I don't always write about coal mining...
Acting, competition, tears: Oh, the drama!
THERE'S NO crying in baseball,'' Tom Hanks tells a weeping player in "A League of Their Own.'' And that might be the case -- or at least the hope -- in all athletic competitions. But in one competitive sphere, the opposite is true. There's alwayscrying in drama.
This weekend, 14 teams of Massachusetts high school thespians, techies, musicians, seamstresses and directors will compete in the annual High School Drama Guild finals. Of 111 teams who entered the competition, each performing a non-musical play in less than 40 minutes, only one will take home a trophy.
The rest will probably cry.
I know this because my child's team competed in the semi-final round. During the two weeks between "prelims'' and "semis,'' they previewed the play, collected audience feedback, tweaked costumes and line-readings. They met the director-mandated curfew the night before competing. And though their bus broke down on the way to the auditorium, the stage was unfamiliar, and a couple of kids got sick, they nailed it.
At least that's what our traveling parent cheering section decided. After our kids competed, we spent the rest of the day applauding the other shows, holding our collective breath when we suspected a performance might have outshone ours and not saying anything that could jinx the outcome. After years of being shut out after semis, we badly wanted our players to move on to finals. They didn't.
Hours of crying ensued. Drama kids are, after all, a highly emotional sort. It's part of the skill set. Take your average, overwrought teenager and square their freak-out. You think your soccer player gets dramatic over a missed goal? Quadruple that reaction. Drama kids are the pros. I refer to unrest in the theater world as Drama-drama.
So when they don't get a role or the director corrects them too many times or they get eliminated from the tournament, they cry. With the girls, it's viral: one starts and almost all of them finish. The boys might hide the tears and kick things instead, as boys are apt to do, but I'm certain they weep later.
It's not fair, they say. And they're right. Nothing in theater is fair. I've been around children's theater since my high school junior was in fifth grade. Drama is the most arbitrary and subjective thing I've witnessed.
In sports, hard work often leads directly to success. In the workplace, too. Not so in drama. The kid who works his butt off preparing for an audition can get passed over for the actor who's tall enough to dance with the lead. Children with flawless singing voices can get cut because they don't have the right musical theater sound. And then there's normal, human subjectivity, which sullies all teams: the producer's kid cast as the most important elf is the same as the coach's kid slotted as lead pitcher despite a weak arm.
The Guild competition might be the most unfair of the unfair. There are too few judges, too much nepotism and home-court advantages. Still, it's the best thing my kid has ever done.
A lot of children land on stage by default: they don't like sports and there are few venues for creative pursuits when they're little and craving a place to belong. Theater is accepting. The quirkier the kid, the better. The drawback to this kind and gentle atmosphere is that dramatic types miss lessons that athletes learn regularly.
The drama competition teaches theater kids to work as a team. Divas aren't welcome during the competition. Since sets are judged along with performances, the stage crew becomes as valued as the cast. Everyone learns what it feels like to win, to lose, and to pick themselves up off the playing field.
Amid the tears, there's tough talk about never doing this again! But they will. The tears will dry. The kids will move on to the next play. The directors will search for a new script. They'll all be back: the underclassmen with their make-up and power drills and headsets; the graduates who come back to cheer on their old team; the moms and dads in their matching t-shirts. And just like in sports, they will arrive with the undying belief that this is their year.
Susan Kushner Resnick is author of "Goodbye Wifes and Daughters.'' 
Susan
I am so sorry you felt you had to write this article. I am a Supervisor for MGSDG and I would like to help you better understand a few things about how Festival is organized and what "really" goes on in the Judges Room.
To begin, the judges and supervisors are two different jobs. We both have to go through a day long training in January to prepare for Festival. The judges are trained on what the MHSDG would like them to look for in a play, writing evaluations and the Awards Ceremony. The Supervisors role is to represent the MHSDG Council. We make sure the day runs smoothly and all of the rules are followed. We also are the only people who should deal with the judges during the day however we have nothing to do with any decisions that are made about placements or awards.
"The Guild competition might be the most unfair of the unfair." This is what really upsets me. I personally take my job very seriously and making sure the day is "fare" is the most important thing that I do. When I was in High School I participated in Festival, and never made it out of Prelims, so I understand all sides of the day. My goal for the day is to make sure the kids get a chance to do their best and see other schools doing their best.
"Too few judges" I have never been to a Festival that did not have two trained judges. Would you like more than two judges?
I think your idea of "Home-court advantage" might be different if you realized how much work goes into hosting. The only advantage the Host has is that the show should look really good on their stage. The down side of being a Host is that the week before Festival you have to Tech all of the other schools. For prelims that is a minimum of 7 hours the Host school cannot rehearse their own show. It is easier for MHSDG to find judges than it is to find Host Schools. Why is that?
"Too much nepotism" I am assuming that this was about the family members as Judge and Supervisor. I hope you now understand now that it doesn't matter if a Judge and Supervisor are related.
I would also like to respond to your comment made about 5 of the 7 Host schools from Semi's moving on to Finals...Again, the Host Schools tend to have strong programs. A large percent of Host schools move out of Prelims too. I noticed this year that 13 of the 14 Prelims sites that the 3pm show moved on to Semis. Was that a conspiracy too? (The times are literally pulled out of a hat.)
I wish I had more time to write. I do hope that this clears up some of your concerns. It would really be better if you could attend Festival with your child as a learning expirience and a great day of theater and not like a sporting event.
See you this weekend at Finals?
Teri Shea