Do you think this is right?- Page 2

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:05pm

This does indeed stink and the people on this thread who are defending your school's decision are stinkers.

Check out the Tim Robbins movie "The Cradle Will Rock" about the actors in the WPA Theater who were told to shut down their production of Marc Blitzstein's "The Cradle Will Rock."

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:09pm

Well then you have at it, JohnPopa and Papa. I'm sure those kids in that play are just as thrilled as you to give up the chance to perform to go support the football team!! And who cares if they don't come see the plays!!

I bet your drama students feel just the same way!!

Yippee!! Go team!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:11pm

becasue there's a debate tournament that day, rodney. hence the cast will be otherwise engaged.

[robbiej]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:16pm

Cancelling the play is really a terrible message to send.

My senior year of high school, our baseball team made it to the state championships, which also happened to be our graduation day. If the team played, all the seniors on the team would not be able to make it to graduation on time. So they left it up to a vote...change graduation time or not. I voted to change graduation time...two of my best friends were on the team. There was some kind of feeling of 'we control this situation' and not some beaurocratic response from the head of the school.

perhaps it should have been presented to the students in the play that they had an opportunity to get behind their fellow students and support them at the game. then, in response, the football team could have agreed to attend a rescheduled matinee (good idea, rodney...never thought I'd say that!) to show support for the students that selflessly cancelled their own activity to support them.

Sure it would have all been bullsh*t, but at least everyone could have saved face, and a very degrading message would not have been sent.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:20pm

Oh, by the way, I'm not a drama teacher, although I work with a couple local programs on the side.

The kids from my alma mater love when the football team does well, they operate one of the concession stands and get to a) keep the money put it back into the drama/choir program and b) use the opportunity to hype up the upcoming play/musical. Frankly, that makes more money than the play makes, even with solid attendance. (The musicals in the spring do gangbuster business, sold-out houses down the line and, yes, lots of football players on the stage and working on the crews. Why? Because they have fun.)

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:20pm

I think if the performance has been rescheduled, this thread wouldn't have even been started.

My choir won awards at a national competition in Florida. However, our baseball team went to state. So, instead of my principal even mentioning the great success of my choir during his longwinded graduation speech--many of us were even graduating that day--he went on and on about the baseball team.

It may be the reality of life, but it sucks. And, there is nothing wrong with fighting the good fight.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:21pm

i'm not kidding about the debate tournament, folks.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 4:26pm

You are concerned with the money aspects--and I won't deny that importance, nor its affect on matters--but I am concerned with giving students a good education about theatre. They do that by rehearsing and performing the play and in their classes.

And, I had football guys in the shows with me--and in choir. I "get" all that. But at the end of the day (with a few exceptions) football was their future and theatre was mine. Why should one student's interests be belittled by another--when it doesn't even have to be.

Updated On: 11/16/04 at 04:26 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 6:35pm

Speaking as someone who has performed to near-empty auditoriums, I can say it's not much fun when you're looking out into the audience before you start. But in my case, not many people came because I went to a regional school, and lots of us lived pretty far from the place.

My high school actually got rid of its varsity football team for a few years due to the program's overall patheticness. We had good bowling and tennis teams, but the real overachieving was in math, chess, and debate. Ah, geekiness. I fit in there so well.

What I resent about football is the way it tends to overwhelm everything in its path- entire athletic departments, and entire schools, bend to the interests of that one team, often to the extreme detriment of education, which should always be a school's top priority.

That, and it's a stupid game.

I miss baseball.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 10:32pm

I'm still cracking up from BG2's comment.

And, I'm sorry BT11....it's not fair. Nothing ever is.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 11/16/04 at 11:31pm

I have no interest in football. Think it's a ridiculous sport. Haven't watched a game in decades.

That being said, I can't imagine them NOT cancellling the Friday performance...for multiple reasons. First of all, it's highly unlikely that no one involved in the play has any interest in the game... Hell, this is OHIO (where I grew up...I know from whence I speak...), there is NO chance that a good number of people involved with the play aren't interested in the game. And even those who aren't interested in the sports aspect, are still friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, siblings, parents or teachers of people involved in the game. It's a little egocentric to look at it in a microcosm.

And if this is a smallish town...whether in size or just in spirit ( and I think I know approximately where you are talking about, BT11)...this game is one of the biggest events to come along...ever. I think it would have been polarizing to make the people in the middle (ie the non-dyed in the wool theater geeks) choose between the game and the play. In the long run it would be bad for the drama program.

Ideally, the third performance would have been rescheduled, but logistically, that may not be possible. I just don't think it's the assault on the arts that one would think it is by reading this thread.