blah
Lack of sleep is beginning to seriously affect my mood.
And I am not a fan.
We were talking about high school theatre in Playwriting today -- actually, Ian asked Doug about it and Doug was talking about it. That's the way he works -- he'll talk for ten minutes about something and you don't really discuss it, you just let him talk and then if he wants to discuss you can, but generally he moves on to something else. Which is usually okay with me because I tend to agree with Doug. But today I really didn't and wanted to say something, and never got the chance and it bothered me.
Doug said that he thinks no one under 18 should perform "serious" theatre. By which he meant difficult plays like Shakespeare, O'Neill, etc. The specific question was whether high schools could pull off The Glass Menagerie. And he said they should never even try, because they're too young. It's not going to work because you have to have someone older playing specific roles. Which is also, I think, the idea behind casting Jay, a professor, as Prospero in The Tempest. With which I completely, entirely, with every fiber of my being, disagree. Part of the joy of high school and college theatre is the opportunity to play roles like Prospero -- the majority of high school and college actors will never get that chance ever again. Part of the study of the craft is taking roles that are literally impossible for you to play and performing them to the best of your ability anyway. Doug's idea about teaching theatre at the high school level is to focus on the basics of theatricality, to stick to improvisation and technique, to do smaller, easier stuff, rather than to study the difficult shows and attempt greatness with the talent you have. And I couldn't think he was more wrong. I think that to say "we don't have the budget or the range of talent to perform a musical the way it should be done, so we just won't even try" is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. In an academic environment there will NEVER be an equality of talent, and that's something you need for any show. I have yet to see a show here at Furman that had an equality of talent, or that was performed to the best of our ability. Because when you cast student actors according to who is the best for each role, you end up cutting out some of the students who are less talented or less experienced -- making better shows, but not teaching as much. So a good university theatre department should focus on not only casting well, but casting responsibly, so that actors also work on other aspects of theatre and so that less talented but equally intelligent/passionate students get their chance onstage. And as far as I'm concerned, that means not casting professors in the shows.
*climbs down off of soapbox*
Sorry. I've just been really missing the theatre recently, and thinking about why I felt like I had to give it up, and that juxtaposition of FU theatre's ideas and mine has a lot to do with me dropping the major.
Sigh.
Gorgeous day, and I'm stuck in the RA office again. Someone up there hates me.
I wanna go home...
And I am not a fan.
We were talking about high school theatre in Playwriting today -- actually, Ian asked Doug about it and Doug was talking about it. That's the way he works -- he'll talk for ten minutes about something and you don't really discuss it, you just let him talk and then if he wants to discuss you can, but generally he moves on to something else. Which is usually okay with me because I tend to agree with Doug. But today I really didn't and wanted to say something, and never got the chance and it bothered me.
Doug said that he thinks no one under 18 should perform "serious" theatre. By which he meant difficult plays like Shakespeare, O'Neill, etc. The specific question was whether high schools could pull off The Glass Menagerie. And he said they should never even try, because they're too young. It's not going to work because you have to have someone older playing specific roles. Which is also, I think, the idea behind casting Jay, a professor, as Prospero in The Tempest. With which I completely, entirely, with every fiber of my being, disagree. Part of the joy of high school and college theatre is the opportunity to play roles like Prospero -- the majority of high school and college actors will never get that chance ever again. Part of the study of the craft is taking roles that are literally impossible for you to play and performing them to the best of your ability anyway. Doug's idea about teaching theatre at the high school level is to focus on the basics of theatricality, to stick to improvisation and technique, to do smaller, easier stuff, rather than to study the difficult shows and attempt greatness with the talent you have. And I couldn't think he was more wrong. I think that to say "we don't have the budget or the range of talent to perform a musical the way it should be done, so we just won't even try" is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. In an academic environment there will NEVER be an equality of talent, and that's something you need for any show. I have yet to see a show here at Furman that had an equality of talent, or that was performed to the best of our ability. Because when you cast student actors according to who is the best for each role, you end up cutting out some of the students who are less talented or less experienced -- making better shows, but not teaching as much. So a good university theatre department should focus on not only casting well, but casting responsibly, so that actors also work on other aspects of theatre and so that less talented but equally intelligent/passionate students get their chance onstage. And as far as I'm concerned, that means not casting professors in the shows.
*climbs down off of soapbox*
Sorry. I've just been really missing the theatre recently, and thinking about why I felt like I had to give it up, and that juxtaposition of FU theatre's ideas and mine has a lot to do with me dropping the major.
Sigh.
Gorgeous day, and I'm stuck in the RA office again. Someone up there hates me.
I wanna go home...
posted by Kira at 11:09 AM
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