This summer I took a job with the BOCES summer school in my area. It was rewarding to deal with special ed students who bravely coped with their disabilities. However, some of the staff were truly "pieces of work".
The music therapy teacher also directed their annual musical. Last year they did GUYS AND DOLLS and she bragged to me that every performance of the show was sold out and that many people claimed "it was better than the Broadway revival". Then she showed me a video of the production: the choreography was step-together-step, many of the actors were inaudible (at least in the video), most of the costumes didn't fit, the palm trees in the Cuba scene were those inflatable things you find in party stores. There was no real sense of blocking because many of the actors clumped together and had their backs to the audience.
Now, I'll give the cast credit for getting up there and performing--a few of them were in wheelchairs, and I think it's important for students with special needs to be given the opportunity to perform in a musical like this. However, for the teacher to say people thought it was better to a professional production wss a bit hard to take, especially since this woman actually BELIEVED it!
This same teacher has asked me to help her on her next prodcution: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. When I told her it would be ideal for Grandma Tzeitel and Fruma Sarah to be played by wheelchair-bound girls, she looked at me with a bewildered expression. Obviously she had no idea what I was talking about because she had chosen a play without reading the script or seeing any productions of it.
Sad. Terribly sad. These kids deserve better.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
