how realistic would this be?

mxlaurelpx · how realistic would this be?

i go to a very small high school in kiev, ukraine (we are all americans though). i LOVE west side story and really would like to do it at our school. we havent had a musical in a few years, but we did do the wizard of oz and oliver in the past. west side story would be a difficult production, but, it can be simplified in many ways and still be good, am i right? the choreography could be made simpler, etc.

we have lots of girls who can sing well, and it wouldnt be a problem for most of them not to have huge parts because a lot of them would prefer just to sing with others anyway (parts like the ones in america, i feel pretty). i am a soprano, and can sing maria's parts (i have in my voice lessons). if transposed, other girls could also sing it.

as for guys, we have a few that can sing ok, not amazingly, but they could pull it off well enough, since a lot of the guy parts, when you think about it, dont necessarily have to sing beautifully (i.e. riff). and there are a few guys who could do tony. most of the guys at our school are pretty musical and could sing well together, like in The Jet Song.

acting. we actually have really good actors/actresses at our school. we have done stuff like "the importance of being ernest" and "a view from the bridge", and we have a lady with a degree in theatre that helps out. lots of people usually try out for the plays, and they are usually plays with very small casts. so i think people would love to do wss because, there are lots of parts. and again, most of them are decent actors/actresses, so i think that the acting wouldnt be a problem.

dancing.. we could do simple choreography, not any big deal stuff though. i know that the choreography is a big part and just a really neat part about wss, but, maybe the acting and music could make up for that? i still think it would be really enjoyable, even if the dancing wasnt amazing.

unlike schools in america, it wouldnt be a huge audience and stuff (just a couple hundred people, and only done for two evenings.. its still a big deal for us though), mostly people we know kind of thing, and we're just a tiny high school, so they wouldnt expect too much out of us anyway. my mom really thinks we could pull it off. ive talked to some of my friends about it, and they would really love to do it, too!

normally we have auditions in december, start practices at the beginning of the semester (january), and then do the play in may (because of transportation in such a big city and involvement in other activites, we cant fit enough practices into less time). could we prepare it in that time? or would it be better to start in mid october? {btw, if we do this, we probably wont do it until the 07-08 school year.}

so i was just wondering what you guys think, since a lot of you have played in wss, and/or know a lot about it. any advice would be much appreciated!!! thanks.

MsDivaKate

I'd say you should be able to successfully pull this off. The choreography doesn't have to be amazing as long as its clean and together. Really simple stuff can look fabulous if everyone is in synch. Many youth productions of this show don't have the capabilities to do anything near the original choreography anyways. If musically your school is talented, I would say go for it, though make sure you also have the talent with instrumentalists as the pit music can be difficult.

Kaiana

Yeah, our orch conductor half jokes about never wanting to do this show. We're sort of afraid he's serious. Confused

mxlaurelpx

uh.. would it be ridiculous to do it with, tracks? because, being a tiny school.. our "orchestra" is like, a handful of people.. ha.

ok my mom walked in and i said this to her, and she just said that well, in ukraine, its really cheap to hire musicians, and my voice teacher actually played maria in a ukrainian production, and she would know all the people.. and we also know the guy who conducted it. so i think that would be much better, to hire them.. Smile

thanks for the advice guys!

mxlaurelpx	how realistic would this be? i go to a very small high school in kiev, ukraine (we are all americans though). i LOVE west side story and really would like to do it at our school. we havent had a musical in a few years, but we did do the wizard of oz and oliver in the past. west side story would be a difficult production, but, it can be simplified in many ways and still be good, am i right? the choreography could be made simpler, etc. we have lots of girls who can sing well, and it wouldnt be a problem for most of them not to have huge parts because a lot of them would prefer just to sing with others anyway (parts like the ones in america, i feel pretty). i am a soprano, and can sing maria's parts (i have in my voice lessons). if transposed, other girls could also sing it. as for guys, we have a few that can sing ok, not amazingly, but they could pull it off well enough, since a lot of the guy parts, when you think about it, dont necessarily have to sing beautifully (i.e. riff). and there are a few guys who could do tony. most of the guys at our school are pretty musical and could sing well together, like in The Jet Song. acting. we actually have really good actors/actresses at our school. we have done stuff like "the importance of being ernest" and "a view from the bridge", and we have a lady with a degree in theatre that helps out. lots of people usually try out for the plays, and they are usually plays with very small casts. so i think people would love to do wss because, there are lots of parts. and again, most of them are decent actors/actresses, so i think that the acting wouldnt be a problem. dancing.. we could do simple choreography, not any big deal stuff though. i know that the choreography is a big part and just a really neat part about wss, but, maybe the acting and music could make up for that? i still think it would be really enjoyable, even if the dancing wasnt amazing. unlike schools in america, it wouldnt be a huge audience and stuff (just a couple hundred people, and only done for two evenings.. its still a big deal for us though), mostly people we know kind of thing, and we're just a tiny high school, so they wouldnt expect too much out of us anyway. my mom really thinks we could pull it off. ive talked to some of my friends about it, and they would really love to do it, too! normally we have auditions in december, start practices at the beginning of the semester (january), and then do the play in may (because of transportation in such a big city and involvement in other activites, we cant fit enough practices into less time). could we prepare it in that time? or would it be better to start in mid october? {btw, if we do this, we probably wont do it until the 07-08 school year.} so i was just wondering what you guys think, since a lot of you have played in wss, and/or know a lot about it. any advice would be much appreciated!!! thanks.
MsDivaKate	I'd say you should be able to successfully pull this off. The choreography doesn't have to be amazing as long as its clean and together. Really simple stuff can look fabulous if everyone is in synch. Many youth productions of this show don't have the capabilities to do anything near the original choreography anyways. If musically your school is talented, I would say go for it, though make sure you also have the talent with instrumentalists as the pit music can be difficult.
Kaiana	Yeah, our orch conductor half jokes about never wanting to do this show. We're sort of afraid he's serious.
mxlaurelpx	uh.. would it be ridiculous to do it with, tracks? because, being a tiny school.. our "orchestra" is like, a handful of people.. ha. ok my mom walked in and i said this to her, and she just said that well, in ukraine, its really cheap to hire musicians, and my voice teacher actually played maria in a ukrainian production, and she would know all the people.. and we also know the guy who conducted it. so i think that would be much better, to hire them.. thanks for the advice guys!

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how realistic would this be?