I happened to see David's message this morning, and since I am the teacher he spoke of, I thought I would also contribute to the conversation. Since taking over the program, (and as a nearly lifelong resident of this community) I have kept things pretty conservative on the Main Stage:
High School Musical (musical)
It Happens Every Summer (play)
Really Rosie (children's musical)
Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (play)
Schoolhouse Rock Jr. (children's musical)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (musical--I definitely played up the farcical physical humor and character typing rather than the bawdiness and it was still a big hit)
The Mouse that Roared (play)
My Son Pinocchio (children's musical)
Oliver (musical)
Honk Jr. (children's musical)
Rehearsal for Murder (play)
Joseph and the Amazing...(musical)
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day AND Alexander who is Not Not Not Not Not Going to Move (children's musical)
You Can't Take it With You (play)
110 in the Shade (musical)
Willy Wonka Jr. (children's musical)
John Lennon and Me (play)
Guy and Dolls (musical)
I tend to keep more controversial legitimate theater studies for the classroom setting, and my administration is supportive of this. In class, we have worked on scenes from:
The Odd Couple--Male and Female versions/Oscar and Felix
Death of a Salesman
Plaza Suite
Snow Angel
The Bad Seed
Blithe Spirit
Twelve Angry Jurors
God's Favorite
Rumors
Inherit the Wind
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Importance of Being Earnest
Almost, Maine
The Diary of Adam and Eve
Some fun, silly stuff for beginning classes:
Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon
Seussification of Romeo and Juliet
It's Not You, It's Me
12 Incompetent Men and Women
Make it Mystery
We also do at least one educational theater piece each year, for presentation (somehow) to our student population. Popular shows in this vein have been:
Thank You For Flushing My Head in the Toilet and Other Rarely Used Expressions
4 AM
Stress, Pressure, Doom and other Teenage Delights
The Secret Life of Girls
This is a Test
13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview
Sometimes I think finding the "right" show is the hardest part of this job, so I hope this helps!
Kristen
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Kristen Statt
Liberty Twp, OH
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-10-2014 09:54
From: David LaFleche
Subject: Content Worries
One of our local high school theatre teachers wanted to revive a barely alive theatre program. The school had received some bad press because of complaints by a couple over the play title "Ten Little Indians". Even after renaming the show to "And Then There Were None", the media had tasted blood...
A year later, the teacher selected "High School Musical" for the annual musical. Not only did the show have a lot of appeal to the students, but many who would never have thought about being in theatre (cheerleaders and basketball players for example) DID become part of the show. The school had a great time, the shows made money for the theatre program, AND the community and media ate it up. The program is alive and well. In fact "Guys and Dolls" is being performed this weekend.
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David LaFleche
Director Of Membership
Educational Theatre Association
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-09-2014 12:18
From: Jarrod Townsend
Subject: Content Worries
We are in a fairly conservative community as well, and here's what's worked for us.
We've done Back to the '80's, South Pacific, Seussical, the school version of Grease (all the fun the parents remember without any of the controversial material that's in the play or movie), Bye Bye Birdie, and Honk.
For plays, Comedy of Errors, The Ash Girl ("Cinderella" confronts the 7 Deadly Sins en route to being reunited with her prince), Radium Girls, A Midsummer Night's Dream, And Then They Came For Me, and The Importance of Being Earnest.
Our Intermediate/Advanced class has also done This is aTest, The Boor, 12 Angry Jurors, 10 by 10, 1984 (adapted from a 1957 BBC teleplay), and a collection of plays from 35 in 10 (many of the plays were inappropriate for us, so I recommend reading all of them yourself before letting students read them).
Hope that helps.
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Jarrod Townsend
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