The Backstage crew has begun attending rehearsals for the Secondary production: Little Shop of Horrors. Thus far we have gone to three rehearsals- one on Monday, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday.
The first rehearsal was boring- basically we just talked to the performers about what the musical is about and blocked it out. Nothing much happened.
On the second rehearsal, the backstage crew just watched the performers block out the ending of the play, and served as the audience so they could figure out their sitelines. It was very useful for us because the staging of LSoH is incredibly unintuitive. It is what is called “thrust staging” because the stage itself is essentially a backdrop. The actual play happens in the center of the auditorium, which as a result has relatively few seats. It also means that “backstage” is a collection of tables that serve as depots scattered throughout the room. So it was good for learning.
The third rehearsal, on saturday was the big important one. It was the first rehearsal where the performers were singing with microphones attached and the band present. Notably, the band is a group of Processional Sri Lankan session musicians who have been brought in to thelp with the production, not a student band as I had expected. Because of these firsts, it was very important. The performers were nervous, and it was the first big event where all of the elements were combined.
Personally, I think that doing LSoH for a high school musical was a mistake. Firstly, many of the character speak in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). That isn’t necessarily a problem, but when the performers are not themselves African Americans, it is very easy for their performance to resemble old minstrel shows- there is a long history of racism when imitating the way black people speak. Additionally, Mushnik has a New York accent and speaks with Yiddish phrases mixed into his words, including ones that are now in the conventional vernacular, making them less obvious. (Kaput!)
I am not saying that the performers are being racist, but I am saying that they are on thin ice and no one seems to know they are even skating.
Beyond that, I actually feel that the performers are doing very well. I’m not a musician, but they sounded good singing and everyone is obviously very excited and passionate about the production. LSOH isn’t my favorite musical, but I respect that they are doing well at it.
The backstage element was very boring. We figured out that we had five people, four of whom were present and four corners each with a prop depot, so each person got one area. I got assigned behind stage left, which mostly had props for the song “Dentist.” This meant that my job was fairly boring, and I ended up sitting there and reading one of the ensemble’s scripts for most of the performance. Organizationally it went pretty well as Pep is good at managing these things, and I think we have a good plan. I will need to be quicker on my queues, but that is something that comes with practice.
Despite my reservations, I think that our high school production of LSoH is going to be the best version of itself it can be.