A follow-up to my Buchanan High 'Les Miz' post
My posting about Buchanan High School's Jan. 24 concert version of "Les Miserables" caused a minor stir last week on the Beehive. Not because of the post itself, but because I singled out a comment from a reader who was irritated that I hadn't reviewed Clovis West's similar production last year. I wrote:
This, folks, is exactly why high-school theater usually doesn't get covered in The Bee. It'd be impossible for me to see every high school show in the Valley and still do the myriad of other tasks I have in covering the performing arts scene (including community, college and professional theater). So I do it when I get a chance (and usually on my own time), and what happens when I do? Someone from Clovis West complains.
Did I overreact, as some later commenters suggested? I don't think so, but, then again, that's a matter of opinion. I guess what I was really responding to was the SPEED with which that first dismissive comment was posted. Here I go to a high school show, which I'm not usually able to fit in my schedule, and it was a matter of minutes before someone was trotting out the "why didn't you cover me?" argument. Sort of made me laugh, actually.
More than concern about the individual comment, however, I thought that the moment offered an interesting launching-off point for a discussion about the coverage of high school theater -- especially because we do have a relatively new forum (the Beehive) that would allow us to do more than we've ever done in print. Some of my thoughts:
First, I want to emphasize one more time that I don't think high school productions should be officially "reviewed" on a regular basis. (And that would be true even if the paper had three full-time theater critics and could handle the workload.) Though the point is probably a semantic one in terms of my Buchanan post, I consider that piece of writing more of a positive acknowledgement of the experience than a review. I did point out performances that I thought were good, and I singled out those individuals, but I didn't offer any criticisms, other than one mild general comment about the conductor having to work to keep the orchestra and singers together.
So what makes a review and what makes a "positive acknowledgement"? The line gets pretty fuzzy. For example, I often "review" performances by Children's Musical Theaterworks. But as regular readers of my theater articles know, I approach different kinds of productions with different mindsets. If a CMT show is great, I'll express that view. And if an individual performer is great, I'll acknowledge that, too. However, I realize that with CMT shows, I'm dealing with amateur performers, some of whom are inexperienced, and it's very rare that I would ever single out an individual CMT actor for harsh criticism. I will, however, criticize a director or an entire production in general terms if I feel that is warranted, while still giving a fair amount of leeway for the amateur nature of the production.
I treat other types of theater on sort of an ascending level: community, college, professional. It's all still rather mushy when it comes to cut-and-dry "rules," however. Some community theater is defiantly grassroots and low-key. Other community productions come with an expected level of quality (and charge accordingly) in terms of consistency and reputation (such as Good Company, for example). College/university theater has different ambitions as well. A full-fledged Fresno State production -- with professional director and designers, along with a learning-environment mentality -- is subjected in my book to a higher standard than a production at Fresno Pacific, for example, which has a much less ambitious theater program. Professional theater -- particularly the traveling shows that come through the Saroyan -- I approach with even higher expectations. When folks are paying $50 or $60 a ticket for a show, they have the right to expect extremely competent shows.
What's most important to me is the ability to remain flexible, or relative, in terms of my expectations of and approach to a production.
Other points:
-- I'm glad that the original commenter hopped back on the thread and clarified his/her original statement:
"Forgive me for feeling slightly jilted - I know a few of the commenters are performers and would feel the same way if they did a show and it got over looked, regardless of it being a High School show or a Rogue show or anything.
I didn't mean to cause such controversy, I was just upset that it got covered, but at the same time it brings to light that there's a @$#^-ton of theater out there to see here in Fresno and that's really great that we have come so far from just GCP and Theater 3 (for those who remember them). Kudos Donald, and my apologies for my snideness...
I understand that frustration of not getting covered. I really do. (It happened to me when I was in high school theater!)
-- In terms of a "ban" on high school theater coverage, I admit I'm guilty of hyperbole in my initial post. If anything, I hope that The Bee figures out how to get MORE names and events in print (or online) so we can better compete for local readers in a sour business climate. One of the challenges is that covering high-school theater is incredibly labor-intensive. When you're covering high-school marching bands, for example, there's usually one big championship every year that you can decide to cover the heck out of. That doesn't happen with theater. And you can't get people just to call in scores of sporting events, like in the sports section.
-- One common theme among commenters to the post is that in this day and age, online promotion is essential, even for high-school productions. Facebook, My Space, all the usual suspects: Get good at guerrilla marketing. When it comes to the Beehive, just because I don't cover a show doesn't mean that others can't. I'd like to find a way on the Beehive that would spotlight high-school theater offerings along with reader comments. Which leads me to:
-- While I can't commit to more than a few high-school theater blog posts, I would like to figure out a way to expand coverage. I'm thinking of a regular feature similar to Mike Oz's "Post No Bills" nightlife post, in which he collects posters of upcoming events. This would require high-school theater folks to send me posters of their plays in a timely fashion. I could list the entries in chronological order, like Mike does. An added benefit would be that if you had a poster for a show even a couple of months ahead, it could get some exposure. Any thoughts?
Comments:
Evening Donald:
Reading that whole worm-wrastle sort of brought a few thoughts to mind.
When I was in HighSchool (when dinosaurs roamed the earth,)
-large HS, one of three in my town, plus the one Catholic, plus the private Military one,)
--there was tons of theatre/musical production going on.
-Surrounding area of NJ? Ditto.
Lotsa Towns with lotsa schools doing lotsa theatre.
And yeah,
like CenCal,
Central NJ can be EXTREMELY competetive in:
... HS SPORTS.
(not 'the arts.)
--how are people 'competetive' in 'the arts?'
(has 'gang' mentality put pods into these folk's basements too? you have roving gangs of chorus members looking to beat each other up?)
Being heavy into the arts isn't 'competetive.'
-If schools had good shows? They had good shows.
You went, you laughed, you cried, you ooo'd you aaaah'd and you clapped and applauded,
(or, if you ran the thing, created, performed, basked in the joy, then struck the set, and moved on to the next production.) (I Loved every moment of it, wouldn't trade any performances, ever.)
But:
Do you realize that people were going freakin' bat-guano over a freakin' High School Play?
(turbo-charged with the whole dynamic of 'clovis' (vs) 'not clovis.' thing?)
-What is wrong with these people?
Blows my mind...
-you'd think somebody accused somebody elses mom of being a Raiders Cheerleader or something.
These days, I'm old enough to be a 'parent' of one of these kids.
When I was a kid? Parents were,
um, I dunno, Grown up?
(I mean, even if somebody's dad freaked at a basketball game, it made the kid feel sort of bad, and we were like, '..whoah, you're Dad was pretty heated, he's not normally like that..' -and we took it in stride and figured the guy was having a rough day.
-Here? It's seen as 'really caring.'
For all the tension, blood, sweat, and tears put into a HighSchool theatrical production?
It was meant to be fun.
That it got a blurb in the paper?
Fine.
But everybody saw it and realized it for what it was:
a great time, a lot of wonderfully uncovered talent,
--and (only, still)
it was a HighSchool Play.
(Not openning night of something on broadway, where good reviews meant making or loosing millions.)
Do people out here start throwing chairs and such in the Elementary School plays too?
I think it really screws it up (for the kids, which is what it's for,) to see this all blown so out of proportion.
My HS?
We sold out each time, (and our house sat at least 1,500.)
But that didnt' matter, we had fun, -if the press said anything?
Great.
If not?
Big deal.
That we gave it our best and had a good time?
Was all that mattered.
I read all of this and I was like: 'what is wrong with these people? -the poor kids...'
Posted by: wet towel at February 2, 2009 9:58 PM
Mr. Munro,
How 'bout this?
You set up a special page:
fresnobeehive.com/highschool
Get some of those 'backpage'[sunday edition of the bee]
kids, or journalism kids from the high school to post.
Considering how much the young'uns like to text, type, twitter, etc. I could see it being one of the most active pages in the beehive family.
Posted by: blake at February 3, 2009 8:32 AM
Donald. To say that a CMT show is not at the same level of a Roger Rocka's show almost blows my mind. Many of the performers of CMT shows have at one time been in GCP shows. Caitlin Stevenson, Daniel Rodriguez, Skyler Gray, Terra Greer, all come to mind and have been leading players at both companies. The same is true with directors. I do not understand how this high school post became about surrounding theatre companies as well, therefore telling everyone that CMT productions are not held to the same standard. Not the smartest move if you ask me. Now I dont have any children in either company, but my wife and I have seen continued success from CMT, Centerstage, and Roger Rockas. Make it an even playing field Donald.
Posted by: Allen at February 3, 2009 9:35 AM
Donald, I continue to approve of the fine line you walk when dealing with your reviews. I appreciate that you're aware of the line between the different theater companies. If you were to blanket review all the shows, it could possibly turn into a deterant to some actors to try and get out there again. I am an actor and I know that it took me a while to get over a bad review. I didn't want to go on stage again. That's not the meaning behind a review. I understand that, which is why I can be on stage and not worry about a review. But I'm not so sure some actors can handle a full review, being bad and crushing or good and raising the ego to unbearable porportions. Actors too walk a fine line when it comes to review. "If you believe your good press you have to believe your bad press," is a common quip backstage, and I think it's true.
So again. Thank you for being aware of the lines you walk.
Posted by: Renee N at February 3, 2009 9:57 AM
To Wet Towel: One important thing to consider when talking about coverage of anything related to high school is that every media market is different. High school football teams get treated much differently in the Fresno-Clovis market than, say, L.A. or San Francisco. (Can you imagine a high-school game reported on the front page of the Chronicle's sports section?) Same goes for high-school theater. A small daily newspaper might cover high-school theater scrupulously because it's the only thing going on in town. You're not going to get that same level of coverage in The Bee. It's too "big" for that. Yet we also aren't as big as the Chronicle, as evidenced by our sports coverage. I don't think it's unjustified for high-school theater enthusiasts in this market to hope for at least a fraction of the coverage devoted to high-school sports.
Same goes for community and college theater. If you attend USC's musical theater program, you'll NEVER get reviewed in the L.A. Times. But The Bee treats a Fresno State production as a big event. Again, it's all about the market -- the size of the population, the circulation of the paper, what else is going on in town, etc. It's all relative.
Posted by: Donald Munro at February 3, 2009 11:56 AM
@allen: i think it comes down to pricing, and how a company is run. gcp is a professionally run community theater. cmt is more about community.
correct me if im wrong, but im under the impression that everyone who auditions gets cast in cmt shows. thats the not the case with gcp.
plus, (also, please correct me if im wrong) gcp charges more for its shows ($15 for 2nd space, and $20 or more at Roger Rockas), while i wanna say i paid less to see cmt's les miz a few years back (yep, well before buchanan or clovis west did it -- so, y'all just need to calm down) and only $12 to see peter pan (and i know that one is a little different from most cmt shows).
as for whether one company is better than the other, well ... obviously thats a subjective argument. i saw a high school production of man of la mancha performed on the same stage as the broadway tour show starring robert goulet within a year of the two productions more than a decade ago in florida, and i enjoyed the HS show better.
but on the whole, broadway tours are going to be better than high school productions, and therefore the critic has to keep that in mind.
blake mentions the backtalk teen writers that the bee publishes in its sunday printed edition (i like where he's going with his suggestion for a blog, btw), but i doubt readers hold their writing to the same standard as donald's, which is published in the same section.
it's all about perspective.
because of cmt's practice (and i'll feel like a real goof if im wrong about this) to cast everyone who pays the fee to be involved, while gcp pays its actors (well, sorta), i'd almost exclude cmt from getting "reviewed" at all, considering it's more of a training program than how a theater works out in the real world.
but thats just me.
and who cares what a critic thinks anyway? donald hates adam sandler. i love adam sandler. im an adult, and i can choose my entertainment options on my own.
Posted by: will at February 3, 2009 12:26 PM
I enter this conversation as a high school theatre director and theatre lover. I go to plays in London, chicago, Fresno, and our own local high school venues. One doesn't need to be compared to the other. I have directed 58 shows in 17 years; many wonderful sold-out performances, and a few with smaller houses than the cast. It's nbot about the review...
Unlike an earlier comment, I believe that theatre can be competitive in nature, and I know that my program(Madera), Roosevelt, Clovis West, and several others DO go to festivals and compete against each other and other schools from across California. For example, April 15th we'll be at FCC's Valley Invitational. We enjoy watching each other, AND competing for Superior play or scene, or monologues......
If there was a site for high school theatre info, like Fresno State offered a few years ago, it would help all the programs, an online calendar to see what's playing.
Go to High school shows. Often they will surprise you. Reviews are optional.
Posted by: ginger at February 3, 2009 5:17 PM
I've seen a GREAT many plays in Fresno, including shows from GCP, ART, Epic, FCC, CSU Fresno, and many others.
Of all the plays I've seen in the past 4 years, the best, most moving, and most entertaining, head and shoulders above the rest, was a University High School production (Jules Pfeiffer's "Hold Me").
I think by leaving high school theatre out of the local theatre discussion, we are doing the "local theatre scene" a very large disservice.
Some of the best theatre performed in this town is at the high school level.
Considering the number of high schools, I understand the difficulty involved.... But look at the coverage the Bee gives to high school football. And aren't we bohemians always complaining about how performing arts never get the same billing as athletics?
You're asking me if I think the Bee should rectify that and shift its priorities to give more attention to H.S. theatre?
You're goddamn right I think it should.
Posted by: J at February 4, 2009 2:50 PM
But sadly, most Bee readers would not agree with me... as high school sports will always sell more papers than high school drama.
I say: review/comment on/acknowledge what you can when you can. You are only one man, Donald. You can only do so much. Paint with a broad stroke... and people who are excluded are bound to be hurt... but that's just life; they need to get used to it, especially if they're going to be in the theatre.
Posted by: J at February 4, 2009 3:16 PM
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