15/12/03 Abuse in Local Theatre : A Spleen-Ventage

I think the fact that people are making some strong statements on the Canberra Musical theatre Scene site is a good thing. Musical theatre is bitchy - as is all theatre - and if you set up a site like this surely you must be expecting people to be opinionated and vent their spleen at times - sometimes accurately, at other times with the spleen splattering inaccurately everywhere.

It's never pretty - this spleen-venting - but it allows people to express their views. Vitriol passes, like waves, and G-String are copping it now. There's possibly jealousy, anger, poignancy, resentment and other permutations of spleen-ventage (I know that's not a word by the way) manifesting themselves - but it will pass. I encourage spleenisters to be polite.

Now, without venting-spleenage at any company in particular, I do want to take issue with one of your points. I don't think the auditionee's apparent knowledge of signing up for 57 rehearsals and performances in a row is enough to imply that "abuse" (an unfortunately strong word) is not occurring. The whole sad reality about abuse is that you sometimes do not know it's happening to you. Particularly if you're naive, young, inexperienced, (dare I say it) amateur or do not know any better.

In musical theatre, for example, inadequate warming up and poor vocal direction across 57 shows and performances in a row (or even 57 messages on a chat site) can result in irreparable, long-term damage to young, inexperienced voices. And sadly, sometimes the producers/directors of amateur shows in this town have themselves only the qualification of 'some years experience in amateur theatre' and more often than not do not realise they are doing potentially "abusive" things to those they have asked to be in their shows. Inadequate and at times non-existent strengthening, nurture, rehearsal and post-show monitoring of voices across a taxing run is simply not good enough when people trust themselves to your care and leadership. For free.

Similarly, directors with little knowledge of characterisation could provide both old and young performers with bad on stage habits that are very tough to break. Sadly, as a teacher, I have seen the after-effects of poor technique. And in most cases the kids concerned have no idea that they have been in fact neglected and let-down by those in charge. All they know is that they've "done" (God, I hate this word) another big-named musical.

There's been a lot of talk about spleen and kahunas so I better state that my name is George Huitker. And my punchline is, to everyone out there, ask to do vocal and movement warm-ups and some characterisation workshops in any show that you do. Especially if you're doing 57 in a row. If you're a kid and your grades are slipping, ask your director to talk to your tutor/year coordinator or a teacher that cares about you to try to halt the slide. A show is fantastic and you will possibly never forget it, but monitor the long-term costs as best you can.

I'll now halt this posting.