Community theater
I got some ads from a local children's theater group, announcing auditions, and I was about to post them when I noticed something called a "cast fee."
HEH????
Where the hell is community theater? Where I grew up, there was a group called the Bicentennial Singers. They were 99.9% wretched, but that wasn't the point--they had open auditions, the production was put together by people donating their time, and the rights were paid by minimally priced tickets. I believe they had to pay for stages, though another community theater group I was in just built a stage in the producers' church. (It wasn't a religious play, just Oliver!, and the point is that you can use buildings that are part of your community.) It was mostly adults in the Bicentennial Singers, but the Oliver! troop was half and half.
A cast fee of $200 would have made it impossible to participate in anything other than school plays... and next thing you know, they're going to think of a way to start charging for that as well. I mean, doing a play is hard work--since when do you pay for the privilege of doing work? (Resists repeating rant about vanity presses, though it strikes me as quite a similar concept.) You audition and earn a role, you go to all the rehearsals, likely as not you end up doing publicity and helping with costumes and sets, and you spend all your time trying to memorize lines. Then you're supposed to pay them $200?
And that's only for children, so you know the target is parents who want to see little Jenny on stage. When it comes to adults, there is no community theater. It's all these semi-pros trying to impress agents who might be in the audience. No one's just up there having fun for the hell of it in semi-pro productions and everyone's expected to show up with resumes and headshots. And as far as acting classes go, again, with the money. Why does everything cost severe coinage?
Sigh. I miss community.
HEH????
Where the hell is community theater? Where I grew up, there was a group called the Bicentennial Singers. They were 99.9% wretched, but that wasn't the point--they had open auditions, the production was put together by people donating their time, and the rights were paid by minimally priced tickets. I believe they had to pay for stages, though another community theater group I was in just built a stage in the producers' church. (It wasn't a religious play, just Oliver!, and the point is that you can use buildings that are part of your community.) It was mostly adults in the Bicentennial Singers, but the Oliver! troop was half and half.
A cast fee of $200 would have made it impossible to participate in anything other than school plays... and next thing you know, they're going to think of a way to start charging for that as well. I mean, doing a play is hard work--since when do you pay for the privilege of doing work? (Resists repeating rant about vanity presses, though it strikes me as quite a similar concept.) You audition and earn a role, you go to all the rehearsals, likely as not you end up doing publicity and helping with costumes and sets, and you spend all your time trying to memorize lines. Then you're supposed to pay them $200?
And that's only for children, so you know the target is parents who want to see little Jenny on stage. When it comes to adults, there is no community theater. It's all these semi-pros trying to impress agents who might be in the audience. No one's just up there having fun for the hell of it in semi-pro productions and everyone's expected to show up with resumes and headshots. And as far as acting classes go, again, with the money. Why does everything cost severe coinage?
Sigh. I miss community.
