[SML] OT: Cultural Arts programming at your educational institution

[Richard Niederberg]

Dear John,
Instead of forcing the Performing Arts down their throats, why not
give them what they are interested in? Retire the old 'chestnuts', and
program shows that are edgy, despite the Principal's misgivings. When
I attended a Public High School, I programmed 'Three Dog Night' and
'The Standells', charged for tickets, and returned a tidy profit to
the Student Body (discretionary) account Yes, I successfully risked
Student Funds, but it worked. Try programming 'Rent' or 'Kinky Boots',
not the umpteenth production of a Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner
and Lowe 'classic'. Also, the faculty already have their jobs - let
the Students Direct and Design the shows. I started Producing shows in
1970. It is OK to have nontraditional casting, even at the High School
level. It is OK for students to emulate the hottest performers and
groups, to serve as a 'point of departure' for developing their own
style and developing their own tastes.
/s/ Richard
_________

On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 12:34 PM, John Lucs via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> Thought I would tap a large audience of people that work in the educational
> sector to get some thoughts and input about how you program the arts into
> your schools.  We require our 550 (high school) student population to attend
> 2 events a year in our theater to open their eyes to live performing arts.
> It has been a bumpy road for the last 3-4 years with what does and does not
> go over well.  We limit the performance to about 1-1/2 hrs at the most with
> no intermission.  Homework is suspended for the evening. We also ask the
> artist(s) to do a master class workshop with our core arts students during
> the class period to develop skills and hear their story. We currently have a
> group of about 8 within the department looking at recommendations from other
> faculty, students, and literature we received.  The budget is about 18-22k a
> year for it all, performer fee, tech, catering..etc etc.
>
> Our fustration with the students more recently in the past year or 2 has
> been the etiquette use of technology during the show and behavior that has
> gone out the window especially if the performance does not appeal to them.
>
> How does you facility go about making your programming choices especially if
> it is an all school required event?  We are looking to form a committee of
> 10-15 people consisting of performing arts related students and some faculty
> outside of our department to help develop a working list of acts for next
> year.  We hope that this may bring the masses to enjoy the events we go with
> for 2015/16. Would love to hear of your experiences in this matter.
>
> Reply in a PM to me or share with us all.  Happy New Year everyone.
>
> --
> --JEL--  <><
>
> John E. Lucs
> Technical Director, Theater
> Peddie School
> jlucs at peddie,.org
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
> Stagecraft mailing list
> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net



-- 
/s/ Richard
_________