High school theatre question

[Innisfree]

Anyone have kids doing theatre? I'm intrigued by differences in how dd's school manages things compared to my school years ago, and wondering if this is widespread.

 

We always had crews of kids managing sets, costumes, lights, etc. There'd be an experienced kid heading the crew, and others working under their direction. It was a lot of fun and a fantastic learning experience. There was an adult director and, in my later years, an adult tech director who supervised, but kids did all the work and had leadership roles.

 

At dd's school, parents do all that stuff. They build the sets, find the props, make the costumes. The results may look more polished (not actually convinced, but they may), but the kids get none of that experience. I'm wondering if this is the standard experience now or if it's unusual.

[bettyandbob]

Neighborhood high schools do not have parents doing tech. Parents are involved through raising money and advertising.

 

Parents over involved results in missed opportunities for the students.

 

That's too bad parents have taken over set design , costumes and building. It's valuable experience for the students. That aspect of theatre draws in kids would never go on stage to perform. They get a chance to find out they love this way they can contribute. I know kids who went on to pursue careers related to tech theatre and are doing well. Without the high school experience, they may have missed the opportunity. Our school district also gives students who learn the tech aspects to work, running the rentals of high school theater space, for groups like local dance studios having spring recitals, etc.

[Innisfree]

Yes, I was a backstage kid, and I had a friend who went on and has done very well as a set designer professionally. It was really a great experience for a lot of us.

 

I wondered if liability issues might be at fault, if this was a general trend. Maybe it's just this area.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Huh, I am surprised.  I was hugely involved in high school and local theater in high school.  There were no parents helping out, we did it all.

[bettyandbob]

Do you have cappies?

 

It's a high school theater awards thing modeled on the Tony awards. Ours includes hundred of public and private high school productions in our metro area. Years ago my niece was a student reviewer and went to productions at a few different high schools.

 

Anyway, I wonder if the parent involvement is an effort to give the shows a boost in such evaluations. Like parent produced science projects in the elementary school.

[Rebel Yell]

Our local public high school does a fall play (OPENS TONIGHT!!!) and a spring musical.

 

Fall play: Small cast, I think maybe ten kids for six one-act plays? Directors are two adults, one school's choir director, second is a paid professional. There is a student director and a student stage manager. Sets are minimal, didn't need more than the directors to collect items and props. Costumes are mainly the kids own clothes with a few items supplied by the director. All kids will do their own hair and makeup.

 

Spring musical:

Director: paid professional if not same as vocal director

Vocal director: high school choir director/teacher

Music director: high school's band director, all-student orchestra

Choreographer: paid professional

Costumes: paid professional

Students do own hair and makeup, or help each other

Usually has a student director and student stage manager.

Backstage crew is all student.

Props and sets designed by director, work days are announced, all are welcome- mix of cast, students, parents, community members, experienced pros if something complicated is needed.

Concessions for preshow and intermission are parent-run, cast pasty is organized by parent committee.

Musical is 100% funded by the previous year's ticket sales and concessions sales

 

I think it was easier to have students build sets when Industrial Arts classes are at the school, not off-site at a VoTech. Also, very few students and even parents know how to sew on a button, let alone construct costumes.

 

The school where Diamond is the choreographer is similar (Catholic school) but with the smaller student body the cast IS the stage crew, moving props and set pieces is worked into the scenes. Also, much of the orchestra is paid, not enough students not in the musical :) Their music director is also the vocal director. Parents are heavily involved, more due to a need for people with the smaller student population.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Rebel Yell

[Rebel Yell]

Do you have cappies?

 

It's a high school theater awards thing modeled on the Tony awards. Ours includes hundred of public and private high school productions in our metro area. Years ago my niece was a student reviewer and went to productions at a few different high schools.

 

Anyway, I wonder if the parent involvement is an effort to give the shows a boost in such evaluations. Like parent produced science projects in the elementary school.

We're Pittsburgh, so we have the Kellys! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Kelly_Awards Both the schools where SweetChild is a cast member and Diamond is choreographer compete, but they are in different budget categories.

 

About 30 schools participate each year. Some awards are divided into three budget categories, such as set design, lighting design, best musical... Best Actors are not.

 

It's an exciting event. As cast members, both of my girls have participated when their musical got nominated for Best Musical. Seussical '13, and Shrek '15- Shrek won!!!

[Luckymama]

Older d was involved in high school theatre. The kids built the sets (under some supervision of the drama teacher), ran the lights and sound, planned/assembled/sewed wardrobe, did hair and makeup, played in the pit for musicals, etc. Students directed, stage-managed, and produced the one-acts each year.

 

D learned SO MUCH. She directs at her university now :)

[Innisfree]

It isn't called Cappies, but there is a one-act competition that the director seems very focused on. Maybe she wants things to look good for that.

 

I don't mind the competition, per se, but it bugs me if that's what is driving the parent involvement. They do have about 4 students doing stage crew and lights and sound, but not designing anything or making props, set or costume.

 

When we did it, we did have the advantage if a school with a long history of theatrical productions. We had a costume room stuffed (stuffed!) with clothes parents and grandparents had donated over the years. We could pull out anything from 1890's dresses hardly any one could fit in to flapper beaded numbers to 1930's gangster-looking suits. It was great. (Can you tell I was Head of Costumes?) We learned to sew making the things we couldn't pull from storage or borrow from professional or college companies in town. We didn't have home ec classes, but following a simple pattern isn't that hard, and several of us had moms who could explain what notations meant.

 

Same for props, sets, etc. : some things pulled from storage, others located or built. We did some pretty elaborate sets, and that was *how* we learned.

 

The experience was just so good. There was a big group of kids involved: each crew had a student or two in charge, and as many as they needed to help. We sold ads, ran the house, sold concessions (less elaborate, but fine), hung lights, did everything. It was how I got past not being comfortable placing phone calls to strangers and got experience supervising others. Heck, when I got my first real post-college job, I remember being shocked because I had less responsibility there than back in high school running the costume crew.

 

So, I'm just sad all that isn't available to my dd, and wondering about the reasoning behind it. I appreciate hearing others share their experiences.

[GailV]

We've been involved in 2 groups that do youth theater.

 

One has the kids build the sets, crew, run lights, etc., under the supervision of a paid adult who is a tech theater teacher.  The costuming is done by adults because, frankly, it's a small group and not enough kids-plus-adults-to-mentor.

 

The other is more like a giant parental craft project in which the parents insert their children as living objects.  The sets, costumes, makeup are all over-the-top.  They care less about the acting/blocking and more about looking flashy in pictures.  (Also, their lighting consistently sucks -- consistently painfully bad -- designed by an adult who obviously doesn't have a clue, but apparently no one cares about lighting.)

 

The latter wins way more of the local theater awards because SPARKLES!!!!  So it attracts lots of kids who are interested in theater.

 

Dd learned tons at the former, assembled a wonderful portfolio, and is in a great college tech theater program.

 

I'm not in touch with the local high school theater groups.  I've only seen one show, for which the kids built the set.  No clue what other school systems around here do, but I suspect if varies widely.

[J-rap]

Our one ps is a small-town high school in a tiny rural area, but it has a great theater department.  It always has a director and an assistant director for its plays and musicals.  (Usually the choir director and one other teacher.)  They hire a professional carpenter to build the set.  They rent costumes or hire a seamstress when necessary.  They hire a local dance instructor if needed for any dance moves.  The light crew and stage crew are student run.  

 

Parents are very involved too though.  I've helped with costumes several times.  (Deciding what we need, looking through the costume room to see if anything will work from there, fitting the students, etc.)  Parents also help with make-up and hair, as do other students who volunteer to help with that.  The school band always plays for the musicals, but often adult community members join in and play too, especially if string music is necessary since the school doesn't have an orchestra.  Parents and art students will come in and add to the set design, paint murals, buy props.

 

Musicals and plays are a big deal at this school.  My kids loved them.

Edited November 17, 2016 by J-rap

[Tap]

I haven't been involved in the high school level, but parents were encourage to help with the middle-school production at the private school dd18 went to.  They wanted the kids to have more time to work on learning their parts and rehearsing, than the behind the scenes part.  By having the parents help, the kids could put on more shows per year.   There were 'stage crew' kids who just did the behind the scenes parts and they worked along with the adults to do that.  

 

I agree that the acting kids lost out on learning more of the behind the scenes part of the production, but the actors were allowed to be actors that way...I guess.  :001_rolleyes:

[Cinder]

Ds2 was in drama at a small private school. Parents did a lot of set building and providing props. Sometimes parents had to help gather costumes for their kid, sometimes students could work on them, other times the assistant director could borrow some from another drama group she worked with. The students spent pretty much all their time rehearsing. The productions were held offsite because the school lacked space (up until last semester of last year). The drama teacher/director would coordinate with the venue to provide sound and lighting. There just weren't enough kids to expand into other areas of production. The program is growing, though, so maybe one day students will be able to put on an entire show on their own.

[Loowit]

DD took a year of HS drama at the local public school.  The kids did all the work.  Crew was crew and actors did the acting.  There was some overlap but for the most part they picked what they wanted to be learning/doing.  In fact, the teacher was a pain to work with as a parent.  She didn't communicate well at all with the students and was very disorganized and when DH tried to ask questions the teacher got upset and told him it was the students responsibility to tell us what was going on.  Normally I would be all for the student be responsible for this, but the teacher has to give the student the information in the first place.  The teacher didn't want help from parents or really to deal with them at all.

 

Right now DD is in a private art school for homeschoolers and doing some theatre.  So far I haven't heard any requests for help from parents, but we are new to the school and I am guessing there are established parents that already help out.  I guess I will find out more when the winter performance gets a bit closer.