I've started a SIG on the BA Professional Practice (Arts) Middlesex University about Musical Theatre and I would love anyone who is interested to take a look and leave me their thoughts. If you haven't joined the Facebook group yet then DO IT because some other people have started really interesting topics as well.
This is what I posted on Facebook;
Sorry to be so obvious about my topic but it's what I do and love. I still don't know what my inquiry questions are and I'm hoping that this SIG might help. In my future career I want to carry on performing but I would also like to teach on a vocational musical theatre course. I therefore really want to look in to musical theatre, it's relevance and people's perception of it. I want to find a question that not only interests me and helps me improve my career prospects but also enables me to better prepare my future students for the career they are embarking on.
Just a quick thought to start people off. There is a new (and I have to be careful what to call it here) "play with music" coming to The National Theatre, where I work, called 'London Road'. It is about the Suffolk Strangler and as such is of course extremely sensitive material. It was originally billed by the National as a musical but it received complaints from the families of the victims and others and since that time they have shyed away from the term musical and instead used play with music. The concept and piece of theatre itself however has not changed. Just the marketing. So what do people think? If it's ok to do a play then why not a musical?
This blog is really interesting and mentions a lot about musical theatre's relevance as well as London Road in particular.
http://www.ayoungertheatre.com/in-turn-safety-curtain/
If you want to view it on Facebook and have a conversation then just click here :)
I have just joined as a January starter so I am not at the same stage of the course as you yet Mark, but I find your blog very interesting so I keep an eye on it and thought this was a particularly interesting line of inquiry. I am a 'straight' actress but have friends who are musical theatre performers and I think the differences in people's perception of the two styles can be massive.
ReplyDeleteThe example you gave of 'London Road' is perfect...If a story is deemed suitable for telling on stage, why should it matter whether that is told through spoken word, song, dance or mime? I think there can be a lot of snobbery towards musicals...the question should be simply 'is this appropriate subject matter to be explored on stage in any form?'. I personally thing that freshness of the events in London Road is an issue...perhaps it would be in better taste to wait a few more years to allow the families of the victims more space the grieve.
Having said all this and sticking up for musical theatre, I do think that people will always associate musical theatre with glamour and frivolity and perhaps these views will never change completely. Perhaps people see a trip to a play as a 'serious' and 'thought-provoking' event but expect a musical to be 'escapism' and 'light entertainment'. I personally would like to see more 'character driven' musicals like 'Passion' and 'Parade' that were recently performed at The Donmar.
As a musical theatre performer yourself, and someone who is interested in teaching, do you think that there needs to be more focus on different styles of piece during training?, more focus on acting as a discipline?, perhaps drama schools should be more inclusive about the type of people they give places to? These are all just questions...I must stress I have no experience of musical theatre training! I think it would be great if the two worlds could mix more often, so I guess my questions are about what we can do to encourage that.
Hi Stephanie
ReplyDeleteYou bring up many thought provoking ideas and questions. I am also like Mark Musical Theatre trained and have discussed this topic via or SIG'S on facebook.If you wanted to join in our discussions BA Professional Practice (Arts) Middlesex University is on Facebook.I'm sure being a straight actor you can bring some more insight into the two differing domains.
Hi Stephanie. Thank you so much for your comments and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. It's really good to hear from a 'straight' acting point of view. I think you've hit the nail on the head when you asked if more focus needs to be given to different styles and a bigger focus on acting in musical theatre training. Obviously there is never going to be as much time spent on acting on musical theatre courses as there is on acting courses because you have other disciplines to work on too, but I think the balance is probably not right at the moment. That's why I am now thinking about doing my inquiry on the way we train musical theatre students (I explain why in one of my later blogs).
ReplyDeleteIt's refreshing to hear a 'straight' actor speak out in favour of musical theatre because generally that hasn't been my experience. Have you read my blog about the SIG Update and also my one about the difference between a musical comedy and a musical play? I think that you're right about never quite getting away from people associating musical theatre with frivolity so I wondered whether there needed to be a rebranding of more serious musical theatre.
I, like you, would love to see more serious musicals like Parade and Passion. That's why I think venues like the Donmar, The chocolate Factory and Regents Park are so invaluable to the musical theatre scene. They take more risks and because the runs are shorter there is less to lose.
Like Rebecca says, come and join our SIG on Facebook. There are some really interesting conversations going on.