Hey everyone! Since I briefly mentioned that I used to do theater, let's reflect on my middle school theater experience with the one show I was a part of, which was MADAGASCAR. While I make critiques of high school shows now, my experience from doing MADAGASCAR taught me a lot about theater and what it is about, so much so that some of it helped me understand high school productions and how they work. (I am well aware high school productions are more intense than middle school productions.) With all that said, let's jump right into it!
I worked as a part of the crew (the stage and craft crew) for this show, and wow, was it quite the experience. I definitely had fun being a part of it, but it was also stressful. There was a learning curve in knowing where to place the set pieces and the cues, but I still enjoyed learning. Making the art decorations for the show was fun since I learned more about crafting things and show design. I even had a couple friends doing theater with me, so I got to make some memories with them. But, sadly, the fun parts of the theater were not what I remember as much.
My experience with MADAGASCAR taught me that while I did learn about new things through the crew work, doing theater was something I may never particularly enjoy. When I think of my time during MADAGASCAR, I mostly think about the horrible things that went on, at least in my eyes.
For one thing, I learned how big favoritism was in theater. A lot of the students picked for the lead roles could not sing at all, and this especially showed during the rehearsals. Luckily they got their acts together just in time for opening night, but it was almost insufferable being backstage because of the terrible singing I would have to hear. But these students got their lead roles in the first place because they were close to the director or knew someone close to the director. Now, this may have been just one director. But, the favoritism was so bad she even chose people to be in the tech crew and curtain closers based on who she liked and not on merit or interest. So even though there may be directors who are more impartial than this one, I now associate theater with an environment that only rewards those who are the "favorites."
Another thing was the fact that theater was very cliquey. Again, this may have just been the people who were also in my middle school theater, but it felt like everyone stuck with their own friend groups throughout the show. When I first joined, I thought theater was supposed to be one big happy family—or least friendly enough to where no one would feel excluded. But, all of the stage crew kids were left out of events. Even the cast was pretty divided at times. There was a distinct difference between the "popular kids" in the cast and everyone else. It was honestly quite strange. A tradition was not even done, where everyone in the theater company would go out and eat at a restaurant once the show was over. The fact that that was not done as a whole theater company but as individual friend groups going out after the show is honestly kind of mind-boggling. So adding more fuel to the fire of my poor experience, the cliquey feeling I was getting with theater did not necessarily sit well with me.
My memory from doing this show is foggy, even though I could talk about it for hours. I did this show in the 8th grade to give theater a try. Maybe that is why things feel a little hazy now. I did decide to give theater a shot in high school to give it a fair chance and hopefully re-do my theater experience from the 8th grade since I think the director and the environment she helped create rubbed me the wrong way. But with the COVID-19 pandemic and the realization that I would not thrive in theater, I stopped after my freshman year. Even though there were more negatives with doing this show than positives, doing MADAGASCAR has helped me gain a newfound appreciation for theater and those that do it. It is an environment I could never fully enjoy, so I respect those that do it. I have also seen the hard work put into setting up production and being a part of the crew. So while MADAGASCAR helped me realize I could never be a kid in theater, I thank myself for doing it. It has helped me be aware that I would rather be an audience member, although I now love and appreciate the behind-the-scenes process.
