From: edelnantj@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: The High School Play
Date: 8 Apr 92 10:22:34 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Apr4.205923.1@acad3.alaska.edu>, fsrla@acad3.alaska.edu writes:
> Does anyone out there have any suggestions for a good play
> that could be performed by a small high-school group.  Most
> of the cast female with very little scenery?????
> The lighting doesn't concern me, at the moment.  But would
> prefer something not to technical.
> The people performing would like a comedy, buy a drama/mystery
> might be fun too...
> thanks in advance!!!!                           ROG!
> 

Some of you took the time to give Rog! some suggestions about high school
plays.  He (?) responded, saying that they had chosen to do the female version
of Simon's _The Odd Couple_ and it filled 3 of the specified criteria: it
featured women, it was a comedy and it was not too technical.  Rog! didn't
volunteer, nor did we ask what the point of doing the play was for his high
school.  If the idea was to keep the kids off the streets, _Odd Couple_ will
work as well as any.

I'd feel better able to make suggestions if I had some idea of the educational
goals of the theatre program at the school.  Is it interested in training
performers and designers?  Is it interested in giving students an opportunity
to do things they haven't done before?  Is it interested primarily in
exposing the performers and the audience to a work of dramatic literature (in
the hope that that exposure will enhance their appreciation of the arts or
humanities)?  Good high school theatre tends to have strong goals for its
productions and those productions are part of the curriculum of the school
(either the drama curriculum or the language arts curriculum), not
just an after-school activity or entertainment.

In many states, only the largest schools have productions
connected to classes in theatre, continuing the idea that theatre is either 
an elitist art form (not something to be done by rural or 'at-risk' schools),
or not suitable for serious study, though it's okay to read the plays in
English class.  While most high schools feel compelled to offer some kind of 
dramatic activity,  through contests or class plays or variety shows, 
few are willing do do more than have a stagecraft class that meets only 
to build the scenery.  

Often, the state doesn't require any kind of certification or
endorsement for directing plays if they are not part of a curriculum, so most
of the work can be done by enthusiastic volunteers or underpaid inexperienced 
draftees, exposing very young and vulnerable students to their first theatrical
experience with little hope of adequate support, not to mention young,
untrained singers and dancers. 

The latest _American Theatre_ bemoans the drop in attendance at America's
professional theatres (by which they mean Regional Theatres) for the first time
since they started keeping statistics.  Coupled with a loss of contributions
from individuals, this statistic is doubly frightening (A Thousand Points of
Darkness at work).  They call for a renewed effort to educate future theatre 
audiences while they are in school.

-- 

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Jay Edelnant                    'Me?  I do not speak well enough to 
Univ. of Northern Iowa           be unintelligible'
EDELNANTJ@ISCSVAX.UNI.EDU                         Jane Austen
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre