THE HIGH SCHOOLERS HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT — Page 3

Bwahahaha! That doesn't stop most people from posting here, don't let it stop you! It would be nice to have a youngun' that seems to understand the world around him!

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Gorlois I live on the other side of the world to Broadway but this wonderful BWW keeps me connected[and sane] to all things I love about theatre--and the contributions from[almost]everyone continue to amaze me with their theatrical knowledge.Read,learn and write whenever you feel the urge.

I'm pretty sure I have not hated an OP's remarks more than this thread's.

The four years I was in High School, our shows were:
TOMMY
INTO THE WOODS
SMILE
FOOTLOOSE

The year before I came they did THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. The year after I left, URINETOWN.

I loved that my HS did such varied and often eccentric works. We were all quite passionate about the shows, since they were ones we were eager to share. And only FOOTLOOSE was a "pop" musical (that our director blatantly admitted to us later we did almost solely to raise funds for the program.)

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For My High School years (2008-2011 at my first school and 2012 for my second), we did:

Freshmen: Annie Get Your Gun
Sophomore: Fiddler on the Roof
Junior: Seussical
Senior: The Pirates of Penzance

I was exposed to much more classical theatre than I was expecting and I wouldn't trade any of those experiences for the world. It's good to have a wide variety of experience! I found it a lot more fun that doing the same old thing.

I had a great crop of musicals when I was in high school: South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof, Bye Bye Birdie, and Brigadoon. Shoot, the director chose Brigadoon for me because I was a super high tenor who could act and dance. The director heard me in a concert my freshman year and knew what she wanted from me as a senior.

That was all matched off with a yearly Shakespeare festival, straight plays in the fall, in school short play performances as part of the theater classes, and a student-led showcase of scenes and songs as part of the International Thespian Society induction night. And then there was the community theater that did everything from premiere productions of new musicals to large ensemble family-friendly shows to small cast murder mysteries and screwball comedies.

Back then, I did want to do some of the newer shows, but I knew from being so heavily involved in the planning of the community theater performances by HS that they weren't practical. I went to outside community groups, colleges, and even NYC festival auditions to get my fix of modern work. If I was allowed to stage scenes or songs for a performance, I leaned toward flops, modern shows, and Modernism.

Shoot, I wound up using Waiting from Amour and/or Heaven from Carrie for my college auditions. They were great ice breakers at the programs I was really interested in. Wound up going to the program headed by the professor who turned my interview/audition into a 20 minute discussion about Amour and other Legrand scores. She just happened to have some transcriptions of Umbrellas of Cherbourg in her briefcase and we had some fun singing through while butchering the French.

But I digress. Young people obsess over shows if they're passionate about theater. It's what they do. I have students who can recite Funny Girl backwards if you ask them to and students who can recreate the original choreography from Rent thanks to the Broadway DVD from a few years back. You don't know what you'll fall for but you will fall for something.

during my 4 years my HS did
1989 Pippin
1990 Oklahoma
1991 Little Shop
1992 Kiss Me Kate

I was hoping for Into the woods my Junior and Sr year and they did that show in 1993 and Sweeney Todd in 1994. My School's director did a good job of picking shows based on the talent pool that year and he was right, '93 was the best year to have done that show.

After I graduated College I went back to help build sets for the shows so they did
1997 How To succeed
1998 Kismet
1999 City of Angels (starring Marcus Stevens of Forbidden Broadway and Josh Young of JCS as Stone and Stine)
the next two shows were Of Thee I Sing and Damn Yankees, but I forget which came first.

There was backlash to City of Angels, but what he really wanted to do that year was Assassins and the school board chose CoA, probably based on the titles alone

I am apparently the same age as Movidude742! Solidarity, my fellow forty-pusher (*shudder*).

We did a fall play and a spring musical. For comparison, my suburban Chicago slate of shows was:

'89 - Go Back For Murder/ Bye Bye Birdie
'90 - A Company of Wayward Saints/ Brigadoon
'91 - Stage Door/ 42nd St.
'92 - Blithe Spirit/ West Side Story

I feel like "Into the Woods" was the only new musical released for amateur production between the years 1985-1995, and so I saw at least a dozen productions of it in the early '90s. While I don't love the young'uns' focus on recent shows, at least today there are recent shows available to be done.

Because, of course, no High School will EVER be able to pull off "Les Miz" or "Phantom" or "Cats" or "Miss Saigon" or any of those shows, and besides, the authors will never let them be released for amateur production anyway (according to everybody "in the know" back then.)

I'm graduation High School this year. I went to a small Private school and we only started performing musicals my Sophomore year. Be glad you are able to do musicals at all. It was a stretch (talent-wise) to try to do musicals for us my sophomore year, but we pulled it off.

Sophomore Year: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Junior Year: Little Shop of Horrors
Senior Year: How to Succeed in Business

I see where you're coming from in terms of types of shows we want and don't want to do, but I would love to perform in classics such as South Pacific. A magnificent score, and a beautiful show.

oh we did fall plays as well. Freshman year was "The night of january 16th," Sophomore year was "Our Town." Junior year I was Bert Cates i "Inherit the Wind," and my Senior year we did "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" In that one I was stage crew, but ended up doubling the various murders as the Man in Black.