[jonj120893]

I don't know if this an good place to ask this, but:

Has anybody or does anybody know anybody who has pushed a drama teacher to do a specfic show?

[pish123c]

Sure. Last year a kid in the drama club, and also a "favorite" of the director kept pushing Beauty and the Beast. Guess what we did this year. Yup. Beauty and the Beast.

[pish123c]

oh and by the way, this probably fits in better at the MDN social club.

[jonj120893]

So, I emailed my drama teacher about doing the show, Beauty and the Beast (that's what I was pushing on her). When someone says we'll consider the show, is that just a polite no?

[Luc]

No. They're considering the show.... not much to it.

[kitty17794]

[jonj120893]

[i'm_back]

I pushed Anything Goes on my drama teacher two years ago, we did it, and it was awesome.

[jonj120893]

How'd you do it?

[i'm_back]

They were on the fence with two or three shows (i think it was Honk! Thoroughly Modern Millie and something else), and my friend and I just went up to our teacher and said we should do Anything Goes. And she said, "Oh, I never thought about that, that would be great, and we have the people for it" so then, we did it.

[PappyCat]

Is that really pushing a show? Or just suggesting it?

I don't really like suggesting or pushing shows...Generally, I like to be surprised and tend to enjoy doing whatever show my director picks. (Past tense, I guess, since I'm out of school.)

Although I would have been hacked had they picked Wiz of Oz (last years musical) when I was in high school. LAMEST SHOW EVER.

[norayouadora]

I was really pushing for our director to pick something (ANYTHING) in which I could have played the lead for my senior year, hehe. But unfortunately, we ended up doing Fiddler on the Roof, which we all know has only one lead... We had a perfect Tevye; I guess he just really didn't want to waste the opportunity. Bah. Lol.

I wanted to do either Once Upon A Mattress or Hello, Dolly! so I could have played either Fred or Dolly, hehe. But as PappyCat said, I guess I wasn't really pushing, just enthusiastically suggesting. And in some ways it worked because he ended up taking a poll from the students on what show we wanted to do, and Hello, Dolly! at least made it onto the ballot.

[PappyCat]

I bet Mattress would have if they had know what it was/heard some of the music. A lot people, even theatre people, don't know mattress. Or at least, don't think about it or consider it. I considered myself a theatre person, but didn't have a very broad knowledge of musicals, and didn't know about OUAM until they announced Auditions.

[Eponine93]

I think pushing a show upon a teacher can alternatively be obnoxious or good for the program, depending on which show is being pushed.

In our drama department, we had a perfect Golde, Tevye and Motel for Fiddler. We also had a girl who would have been perfect as Gabriella in High School Musical. Guess what show we ended up doing?

The most ironic thing of it all is that our perfect Tevye and Motel ended up not auditioning for HSM because they didn't think they would get cast due to their body types...

[Sweeney Hyde]

^^I agree with that Lexi. I think people just running up to the director and saying something like, "Mr. Smith, I think we should do Beauty and the Beast next year! I think it would be a good show for us" whenever you have a small group with a limited budget is just ridiculous. If your suggestion is logical then I think it by all means could be considered.

[norayouadora]

Oh yeah, I made sure that the ones I pushed for could have been cast perfectly with the talent we had available. Especially Hello, Dolly! would have fit our talent pool really well, but I would have much preferred to do OUaM.

[PappyCat]

Nora, I think you would make a fabulous Fred.

[norayouadora]

^Ain't that the truth.

Lol, but seriously, Fred is kind of one of my "dream" roles. (I realize that sounds immensely cheesy, but it's the best term I can think of to describe it). I love her! She's so funny and out there, and her songs suit my voice sooo well. It's just ridiculous that I haven't had any real opportunities to audition for this show yet; I would totally kick ass! Hehe, I WILL play this role someday, damnit! I'll be sure to let you know when it happens.

[PappyCat]

Fred would have been one of my dream roles had I had heard the show before we did it. Another one of mine is Madame Thenadier. All my dream roles are actually fairly realistic. I'm not like "I wanna play GLINDA!" (Not to say that Wicked is out of reach for everyone, but I'm an overweight brunette with a alto/mezzo voice, so Glinda is definitely not in my grasp! Lol.)

[lildennyonbroadway]

I've been pushing cinderella all year. rumor has it that my teacher went to talk to the administration to get the rights for....CINDERELLA!!!!!

[Melindaisy]

Drive me crazy when kids campaign for a show.... ugh! Makes me not want to do it even more!

[EponineMNFF]

My director said he was considering Urinetown, and I told him how AWESOME that would be and then he didn't end up choosing it. Haha - I hardly think it has anything to do with me though. It's hard to do Urinetown with all girls.

When one of our directors was deciding between a few shows for a straight play, she actually wanted our opinions. My friends and I pretty much wrote essays about why we should do The Tempest, and she ended up doing it. Hehehe. It was quite exciting. ^^

[AudreyTD]

To be fair if I didn't want to do a show I'd say "over my dead body" (common response to "Annie" or "The Boyfriend" rather than "I'm considering it")...however, if your drama teacher/production team is anything like me/my team we have a lot of other considerations eg: are the rights available, do we have the budget for costumes/set, but most importantly - do we have the cast en masse? YOU might be perfect for BATB but if it's not possible to cast the rest of the characters it's not going to be the best choice overall.

I've been lucky enough to have two strong males to audition for the leads over the last few years - so my choices have been Bugsy, Chess and Jesus Christ Superstar, as they leave school this year we'll probably go for someting more dance based as there are a lot of good female dancers from the student body.

If you get on well with your teacher - by all means - put your suggestions forward, otherwise, just go with what they suggest - they will have had many things to consider before reaching their decision.

[Melindaisy]

Yes, what I have found over the last few years with our community theater group is that some of the young people put forth ideas for shows that are really not in the realm of reality for our organization to do. It takes more than just considering if you have the right people for the leads.... are there enough singers to fill the minor roles and chorus? ...can we build the set and the costumes.... how hard is the music? ..... will the community accept the language, etc. ... and can we flat out afford to do the show finacially?
It also takes having a director who WANTS to so the show. Personally I would never spend the hundreds of hours I spend directing a show on something I don't enjoy doing (our directors are not paid).

That's why I hate it when kids push a show .... ususally they have no understanding of everthing involved in the production. That and sometimes they are outright obnoxious about it. Ask me once, but don't keep asking me every day... I haven't changed my mind.