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  • 1.  Serious vs. Comedy?

    Posted 10-18-2017 11:24
    Hello! 

    We have recently grown our program to include a theater troupe, and as our students become more and more committed to their art, we are getting requests from our students to do more serious theater.  They're loving the piece we're doing for competition (dealing with emotionally distraught teenagers) and are requesting shows like Midsummer Night's Dream, The Crucible, Cyrano de Bergerac, Romeo and Juliet, etc.  The problem is we live in a very conservative town (we have a high population of Amish as well) that really just wants to come to the theater to be entertained, not made to think.  Any attempts with serious theater in the past have proven to be non-lucrative in terms of attendees to the production, or we get backlash from the community for pushing the envelope. 

    Has anyone else ever been in this sort of situation, and how did you grow your program out of it?  Or how did you develop enough community support to encourage a more serious production?  Any insight you have would be greatly appreciated!

    Thank you!

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    Nicole Deckert
    Middlebury IN
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  • 2.  RE: Serious vs. Comedy?

    Posted 10-18-2017 13:24

    I tend to do those heavier pieces in our black box.  We did Shakespeare for the first time last year (Hamlet)  and the kids were worried about having small audiences.  I specifically did it in the black box because it seats about 60 as opposed to the 600 our auditorium seats, and I knew that because of the intimacy of the space even a house of 20 would feel ok to actors.  As it turns out, there was no reason to worry - we sold out every performance and had people requesting we add shows.

    If you don't have a black box, I have seen several people create their own on their stage.  A local high school did a show in the round on their stage - audience and actors were on the stage - and by doing that I think they were able to seat 90.  My college alma mater has done that as well.  It does require that you build audience risers, but the experience students get from working in a more intimate space is well worth it.

    I think you can also choose serious pieces of theatre that aren't SERIOUS in a heavy sense.  For instance, any of Shakespeare's comedies are definitely difficult pieces, but they aren't necessarily heavy, and when performed well they don't require that the audience think a lot either.  There are also lots of great adaptations of classics out there that may be more accessible for your community.

    Or think about something from Oscar Wilde.  Hilarious, but a high level of difficulty for students, particularly with the subtext.



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    Laura Steenson
    Theatre Director
    Reynolds High School
    Troutdale OR
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Serious vs. Comedy?

    Posted 10-18-2017 15:59
    You can probably keep your community comfortable with "heavy" pieces if they are based in literature and/or history. If you do that then you are supporting the information they receive in their English and History classes. I do one piece every year that is based on these ideas. You might start out with a Sherlock Holmes style piece or something from Jane Austin. Both are pretty accepted ideas but have a lot of depth underneath the obvious story line. 

    I'd also look at the black box option or a night of one-acts. It might be easier to introduce your community to pieces that are a little more uncomfortable for them if the pieces are not full length - and it would allow you to put some pieces that they are more comfortable with in between where you are trying to push their comfort.

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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Serious vs. Comedy?

    Posted 10-18-2017 20:42
    First of all, your students are amazing. I love the fact that they're asking to tackle heavy material when so many of my students have exclusively been interested in light and fluffy musicals. (Not that there's anything wrong with light and fluffy musicals. I love light and fluffy musicals! But it's nice when students want to change it up from time-to-time.)

    Second, if you think that your conservative audiences will get frustrated because of the lack of singing and dancing in a "serious play," there are ways to work around that. Shakespeare's comedies in particular lend themselves to the whole play-with-music format. I'd either recruit a particularly talented student from the music department or hire someone (either a college student or a professional) to write music for your production and reconfigure some of the lines into song lyrics. Also, get a really fantastic fight choreographer to come in and work with students on the lovers in the forest scenes. I think that if you can get their attention off of the archaic language and onto the things that they're already familiar with and enjoy (i.e. the music and movement), you might have an easier time swaying them to your side.

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    Victoria Chatfield
    Executive Director
    National Theatre for Student Artists
    www.nationalstudenttheatre.org
    vchatfield@nationalstudenttheatre.org
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Serious vs. Comedy?

    Posted 10-19-2017 07:24
    Hey there!

    I may be the outlier here, but I don't think there's any theatre that doesn't make the audience think. One of the major through lines of all my classes is that although the purpose may be to entertain, our goal as actors and theatre personnel should be to elicit some type of catharsis for the audience regardless of the weight of the material.

    Would it be possible for you to take a heavier piece to state competition, or perhaps your state Thespian festival? In that situation, your students get to tackle tough material, but you are not performing it for a home audience (other than maybe parents and friends). We utilize fundraising and donations to support our competition show and travel costs since there are little/no ticket sales; we also stick with low royalty shows that require minimal costumes and scenery.

    Tackling tough material is one of the things that has made my students so much stronger - I figure there's always a way to work around the home audience bias when you have other opportunities to perform. :)

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    Christina Marshburn
    Theatre Teacher and Director
    Williamsburg VA
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Serious vs. Comedy?

    Posted 10-19-2017 16:26
    I find that many will embrace serious shows if you can find the write adaption or approach.  Starting with popular classics are a good primer for conservative audiences who don't realize that Shakespeare is actually pretty risque.  There's a great version of Macbeth (I can't remember the author off the top of my hear) that is both serious and hilarious that our audience really enjoyed a few years back.  You can find similar works that ride the line between audience friendly and challenging with shows like of MASH or even It's a Wonderful Life.  Both of these also have a big enough cultural following that they won't hurt your box office.  The other option might be to couple one acts together: an audience-friendly crowd pleaser paired with a more serious work with a similar theme.  We often do this with our underclassmen and upperclassmen shows at our school.

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    Christopher Engler
    Theater director
    Loves Park IL
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    Original Message


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