Worst Middle School Musical Ever!- Page 2

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 1:43pm

I always cast my high school productions in a traditional manner. Auditions, call-backs, etc. I didn't always have good musical directors, though and there were a few times roles were cast with kids who had trouble singing the music. (One musical director was dumbfounded at the first sing-thru when she learned that the role of Elsa in THE SOUND OF MUSIC sang two songs. "She didn't in the movie," was her comment--and she'd cast a non-singer in the role. Obviously she didn't listen to the recording of the complete score that I'd given her months earlier!)

Now that I've retired, I find so many of the students who have found me on Facebook are effusive in their recollections of the plays and musicals they were in. One woman--who lives in town--wasn't very good at singing but had auditioned for many, many shows. Finally I cast her as The Mute in THE FANTASTICKS and shesays it was the highlight of her high school years.

The one boy that I thought would go on to a career in either theater or radio because he had a deep, rich voice, stunned us all by undergoing a sex-change operation a few years ago.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 1:53pm

Dolly several years ago David Sedaris wrote a piece about a vengeful queen who viciously reviewed middle school Christmas pageants. I laughed uproariously when he attacks a second grader for being barely believable as a virgin.

But your post puts bitchy Thaddeus Bristol to shame.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 2:19pm

I take that as a compliment.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 2:27pm

You would.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 2:37pm

No, you would.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 3:44pm

"When does a teacher say...'Stop, you're not good enough.""

Never, if they still want a paycheck.



Oh, and nice come back Dolly...

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 4:16pm

This thread makes me quesy!

Why pick on a Middle School performance?

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 4:58pm

"When does a teacher say...'Stop, you're not good enough.""

This is one thing that really bugs me--talent isn't something that you either have or you don't have, it's developed. Before I started taking voice lessons, I was a terrible singer, but now I've been placed in my school's top choir. I was a terrible dancer when I was younger, and now people say I'm quite good at it. It goes for all areas. This is not understood much in school, however. At my school, instead of trying to help the people with less experience, most of their effort goes toward making the people who already have talent even more talented. By cutting the less talented people, they aren't getting the experience they need to improve, while the people who get leads grow as performers. I'm not exactly saying that this show that Dolly saw was a good idea, but if they had a better director, the not so great kids who sang songs could learn great things about performing that they would have never learned if being in the chorus or being cut.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 5:11pm

>>>"Why pick on a Middle School performance?<<<

Is lip syncing a "performance"? Really, how much to kids learn from moving their lips to music?

I'm sure excerpts from this show will pop up on You Tube (They're already on Facebook). I'll post a few here and you can judge for yourselves.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 8:55pm

I'm sure it's awful. I'd hate it. It wasn't meant for me. It's meant for middle school kids to get up and perform and for their parents to cheer them wildly. I certainly hope you started this thread as a joke- if so, well done. If not, if you're really stewing at the poor performances by a crowd of children in a Lutheran Middle School show, then, well, words fail me. Why'd you go see the thing?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 10:16pm

I went to see it because a former student of mine directed it--all four hours of it.

BTW: The parents and grandparents weren't exactly engrossed by the production. There was a dull roar of conversation throughout the show and a steady stream of children and adults heading to the concession stand in the back of the auditorium throughout the first act. The stand stayed open throughout the evening and seemed to do a steady business. The coffee was quite good.

You know, it was like attending a performance at Madison Square Garden, only on a much smaller scale.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/23/11 at 10:56pm

So, you are trying to justify that you are complaining about grade schoolers putting on a show?


Shhhhhhhh.

Stop.

Just stop.