Summer Postcards 2018 -Camp Week Two

Why are we doing Anything Goes?
Anything Goes by Cole Porter is a terrible wonderful show.

It has been rewritten at least twice, not including revivals, which brings the Trashing Total to under 10 but more than 4. Songs not written for this show are in the show,removed from the show, put back in the show. Characters are love interests- originally Reno had a thing for Billy-then they aren't, then someone else is the love interest,then a plot line got dropped-Sir Evie was originally a cad manipulating Hope into marrying him by telling her that her company was failing, but marrying him would save it.  Because she's a woman and too stupid to read a financial report? Characters' names change---OK, that's just Bonnie/Irma/Bonnie--but why? Sexist, misogynist, racist, classist. The book is a hodge podge of half baked storylines, the music is from other shows and frequently a song is just placed Because. It does not forward the plot, it is never referred to again--I give you "Let's Step Out"and "Heaven Hop". Just Because. And after all of that, people still cram the theatres to see what they believe to be Cole Porter's Best Show.  Why? Hint: it's the tap line, not the plot.It's the tap that makes it a Great Cole Porter Show.

It is, I suppose, if : It is being performed by adults who understand the content and it is being viewed by adults who understand the time period. For the same reason we do not remove the N word from Huck Finn,we should not change the Chinese jokes, or the sexist content, in Anything Goes. He wrote it in 1934 because some rich guy avoiding paying his debtors was living on a boat and wanted a show. That's it. The End. The original book included the ocean liner wrecking, but while they were writing a real shipping disaster occurred, and the morally questionable debt evader decided that, morally, it was not in good taste to wreck the SS American in his play. Women were sexy or wives, men were gangsters or businessmen and everyone aboard was white, even the sailors. If you're an adult you accept all of this as part of the time period.

I am not directing adults. I am directing kids from 10-16. I am  used to teaching history in theatre, so that's not a big deal. But explaining why a Chinese joke is racist but making fun of Russians is not...you got me. I just looked at the kid and said "Because Russians are also white." The kids seem OK with everything they've had explained to them,  were briefly sad I won't let them wield fake cigarettes and martini glasses but ultimately fine with it; they are more worried that they may have to hold hands or--worse---kiss someone on stage. But their parents  are the ones the kids' theatre company are worried about, I guess, which brings me back to my first question: Why are we doing Anything Goes?

Reno is told by her friend Billy to take Mr. Whitney to the bar and "make sure he has a good time."
Virtue is is "the easy kind".
Chastity is "just cursed with sex appeal" and told by Reno "She's not confessing, she's advertising."
Reno has "hot pants" for Sir Evie.
Evie and Reno wish to "misbehave".

Here is how I , kryssi martin, adult human on planet earth, handled the issues that arose with these lines.

Billy wants you to get Whitney drunk so he can easily avoid him on the ship. Ding.
You're a flirt, easy for the boys to talk to. Ding.
I dunno...I'm avoiding that one, she seems to think it's funny and her giggle is too cute. She's 10.
When you like someone you get a warm feeling all over. Ding.
It's like when you want to spend time with someone but your mom says you can't, so you hover after school and walk them home knowing you'll get in trouble. Or you go get ice cream because they are there but you are lactose intolerant and it will make you sick but you eat it anyway. You leave the class saying you're going to the bathroom, but instead you meet up with him/her at the library. Ding.

We are having a special "intimacy choreography" session on Monday to handle the kissing, which I could care less about happening in the show. I've blocked fake kisses and I've blocked them out or around them before, at this age why are you  pushing it? Especially when everyone is still sharing popsicles at snack time. I mean, they have a snack time. Do they need to kiss on stage?

The other director who did Legally Blonde and is working as our producer, and is therefore around and sometimes gives opinions and context, kept the kissing in for this age, and spent time with just the actors and threw the rest of the cast out. Which I do, too, when working on intimacy, but is it really that important in this show? Sometimes yes, sometimes you don't have any intentions in the scene if it doesn't end in a kiss, or the end of a song. But sometimes...sometimes it's Cole Porter and the music swells and you can easily fake it or block around it or change it to a hug and it's fine because the book has been trashed so many times the plot scarcely matters. But the producer/director is  half my age, and I wonder if there is something in a younger director that really feels like they need to push the kissing thing. Like I don't care about honoring the true meaning of the text by suggesting I may not push the kissing.

For those of you paying attention, you read paragraph one. Which text  are you concerned about honoring?

I may have projected that onto her now that I've written and re read it. She's really sweet with patience like I have seen only one other time at my other summer gig. There is a type out there that should be doing this, but they are outnumbered, unfortunately, by egos and control freaks.  There is some sort of struggle for control happening in this company, which is rooted in Boulder. We, Denver, are a satellite and the young director/producer is running between the two and dealing with both sides. Since I'm new, I have only once inadvertently gotten involved. All I was doing was solving the microphone issue by borrowing mikes from my school. Wow, that was a wasp's nest. This poor producer/director had to suffer the wrath in both cities, and did it without every raising her voice. In fact, she genuinely sees both sides, likes all of those involved and wants what's best for the kids. That's why she should be doing this. If your first question is not "What is best for the kids" you need to reconsider why you are here.

I have convinced myself that a younger director would have included cigarettes and glasses, and I'm too practical for that. I can't get committed high school kids to not break a glass on stage or keep track of their own, personal fake cigarette. I sure as hell don't have the energy to fuss at 40 preteens and teenagers because they can't keep track of their shit. The entire play becomes about "who took my cigarette?" and people going down sick because they used the wrong glass and I have to put up this show in three weeks. It's fine, you're fine, learn your lines and lyrics and choreo.

Speaking of the choreographer, 23 years old and fresh out of college with her degree in stage management, but she wants to be a math teacher. So Cool. Her choreo is too cute for color TV and she may be the one who finally makes me accept that I am too old for this. She's well trained, excited, has all the energy and patience balanced by snark and lack of ability or interest in dealing with the cast's personal emotional issues. It's like she came out of a factory that builds choreographers.

The music director has ten years on me, is a retired teacher gigging as a musician at dinner theatres, private lessons and doing this in the summer. So Cool.  The kids worship her, her side company takes groups of teenagers to New York, she's sassy and has no patience for your bullshit. She may be the one to make me finally accept that I am not too old for this.

So that's fun.