I just completed my third show with "A Performing Arts Program". They work year round, but I only work a show in the summer. The first two years I directed the high school kids. This year I was AD on the "Big Show", which combines all ages from about 7 to 17. Oy Vey.
This is a melted crayon love letter to community theatre and this program.
When one of the the producers contacted me three years ago, I received an email from someone I had never heard of, working for an organization I had never heard of, asking if I'd be interested in directing a "JR" version of HAIRSPRAY for them. HAIRSPRAY is a musical.
I hate musicals. I Hate Musicals.
I like being in a musical, but since embarking on theatre teacher/director in high school, I have come to hate them. They are too much work for the pay off, we have no budget to do them well, and I don't really "direct" so much as "produce". So I do all the heavy lifting and math and shopping end up designing and building costumes ...and really the show is a choreographer and a music director.
But they were willing to pay me, so I agreed to meet with her.
She found her way to my office with the ease of someone who knew the school. Turns out she's an alum. The teacher I replaced had been her teacher.
Eric and I were slumped in my office (it was lunch, don't get excited) snarking when she arrived.
She was smiling. She was positive. She was kind. She was soft spoken and made eye contact. She addressed me with the respect and understanding of someone who does theatre.
She took me off guard.
She said "This is different than what you do here (at school), you won't have to produce. You show up with your coffee, teach two classes, rehearse and walk out the door." I was in.
Eric tried to slip out, but he got snagged when I introduced him and she said "Hey, we also need a choreographer for Aladdin...." Bam. Caught.
Three years later and I'm still working for these people. So is Eric. And the depths of the producer's kindness is unprecedented. How is she a producer and kind and supportive? I dunno, dude. I do not know. It helps that the Producer Producer who fundraises and founded the program is a performing arts guy. And the team are all performing arts teachers and professionals and they produce.... success. There is no negative. I don't sit at lunch and snark with Eric. (Even though I know when we are together we always look like we're snarking, because we both have Resting Bitch Face and we both hate people.) BUT, we do not, there is no real bad here. Sure they have issues but all of their issues stem from growing pains. They are blowing the doors off. There were 80 kids involved in this last show. They do no cut shows 'cause it's a camp.
"Everyone gets a spot in the chorus. Bring white shorts from home." --Tina Fey on her community theatre experience as a kid.
So some things I have learned from these people:
SUCCESS in theatre comes from the top. You can have all the talented people in the world, but if you micromanage them or get in their way or have an agenda that is inconsistent with performing arts benefitting kids, your program is going to fail. This group never loses sight of their objective: to encourage growth in kids through performing arts. Hire talented people, and then get out of their way. Lorne Michaels and Tiny Fey can attest to that.
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. If you want talented people, you need to pay them. Most teacher/performer types are used to scraping by, and will happily be a part of something wonderful for no money. However, they can't stay, because eventually they need insurance, or to make their car payment. Want them to stay? Pay them.
TEAMS MATTER. You need a team that has mutual respect for one another, who believe in the mission of the program, and who respect and are respected by the producing entities.
IT TAKES AN ARTIST TO UNDERSTAND ART. Failure is imminent if anyone at the top with power has no idea how theatre works. This is why public school programs fail. It's not the teachers, I promise. They know their job and how to get results, they just cannot prove it on a standardized test.
IT TAKES AN ARTIST TO UNDERSTAND ARTISTS. This goes to putting the teams together. Performing arts teachers are all over the place with their personalities, but ultimately many of us are truly introverts who have found performing arts as a way to express ourselves. If you are not a fellow artist, you do not know that, and you frequently misinterpret and misunderstand our responses to everything.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE ANGRY TO PRODUCE. You can be supportive and kind. J is a great producer, kind, supportive, and crazy hard working, because she believes in the program and she loves theatre.
BUY ARTISTS FOOD AND ALCOHOL AFTER THE SHOW AND THEY WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER. This needs no explanation.
All of these elements that create the perfect storm could be because this group has the freedom to do the right thing by being attached to a church, who just want people to grow up and be nice to each other. Not a school that is wound up about grades and rubrics and core subjects. I find it interesting that this program, while through a church, does not feel very church-y. Nobody's forced to pray or memorize bible verses. They just meet at the beginning and end of each day to reflect on a phrase or idea like "respect" or "kindness", which sadly are addressed only because this is associated with a church. Why isn't this model followed everywhere? It's like when the girls were little and we loved Veggie Tales and I had parents tell me they didn't want any part of it because they were athiests or agnostic or whatever. They'd never watched a single episode, otherwise they would have understood that a tomato and a cucumber were not trying to convert their children. They simply encouraged them to become better people through kindness, patience, humility and rockin' Cheeseburger songs.
I have come into the program every summer for the last three years completely drained. Negative, damaged, defensive, ready to give up. I leave the program, every summer, renewed and wishing this was my real job.
They put up full shows in two weeks. Full Shows. Sometimes it's a high school aged JR with a youngers JR the same two weeks. Sometimes it's a full show with all ages. Sometimes it's the littles doing Jungle Book or Frog and Toad. I can barely get a full musical up in five weeks at the high school, dude, and they do it in two. The different ages come together for warmup, lunch and closing and they get to know one another.
It's a camp, the kids are there from 9am-4 for two weeks. They bring their lunch, take dance, music and acting classes with rehearsals interspersed. It's brilliant. There is a TD who trains the tech kids and they actually build a set on site. They use the church and other high school stages, or an elementary for the littles, which makes it even more of a challenge. But they do it. Every time. For ten years. Bam.
And it's stressful, but it's enjoyable. Everybody does their job. The kids are fully invested. The staff is without ego or need to prove anything to anybody. Nobody misses rehearsal because they have a club meeting, or they have a test or some other more important thing to do. They are there to do a show, and that's it. This is an aspect that I struggle with when I return to my regular job in the fall. I get spoiled over the summer with all of that support from the top and all of those kids 100% invested in the show, and the show only.
And then I'm grumpy again.
One of the music directors bought us all tiny hands based on an inside joke. We all rejoiced and found uses for our tiny, plastic hands. Eric chose to congratulate the kids by shaking hands with them, which freaked a few out and was glorious. The director bought me coffee. The kids made Golden Tickets (The show was Willy Wonka, oops, secret it out) for all the artistic team. I received cards and candy and thank you notes from kids and parents alike. The support and love took me so off guard that I had no idea I was expected to be on stage after curtain call to receive gifts with the team. I was actually stunned. If you didn't know me you'd think I was stoned, it was that bad. Wait: 80 grateful kids and a house of grateful parents, all on their feet? Pinch me.
This is why every spring I anxiously await the arrival of my HELLO SIGN contract from PAA. I cannot believe I am so lucky. I do not deserve this.
But by God, I'm going to keep doing it. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. I even agreed to direct Dinos Before Dark with grades 2-6. This is not my comfort zone, I don't really "get" this age group. But Wonka prepared me, and we will be on my "home" base at my HS (I may have had something to do with that). And I am so excited! It will be the best Dinos Before Dark these people have ever seen. Because I want to be there, I love doing it and every single kid is invested.
And I'm supported by the Producers, who believe that I have the kids' best interest in mind, and trust me. That makes a huge difference, my friends.
AND IN CONCLUSION ALL IN ALL TO SUM UP: I was the boss of the squirrels backstage. They had tails that needed to be pinned to their shirts and styrofoam nuts that had to be wrangled. Here is the final compilation of things I, Kryssi Martin, Theatre Professional, had to say to children.
"Do not pick at your nuts."
"Don't trade nuts, that one is yours, you have to keep it, even if it's broken."
Me:"Come here, Miss Trish will hot glue your nut." Miss Trish: "This is not in my contract."
"No, your nut does not have chocolate in the middle."
"Do not eat your nuts."
"Do not pull at the top of your nut. Hold your nut like a precious jewel."
"Hold your nut with both hands."
"Did you get a chunk of your nut in your eye?" (after which his mom had to fish it out. How Embarrassing)
"Keep your nut with you. We can't have nuts just rolling around everywhere."
"How do you know that isn't your nut? They all look the same."
"Don't drop your nuts."
"Thank you for knowing where the white nuts go."
NOTE: I refrained from any obvious jokes about the squirrels each having only one nut, and their choreographer, Eric, having only one nut. That would have been inappropriate. Which is why I saved it for here.
MY TINY HANDS WRITING A THANK YOU NOTE!
