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MY GOD DO I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. I personally wanted to strangle the little resume stuffers. Especially the ones who pissed and moaned every day and made it a point to say that the only reason they were there was to stuff their resume. Made me even angrier because none of them came to the set strike the day after performance.

I am a senior this year in High School, I am very very satisfied with my drama department. We are the best in our district, as the newspaper dubbed us once. No other schools rival us in actors, sets, passion and grace. (though they beat us in the music department.. they suck..) But anything we do, is nothing short of pure perfection. But unfortunately.. I was never a lead. crying But I feel that this year is my year. Otheriwse stage crew for me emo

A lotof people said the same people always get leads. However, I think that juniors and seniors get the leads generally speaking. Therefore it'll perk up! When you are juniors or seniors you'll get your chance. I do so much community theatre, and have won huge contests and been in tons of shows, however my freshman and sophmore years I was in the ensemble... Howver my junior year, they take you seriously and I am now Seymour in Little Shop. Also, I've found that the ensemble truly makes the show. A prime example is wicked. The ensemble gets to do kind of stupid piddly things, and the main characters get amazing singing parts. But the real magic comes from the ensemble. A ensemble that dances and sings well definetly makes the show. Even though you don't get individual regard, people always say, "Wow the dancing was great. Wow the ensemble/chorus was great!" If you do a show like footloose, the main characters get significantly less regard then the fast dancing ensemble!

We used to have a great theatre department at my school. We had great directors, who kept those damn prima donnas in place, we were talented. We aren't a big school by any means so we didn't have an auditorium, that sucked, but we had a decent stage in our elementry school. We did Footloose, Leader of the Pack and many more high end plays. The elementry school gave our drama department the stage for our props and everything, then they decided they wanted it back and made us go to the HORRID high school stage, which has no acustics no nothing. then our directors left and were replaced by people who couldn't direct let alone act. We then had to deal with little immature children who could act or take directions. Our once great theatre department has gone to hell.

Haha liz, I <3 you. And yay for TMS whoo!

And I may ahve to hit the person that said that Grease is a downgrade from West Side Story, but whatever. We'll see about that during the East v. West 50s-era musical showdown (i.e. their West Side Story versus our fawesome Grease)

I'll admit that most theatre teachers play favorites. But for the most part, the favorites are the kids that deserve the roles. For the most part. I'm not saying that there aren't injustices (note: 8th grade when some random girl was Adelaide. Who is in audition-only class now? Not her.) But TMS is basically the favorites. We have a show just for us (sold out for three shows! aaaahhhhhh) and although the second fall show and the UIL one-act are open to anyone, it's not very often that anyone else gets cast.

Generally, I'm happy with my high school experience. I could have gone without some things (Our Town/Anything by Arthur Miller) but I like how the emphasis has been on straight acting, not musicals. I'm sorry. Musicals simply do not require the same amount of emotional depth. (I'll make an exception for Les Mis and that's it [Mostly because I haven't seen anything else performed with any kind of humanity. Generally it's 'My character is sad, so I will bow my head an slump my shoulders.' Not 'This si the most terrible thing that has ever happened to me as a person. What do I do now?' and then moving as you feel is right.])

Gah! I talk too much. And this isn't really the place for directorial debates. But ti's been my high school theatre experience that has opened my up to that kind of thinking. I've learned so much in the past year.

that's pretty much the same thing that it was in our musical theatre class last year. you see, musical theatre is pe credit for sophomores, even though they don't get lead roles, only juniors and seniors get them. ah yes, and freshman aren't even allowed to be in the class.

so, there was a girl last year who was in field hockey, and was only in the class for the easy A. I'll tell you now, that that class is in NO way an easy A. She had told us this repeated times, and she basically just slacked off the whole year, and hardly showed up for class most of the time.

that just really irritates me when they're only in it for the grade instead of the experiences and for actually performing and the show.

ugh...

but, i absolutely love my directors to death. they definately don't play favorites, which i love about them.

May I put in my rant?

At my school, we have a pretty crappy theatre dept, though we try. But seeing as its a catholic school, we are more focused on science. Anyhow. The new perf. arts dept. is supposed to be done at the end of my Jr. year, which in actuality, means the end of my Sr. year. rolleyes

We have favorites, but they deserve it. There's one kid, Nathaniel (a Jr. this year) who is the Renaissance Man of theatre. He can play piano and flute. he can sing, he can act, and he's athletic. So, he natrually gets the male leads. Female leads tend to go to the Sr.s, but it's high school and that's to be expected.

BUT! if there is a freshman who was here for middle school, and you had trouble with her backstage as a middle schooler (ie: always correcting the director, trying to bring in her own costume to make sure it waas better than anyone else's, appointing herself AD, ect.), why do you cast her as Thenadier in Les Mis? RAWR!

Oh, and add in a director that lets students walk all over him. His backbone last year was the AD, but she moved to Washington this year, so we will have a student AD, most likely a sophomore (my class). I hope so. -crosses fingers-

That's my two cents.