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  • 1.  Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-02-2014 13:53
    From the very beginning of trying to do this show on the heels of The Color Purple I have found this an ogre of a show. For the past seven years, I have to hire outside musical directors AND the students are very half hearted in attending rehearsals or giving their all. Anyone else fighting (cell phones , jobs, show choir, forgetfulness ) It's as if they have no understanding that the director can't be with them as hey learn the lines... ------------------------------------------- Karin Stratton Director / Instructor MSD of Pike Township Indianapolis IN -------------------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-03-2014 08:13
    I haven't done Shrek specifically, but I can relate to having students who are half-hearted about rehearsing.  They want the finished product, but they don't want to put in the time or the outside work.  I have a small program, so I can't 'kick' someone out and replace them.  I have no one to replace them with and my school wants me to put every student that auditions in the shows.  I have a contract that the students sign saying they are allowed one unexcused absence.  Excused absences are illness and death in the family.  They also give me all of their pre-existing conflicts with the rehearsal schedule and I work around those with the agreement that they can't add any more.  They still do.  Their parents sign the contract too, but they don't care.  They think that Aunt Susie's birthday dinner is an excuse to miss rehearsal from 2:45-5pm.  Or their cheerleading coach decided to have a party for all the cheerleaders, so they have to miss rehearsal. Or my guitar teacher was sick the other day and had to cancel, so I had to reschedule my lesson for today, during rehearsal.  Blah, blah, blah; you all know the drill.  

    When a student says they have a job, I ask them to give me their schedule at auditions and I will see if they could possibly have a small part in the show.  If their schedule changes every week, I tell them that I can't work around that.  If they are cast in a show and then get a job, which I've had happen, and they tell me that they have to miss rehearsals, I tell them that the play came first.  If their boss can't work around the rehearsal schedule, they have to drop out of the play.  I haven't had that happen with a lead, thank goodness.  If they are in a sport that meets two times a week or less, I ask for their schedule and give them a smaller role.  If it's more than that, I tell them they can't do the show and the sport at the same time.

    Cell phones aren't an issue because we collect them at the beginning of each rehearsal.  However, I will have students open their laptops when they are not in a scene even though they are told not to.  There are always about 1/2 of the cast who don't want to use their free time learning lines or going over blocking or choreography.  They procrastinate until the off-book deadline and don't seem to care that they still don't know their lines.  That's my biggest frustration.  I try to pair up a student who is dedicated with one who isn't and have them work on lines whenever they are off stage or have any down time.  This has helped, but I feel bad for the students who are pulling their own weight and then always having to pull other students along with them.  I also don't schedule anyone for rehearsals that isn't needed at that rehearsal.  

    Hope this helps.  It's nice to hear some others face the same issues.



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    Gail Bartell
    Altamonte Springs FL
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  • 3.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-03-2014 08:30
    There seems to be an epidemic.  I don't know if it's just grouchy person syndrome ("In my day we had our lines memorized two weeks before auditions!  And we walked to school in the snow uphill both ways!") or if there's really been a deterioration in the student work ethic.


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    Katherine Miller
    Theater Teacher
    Paul VI Catholic High School
    Herndon VA
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  • 4.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-04-2014 13:58
    You have to make them believe that what they are doing is more important than everything. How do you do this? Not easy at all.  But you have to show them that what they put, they will get back.  And you have to listen to the student voice.  If they feel connected, they will give you more.  And then once you have a few students addicted, it spreads like a virus.  This Thursday we present our production of Almost, Maine.  If you go to the website (www.almostphs.weebly.com), you will see a set that was designed and built by students. And it is a damn good set. But they believe in the program because they believe it is their program.  

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    Allen Price
    California MD
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  • 5.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-03-2014 10:27
    Lemme take a crack at a few things. I'm just thinking out loud here. Your mileage may vary.

    1. Yes, this generation is more distracted. The have bought into the absolute myth that they can "multitask." Never mind that science tells us it's bull. Collect the cellphones. They're a narcotic.

    2. Connected to #1: As Gail noted: "They want the finished product, but they don't want to put in the time or the outside work." This generation is accustomed to instant solutions (thank you YouTube, Google, etc), and the idea of "making it." They think "The Voice" or "American Idol" is how it's done. Since current music (EDM, etc)
     is primarily a studio creation, the idea of slogging out on the road is foreign to them. It's why I do not refer to theatre as an art. I tell mine: It's a craft. Something you WORK at, something you hone. Check out this blog entry of mine, Tenacity Trumps Talent. 

    3. Get 'em out of their hoodies. This is a small thing, but my goodness, kids hide in those things. I haven't seen anything that kills energy in a room like this since chloroform. 

    4. The larger the cast, the harder it is to achieve cohesion. Last year-Godspell. Cast of 10. T-I-G-H-T. Like Miles Davis Quartet-in-their-prime tight. This fall, A small one-act troupe-tight. Mainstage production: Double the size, half the cohesion. This problem grows exponentially when we start chasing down the "somewhat interested" to fill out a cast. Back to my Godspell: I had 16 audition. 6 didn't make it. Those left standing were motivated. Frankly, I'd rather do "Waiting for Godot" or a two-person version of "Almost Maine" if I've got to go hunting cast members for something bigger.

    5. Did the students have input into show selection? A positive attribute of the current generation is they want to be involved in the whole process, to take ownership. Once a core group of influencers buys in and makes the show "theirs," often the rest fall in line. 

    6. Sadly, I think some of this comes about because of the increased emphasis on product over process. We shifted from being theatre educators to mini-Broadway producers. (Annnd cue "Razzle Dazzle.")  Outside production companies are making a nice living coming in and making the kids look good. Is that the ultimate purpose? Or is it to teach stagecraft? My department may not have the flashiest stuff out there, but I'll tell you what: my kids could mount a production from the ground up on a near-zero budget and make it work. I'm proud of that.

    7. Ask your kids at some point in the rehearsal process: "Why are you here?" Explain that there are no wrong answers, just that you want to know what has moved them to give up their time. The answers may provide some clue on how to handle one cast vs. another. 

    Hang in. Back to my Godspell. We opened on a Thursday. The Saturday before we opened, I would have told you to stay away. By opening night: arguably one the best shows in school history. 

    Break a leg. (Or, other body parts as may be needed for motivation. ;)

    Scott
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    Scott Piehler
    Drama Director
    Lilburn GA
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  • 6.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-03-2014 12:20
    Have you tried talking to your administration about the impossibility of always casting everyone who auditions? If you can cut people from the cast it should help weed out those who don't really want to work. I've had really talented students mess around in rehearsals and then they are not cast, or are cast in a very small role, in the next production. I tell the kids that I'd rather work with people who have a good work ethic than those who are "talented". And I back that up when casting in the future.

    Another option would be to create a track list for rehearsals and only call the specific people you need for the day. This helps keep the numbers down in the reherasal, reduce the number of kids who are waiting to "work", and supports the idea that you aren't "wasting their time" while they are waiting. I've found that this works really well. It also lets the kids know where we should be in the rehearsal process at all times.

    Something else I did, for the first time, was audition for the fall show in spring and tell the kids that if they were not off book when the school year started they were out of the play. That was REALLY helpful. The kids were 90% off-book so rehearsals ran fairly smoothly with very little time spend nose-to-script. We're doing this again for the spring show. Auditions are in December and they need to come into rehearsal in January off-book.


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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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  • 7.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-03-2014 13:10
    Fascinating discussion -- and a possible article for Teaching Theatre, I think. We might be bugging some of you for comment! 

    One thought that occurs, looking at the original post (about producing Shrek "on the heels of" The Color Purple): Are schools just producing too many big shows these days? Doing any production well can (and should) take a lot out of you; it's hard to jump right into another major effort, as I think more and more schools are asking kids and their teachers (and parents) to do, while also expecting heavy commitments in the realms of sports, student government, etc. When I was in high school -- and yes, hard not to sound like an old fogey in this conversation -- there was one fall play and one spring musical, and you could actually participate meaningfully in both shows while also being involved in other things (I also edited the school paper, was on student council, etc.)... We could do it all because the expectations were reasonable. Not anymore -- even the fundraising I see middle and high school students doing now to support all their over-the-top activities, international travel, etc. just seems extreme. No wonder some kids, at some point, start to check out, and parents, too.   

    I've gotten involved in a community youth theatre in Juneau, Alaska, where I now live, and where the most talented kids are chronically overextended. We have teen-aged cast members in our fall show who've been concurrently involved in plays at their own high schools -- even our adult production team members are working double-duty, and it's been very challenging. I think our model going forward is going to be one major production per season, followed up by several smaller, quick-hit projects: 24-hour plays, concert stagings of original material kids want to do rather than full productions, collaborative weekend workshops with other arts groups, and the like, plus ongoing academy classes offered on a pay-as-you-go basis. If students want to be in a big-time stage production, families will have to make a big-time commitment, period, once a year; and if they can't, we'll say, come see this show and then sign your kids up for a class or a workshop or a cabaret night in the spring. I want every kid in everything we do to be HUNGRY to be there -- not watching the clock because they were just in a show and now they're late for soccer.

    It's like organic farming/natural crop rotation versus big agribusiness, which just keeps pumping more fertilizer into the same tired soil. What are we trying to grow, anyway, and who are we really feeding? 

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    Julie Coppens
    Juneau AK
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  • 8.  RE: Shrek has been a challenge

    Posted 11-04-2014 08:20
    I'm a middle school teacher where all of the productions are based on in-class work.  My program is audition only (purely due to funding) and so my students all have to want to be in my class.  Having our productions in class negates any sort of extra "outside conflicts" and we still have these motivation troubles.  During show rehearsal/production time, literally their only homework for my class is to run lines.  However, several of my students just can't seem to make that happen.  They won't even use the time in class to go over lines or run scenes independently unless I am specifically working with them in a certain scene.  These students lack any sort of personal responsibility. I end up having to counteract their non-productiveness by giving them worksheets and assignments to do when they aren't actively rehearsing, otherwise they would sit and socialize.

    Ironically, I also find these students to often be the squeaky wheels of the class.  They made a huge deal about getting a certain role and the pout and drain energy from the class when they don't get what they want.   I sometimes wish that I could tell them that if it weren't for the fact that I have to put them on stage, I wouldn't cast them at all.

    I do give them an off-book date where we will purely do a line through and they will lose a percentage of points based on how many times they have to call for a line.  What I find though is that the grade/deadline tends to only be a motivator for those who are already putting in the work anyway.  Some of the students that are talented but lazy don't really care about bad grades so it doesn't help to motivate them. 




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    Jennifer Simmons
    Lexington SC
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