Open Forum

You all have been so helpful in narrowing down my choices for this year's middle school production. I'm down to High School Musical and Addams Family. I'm more personally excited about AF while my students are more eager about HSM. My reservations are -

Addams Family: I have 60 kids and while I know we can have any number of ancestors, I worry I can only do so much with them. Last year we did Beauty and the Beast which was a good mix of a large number of leads and smaller parts for a few ensemble people. Am I overthinking the ensemble? What creative things have you done or seen done that felt meaty for the ensemble?

High School Musical: I've watched a lot of these and they're super fun. However, when I see them, they're all kind of the same. When I've done shows in the past, the fun part is making it our own. It feels so cut and dry (costumes and sets). I also struggle with the delineation of time/settings - when I read the script and when I watch, it's almost too blurred. Have you seen anything really unique that set apart a certain production of HSM?

Any thoughts on choosing one over the other? If you've done either, what surprised you, what did you love?

I know my kids will have a blast with either show and they'll be crowd pleasers as well. I'm also steering the ship so to speak this year so there's more pressure in choosing the show. Thank you for giving my ramblings attention. I appreciate all your input!


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Carla
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I direct replied to you, but in short I vote Addams! It's a really fun time!

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Jennifer Simms
Theater Director
Greenwood Community High School
IN
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We haven't ever done Addams Family, so I can only comment on HSM.  It was our middle school musical last year, and we also did it nine years earlier.  The students wanted to do it, and they loved it.  

In terms of ensemble, it has even more ensemble stage time than Beauty and the Beast.  For us, having a very active ensemble is essential to our show selection (we don't make cuts), and having a lot of smaller roles is also important.  

Although it's true that productions you see online all look pretty much the same, there is no reason you would need to stick with that look for design, if you have the capability/team to do something different.  (Though I agree that AF has a lot of fun design scope!)

As to how we made it our own ...
We always do work with the ensemble on character development, whatever the show.  They do character profiles, get hot seated, and fill in questionnaires.  We built on this by adding ensemble stories to the stage business.  This is a typical process for us for all our musicals, but what made HSM a great show for us was the number of scenes in which there was scope for adding ensemble business: opening, homeroom, hallway scenes, science class, detention, study hall.  You could even add additional hallway action during scene changes, which might help with the time blurring that you noticed.  We used it to play up the themes of the show.  We also used it to build up some of the smaller roles (Ms. Tenney, Jack Scott, etc.).

But the real answer to your question is that you are so lucky: you have this year's show and next year's show already chosen!  You just have to decide which order :-)


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Kristin Hall
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Drama Director
Lincoln MA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-27-2022 04:32
From: Jennifer Simms
Subject: Feedback on High School Musical vs Addams Family

I direct replied to you, but in short I vote Addams! It's a really fun time!

------------------------------
Jennifer Simms
Theater Director
Greenwood Community High School
IN
------------------------------

Kristin, this is super helpful. Most of our kids won't go on to do theater in high school so I always want to give them as much stage time as possible. I had a lightbulb moment about my reservations about the cookie cutter-ness of HSM - why not do it with a 50s or Halloween twist? I wouldn't change anything in the script or music, just make it spirit week with a 50s or Halloween theme. That was the first time I got really excited about HSM. I'll email MTI to make sure I can do that but I'm as excited now about HSM as I was about AF :) Can you expand on what you mean by stage business/ensemble business? I think this might be work I'm already doing but just don't use those terms. Thanks!

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Carla
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2022 08:30
From: Kristin Hall
Subject: Feedback on High School Musical vs Addams Family

We haven't ever done Addams Family, so I can only comment on HSM.  It was our middle school musical last year, and we also did it nine years earlier.  The students wanted to do it, and they loved it.  

In terms of ensemble, it has even more ensemble stage time than Beauty and the Beast.  For us, having a very active ensemble is essential to our show selection (we don't make cuts), and having a lot of smaller roles is also important.  

Although it's true that productions you see online all look pretty much the same, there is no reason you would need to stick with that look for design, if you have the capability/team to do something different.  (Though I agree that AF has a lot of fun design scope!)

As to how we made it our own ...
We always do work with the ensemble on character development, whatever the show.  They do character profiles, get hot seated, and fill in questionnaires.  We built on this by adding ensemble stories to the stage business.  This is a typical process for us for all our musicals, but what made HSM a great show for us was the number of scenes in which there was scope for adding ensemble business: opening, homeroom, hallway scenes, science class, detention, study hall.  You could even add additional hallway action during scene changes, which might help with the time blurring that you noticed.  We used it to play up the themes of the show.  We also used it to build up some of the smaller roles (Ms. Tenney, Jack Scott, etc.).

But the real answer to your question is that you are so lucky: you have this year's show and next year's show already chosen!  You just have to decide which order :-)


------------------------------
Kristin Hall
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Drama Director
Lincoln MA
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 08-27-2022 04:32
From: Jennifer Simms
Subject: Feedback on High School Musical vs Addams Family

I direct replied to you, but in short I vote Addams! It's a really fun time!

------------------------------
Jennifer Simms
Theater Director
Greenwood Community High School
IN

Jennifer, thank you for your message! I love hearing people's individual experiences. It helps so much in making these decisions!
------------------------------
Carla
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-27-2022 04:32
From: Jennifer Simms
Subject: Feedback on High School Musical vs Addams Family

I direct replied to you, but in short I vote Addams! It's a really fun time!

------------------------------
Jennifer Simms
Theater Director
Greenwood Community High School
IN
------------------------------

Hello!

I have directed both, HSM2 most recently... both were well liked well received by audience.  AF more unknown to some so that brought the element of surprise.  
With HSM2 some kids were just hanging out on stage and spoke about not really having to 'act' since it was HS students, so I suggested everyone pick a new personality, if you are a rather out-going person, try being someone a little more reserved and vice versa.  I still had to direct how to big on stage but yet act like your are a shy kid... but it added an element of not being who you are for the show.  
with AF, I had the ancestors be parts of the set... picture frames, headboard for Wednesdays bed, the antique chair ( we actually had one ancestor hold his arms up, one with a sword and then Gomez pulled it down when showing how the chair worked.  This gave the ancestors more time on stage and more involvement in the show.  
Personally if I was going to do either show again, I would do AF, but that's me, I feel like it gave my students more variety in creating something 

I do like your idea of themeing HSM :)

Break a leg!!

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Karin Neal
Theatre Director
Trinity Catholic High School
KS
------------------------------

By stage business/ensemble business, I mean any/all action that fits with the setting and characters, but isn't specifically required by the text.  As simple as having Gabriella water plants when they are supposed to be in the greenhouse.  But for the ensemble it is pretty much all their interactions with each other that aren't directly related to the dialogue.  It creates the feel of a school populated with individuals, each with their individual characters and stories.  

I completely forgot to mention that we do a lot of improvisation in the early stages of ensemble rehearsals.  What are these students talking about before school?  Who do they talk to?  What are they saying and doing in the hallways?  These improvisations (or at least selected moments and ideas from them) get turned into the ensemble business, which is mimed under the scene change/transition music.  We had groups of Thespians always gathered around the notice board, groups of kids from different cliques reacting to each other in the hallway, and a few cross-clique friendships/crushes (some of these kids became additional 'rebels' in Status Quo).  We also used it to reinforce the storyline, such as some hallway moments with Zeke/Sharpay, Jack/Kelsi.  

Hope that helps!

One thought about Halloween is that the script does specify that it is right after the winter break (New Year's Eve was during the break), so that might not fit with the text.  But Spirit Week totally would!  




------------------------------
Kristin Hall
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Drama Director
Lincoln MA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-28-2022 10:46
From: Karin Neal
Subject: Feedback on High School Musical vs Addams Family

Hello!

I have directed both, HSM2 most recently... both were well liked well received by audience.  AF more unknown to some so that brought the element of surprise.  
With HSM2 some kids were just hanging out on stage and spoke about not really having to 'act' since it was HS students, so I suggested everyone pick a new personality, if you are a rather out-going person, try being someone a little more reserved and vice versa.  I still had to direct how to big on stage but yet act like your are a shy kid... but it added an element of not being who you are for the show.  
with AF, I had the ancestors be parts of the set... picture frames, headboard for Wednesdays bed, the antique chair ( we actually had one ancestor hold his arms up, one with a sword and then Gomez pulled it down when showing how the chair worked.  This gave the ancestors more time on stage and more involvement in the show.  
Personally if I was going to do either show again, I would do AF, but that's me, I feel like it gave my students more variety in creating something 

I do like your idea of themeing HSM :)

Break a leg!!

------------------------------
Karin Neal
Theatre Director
Trinity Catholic High School
KS
------------------------------