Some Reflections on Nationals
Posted by Samie Johnson on Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Under: Secretary
Hello this is Secretary Samie here to blog about the nationals experience!
Now first of all performing Urinetown for an audience of about 2,500 theatre-loving people was amazing. We got great feedback on our show, from the backstage crew to our fellow thespians; there was tons of positive buzz about our show. The most amazing thing about the performance-in my personal opinion-was coming out for curtain call to see the entire audience already on their feet. Talk about some thunderous applause! It was basically awesome.
Now since we were performing, I only had time to take 4 workshops, but they were all awesome. I took "The Director's Toolbox," "Yoga for Relaxation," "Broadway Belting," and "How to Audition for Broadway." These were all very valuable in my opinion and I took many, many pages of notes. If you want specifics about what we learned in the classes- shoot me an email, I'll gladly share!
Now the other shows we saw at Nationals were all good in some way or another. Some were awesome while some seemed like, well high school theatre: which is okay because, that's what it is!!! I think that we are sometimes to quick to rip apart other shows. But what we have to remember is how lucky we at DSA are. We go to an ARTS SCHOOL. Many high schools have all of their arts funds cut (trust me this happened at my old middle school) and we have to remember that lots of the shows there do not have the recourses that we do. With that said I think that every show we saw was admirable and some were simply exceptional. But our attitude as a whole on the troupe was somewhat disappointing to me. I will openly admit that I did criticize some shows and I understand- but I think that we as a whole needed to be much more open minded.
I would like to discuss one show in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed and I was quite honestly offended by the feedback some of our troupe gave. This show was Working. It was a show about the working class presented through different job positions and their peoples' stories. The vocals in this show were UNBELIEVABLE. It gave me chills multiple times. However at intermission I heard comments like. "The kids are good, they just should have done another show" or "I think the show is designed to be mundane like the work the stories are about." even "I'm just a whiny white person with no ambition" This was very, very offending to me. Honestly, I come from a working class family. My grandparents occupations were: a trucker, a housewife, a construction worker, and a beauty salon owner. The stories in this show were so relatable to my family. So some the comments I heard offended me deeply on a personal level. But my point is not to complain about my feelings. I think that as a troupe we need to set a goal to be much more open minded. This show was very meaningful to certain people and I think that as a whole we need to accept that though some things may not click with us-they do with others. So a personal goal for myself this year is to get out around the community to see more high school theatre and to be OPEN to it. I hope that at least some of you will consider setting the same goal.
But that's it for my rant, I think that-with a few bumps- the nationals trip was a positive experience for the troupe and we represented our school and our state in a positive light. Though, there is always room for improvement and I hope that we can continue to represent ourselves as a positive, professional, supportive, united, and open troupe. I have set these goals for myself for the upcoming year and I hope you all will set somewhat similar goals for yourself. (especially at state!!)
If you have any feedback or questions, please email me at broadwaybaby1027@gmail.com
Now first of all performing Urinetown for an audience of about 2,500 theatre-loving people was amazing. We got great feedback on our show, from the backstage crew to our fellow thespians; there was tons of positive buzz about our show. The most amazing thing about the performance-in my personal opinion-was coming out for curtain call to see the entire audience already on their feet. Talk about some thunderous applause! It was basically awesome.
Now since we were performing, I only had time to take 4 workshops, but they were all awesome. I took "The Director's Toolbox," "Yoga for Relaxation," "Broadway Belting," and "How to Audition for Broadway." These were all very valuable in my opinion and I took many, many pages of notes. If you want specifics about what we learned in the classes- shoot me an email, I'll gladly share!
Now the other shows we saw at Nationals were all good in some way or another. Some were awesome while some seemed like, well high school theatre: which is okay because, that's what it is!!! I think that we are sometimes to quick to rip apart other shows. But what we have to remember is how lucky we at DSA are. We go to an ARTS SCHOOL. Many high schools have all of their arts funds cut (trust me this happened at my old middle school) and we have to remember that lots of the shows there do not have the recourses that we do. With that said I think that every show we saw was admirable and some were simply exceptional. But our attitude as a whole on the troupe was somewhat disappointing to me. I will openly admit that I did criticize some shows and I understand- but I think that we as a whole needed to be much more open minded.
I would like to discuss one show in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed and I was quite honestly offended by the feedback some of our troupe gave. This show was Working. It was a show about the working class presented through different job positions and their peoples' stories. The vocals in this show were UNBELIEVABLE. It gave me chills multiple times. However at intermission I heard comments like. "The kids are good, they just should have done another show" or "I think the show is designed to be mundane like the work the stories are about." even "I'm just a whiny white person with no ambition" This was very, very offending to me. Honestly, I come from a working class family. My grandparents occupations were: a trucker, a housewife, a construction worker, and a beauty salon owner. The stories in this show were so relatable to my family. So some the comments I heard offended me deeply on a personal level. But my point is not to complain about my feelings. I think that as a troupe we need to set a goal to be much more open minded. This show was very meaningful to certain people and I think that as a whole we need to accept that though some things may not click with us-they do with others. So a personal goal for myself this year is to get out around the community to see more high school theatre and to be OPEN to it. I hope that at least some of you will consider setting the same goal.
But that's it for my rant, I think that-with a few bumps- the nationals trip was a positive experience for the troupe and we represented our school and our state in a positive light. Though, there is always room for improvement and I hope that we can continue to represent ourselves as a positive, professional, supportive, united, and open troupe. I have set these goals for myself for the upcoming year and I hope you all will set somewhat similar goals for yourself. (especially at state!!)
If you have any feedback or questions, please email me at broadwaybaby1027@gmail.com
In : Secretary