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Messages - GHV3

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General Discussion / Re: Theatre Blind Dates!

« on: May 15, 2014, 02:09:16 pm »

I think this sounds like a wonderful idea. It's so easy to stick with the first group of people that you gel with on campus and then not branch out as much after that, even though we'll end up working with most people in some capacity at one time or another. This would be a great way to stir things up, strengthen our community, and find new potential for artistic collaboration (and maybe even meet ~*~*~hot sexy singles in your area~*~*~).

General Discussion / Re: Facebook Culture

« on: May 14, 2014, 09:15:20 pm »

I agree that facebook culture re:student theatre can get obnoxious in ways that aren't necessary--I've heard friends on boards say things like "Oh, I need to make a status about our new directors," and there shouldn't be an expectation that every board member makes a post about every choice. Things have gotten a bit better since last year, I think--I remember last year I learned about board decisions by seeing everyone's facebook posts well before the official email came out, and that was far from ideal. This problem has significantly decreased, although it hasn't gone away entirely; there was something this year that I found out I hadn't gotten days after the decision was made through a combination of word-of-mouth and a facebook photo.

I agree with a lot of the points you've made, I respect that you're being frank, and I'm sorry that you felt excluded because I know from experience how bad that can feel, but I wonder if this forum is the place to discuss things such as this party that you weren't invited to. The hosts and many of the invites may have been members of the student theatre community, but the party itself was neither officially nor unofficially connected to student theatre in any other way, and I'm not sure if a personal problem with individual members of the student theatre community is the same as a problem with student theatre that needs to be addressed by the community.

General Discussion / Re: Petition season is done!

« on: May 14, 2014, 07:40:01 pm »

I think that considering the number of important decisions in this community that are made based on petitions--board members, producers, directors, what have you--it would be helpful to have some sort of petition workshop to help people work on their petitioning skills and figure out how best to present themselves and their ideas. I know that I for one get sick of asking for pointers on improving my petition and just hearing "be yourself and talk about your ideas!"--especially since I'll also often hear people talk about skilled people who didn't petition well or people that had great petitions but weren't necessarily the best choice. What makes a great petition? How can you prepare? What should you keep in mind, what should you not worry about?

I think it would also be helpful to everyone if questions asked on the petition form were not also asked in the petition room. Not only is it a waste of everyone's time, but you get less passionate about answering a question when you've just written a two-paragraph response to it and you know that the person asking you has your answer in their hand.

Also, question--are petitions the best method for picking directors and producers? I'm asking because I've never been on the other side of a petition table, but it seems that bringing someone into a room with every available board member and asking them a bunch of questions in person that could easily be answered in a form (or a smaller, longer interview that is more like a conversation) isn't the best method for figuring out who will be the best at directing or producing a show. It makes a bit more sense for board petitions, since you're looking for someone who can have conversations with everyone in the room and vibe well with them and talk about art, but I'm not sold on it for producers and directors.

General Discussion / Re: The Culture of Casting/Petitioning

« on: April 27, 2014, 06:38:52 pm »

As far as I can tell when it comes to auditioning, it seems that as soon as someone's been cast in one show, people sort of figure out that they can perform and they'll usually be cast in future shows, but some people get cast in their first show fall quarter freshman year and some people don't get cast until a year or more later--not because of inherent unfairness, necessarily, but because people are more likely to cast someone that they've seen onstage before and that they know can go through a rehearsal and performance process. Unfortunately, this means that as time passes, an individual who hasn't been cast yet will get more discouraged, have more trouble breaking into performance, and have less experience to help them grow and learn. Fortunately, there do seem to be a good number of opportunities for people who haven't yet been recognized by the community as performers, and I think that we as a community need to make sure that we're encouraging people to audition for and perform in these productions, and that overall we should have a culture of getting excited to see people onstage that we haven't seen before, instead of being dismissive of actors we're unfamiliar with (not that this is necessarily the existing culture).