Curtain Call
School shows are outlets of creative thought that serve to unify the community in a shared passion for the arts. Unfortunately for SHS, the most recent performance of Guys and Dolls has confirmed that our drama department needs refocusing. Maroon would like to start by saying that this is no way an attack on those students who make up the drama club or act in the productions. The raw talent at SHS is astounding; the leads have fantastic voices, the ensemble is enthusiastic, and the props are entertaining. What Maroon is calling for is a thorough reevaluation of the department leadership to ensure that our directors, choreographers, and tech-crew match the talent and effort of the students. Although there is a theater expression that “the show must go on,” Maroon urges the administration to first review the department structure in order to ensure improvement in future productions.
Let’s start with the cold facts about the performance of Guys and Dolls. Although Friday was opening night, many seats in the auditorium were empty. While this may be partly due to an apathetic student body, just like a sports team that fails to attract fans, the drama department is responsible for the appeal of their shows. The play began on a sour note (no pun intended) when the microphone of one of the female leads was initially off, which rendered her first song nearly inaudible. A similar incident occured last year with The Cat in The Hat’s mic during the performance of Suessical The Musical. Although we recognize that rehearsal time this year was certainly a victim of Hurricane Sandy, it was disappointing to see basic tech errors being made. The play hit a new low when apparently the wrong scene was performed too early, prompting the actors to awkwardly dance around
the stage without direction. While the problem was being fixed backstage, the audience was forced to sit in the dark for over 10 minutes. The technical difficulties were fi nally resolved when the tech manager came out to apologize, defensively asserting that this type of thing happens all the time on Broadway. To paraphrase his comment, just check out Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark. It is important to note that the play went on without any major errors the rest of the weekend, and many of the cast members expressed a sense of pride in their performances. And mistakes can happen in all walks of life. Yet the degree of error on the stage Friday was not just a n
occasional slip of a line or a forgotten cue. It was the collapse of a show and ultimately, a reflection of the department as a whole.
Another critical problem is that people are simply not excited about the choice of plays, mainly because of a pervasive sense of redundancy. When Almost, Maine was announced as the winter drama, seniors could easily recall that the play had already been performed less than four years ago. Maroon finds it hard to believe there is such a shortage of drama material that some students can’t even make it to graduation before they are forced to watch reruns. Even Guys and Dolls for a high school play has become somewhat of a cliche as it has already been performed twice at SHS in the last ten years. And while there may be a time and a place for classic shows, we should also start selecting plays that better reflect the progressive spirit of SHS.
Yet much of the blame does not fall so much on individual people but on the equipment itself, especially since some of the technology the drama department is forced to use seems outdated. Specifically regarding audio quality, the microphones distort the actors’ and actresses’ voices and sound as unnatural as someone speaking into a megaphone. A better developed lighting system would enhance the actors’ on-stage appearance and make each production seem more fine tuned. Finally, many of the auditorium seats are broken or in poor condition, which is necessary to improving the appreciation of performances. Although it is certainly an investment, updating this equipment can be a simple solution to many technical difficulties and, more importantly, empower the actors and actresses by expressing support for the hard work they do.
In the drama department’s defense, the most important thing to remember is that each production is a high school play performed, not by trained artists, but by hard-working students for caring members of the community. Yet to protect feelings at the cost of ignoring an area of our school that can be improved is not helpful to anyone. Maroon can recall a time not too long ago when the club churned out hit after hit, whether How to Succeed in Business or Anything Goes, and we hope the department can return to its former glory. To put this into show biz terms, it’s clear that the drama department has “broken a leg.” Maroon believes it’s time we get an x-ray and repair that broken bone.
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December 5, 2012 - 9:18 pm
Hello to the anonymous writer of this article,
It seems to me that this article was not thoroughly researched before being published. The student body deserves to know the real circumstances that led to the 10-minute blackout, rather than a psuedo truth obviously constructed off of the many rumors circulating throughout the school.
Because of Hurricane Sandy, as well as some other unfortunate circumstances, there was never a “real” tech rehearsal for Guys and Dolls. Unlike the cast, who can practice anytime and anywhere, theater tech requires many components, such as access to the stage and all important people (eg: lighting designers, choreographers) being present. Unfortunately, many of these were inaccessible.
One can then understand why there were some technical mix-ups during the show. With no tech rehearsal, there were bound to be some small errors. I confess, the black-out was certainly a highly unfortunate occurrence for all parties involved, but one must understand that even one tiny error on part of the crew can result in large repercussions.
The author of this article states that the “degree of error on the stage Friday was not just… a forgotten cue”, although the reality of the situation is that a missed cue is exactly what caused the black-out. Maybe next time, before writing an article, actually investigate the circumstances before putting pen to paper?
In addition to factual inaccuracy, this article is also very offensive to the tech crew. You’re very careful to not offend the actors in this article, but the tech crew is comprised of hard-working students, too. After working so hard to put together an entire musical in such a small amount of time, and handling the unfortunate mistake on opening night quite well, the tech crew should be recognized for their astounding effort, instead of bashed.
This article has forced me to lose the small amount of respect I held for Maroon. Factually inaccurate, completely biased, and highly offensive to members of the student body: this article is everything that it shouldn’t be. In the future, try not to distribute blatant lies to the entire student populous, and maybe I’ll gain some respect back for the Maroon. But until I see a major change in the way this newspaper is run, it’s going straight to the trash every time I receive a copy.
December 5, 2012 - 9:34 pm
As part of the audience of the play on the first, I can confirm that while it may have been a small cue mix-up at first, a 20 minute gap of a performance shows that there was no leadership and is overall, really inexcusable. If it was truly just a cue error, it should have been dealt with immediately (either with blacking out the stage, dropping the right curtain, etc). The fact that there was an extended period with no direction demonstrates that the error is much larger than you’re trying to make it seem.
December 5, 2012 - 9:58 pm
It was not 20 minutes first of all. It was 8-10 minutes (coming from a very reliable source).
December 5, 2012 - 9:58 pm
First and foremost, I would like to address that the gap in the performance lasted only ten minutes, not twenty.
As for dealing with the error immediately, you have obviously never worked backstage during a show. The duration of time in which there seemed to be an period of disorder was the time during which the crew was trying to assess what had gone wrong and how it should be fixed. Once the situation had been assessed, they weren’t sure of the best way to handle the situation, so they had to correspond with multiple people (other crew members, the director, etc.) to figure out what would be the best method of continuing (skip the cue altogether? go back a scene?). Additionally, one missed cue causes a myriad of other technical problems: everything becomes out of sync. One needs to jump back cues on the light board, find the correct drop and lower it, figure out what microphones need to be turned on, as well as countless other tasks. There was in fact direction during this blackout period. Although the audience had no way of knowing it, the stage manager was working extremely hard to make sure that everything went back on track. The crew handled an unfortunate situation extremely well, working very hard to make sure everything turned out all right.
December 5, 2012 - 10:10 pm
Well actually, I was working backstage for this show. So i know what happened. I also have worked backstage for all of the shows dating back to my freshman year which was 3 years ago.
December 5, 2012 - 10:18 pm
So we just went from:
“As part of the audience of the play on the first”
to
“I was working backstage for this show.”
Im calling bull. Especially when you consider that there were only three senior teching this show. Sam, Thomas, and Jake. Sam was up in the booth where he always it. Thomas was the stage manager. And I highly doubt you are Jake.
December 5, 2012 - 10:35 pm
Sorry, I didnt read your post fully. Forget what I said.
December 5, 2012 - 9:28 pm
yeah this article was way too harsh
December 12, 2012 - 8:11 am
First this isn’t Broadway it is High school Drama Club and Tech there is going to be errors and mistakes made along the way. Due to the Hurricane the tech had limited amount of time before the show went on. The equipment used by the Drama club may be as you call “outdated” but it still works. the Drama Club members as well as the Tech crew members really do try to make the show a great one even though some of the performances may not get a full house. Thomas was probably the best choice as Stage Manager. the students on tech crew for this show worked with what little time they had before the show. the Tech crew may not be as well recognized as the Drama Club members but the Tech works just as hard as the actors they build all or most of the pieces on stage, paint, and make sure all equipment is set for the show. the sound equipment is unpredictable if its going to give feedback or make the actors voice sound odd. These kids are in Drama Club and Tech Crew because they enjoy being on stage or backstage having fun learning lines, singing, and dancing on stage or painting set pieces, setting up for rehearsals this is high school NOT Broadway, Maybe someday you will see these amazingly talented students on a Broadway stage or evening a Stage manager for a Broadway show. if a mistake comes along dont worry NO ONE IS PERFECT we all make mistakes.
Best of Luck to all Drama Club kids and Tech Crew students with the rest of your shows.
December 5, 2012 - 9:43 pm
I mean, everyone’s entitled to their opinion… but I think that as a member of the Scarsdale community, we should all be really appreciative that we HAVE a drama club that can afford to do great shows like this.
December 5, 2012 - 9:43 pm
You are terribly uninformed. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes (no pun intended) regarding show choice and tech. It’s a high school drama club, not broadway. Guys and Dolls is a typical high school show because it is iconic and simple. While the student body would love to see Rent or Wicked, that’s not possible because of rights issues.
The drama club does everything it can, publicity wise, such as spirit week, poster runs, and ads in local papers, so the way you describe the lack of audience is not the fault of the club, but the fault of the town. IT upsets me to see a lack of enthusiasm for the arts in the student body. Basically, there are a lot of things that are out of the drama club’s control, and it the way you attacked them is unfair.
The worst part is that this article was probably written by some sixteen-year-old who has no knowledge of theatre and what it takes to put on a large-scale musical. You have no idea how hard the director, stage manager, technical director, musical director, and choreographer work to put on this show. Saying that they don’t match the effort of the students is just untrue. They work just as hard, if not harder. You’re not Ben Brantley, you’re a high school newspaper. You are not qualified to make most of the claims you made in this article.
December 5, 2012 - 9:55 pm
The fact of the matter is, This is a High School. We learn how to run these things from the ground up and quite frankly we pull off miracles to do these shows. These actors and tech crew work so hard at doing what they do and no one should criticize them for it. They did an extraordinary job during this play (especially because of the hurricane) and for that I salute them. Regarding friday’s little mishap, the actors and the tech crew have learned many great things from it. This was the positive outcome of it (other than the show). sure there were minor issues, but all of the leads and the rest of the cast could be heard wonderfully when I went to see the show. I also feel like the author of this compares us to many professional shows. THIS IS HIGH SCHOOL!!! And lastly, you say this article was meant NOT to attack specific groups of people, you did a great job leaving the actors out of it, as for the tech crew I see multiple attacks. I know this is the opinion section, but do all of us a favor and do some research before typing.
December 5, 2012 - 9:57 pm
“As part of the audience of the play on the first, I can confirm that while it may have been a small cue mix-up at first, a 20 minute gap of a performance shows that there was no leadership and is overall, really inexcusable. If it was truly just a cue error, it should have been dealt with immediately (either with blacking out the stage, dropping the right curtain, etc). The fact that there was an extended period with no direction demonstrates that the error is much larger than you’re trying to make it seem.”
First and foremost, I would like to address that the gap in the performance lasted only ten minutes, not twenty.
As for dealing with the error immediately, you have obviously never worked backstage during a show. The duration of time in which there seemed to be an period of disorder was the time during which the crew was trying to assess what had gone wrong and how it should be fixed. Once the situation had been assessed, they weren’t sure of the best way to handle the situation, so they had to correspond with multiple people (other crew members, the director, etc.) to figure out what would be the best method of continuing (skip the cue altogether? go back a scene?). Additionally, one missed cue causes a myriad of other technical problems: everything becomes out of sync. One needs to jump back cues on the light board, find the correct drop and lower it, figure out what microphones need to be turned on, as well as countless other tasks. There was in fact direction during this blackout period. Although the audience had no way of knowing it, the stage manager was working extremely hard to make sure that everything went back on track. The crew handled an unfortunate situation extremely well, working very hard to make sure everything turned out all right.
December 5, 2012 - 10:23 pm
Heads up, this was written by Larry Milstein
December 5, 2012 - 10:33 pm
Larry Milstein is the Opinion Editor, he writes on behalf of the paper.
December 5, 2012 - 10:34 pm
People are missing the entire point of this well written piece. This article is far from an attack, but one in which is actually shining light on Scarsdale High School’s obvious faults inorder to help it improve .
I commend the Maroon staff for giving the drama club the attention it deserved because ultimately, both the school paper and the club aim to see the performances improve. Do not let these people scare you to silence, keep writing the truth!!
December 5, 2012 - 10:51 pm
Hey everyone,
Thank you for your continued interest in Maroon and in this article. Even if not all the responses are positive, this interaction between readers and paper is the ultimate mark of health for a publication. I urge all people to write-in “Letters To Editors” so that your ideas may be able to reach a larger audience in the next issue of Maroon. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and please come find me in school if you would like to speak about this further in person.
Thanks,
Larry Milstein
Scarsdale High School ’13
Opinion Editor
December 5, 2012 - 11:26 pm
Even if not all the responses are positive, this interaction between readers and paper is the ultimate mark of health for a publication.
I wouldn’t say people responses to an article that wasn’t researched and seemingly offensive to the crew, is the “mark of health for a publication”. That is like saying yellow journalism is good because it gets interaction between the readers and the paper.
December 12, 2012 - 3:22 am
I just installed a vinyl flake floor in my home gagare and did not prime first, I just rolled on my colored basecoat, randomly broadcasted the chips and topcoated with epoxy, I am now seeing halos around the chips? what is happening???Dear Anonymous,It is important to wait for the epoxy to flow and begin to react before broadcasting the flakes. If the flakes go on too soon, they may begin to sink into the pigmented epoxy creating the halo effect around the chip edges. Also, you should prime first. Please see the U-Tube on Epoxy Flake Flooring in this Blog.
December 6, 2012 - 3:10 pm
Who cares??? The show was great! Let’s focus on things that actually matter!!!
December 7, 2012 - 11:30 am
This article could not possibly be written by someone who has any interest in theater. I am incredibly disappointed in the Maroon, not only for their choice in editors, but also because they clearly did not have anything worthwhile to write about, and felt attacking the hard-working tech crew, directors, choreographers, and etc of the drama club would be the best way to get their paper read. Not only are you not qualified to make any of these claims, but until you work on tech crew, direct a show, try to get rights to a show, or are a part of the drama club, you have no right to discuss their success. The drama club is in place for high school students with common interest to put on a show, showcase their talent, and get some amateur experience before going off to college. Nothing in your article demonstrates that they have failed at any of these attempts, but furthermore criticizes a club for doing something it isn’t responsible for. I do agree, that the technology and state of the theater could be repaired and updated, but until you are willing to pay for it yourself (and it will be quite expensive), don’t criticize the hard-working students and faculty for working with what they have. It disgusts me that you had the gall to write this article. I think you can see by the degree of negative feedback you have received that messing with the drama club is going to get you a lot of justified angry thespians on your hands, and you should stay on your turf where you belong.
December 7, 2012 - 3:46 pm
Just spoke to Larry. He is actually a really nice guy. I would like to publicly apologize, but on top of that, I would like to commend Larry for being so understanding. The truth is, he is right. The theater needs work. I have actually been trying to convince the theater director to fund upgrading the sound system for the past two years. The article may have been a bit aggressively worded, but it was not an attack on the techs or even the actors, it was a unclear attempt to bring attention to us.
Try reading the piece again, but don’t read it with the mindset that this is something malicious.
-Alberto F. (The Sound Guy)
December 10, 2012 - 10:59 am
I think these vitriolic comments show a complete misunderstanding of this author’s intentions. This individual, who by the way, was speaking on behalf of an entire staff of writers and teachers, was not trying to target any one actor or even the drama club as a whole. Instead, he aimed to bring to light the various inadequacies with the entire drama program. This article can have a sweeping impact for those who are the most caustic about it. It has the potential to bring together the administration of SHS who most likely could care less about the drama program (hence its decrepit state as of recent) in order to discuss ways to improve it–with the addition of funds. I would like to thank this author for his courage and the entire Maroon for raising concern and attention to what was formerly an important fixture of SHS and is now fodder for a good laugh. I care about the drama club after being in it for two years and I even attended this performance. To all those who felt slighted by this article, don’t you feel more ashamed that entire groups of students were jeering during the performance? If you are somehow involved in the drama club and reacted to this article with any feelings of resentment, you are improperly displacing and misattributing your feelings of mediocrity onto this author. So, if you were part of the apparent online parade to threaten this student, verbally harass him over the phone or taunt him in person, you should be embarrassed for your immaturity. A SHS witch hunt? You are kidding me. He offered to sit down with each and every one of you to discuss what he had written in a mature way. But go forth-hide behind your computer like a 21st century troll, form ridiculous hate groups and try to bring down the voice. But don’t forget that this article might serve you well in the long-run.
December 13, 2012 - 7:53 am
SHS Theatre tech does it’s best to make the shows a good one for the students,parents,friends, and other family members. the Tech Crew has such talented people even the people on Broadway and other major performing centers make mistakes. Even if the Tech had limited amount of time they did an amazing job with Guys and Dolls. As a person in the audience i couldn’t believe how well done the show was by both cast and crew.The Tech Crew is an amazing group of kids who love doing lights, sound, stage. These Drama and Tech students are so talented and amazing people to work with.