUNGER students and community members coming to watch the show to support their friends and family, I don’t think it’s appropriate to be “pushing the envelope” when it comes to material selection and costuming. </p>
<p>That’s what community theatre is for, as well as Community College and College and Professional Theatre. Although some older high school students may feel frustrated by not being able to explore edgier content, it can also be very discouraging for a student who’s a young Freshman in high school (or even an older one who has more sensitive “moral values”) to feel so uncomfortable because of the mature content or the costumes or whatever that they don’t choose to participate in their school’s theater department. High School theatre and Youth Theatre should be fun, safe and appropriate for all the kids, not just for the “progressive” kids.</p>
<p>However, once you are out of the school and youth theatre arena, all bets are off. Audience members have the choice to support a particular show or not depending on their own moral convictions. If I thought a Community theatre or professional show wasn’t going to be appropriate or enjoyable, I just wouldn’t go see it. It’s much tougher to tell a 14-yo friend that you’re not coming to support their show because you don’t want your 8-yo to be exposed to those mature themes or because on principle you disagree with the message.</p>
<p>I wish there were way more community theatre options for those young adults who want to really explore the art. Not everyone who loves to perform can or will be able to pursue theatre in College and it’s sad if they don’t get the chance to work on their art after high school. But that doesn’t change the fact that for me, High School theatre should be appropriate for all ages.</p>
<p>I think it’s important for young adults to experience some more controversial theatre while they are still at home and have parental support to discuss the issues. As long as a school clearly communicates that some shows are PG-13, so families with younger children can opt not to attend, and as long as the experience is treated as the educational tool it is intended to be, I think it’s all good.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the role of high school theatre is to educate students and cultivate an appreciation of the art form, not just to provide childrens’ theatre to the community.</p>
<p>I agree with others that young people have much to gain from being exposed to various forms of art, even shows that are considered controversial. Also agree that there really is no need for extra skimpy costumes in shows.</p>
<p>Ok… I may have been too quick to dis our high school’s audience. Tonight’s Opening Night audience was magnificent, as were the kids’ performances!!</p>
<p>Yay, MomCares!! I bet it was fantastic.</p>
<p>Such an interesting discussion! It is important to look at the types of shows the colleges do. NYU, for example, performed what we thought was a very offensive and disturbing play. In fact, we left at intermission. The acting was great, but we thought the subject matter (and performing this subject matter) was over the line even for college. They’ve also had partial nudity - something I feel is very unecessary in a college setting. It’s good to make sure the type of material performed is what your child is comfortable with so they have more opportunities to perform.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting discussion about selections of high school and age appropirateness of different kinds of musicals and plays. We are on the liberal end of the discussion but I would never deny anyone else the right to say yes or no to what they let their child perform in and I DO think schools need to be sensitive to the community and if they are going to choose something that might be seen as controversial be prepared to educate.</p>
<p>My D did Ragtime as part of a school production at the start of 6th grade - so 11 or 12 I guess (she attended a 4-12 performing arts school and this was the HS production, but younger students were allowed to audition with permission). There was an enormous amount of discussion about the language, both racial slurs and just swearing - in the show and if it should be adjusted. After much discussion it was not, but the kids were educated about tons of racial slurs, how thet originated, and why they were/are offensive. DD also worked as an intern on Cabaret at 13. She sat through all the rehearsals and all the shows. We discussed it regularly- the sexual issues, racial issues, drugs, abortion, WWII …, to this day it is one of her and my favorite musicals.</p>
<p>The one show I would not allow her to do was Grease at age 15 (or ever if I could control her choices forever). For me, there is nothing redeeming in the message in Grease but for many people we know they see it as a benign and fun song and dance show. D thinks I am overboard on this, but she knows where are family values lie in this arena and that we can disagree but these are choices that families need to make.</p>
<p>D’s final musical was Fame, which has an interesting mix of issues, but is such a flawed musical that there was little chance for it to be educative.</p>
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<p>This reminds me that the one musical I ever discouraged D from auditioning for was High School Musical, because I thought if she rehearsed the music at home I might commit fratricide. ;-)</p>
<p>I took my d to watch her fellow cast members in an ACT MFA play, the entire cast was naked. My daughter was 12. It’s hard to get more ackward than that. Although one of those mfa students is captain kirk now;)</p>