We did this the past two years, though we don’t charge admission. It’s treated as a “field trip.”
Our first one was for the musical “Disaster!” and we invited students to come from our adjacent middle school, as well as our school’s special ed department, to come to a performance and a talkback. We invited the special ed department for “Rent.” Due to venue issues this year, we didn’t do a school performance, but plan to put this back in place for next year.
The school shows are important to us for a number of reasons:
1) On opening night of the first play I directed here, I was sitting in the middle, all the way stage right, when I realized that the people around me couldn’t see the MOST IMPORTANT piece of the set! I didn’t know then about checking sightlines (which I now do obsessively). I realized that, if we had an invited audience, we could adjust.
2) Inviting the middle school helped introduce our department to those students, most importantly the incoming 8th graders.
3) Giving the special ed kids, who ranged from needing minor academic support to our very large Autism classes. These kids were so happy to not have to sit still and be silent for the entire production, because that was an impossibility for most of them. They were dancing in the aisles, singing along to songs they knew, and full of hugs for everybody. One of their teachers sent us a card thanking us for the experience, stating that it was amazing to see their kids just get to be themselves, without worrying about getting shushed, glared at, or removed from the performance altogether.
4) It acts as good advertising. Kids see the show during the day and then want to bring siblings, friends, and parents back to see an evening performance.
“Even when the dark comes crashing through-
when you need a friend to carry you-
when you’re broken on the ground-
you will be found.”
-“Dear Evan Hansen."
Disario, Jodi
Drama/English teacher and Director
Willow Glen High School
jdisario@sjusd.orgwww.msd.school
Original Message------
Dear colleagues,
I need your help. Our new building principal is targeting and very likely eliminating our long-standing tradition of putting up a school day preview of our musicals/plays. To explain, we have been fortunate to be able to charge a reduced ticket price to allow our student body to come see our productions during the last couple of class periods in the day. We use this as our final dress rehearsal, and the cast and crew often count it as their favorite performance, since their peers are their audience. We have just successfully pleaded our case to keep this alive at least for now, but the writing on the wall is that it will not be an option for next school year.
When / if this change is implemented it will be a drastic hit to our budget, but that's the least of my concerns. I'd love to go into more detail, but I don't want to take too much more of your time.
One of the rationales being used to take this away is that "it is not something any other school does." My new principal is citing a few area schools (two of which he used to work at) where they just don't have as good of a performing arts program, sadly. My counter argument is that that is no reason to stop doing something good. If anything, it makes us distinctive and gives us something to hold up that we do BETTER than anywhere else. With this student preview show in place we can say our district is clearly in support of the performing arts.
This is where you come in. I would like to know if anyone / anywhere else does anything like this. If you have a similar during-school, student-audience preview show (in full, not a "snippet") then I want to hear from you, PLEASE! It will go a long way to continuing to advocate for being able to keep this alive here at our school.
Thanks in advance!
--
Kenneth Smith,
English/Drama Teacher
Yearbook & Newspaper Advisor ITS Troupe #8489 Director Auditorium Asst. Manager
Lakewood High School
7223 Velte Rd. Lake Odessa, MI 48849