worst high school production EVER..- Page 2

[rlbgbc]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 9:28am

God, I love these stories. I've got a few, as well.

The HS production of "Anne Frank", when the buzzer mechanism (which signaled someone coming up into the Secret Annex) went kaput during the first act. How did they compensate? The prop master stood right next to the proscenium and shouted "RIIIINNNNNNNG!"

[InfiniteGirl]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 9:41am

1. 12 Angry Citizens. I was Citizen #2. Cough drop, anyone?

2. Our high school teacher didn't do musicals, so my friend and I put on I Do! I Do! at lunchtime. I wore a leotard and his dad played the piano.

P.S. These were also these best high school productions ever!

[kitkatgirl54]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:15am

ugh sounds like the director just really really wanted to do ITW without taking into account the "talent" she had.

speaking of which, what kind of "credentials" does one need to direct a high school musical, anyway? at my high school it was a teacher from the school, but i remember being in a few when i was younger where the director was hired out ...

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:42am

I'm going to see a High School production of CABARET this Friday,
wish me luck.

[Tom1071]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:56am

I saw a high school production of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND where Timone,Daniel,Andrea and Erzule were white. In fact, the majority of the cast was white.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 12:32pm

Credentials to direct a high school production? you're kidding, right? Most directors are high school drama or English teachers, so they have teaching certificates (and usually BA's in Theatre Education or English -- there's Princeton's answer, by the way). My father has been teaching high school drama for 35 years, has an MFA even, but the guy who does an additional production ("small" school play) is just a speech teacher/debate coach. And some high schools, including one I design posters for, bring in someone else to direct their musical because the regular drama teacher doesn't "do" musicals. In other words, it's usually whoever is willing to take a stab at it.

[EganFan2]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 12:37pm

>>>I wish you all would elaborate more. I love to hear the details of horrible high school musicals. Like the production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC I saw where somebody threw a bolt of fabric through the window into Maria's bedroom when she was talking about making clothes out of the drapes.<<<

XD !!!!!!!!!!

[lux02]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 2:18pm

this year my high school did Footloose.

First of all...it's Footloose...

our theatre group also lacks males with a vauge sense of pitch, and cordinated dancers...it was special...

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 7:17pm

'The HS production of "Anne Frank", when the buzzer mechanism (which signaled someone coming up into the Secret Annex) went kaput during the first act. How did they compensate? The prop master stood right next to the proscenium and shouted "RIIIINNNNNNNG!"'

Haha, that made my day.

I also like reading about these. They make me laugh. I don't have any particular horror stories of my own...yet.

[babygiraffeboots]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 7:54pm

When I did Once Upon A Matress in middle school, we actually had a really talented cast and it could have been great but our director screwed it up.

[Ajax]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 8:00pm

most high school musical productions are ego gratifiiyng garbage.

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 8:02pm

Updated On: 2/7/06 at 08:02 PM

[MLE]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 10:08pm

Hey, what's wrong with football players in musicals? I go to a small school, and I bet that 98% of the guys in the cast are on the football team.
Our shows are usually pretty good, for a high school of only about 350 (I have seen some pretty bad productions from neighboring towns, though). I just hope this fall (my senior year) I'll get to add that reputation with a principal role. I've had plenty of speaking roles, acting wise I guess I'm one of the best in my class, but when it comes to singing, our choral/musical director shamelessly plays favorites...

[wickedfan]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 10:28pm

I saw a dreadful production of Pippin. And what was sad was that the actors in it were fine (except Pippin, which is a problem). But the design and choreography/ directing was just SO off the mark. During "Corner of the Sky" there was tap dancing that drowned out Pippin. "Morning GLow" became an interpretive dance, and "War is a Science" became this hip-hop number. Dreadful.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:24pm

when i did annie it was quickly determined that the director had no concept of "freezing" the show, at the last dress rehearsal we learned that she never blocked or rehearsed the ending, and every performance of nyc from the rehearsal to the last show was staged differently. The initial one would have been brilliant if it were blocked better, it was officially cut because even with a 40,000 dollar budget and almost no new materials (they recycle the lumber, flats, etc. every year) there was no money to build a set for this number so it was done in front of the curtain, with the sides of the mansion still clearly visible. And my personal favorite, since all of the sets reversed to be something else any time someone opened a door (on which they refused to put real knobs) it showing a good deal of the other set.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:29pm

"I saw a high school production of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND where Timone,Daniel,Andrea and Erzule were white. In fact, the majority of the cast was white."

Ah, I saw one of those too, except the ENTIRE cast was white, which was blatantly obvious through their spray-on tans. Call me crazy, but a lily-white cast performing "Once On This Island" just doesn't do it for me.

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 5/12/05 at 11:50pm

There were rumors of our school doing OotI last year. My school is about 99% white and none of the other 1% are into theatre. I'm extremely glad that plan fell through...

[lizzie1326]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 12:03am

I was in a horrible production of "Once on this Island". The majority of the cast was white, and barely any of the cast could sing, act or dance. I don't even want to go into it. It was so horrible. Updated On: 6/8/05 at 12:03 AM

[iwearshoes]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 12:19am

yagmcb......a bunch of whiny kids prancing about in peanuts costumes who couldn't sing or dance....oy

[Over_the_Moon]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 12:24am

Our Once Upon a Mattress this year was fun... we lack guys with the ability to sing. Our Dauntless was a freshman with a changing voice... our wizard couldn't quite coordinate his enormous beard, wig, and hat, and we had castle walls that would fall down unless one of the crew was sitting behind holding them together.

[kates]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 1:08am

Uh the high school I went to did Once Upon This Island a few years ago. The cast was entirely white and the direction and vocal ability was so horrendous the show was almost unreconizable. In my nightmares I can still hear the skinny white girl attempting to belt "Mama Will Provide" and being so far from successful. The saddest part was, you could tell some of these kids were rather talented but this was not the right show for them.
I also saw an abbreviated version of Fiddler on the Roof put on by a middle school and watching a poor boy going through puberty trying to sing "If I Were a Rich Man" made me want to cry for him and his cracking voice.

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 11:52am

ANYONE can freakin direct a high school musical

[cathywellerstein]

Posted: 5/13/05 at 12:02pm

amen to that...except there's only a few that can do it well!

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 6/8/05 at 5:08pm

sorry for bringing this thread back from the dead, but you know how I said last year we almost did Once on this island? Guess what we're doing next year...yep. OotI. At my all white school (the 3 or 4 people that fit into minorities don't like to sing). It's going to be a disaster. I have no idea what my director was thinking.

I need sympathy here people.

[Broadway_freak]

Posted: 6/8/05 at 5:46pm

These stories make me feel good about myself.