# High School: trials & tribulations



## Shakspeares suck (Jul 11, 2008)

I'm in High School and I could not find any forum dedicated to the struggles of being involved in a High School Theatre, what with minimum budget and a lot of bsing. so i thought i would create this forum as a refuge for high schoolers to ask their questions and for other high schoolers to answer them with what theyve done. feel free to ask about anything, not just lighting

BATEMAN


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## soundlight (Jul 11, 2008)

*Re: High School*

Topics about this are all over the place. They usually end up in the most relevant forum to the complaints, or the punching bag.

Oh, and the BS only gets worse.


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## Shakspeares suck (Jul 11, 2008)

*Re: High School*

oh ok, well still if high schoolers wanna come here they still can


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## Clifford (Jul 11, 2008)

*Re: High School*

You can join the CB User Created Group for HS techs here.


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## derekleffew (Jul 12, 2008)

*Re: High School*

This thread is being moved to the Student Feedback forum. We also use that area for students looking for college recommendations.


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## Shakspeares suck (Jul 12, 2008)

ok thats cool thank you, haha i might need some college recs soon anyhow


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## ishboo (Jul 15, 2008)

Im going to be a junior next fall at my high school. Our high school program use to be pretty mediocre but last year thankfully a levy was passed and our school built a brand new theatre that seats 1,200 which offers great experience to a high schooler. Unfortunately we got bottom of the line equipment like our lehigh light board that crashed 11 times during tech for our musical but we are working really hard to get it off the ground and we've done some really cool stuff with it. I'd be curious to learn about other high school theatre programs.


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## Shakspeares suck (Aug 16, 2008)

well my theatre program is incredible, not to toot my own horn, however the only reason for this is the fact that our director whips the actors into shape, we have very low tech equipment and our theatre is poorly built we have a consistant white noise bc the amps are too close to our monitors its bad


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## summerstagetech (Aug 16, 2008)

my high school sucks! during the summer i go to a program called summer stage. they do everything and they will teach you anything. if any one lives in the philladelphia they should go to upper darby pac summer stage.


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## Mullet1215 (Aug 16, 2008)

High school is the place you learn how to do everything the cheap way. anywhere you can pinch a penny you will. I learned to make gels out of all the scrap pieces of gel, cut pie plate gobos, make coffe can tophats, black wrap barn doors and so much more. The big advantage in this is it teaches you how to solve any problem that may come along.


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## LightStud (Aug 17, 2008)

Mullet1215 said:


> High school is the place you learn how to do everything the cheap way. anywhere you can pinch a penny you will. I learned to make gels out of all the scrap pieces of gel, cut pie plate gobos, make coffee can tophats, blackwrap barn doors, and so much more. The big advantage in this is it teaches you how to solve any problem that may come along.


Aobsolutely! Don't dismiss that training as non-valuable. I have done all of the above, recently, and on multi-million dollar shows. (More out of time constraints than budget, but still.) This is show *business*. If cutting your own gobo out of a pie plate, (I prefer disposable cooking sheets, as they contain more flat surface area) rather than spend $12.95 plus tax and shipping, plus a purchasing agent's time, then that's the best solution.

It's much easier to go from a low-budget, ill-equipped, theater to a big budget, state-of-the-art venue, than the reverse. It's a poor carpenter who blames his tools.


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## bobgaggle (Aug 17, 2008)

I'd have to agree with what a lot of the guys here are saying...High school is where you learn to do a lot of stuff a formal education won't give you...namely, problem solving with no resources. I wouldn't go back and redo anything in my high school theatre experience. (except maybe sophomore year, but that was just a bad director)


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## LightingMinion (Aug 20, 2008)

*High School Theater Experience.*

Well, I suppose I am spoiled in my high school tech experience. Our theater was just redone and we have a spiffy Strand Lighting Pallet Classic Light board and JR Clancy fly system. Its never really been the cheep way. Will Collage differ much in this? As far as I know, Collages don't really have modernized theaters, right?


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## Serendipity (Aug 21, 2008)

*Re: High School Theater Experience.*


LightingMinion said:


> Well, I suppose I am spoiled in my high school tech experience. Our theater was just redone and we have a spiffy Strand Lighting Pallet Classic Light board and JR Clancy fly system. Its never really been the cheep way. Will Collage differ much in this? As far as I know, Collages don't really have modernized theaters, right?



Depends where you go! Some colleges have ancient prosceniums that used to be lecture halls and lighting fixtures you swear are klieglights, but others have sparkling new theaters who wouldn't know what to do with anything that didn't have "Source Four" in the name.


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## cdub260 (Aug 21, 2008)

LightStud said:


> Aobsolutely! Don't dismiss that training as non-valuable. I have done all of the above, recently, and on multi-million dollar shows. (More out of time constraints than budget, but still.) This is show *business*. If cutting your own gobo out of a pie plate, (I prefer disposable cooking sheets, as they contain more flat surface area) rather than spend $12.95 plus tax and shipping, plus a purchasing agent's time, then that's the best solution.
> 
> It's much easier to go from a low-budget, ill-equipped, theater to a big budget, state-of-the-art venue, than the reverse. It's a poor carpenter who blames his tools.



I'm with LightStud on this one, the basic problem solving and trouble shooting skills you learn doing tech in high school and college theatre will prove invaluable throughout your career in this industry. I have some unique challenges with my show, as off the shelf equipment, often, will not meet my needs. Because of this I have to design and build a lot of my lighting and effects equipment. Had I not learned creative problem solving in my years as a student, I would be unable to do this part of my job now.

Also try to remember that having state of the art equipment and the ability to throw money at problems doesn't mean a trouble free show. You still need to be able to troubleshoot and fix your systems when they fail.


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## Serendipity (Aug 21, 2008)

*Re: High School Theater Experience.*


Serendipity said:


> Depends where you go! Some colleges have ancient prosceniums that used to be lecture halls and lighting fixtures you swear are klieglights, but others have sparkling new theaters who wouldn't know what to do with anything that didn't have "Source Four" in the name.


Oh, and one is not necessarily better than the other. As most of the people here have agreed, it's often when you are limited in options you can be the most creative.


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## Mullet1215 (Aug 21, 2008)

*Re: High School Theater Experience.*


Serendipity said:


> Oh, and one is not necessarily better than the other. As most of the people here have agreed, it's often when you are limited in options you can be the most creative.




Many times it is because you are forced to be creative. My highschool has 0 (ZERO) of our own lighting so there were times when we have to see how creative we can be on five thousand bucks and a 24 ch Dimmer pack.

But another way you learn to be creative in high school is you learn the ins and outs of your venue and try to figure out how to make your next show better.


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## loki (Aug 24, 2008)

lol, we dont even have a theater, we convert the gym once every two weeks, But we do do all our biger shows in larger venues elsewhere, which is ok. But i agree, High school has tought me to fix huge problems with no resorces, and make things better with limited money

what anoys me is when the school goes and gets a technician to work with us who is a pain in the ass and knows nothing.


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## cdub260 (Aug 25, 2008)

In my senior year of high school, I actually ended up running the Laguna Beach High School theatre for three months after my Tech teacher died in a motorcycle accident. This was a real eye opener for me as to exactly how little I knew at the time. Under the circumstances, I was the best person available on short notice, but I was wholly unprepared for the responsibility of making decisions for all things tech related at my school. I learned very quickly that although I was the best tech my school had at the time, I was not nearly as good as I thought I was. I'm still not as good as I thought I was then. Fortunately the school did hire a new Tech teacher, and I was no longer stuck running a theatre I had no business running in the first place. Another plus was that the new Tech teacher was someone I had worked with before at other venues, so it wasn't just some random stranger trying to fill my mentor's shoes.


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