Well, at least they tried

Shoddy.

That is the one word I would use to describe this week.

Let's put aside the fact that I have finals. Because those, in and of themselves, are not the best/worst thing to happen to me this week. They were mundane at best and distracting at worst. No, finals were alright. This week, I was hired by a local high school to play guitar for their high school musical (not that high school musical). The musical is entitled, at least I believe it's entitled, "Back to the 80's: a specific case study on every piece of pop culture to come out of America in the span of time from 1980-1989." Ok, I made that sub-title up, but that's what it should be called. It's basically a play that involves a lot of music from the 80's and the plot itself is formulated around those songs. All of the actors names, set designs, context, and even some of the dialogue is wallowing in 80's imagery. It serves it's purpose.

I describe this week as shoddy because of how this play was run. I was hired to play guitar, that was it. I understand this. I wasn't expecting a huge welcome with a fruit basket (although that would have been nice), nor was I expecting to come in as a consultant, but I would at least expect to be acknowledged. I showed up (having been told practice would be over at 5:30) and stayed until around 9. It was awful. But to be fair, the rest of the times they quoted me on were accurate. I had to make suggestions about sound because it was clear to me that they had never been around an electric guitar. All in all, the first two nights of practice were sub par. I sat there and kept my opinions to myself about how things should be done, mostly because A) I'm nowhere near qualified to comment on that stuff and B) no one asked me. Nor did I expect them to. All the sound from the room was coming from the "orchestra pit" (a self-contained box with fabric dividers) and two bose speakers hung way to high above the stage. There were other things, but I'm going to assume that no one else cares about stuff like sound, transitions, and how cables are run. I will, however, commend the people I played with. All high school kids who were pretty decent players, and a pianist who had triplets (!) in the show. She was really nice and made small talk with me about people we commonly knew. And in retrospect, this paragraph sounds like I'm whining, but I don't mean to. I understand the director and choreographer and choral conductor and whoever else were not focused on me, nor should they be. Maybe I just have a problem with thinking that I can run things better than other people who are probably more qualified. My point is that I have been reading Seth Godin's blog lately, and I've been thinking a lot about how you brand/market yourself. If you are not doing it the best you can, why do it? and if you are doing it the best you can and it's still not excellent, maybe you should have an outside opinion.


As for the musical itself, i find it ironic that this play was being performed by high schooler's to a mainly high school audience. It is 2008 at the writing of this blog and I would say that at BEST, the seniors in that school were born in 1989. I'm going to assume most of what they know about the 80's comes from VH1. I was born in 1985 and that's where I get most of my information about the 80's. Why do this if the entire joke of the play is centered around people understanding the context of that era firsthand? As for the acting, I loved it. The kids are trying really hard to emote and it's fantastic. I figured out this week why I don't love watching musicals and plays, unless they are performed by high schools. It's because with serious actors in musicals and theater, they are trying really hard to fit into the part and get everything perfect and for the most part, they succeed. I don't like that. I like watching people struggle to figure out how to convey an emotion or a sentiment. And I also really enjoy watching people forget lines. And I'm not saying any of this to downplay what those kids have done, because I'm sure they've worked hard for months. I just enjoyed the play because it's not perfect, and I'm attracted to that. I don't like perfect, I like interesting. And that it was.

So maybe I should this week could be summed up as interesting.

P.S. The name of the high school in the play is William Ocean High School. I laughed out loud when I saw it. Also, how can you have a play, focused on the 80s, with a main character named Eileen, and NOT include Dexys Midnight Runners seminal hit "Come on, Eileen"? heresy.