How is your theater program?

[flicker_]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 10:01pm

Do you have a well-equipped theater? Good costumes? Nice lighting? What are some things that you wish you had at your school's theater?

My highschool theater is pretty well-equipped. I believe we have about 400 seats. Our stage is pretty big with alot of room in the back. Our lights are also very good. I just wish we had more wing space! I also wish we had better materials for set-building and a larger budget for higher-quality costumes.

Post away!

EDIT:feel free to post pictures, too!

Updated On: 9/19/06 at 10:01 PM

[nate2]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 10:40pm

our theater is awesome and pretty well equipped! We normally don't use any special lights.......BUT for joseph this year we went all out and hired a pro lighting designer and like there were revolvers and pretty much any kind of light you could imagine lol it was like being in an actual broadway show!! I mean cables and this huge trapper curtain backstage! our choreographer was from nyc and he did national tours of hello dolly and copacabana! Ummmm our theater holds 936 ppl we have a balcony! Our sound system is ok but it really sucks at times so i wish we had a better sound system and oo i wish we had a fly system!

[Marlene]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 10:56pm

More and better body mics. They really suck ass, and the fact that we don't have enough half the time, and have to do these crazy taking off mics backstage right before someone starts a scene is just crazy.

[justagirl2]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 11:00pm

Not sure about college theater yet, but high school was awful. We didn't have an actual theater, but a "cafetorium," which basically meant we had a stage in our cafeteria. We'd just set up chairs when play time came around. Costumes were amazing, though...my Dolly outfits were to die for.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 9/20/06 at 4:56pm

My schools auditorium is pretty good. We desperatly need more wing space. The theatre is kind of like the orchestra of the Ambassador if you've ever been in it. We have great lighting, and a pretty good budget for costumes. We also have an amazing pit. We build out own sets so they look like they were built by students, but they're sturdy and we're alowed to do whatever we want to the stage.

It would be amazing to have a rotating stage but that's never going to happen.

[EmieMarie]

Posted: 9/20/06 at 6:09pm

we had to buy a midtraveler today
And we have all these great tools and platforms, and yet we haven't started building sets for our TWO fall shows yet!

At least we get to perform our musical in a professional theater!!!!

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 9/20/06 at 7:08pm

it's CRAP. We've NOTHING. NOT A SINGLE THING. our lights system is borrowed for every show. The theater hasn't been renovated since the 40s (yes, even the bathroom).
it's crumbling.

[jaesdare]

Posted: 9/20/06 at 11:48pm

ummm...my highschool hmmm...well we have 6 theatres (ranging from seating 90-6,000). i think we have better than what some colleges probably have. we have pro lighting and costume designers- heck yes. but my old highschool sucked, we either set up a makeshift stage in the cafeteria, used the gymnatorium (yes a gymnatorium), or rented theatres...that is probably why i never did theatre at my old school.
well, there it is boys and girls haha. god i'm so weird.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 9/21/06 at 12:12am

My high school has 2 theaters-one that is basically a slightly smaller, mezzanine-less version of the Vivian Beaumont, that seats about 700, and one "concert hall", with over a thousand seats and all of the bells and whistles of a professional theater (in fact, it's where they hold the drama desk awards every year).

We have amazing sets, costumes, and lighting, either done by professionals or tech majors.

[maui_diver21]

Posted: 9/21/06 at 2:06am

I hate our hole in the cafeteria wall theatre! It's tiny. It's old. Most of the walls have enough built up paint that I think we've lost a few inches of space, and the spots that haven't been painted over are the nasty blue it originally was (because nobody can reach them to paint). The electrical system surges and it burned out our 50-year-old lights. Our curtain was made by our lunch ladies (out of bed sheets) because the one we have needs dry cleaned which we don't have funds for, and the rope for the curtain track has knots, so occasionally (or more like always) it doesn't open or close all the way. Our costumes are purchased at Goodwill. I refuse to put any of our makeup on my face (I buy my own). For every production we have to haul chairs in from a classroom and then haul them back for the week, and repeat for the next weekend.

We are desperatly trying to get grants to overhaul the place. We turned one in at the beggining of the month for a new lighting system. Hopefully we can get funding for a curtain cleaning and some other stuff, or we could just burn the place and start over. That's what happens when you live in a small town that's in a state with terrible funding for education.

But we always have fun!

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 9/21/06 at 5:51pm

Our theatre is the biggest in our school district. It has about 800 seats in it, the seats are falling apart though. Our costumes are usually rented from a professional company and we design and build our own sets.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 9/21/06 at 6:02pm

My high school currently has no theater. We only do straight plays now (comedies) and hopefully, when we get the new building in a few months, we'll have a nice theater. Costumes are rented from a professional company, orchestra is professional and sets are professional.

[rubyslippersxo]

Posted: 9/21/06 at 6:03pm

How is your theater program?

One word: terrible.

[iridescent_bomb]

Posted: 9/21/06 at 8:49pm

a joke.

But the crazy lady they had directing last year's plays is gone now, and we have a new teacher and she's actually going to let us do REAL plays! (opposed to the crap plays that crazy lady wrote)

so we're a REAL musical theatre program now! Weee.

[Taryn2]

Posted: 9/22/06 at 1:33pm

The facility is pretty sweet. It was built three years ago, so everything isn't being held together with duct tape. What we lack is talent and money.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/22/06 at 5:04pm

My theatre at my high school is great. It's a procenium and it seats around 800 people. Our dressing rooms are very nice and our drama and stagecraft rooms are connected to the theatre itself. We have awesome technical elements within the theatre as well. We do rent costumes from companies sometimes, but it all depends on the show. We're currently working on our fall musical CHICAGO and all of our costumes are either coming from the cast or from our costume loft.

[Izzybeth008]

Posted: 9/22/06 at 10:27pm

The theatre at my highschool is really well equipped but I think it is the people in my department that make it great. I go to a fine arts academy a and i major in theatre which is pretty cool. the people that get accepted to the academy are amazing. I am a junior and I am so lucky to get to work with all the great people in the department as well as the directors. but as far at the facility itself goes it is pretty decent. It seats a good amout of people but i think it is realitively small compaired to others the dressing rooms are nice but really small so around show time they are VERY VERY packed and the shop (place where we build all the sets and stuff) is really small but really efficient. And our costume loft is really nice and organized but for the most part it is kind of compact.


here are some pictures of the stage from last years student directed shows (the stage is kind of messy because in my play we had hay onstage)

Updated On: 9/22/06 at 10:27 PM

[LiLMuNkEe22]

Posted: 9/23/06 at 12:23am

^^ those are pictures of our theatre that was built last year!

http://www.lvacademytheatre.org/Gallery.html


these are pictures from our OLD theatre, which just got this insane million dollar renovation.... but it sucks cuz we arent using it this year...

Updated On: 9/23/06 at 12:23 AM

[CandleofBroadway]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 12:13am

Beautiful. Seats over 1000, plus the balcony.

.
..
.

But not built for theatre. Build for choir, and band. = No room for sets. No fly room. Decent sound, but not good enough. The juliettes are set wrong, and the lights aren't set in the right places. We only have two spots. The stage itself is too deep, we aren't allowed to paint the floor, and it would do well to have a better procineium. We have around 12 costumes, very little set, but a nice place to put it, and we have a recent wood donor. However if you know anywhere that gives scholarships to theatre departments, PLEASE let us know. Our budget for the entirety of this year was $2000. And thats it. Royalties alone for our musical were 1200. -_-

[meggsison]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 8:19pm

It's all so beautiful.

Our auditorium is, first off, UGLY and the seats are uncomfortable, not that I care about that. We have enough seats though. The stage is alight, but we have no lighting. Seriously. We have to rent lights. And right now we're in dept. Our school focuses on ahtletics more, since we just got a huge new football stadium, which is nice, but we really REALLY need some lights in our auditorium, I mean, come on. We have good sets like, every other year and we don't have anything for flying even though there is talk of doing Peter Pan, which would SUCK. We don't even have any costumes, we make them all ourselves or people donate.

And yes, it'd be great if anyone knew of any programs that give scholarships to theatre departments because god knows we need it. Our shows are good, and we have a lot of talent, but our theater sucks.

[wackjack132]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 9:38pm

I love it.

Sure we have not the greatest place to perform. We dont have set seats, but chairs that are ALWAYS in there. It's a stage w/ lights that work (I dont know tech lol. But they light up when they're needed.) We dont get the GREATEST sets, but again, if the cast is good...Who the hell cares?

I LOVE our theater department. I go to a small (like 300 people) Liberal Arts school in Alabama. So we have maybe 20 theater kids, half of which really LOVE theater. So, as a freshman, I got to play Jim in The Glass Menagerie, and got the most parts in All In The Timing.

And plus I absolutely love my theater teacher/director, and the people I get to work with. Well...most of them lol.

[dramatothemax]

Posted: 9/26/06 at 11:06pm

Ah our new theatre is the best. Our old theatre seats like 1500 people I think. But I remember closing night of Les Mis there were people standing on the sides and in the back because they sold so many tickets.

Both our theatres are all professional. Professionals use it for performance space and rehearsal spaces. Our tech majors are top notch, they know everything and they also work professionally. Our lead sound guy has a job waiting for him with Cirque Du Solei at Bellagio.

Um...we have a lot of trap doors, fly rails, etc etc.

Once again



New theatre ^^

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 9/28/06 at 2:51pm

Our theatre program, and the theatre itself both suck.

Our "theatre" is our school auditorium.... it seats about 500 people (and is NEVER sold out!). The seats are wooden, uncomfortable, and falling apart. Our curtains could easily be 50 years old. They have holes in them and they smell horrible. Our wing space is practically nonexistent. Sets are horrible and cheap. Ditto to the sound and lighting. We have to wear our own clothes for costumes (except for a few people in our production of Guys & Dolls last year).

The program... we have no actual theatre classes. We just get together to produce one musical a year, and last year we did a play. Mos tof the people in the productions don't (or can't) sing/dance. Our dancers don't sing, so generally the ensemble has to keep offstage while the dancers are onstage lypsynching.


College.... come quicker, please.