Theater + Corona = Disaster!

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The spread of Coronavirus, a global pandemic, has managed to affect every person in one way or another. From older generations becoming the main target of the disease, sports games, movie release dates, and entire concert tours being cancelled, to young adults having their lives completely put on hold. That including the cancellations of major events, such as college tours, proms, graduation ceremonies, and even entire school semesters. We teens have been exposed to no shortage of TikToks and Instagram posts of teens heartbroken about what could’ve been, and the lives we wish we were living rather than being confined to the rooms of our homes.

In addition to the infinite social media posts surrounding Covid-19, people have been highly vocal on the impact this pandemic has had on the theater community. The virus, and issues stemming from it, have greatly impacted the theater community on both a smaller, more local level, as well as the larger scale. Many schools and local theater’s spring seasons are in the works, or coming to an end, but the vast majority of those productions have unfortunately  been canceled. Theater kids across the nation are mourning the loss of their shows, coping only with Broadway bootlegs and an abundance of showtunes. However, as theater patrons we must take notice of the toll this will have on our mothership, our crown jewel, Broadway.

This past week, Broadway announced that they will be stopping all performances, and fully shutting down for one month. This terrifying pandemic has closed the doors to popular shows, and crippling the theater industry. In an article from The Daily News, Tova Moreno, a tailor who’s stitched pieces for shows like Hamilton and Wicked, says, “[The spread of Covid-19] has the industry breaking for economic backlash more punishing than a thousand bad reviews.” Another person working in the costume field estimates that about 90% of the costume industry has been laid off. From this article, we see how the shutdown is affecting this specific group that works behind the scenes. However, how is this going to affect Broadway as a whole, as well as the theater community.

Here is a bit of background for my thoughts and worries regarding how all this will affect Broadway.

  1.  A Broadway show does not in fact own the theatre in which they perform in. The Shubert Organization owns the majority of broadway theatres, and they lease out their theatres to Broadway productions. The shows we see pay rent in order to stay open. There is a special rule set in place for these shows, called a stop clause. Theatres take a cut of the ticket sales of a production, as well as setting the amount of money a production must earn each week. In the stop clause rule, if a show makes below that certain amount of money for two weeks in a row, they will close.This rule is set no matter how successful the show is otherwise. For example, Beetlejuice The Musical announced that they will be closing this summer, despite being extremely popular and breaking box office records. This is because of one two week period in May of last year, where the show did not make enough money.
  2. The industry is still currently recovering from a humongous loss. This past summer, Broadway lost nearly $100,000,000. In a six week period, fourteen shows announced their closing. 2018 was one of the best seasons Broadway has ever experienced. With extremely high-grossing shows like Hamilton, Oklahoma, and Springsteen On Broadway. However, in 2019 Broadway was unsuccessful in topping their previous season. Before the year even began, That number was estimated to be lost that upcoming summer, and investors knew there was a tough year ahead. Broadway has been in a decline, and shows have less momentum.
  3. The theater industry is somewhat of a fragile one. The world has witnessed intense periods of decline in broadway shows. The industry heavily struggled throughout the great depression.  The economy was in shambles and unemployment was high. Many performers and producers fled to Hollywood to work in film, as talkies were on the rise. The 1940’s-through-50’s was the golden age of broadway. Leading into the 1970’s, another decline on broadway. The city was riddled with crime and vandalism, and this was the time in which broadway “died.” The beautiful optimsm of the previous era seemed to fade away. The iconic show A Chorus Line both opened in this time (and was one of the shows to help the industry back on it’s feet,) and had the “death” of broadway as a major point in the show. The show follows a collection of chorus line dancers as they desperately crane for a job in a time where broadway is falling apart. This as well as seeing a peek into their lives and character.

What does this all mean? Well, the spread of Covid-19 is going to heavily affect Broadway. With the entire industry out of work, the field of theater will crumble. If exceptions to the stop clause are not made the industry will continue to struggle financially on both smaller and larger scales. Many Broadway performers will become unable to afford living in such an expensive city, Investors and the organizations that own Broadway theatres will lose large sums of money, and even some of the greatest productions could close. This will become an ongoing struggle, and something the industry may find hard to come back from. Especially because Broadway is still recover from that $100,000,000 loss. Finally, we’ve seen this happen before. Broadway has entered periods of serious decline in the past, and this could potentially be the fall of Broadway for a time.

However, we don’t actually know how deeply this will hurt Broadway. There are many charities and organizations that have set out to help those struggling in the business. Check out the links below to sites where you can donate, as well as an article on how to support performers during this time! What are your thoughts on this whole situation? Comment below.

 

Student Blogging Challenge Reflection

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This is the eighth week in our eight weeks of blog posts. To wrap up the challenge we have been asked to reflect on the Student Blogging Challenge that we’ve been participating in. I think I can safely say that my class thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. Blogging has been so fun and I can’t wait to continue blogging along with the rest of my friends.

However, as much as I liked the challenge, I’m not sure that I would participate in it a second time. I designed this blog to revolve around theater,and because of this challenge I have not been able to write about things I’m truly interested in.Looking back I know those running the SBC have to make the challenges for many different age groups but as I am apart of one of the older age groups, some of the posts we had to make felt a bit kiddish. For instance I did not end up participating in the emoji post and I don’t think I would have enjoyed it if I had.

In conclusion, I enjoyed participating in the Student Blogging Challenge but I am far more excited to write about my interests, and I’m not sure I will participate again.

My Top 5 Song Playlist

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Hey kiddos! This week’s blogging challenge is dedicated to music. I’ll be giving you a taste of what I like to listen to, then I’ll be  writing and reviewing the songs and artists I’ve been liking most recently, and adding any news that’s come along with it. 

 

It’s no surprise that I listen to a fair amount of showtunes. In this post, you will see a few songs that I recommend and a couple of fantastic cast albums you should be able to sing your heart out to. As far as regular music goes, I listen to mainly emo rock, pop punk, alternative pop, and a couple classics. Here are some of my most recent favorites.

 

#1 “Just Exist” by Eliza and the Delusionals: This is a vibey pop- rock song that I CAN’T STOP LISTENING TO! It’s one of those songs that you should saver and love for a long time, but instead you constantly replay it until it makes you physically sick to hear it.

 

#2 “Six the Musical”: Six is about King Henry the 8th’s six wives, Kathrine of Aragon, Anne Bolyne, Jane Seymore, Anne of Cleves, Kathrine Howard, and Kathrine Parr. In the show, the six have become a pop girl group and released an album in which each song tells one of the six women’s stories. They then perform the album as a pop concert with flashy lights and costumes. The entire soundtrack is is beyond unique! The songs are bright and colorful and perfectly display the six queen’s personalities and stories. This show is all about female empowerment and the celebration of six badass women! I highly recommend listening to it.

 

#3 “Ghost Of You” by My Chemical Romance: this song is powerful, heartbreaking, and absolutely beautiful. The song is very emotional, it’s about the pain of loss and learning to move on. In the music video we follow the band through the intensity and destruction of war as they battle their way through WW2. You witness their trauma and the death of their friends. You later see the lead singer try to overcome his brother’s death after the war is over as he sings with his friends that survived. MCR began in 2001 and broke up in 2013, they recently announced their comeback after a six year hiatus. 

 

#4 “K-12” the album/“Strawberry Shortcake” by Melanie Martinez: K-12 in the newest album by singer Melanie Martinez. The album follows the popular character Crybaby from her previous album of the same name, through her entire school career. You see her grow from her first day of kindergarten well into highschool and it documents Crybaby’s life struggles in a colorful and whimsical way. One of my personal favorites is “Strawberry Shortcake.” In this song, Crybaby is growing up and developing into a young woman. Herself and the other women around her are beginning to be sexualised by their male peers. These women are being told that boys have no sense of control and that it’s their fault for getting attention and being sexualised. The chorus sings “it’s my fault, it’s my fault, cause’ I put icing on top. Now the boys want a taste of the strawberry shortcake. Yeah, that’s my bad, that’s my bad, no one taught them not to grab.” As a teenage girl I sadly find this song relatable, it’s a fact that girls are sexualised at a young age. I think the message of the song is an important one.


#5 “Waitress The Musical”: Waitress stars three female leads, Jenna and her two best friends Becky and Dawn. The show is all about these three women learning to grow, fight the personal battles their facing, and stand up for themselves. The main character Jenna is a diner waitress with a passion for pie making. Jenna is sadly in an abusive relationship with her husband. When Jenna has an unexpected pregnancy, she begins an affair with her doctor, Dr. Pomatter. Looking for ways out, she sees a pie contest and its grand prize as her chance at freedom. 

#6 “When He Sees Me” from Waitress: This is my favorite song from Waitress! this song is sung by dawn a strange, awkward, and quirky young woman who prefers to be alone. The song is about her worries of dating and how she doesn’t know how to open up to people. Throughout the song she begins her journey to learning how accept love and be vulnerable with others.

Some honorable mentions: I listen to all lot of music and there was quite a few songs and musicals I didn’t include. Here are some of those for you now. Anything by Panic! At The Disco, Heathers The Musical, Bonnie And Clyde The Musical, Paramore, Twenty One Pilots, I also love Queen, Abba and a lot of others! Do you like any of these? Let me know!

Every Show I’ve Seen

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Hello everybody and welcome back to confessions Of A Theater Freak! It’s the fourth week of the student blogging challenge! I’m a little behind but I’m sure we all sort of left our brains back in October along with our costumes and jackolanterns. It is now November and it’s definitely time to make a new post.

I was taking a look at my blog and all of my most recent posts, and I realized that I’ve made almost no theater related content for a blog that’s focus is just that. And therefore, in this post I will be writing about my thoughts and experiences with all of the shows I have seen. Disclaimer: I have seen a couple other shows that of which I didn’t include in this post such as school plays and field trips.

 

#1 Adventure Theatre and the early years:

My love and excitement for theater started early in my life. My parents often took my sister and I to the adventure theatre. A theatre that  turned beloved children’s stories into stage adaptations. My favorite shows were those based off of Laura Nuemuroff’s children’s books such as ‘If You Give A Pig A Pancake’ and ‘If You Give A Cat A Cupcake.’

#2 The Adams Family at the Kennedy Center:

I don’t remember much from this show, as I was very young when we saw it. I do remember however, how much I enjoyed the show. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday and I loved this show because of it. It sings beautifully and I love the Wednesday Adams character.

 

#3 Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center:

This show was one of the first that my sister and I were able to get really excited about. It was pretty early in my life and I don’t remember much from the show itself however, it was very important to my parents that we saw it.

 

#4 Annie on Broadway: 

My first broadway show! I saw Annie in 2013 starring (now Stranger Things star) Sadie Sink. I have written about my experience in my previous post titled “My First Show.” Seeing a well known show such as Annie was extremely exciting!

 

#5 Wicked on Broadway:

 Wicked is by far one of my favorite Musicals of all time. It was the show that got me genuinely interested in musical theater. Listening to the cast album was literally a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE! I saw wicked for my tenth birthday and it was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life! Since then, my love for this show has only grown. I don’t listen to the music as much but I’m reading the book for the second time and am anxiously awaiting the 2021 wicked movie adaptation.

 

#6 School Of Rock on Broadway: 

School Of rock is unbelievably funny and it sings incredibly well. It makes a couple changes from the original movie but still manages to make it feel like the same story. One of the most impressive aspects of this show is that all the kids that play instruments in the show already play those instruments and everything is real and live. There’s literally a ten year old girl playing bass electric guitar, it’s absolutely astonishing! What I really loved about it was the time leading up to us seeing the show. This was the first time I’d seen my dad as excited about a musical as I usually was. For what felt like months, my dad listened to the cast album on repeat. I wasn’t as into the music as I have been with other shows, but it was really great to see my dad feel the same way about theater that I do. 

 

#7 Beetlejuice off-broadway: 

Beetlejuice The Musical has become extremely popular among broadway theater fans within this past year. I can proudly say that I liked it before it was cool. I saw Beetlejuice exactly a year ago at the DC National Theatre for my thirteenth birthday. Originally I was a little sceptical about how the show would be. I knew the show would be very hit or miss and worried that it wouldn’t sing well. Making a musical or even just a stage adaptation of a movie is very hard to do, especially when it’s one as popular and beloved as Beetlejuice. I also saw Beetlejuice before it went to Broadway. Meaning that almost no one had heard of the show and there had yet to be any hype surrounding it that could give me a clue on how the show was. Rest assured, I saw the show and it was mind blowingly spectacular! Beetlejuice is quirky, it’s weird, it’s very colorful, and the music is great! I’ll admit it’s a little raunchy (or at least when I saw it they do make a lot of changes to shows once they hit Broadway) but it’s undeniably hilarious and the entire audience was laughing throughout the whole show. 

 

#8 Mean Girls on Broadway:

Another amazing comedy musical! Mean Girls is funny beyond belief and I highly recommend seeing it if you can. Mean girls is a vibrant show with super fun, poppy, colorful music! Some of the plot and characters have changed a bit from the original movie and they’ve made it set in more recent years however, it’s done quite well. They’ve managed to make the problems that the characters face more relevant to today’s teenagers. What I love about this adaptation is that they really focus on the real villain of the story, the female social structure. In this show they focus less on the evil Regina George and more on more serious and relatable issue. They express this point perfectly in the anthem of this musical, a song called “I’d Rather Be Me.” this song is all about how awful us women treat one another, that we already have to fight against a highly sexist society and shouldn’t have to fight or compete with other women but instead have each other’s back and lift each other up. The song also sends the great message that we should want to be ourselves rather than please others.

 

#9 Dear Evan Hanson at the Kennedy Center: 

I swear this show will make you cry! I saw DEH in august earlier this year with the touring cast. This show has a great story that is beautifully moving. The actors were super talented, and the music is unreal! I actually dressed up as Evan for the show with his iconic blue striped button down and cast. I was definitely the only one that came in costume but I had an amazing time.

 

#10 Hamilton in chicago: 

I recently saw Hamilton as an early surprise birthday present from my parents while we were traveling in Chicago. It was incredible! Everything about it was so iconic and I was insanely excited. Seeing all of the songs performed live was so special. I was also happy to see the set that hamilton is so well known for. If you don’t know, Hamilton uses a revolving stage to perform a lot of the songs. For instance, in the song “Satisfied” they use the revolving stage to demonstrate time turning backwards. Seeing this show was such a treat and will definitely be something I will never forget.

 

Have you seen any of these? What’s your favorite show that you’ve seen? Let me know and see you later!

My Amazing Avatar

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This post is dedicated to my amazing avatar! I used  bitmoji for my avatar. Since making this post I have changed my bitmoji’s look a little bit by darkening the hair, and styling it with a cat costume for halloween rather than it’s regular clothes. However, the changes are small and the avatar looks generally the same. I also encourage you to take a look at my classmates avatars. Almost everyone used a different medium or program for the creation of their avatar, and their descriptions are beautifully written. I hope you like our avatars!

My First Show

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I stand in an anxious crowd waiting to be let into the theatre. Clouds of anticipation and car exhaust fill the city’s streets. A bead of sweat drips down my cheek, and I breath in a gulp of thick, hot, summertime air. I look around to see my sister and cousin quibbling with one another, the heat of their argument was so unbearable I began to bury my face in my moms side. 

 

The doors opened, and we all slowly funneled into the theatre. We moseyed our way down the softly lit aisles. I slid down the row, the cushy velvet of the seats rubbing against the back of my legs. I sat down next to my mom. I flipped through my playbill anxiously, looked around the elegant space surrounding me, and stared at the expressive, artistic ceiling. 

 

In an instant, my senses seemed to awaken and I began to burst with excitement.I stared at the empty stage, shaking with anticipation. Then, the house lights dimmed, the stage lights brightened, the orchestra began to play, and the curtains were drawn. I couldn’t help but smile.

How To Comment: A video by CC and Emma

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Hey blog-world! My fellow blogger and classmate, CC and I made an instructional video on commenting. We strived to keep our commenting process simple and easy, and added some music and dancing for a little fun. I hope you enjoy it and find it informing. Watch the video down below. If you would like to visit my classmate CC’s blog, which we commented on as an example in our video, click the link here.—–> http://blogs.lcps.org/paintwars/

 

Me A-Z

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Hello to you other AMAZING BLOGGERS, this is my A-Z post and I’m going to be talking about Girl Scout. Although this is a theater blog, scouts is another thing that I’m very passionate about.

 

Much to many’s surprise Girl Scouts is about so much more than just COOKIES. American Girl Scouts was founded by Juliet Gordon Low. Juliet was widely known as DAISY,(hence the name of the youngest tier of Girl Scouts.) Daisy wasn’t exactly the most ELEGANT but she was a powerful, strong, FREESPIRIT, who couldn’t drive! In fact, on the streets she was known as crazy Daisy, because her driving was so insane that she would drive on sidewalks, through peoples yards, and would even crash into houses. When she drove down the streets of Savannah, pedestrians would run and yell “Crazy Daisy! Watch out for Crazy Daisy!”

 

 Despite living in Savannah, GEORGIA for the majority of her life, Daisey and her HUSBAND had homes in both England and Georgia. The UK had a similar program to Girl Scouts called The Girl Guides, Daisy felt INSPIRED when she discovered these Girl Guides.  At a meeting in 1912 with Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Boy Scouts, JULIET new that her dream had to become a reality, she established Girl Scouts on March 12th later that same year. She phoned her cousin and told her the plans of her incredible idea , “I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we’re going to start it tonight!” she said. Daisy KNEW it would be hard. The first meeting was a small troop of 18 diverse young women of different religions, ethnic backgrounds, and even girls with disabilities. Daisy wanted to guarantee that every girl had a place to grow and LEARN to become LEADERS. 

 

Girl Scouts was heavily inspired by the MILITARY,  and the troops would often march around the streets of Savannah. Girl Scouts broke down barriers for a lot of girls, young girls learned to be themselves and not care what others thought. For instance, the uniform that scouts of the time would wear for camping was a green jumpsuit that, at the time, would be considered underwear. Granted none of these scouts cared because the only time they wore these was in the middle of the woods with other scouts their age. However there was one time where Juliet wanted to teach her scouts how to play basketball, they didn’t want to ruin their NEAT uniforms, so they wore their camping uniforms. The troop proudly marched down the streets of Savannah in their underwear so that they could learn to play basketball. Girls OPENLY showed their PRIDE and when you were a scout you wanted everyone to know! Scouts had uniforms and merchandise for every occasion. They sold hair and tooth brushes, everyday clothes, and fancy pins and sashes for when girls needed to dress up. Girl Scout merchandise was very popular for a long time and was QUITE the hot commodity. 

The RANKINGS of Girl Scouts consists of daisys, brownies, juniors, cadettes, SENIORS, ambassadors, and then you become a Girl Scout alumni. I started daisies in kindergarten with my sister and a couple other girls from my school and another elementary school. We also had a sistering troop of younger girls. I loved my TROOP and was UBER excited to be involved in so many Girl Scout activities. Our troop was rather big, but over time the girls began to leave one by one until there were only five girls in our troop. Eventually we had no money and whatever we did have we spent on activities for the younger girls, and everytime we lost a girl they added one to the other troop until we were completely outnumbered, it became extremely VEXATIOUS and we decided we had to make a change. I knew that quitting WASN’T and option. In sixth grade we found troop 3154, an amazing group of some lovely girls that all happened to go to the same school as jane and I. The girls kindly accepted us into the troop, and I was absolutely ECSTATIC! That was two YEARS ago and it was a great decision.  I get to be involved in my community, learn, and have fun all while getting closer to some of the most beautiful, smart, strong, funny, ZANY, lovely friends I think I’ll ever know.

All About Emma!

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  1. On November 10, 2005, I was born, along with my fraternal twin sister Jane. We have never quite gotten along with each other, partly because have always been incredibly different from our personalities, to what we excel in at school, to our looks (she got all the good genes.)
  2.  Despite how my sister and I feel about each other, I really do love my family. I am from a family of movie buffs, we love having movie nights and going to the theater. In the summer we create a movie list of everything we have to watch, often with a theme. My family also loves the arts! I myself love drawing, painting, listening to music, and I dream to work as an actress. My parents are very supportive of my dreams and are nice enough to take me to broadway shows, art exhibits, and concerts.
  3. My family is from Pennsylvania. Both my mom and dad grew up in Allentown, PA. Because of that I’ve grown up saying things, and eating foods that aren’t popular or even heard of here. The Pennsylvania things that we have (that No ONE has heard of) are lebanon bologna, nut roles, amish people, hogies, Pennsylvania dutch, and Dorney Park.
  4. I’m a girl scout and I LOVE IT! I am very passionate about being a girl scout and everything I get to do because of it. I started as a daisy in kindergarten and transferred to my current troup in sixth grade. I love my troup and how close we are with each other.