Open Forum

What is the student population of the school? What are some of the shows that have been done in recent years? Are there any cultural or social taboos that are totally out of bounds for your school or larger community? Those things will give us a better feel for the type of thing your students are used to doing.

When I started at my current school, they had been doing huge shows and the teacher I replaced was doing a ton of legwork recruiting kids from all over the district just to fill out the cast, but when I switched to a smaller show my first year, it was a bit of a culture shock now that not every student necessarily got cast every single time.

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Dalton Pittenger
Theatre Director- Smithville High School
University of Central Missouri, Class of 2018
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2021 09:53
From: Megan Upton-Tyner
Subject: Musical Suggestions

Hello all! 

Previously our musical cast was a class that consisted of our madrigal choir and an advanced theatre class. Next year we are getting a new choir director and moving to having the musical open to the whole school as opposed to being a course. I'm very excited about this since the previous format excluded Freshmen and anyone who was not involved in choir. 

Question for the group - What musicals would you recommend? We have talented students but we have no idea how many will audition in the new format and of course, how many guys will audition. 

I was thinking Godspell because of the flexibility in casting but would appreciate other suggestions. We're basically rebuilding our program after a bit of a pandemic break - what are others thinking about in relaunching their school musical? 

Best to all of you as you are finishing up this challenging semester. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

Thanks for the questions!

We are just under 900 (but will be growing due to new jobs moving into the area). It's a suburb and has the small town feel (in both the good and bad sense). We sold out for Grease and Little Mermaid. We've done Lil Abner, Little Shop and Loserville. Recognized titles do best, but I'm mostly interested in something that we can excel in for our first show with this new choral director. Also, something that will  be attractive for students to audition for. If I'm being honest, the audiences we get for the musical want something easy to digest and that they don't have to think about too much. 

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Megan Upton-Tyner
Drama Instructor
Valley Center Senior High School
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2021 10:25
From: Dalton Pittenger
Subject: Musical Suggestions

What is the student population of the school? What are some of the shows that have been done in recent years? Are there any cultural or social taboos that are totally out of bounds for your school or larger community? Those things will give us a better feel for the type of thing your students are used to doing.

When I started at my current school, they had been doing huge shows and the teacher I replaced was doing a ton of legwork recruiting kids from all over the district just to fill out the cast, but when I switched to a smaller show my first year, it was a bit of a culture shock now that not every student necessarily got cast every single time.

------------------------------
Dalton Pittenger
Theatre Director- Smithville High School
University of Central Missouri, Class of 2018

Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2021 09:53
From: Megan Upton-Tyner
Subject: Musical Suggestions

Hello all! 

Previously our musical cast was a class that consisted of our madrigal choir and an advanced theatre class. Next year we are getting a new choir director and moving to having the musical open to the whole school as opposed to being a course. I'm very excited about this since the previous format excluded Freshmen and anyone who was not involved in choir. 

Question for the group - What musicals would you recommend? We have talented students but we have no idea how many will audition in the new format and of course, how many guys will audition. 

I was thinking Godspell because of the flexibility in casting but would appreciate other suggestions. We're basically rebuilding our program after a bit of a pandemic break - what are others thinking about in relaunching their school musical? 

Best to all of you as you are finishing up this challenging semester. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

We tend to pick musicals that will appeal to our whole school community (we have a Pre K-12th school and the lower school families are big fans of our Middle School and High School shows).  I loved directing Susan Zeder's and Harry Picken's Wiley And the Hairy Man.  It is a wonderful show, with a great message, a child protagonist, lots of transformation, imagination and lovely songs.   We expanded the chorus and did the show with 30 actors and it worked beautifully.  The chorus added creative movement, sound effects, became scenery pieces, etc. Casting is very flexible; we double cast the named parts (Wiley, Mama, Dog, Hairy Man.) One of my Wiley's was an actress and that worked well.  Another show our school did was Seussical.  I was not involved with that production, but it seemed to have a flexible cast ("size-wise") and we sold out every show.

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Joanna Lewton
Arts Director
Capital City Public Charter School
Washington DC
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2021 09:53
From: Megan Upton-Tyner
Subject: Musical Suggestions

Hello all! 

Previously our musical cast was a class that consisted of our madrigal choir and an advanced theatre class. Next year we are getting a new choir director and moving to having the musical open to the whole school as opposed to being a course. I'm very excited about this since the previous format excluded Freshmen and anyone who was not involved in choir. 

Question for the group - What musicals would you recommend? We have talented students but we have no idea how many will audition in the new format and of course, how many guys will audition. 

I was thinking Godspell because of the flexibility in casting but would appreciate other suggestions. We're basically rebuilding our program after a bit of a pandemic break - what are others thinking about in relaunching their school musical? 

Best to all of you as you are finishing up this challenging semester. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

We had great success with The Addams Family and Sister Act. The casts LOVED them, and so did the audiences. I would highly recommend looking into one of these as your first show. 

Break a leg,
Laura Latham
Herricks High School
New Hyde Park, NY 11040

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Laura Latham
Teacher
Herricks High School
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2021 09:53
From: Megan Upton-Tyner
Subject: Musical Suggestions

Hello all! 

Previously our musical cast was a class that consisted of our madrigal choir and an advanced theatre class. Next year we are getting a new choir director and moving to having the musical open to the whole school as opposed to being a course. I'm very excited about this since the previous format excluded Freshmen and anyone who was not involved in choir. 

Question for the group - What musicals would you recommend? We have talented students but we have no idea how many will audition in the new format and of course, how many guys will audition. 

I was thinking Godspell because of the flexibility in casting but would appreciate other suggestions. We're basically rebuilding our program after a bit of a pandemic break - what are others thinking about in relaunching their school musical? 

Best to all of you as you are finishing up this challenging semester. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!