Worst Pet Peeves in Community Theater

This is a subject I for some reason fascinated by--

What are some of your worst pet peeves for people in community theater?

My worst one is when chorus kids or people who mostly did chorus when they were kids are asked what their voice part is and they respond "all of them"

First of all: Just at a surface level that means you'd have to have a bass low e and a soprano high c

But more importantly than that, voice part and vocal range are totally different things, so even if you have that kind of range...

You're not every voice part

Like if I fry my voice to hell I can squeak out a low e and if I warm up a lot I can push my falsetto to an amateur, thin, almost whistly high c

But I'd never in a million years claim for my voice part to be "all of them"

And I bet that applies to a whole lot of tenors and baritones

But I won't get into all of that

Oh and honorable mention to girls claiming to be male voice parts, it's technically possible but they're very rarely correct

Teens that are cast as the leads in a show thinking they'll be the next Broadway superstar.

Theaters that do a red carpet for their opening night and put out emails to anyone attending that they need to dress accordingly.

Community theaters that refuse to work with any conflicts with cast members and actually "fire" cast members if they have to call out.

Theater companies that do a year-end award show and treat it like the Tony Awards.

Theaters that require cast members to commit to a 8 week rehearsal schedule.

ACL2006 said: "Teens that are cast as the leads in a show thinking they'll be the next Broadway superstar.

Theaters that do a red carpet for their opening night and put out emails to anyone attending that they need to dress accordingly.

Community theaters that refuse to work with any conflicts with cast members and actually "fire" cast members if they have to call out.

Theater companies that do a year-end award show and treat it like the Tony Awards.

Theaters that require cast members to commit to a 8 week rehearsal schedule."

Man that award show one isn't something I've seen a community theater do, but my high school actually did that for some reason

I remember one in particular

It was horrible

Because literally the awards were just to boost the ego of the drama club council and the leads of the shows, which by the way said leads were literally abhorrent

They gave out three best actor and best actress awards

Which I mean sure

But what's funny is there were two blatantly identifiable people who had actual talent and were great and four people who were being given the awards as more of a consolation prize

And the one person who played major roles in the school shows who was actually really genuinely excellent

Well she didn't get the award

They gave her a singing award

Which to be fair she was likely the strongest singer

But she was also a way better actor than any of the others

And also they quite literally acted like it was the Tony Awards

Oh and by the way

Later on I eventually actually got one of the awards

And I

Didn't accept it

Because it's kind of just stupid

It feels like this thread and all of you could write a hilarious tv comedy on this very topic. And it would be so funny if they cast actual talented Broadway stars ironically in certain roles. And it feels like a Ryan Murphy job. Eg imagine Joe Mantello as a community director, Patti LuPone as a talentless diva, Ben Platt doing something weird and hilarious. Ashford could do something funny too. Someone make it happen!!!

Updated On: 7/13/23 at 02:48 AM

"It feels like this thread and all of you could write a hilarious tv comedy on this very topic. And it would be so funny if they cast actual talented Broadway stars ironically in certain roles. And it feels like a Ryan Murphy job. Eg imagine Joe Mantello as a community director, Patti LuPone as a talentless diva, Ben Platt doing something weird and hilarious. Ashford could do something funny too. Someone make it happen!!! "


When I first started watching High School Musical The Musical The Series, I was really hoping it would be more of a satire. But its so gd earnest... (I mean I still watch it because I am a sap too)

Garish stage makeup. Either trying to age up a young person in an unrealistic way with heavy makeup. Also many community theatre actors just cake on foundation with no idea what they are actually going for."

When I did community theater, our very first show was "The Music Man" and our director's rule for the makeup was that no one in the audience will be able to see our faces unless we use heavy makeup. He said that from the audience's point of view, the makeup will just appear as strong facial features. So we all went out there with enough makeup to make Drag Race contestants look under done.

I played Tommy Djilas and when my cousin came to see the show, she said she was confused because she thought I was playing a female character because of the heavy makeup I was wearing.

That said, my community theater pet peeves are when actors stop acting before they get off stage. Like when the big production number is over, everybody just drops their hands down and randomly walks off the stage out of character. Choreography is another one. I know it is hard to come up with and to teach, but enough already with the moving arms from left to right or bopping from left to right etc.

ACL2006 said: "
Man that award show one isn't something I've seen a community theater do, but my high school actually did that for some reason

A good amount of NJ community theaters do these. They're long, boring, and full of a lot of egos."

We had one in my area (rural Minnesota) for a while, but it hasn't happened post-COVID.

Honestly, I enjoyed it. It helped that I'm a big fan of awards shows like that in general (I follow the Oscars like some people follow sports) but was also probably helped was that it wasn't put on by any individual community theater but rather by a collective of the half dozen or so community theaters in the area, so there was a wide variety of shows.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I'd like it to come back.

Mr. Wormwood said: "Fun topic!

My smaller pet peeves are:
- inserting some pandering local reference into the script
- audience participation (hate it when it happens professionally too but seems to be more common with community theaters) - obviously excluding something designed for it like Spelling Bee.
- when some well meaning audience member or person involved with the production says something like "this is as good as Broadway."

My large one is blaming a bad performance on a lack of resources or saying something like "they did the best they could" when the show is complete garbage. No HS or Community Theater production needs to be bad and when they are, it's not because of a lack of resources - it's usually directorial misconduct. A director either has no vision or ideas or they go well beyond their means. If you have a tiny school or theater program, don't freaking do Beauty and the Beast and suck at it. Do something tiny like You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and do a kickass job at it. High quality productions will help you build your program over time and sometimes you have to start small."

The obnoxiously loud, way-too-enthusiastic, over-supportive audiences. Oh wait, that's Broadway I'm thinking of.

My, My -- what a LOT of Corky St. Clairs we have on this thread.

My pet peeve -- community theater people who take themselves WAY too seriously and somehow think they are above the fray.

When any funny female character has to wear one of those bad short, curly hair wigs. Hedy LaRue, Lois Lane, Miss Adelaide, Lilly St Regis. Do they all have to have the same hairstyle?

When a "chorus" is added to shows that don't need them just to give more kids roles.

When kids are cast in ensembles that shouldn't have kids in them. I groan (and laugh a little) whenever I see a pint sized 10 year old business man in How to Succeed.

Any time lyrics are changed to be more appropriate, super common in church productions.

Man I'm surprised how many people are actually responding

Here's another pet peeve I have

It applies to professional theater to some degree as well, although definitely to a lesser extent

And that

Of course

Is typecasting

I live in a predominantly white area

And I'm Asian

And one day a community theater near me was doing Once on this Island

Now I appreciate that the story doesn't make as much sense if the peasants aren't darker than the Grand Hommes

However

All the cast members other than four were white

I played Tonton Julian, a black girl played Mama Euralie, a Japanese girl played Ti Moune, and my little sister played little Ti Moune

And I actually auditioned for Papa Ge, and my voice fits his range way better, because I'm a high tenor

I mean that's what I thought at first anyways

It turns out I actually really love Tonton's material and role in the story

But I find it odd that all the gods were white even though there were two people of color who auditioned for gods and were frankly better than the people who got the roles

Oh and then there's my school's shows...

There was one black kid who was in the drama department, and by pure coincidence he was always cast as sleazy and/or poor characters

Race and appearance can be important to roles, especially when it's a racial story or a story dependent on age, but in many cases taking the Hamilton route of casting people who are actually able to do well with the material is pretty much the best way to go

Race: Don’t produce an all white King and I or West Side Story. There are plenty of other shows.

Sex Appeal: Avoid it. Everyone knows to much about everyone. The director who puts their middle aged spouse in a bikini or a teen boy in a loin cloth makes the audience uncomfortable.

Dialects: If you can’t do them… don’t.

- Actors who are not mic'd. I don't care how "intimate" your studio theater is. If I've done my homework before attending a performance and can't hear the actors (especially over live musicians), odds are there are a lot of other audience members who are completely lost and have no idea what's going on.

- Multiple email blasts or posts on social media using the phrase "Tickets going fast!", when you can pull up the seating charts for multiple performances and see that tickets are not, in fact, 'going fast' at all. That one is probably my ultimate pet peeve. Even worse if it's a "Low ticket warning!"

Updated On: 7/14/23 at 01:08 PM