Monday, March 21, 2011

Insanity

I witnessed people's insanity yesterday, and I cannot get over it.
Let me start at the beginning: my daughter auditioned earlier last month for a local community theatre production: Broadway Jayne. It's an original play written by the director, Sheree Kren. the big draw was that after a few New Jersey show, they will rent an off-Broadway theatre and have 2-4 shows in New York. Sounds like a great opportunity for them, looks good on their resume. As the director put it at some point: "it worth Gold". Well, I tend to agree, that if you are young artist from New Jersey, this could be a once in a lifetime chance.
The first audition was in New York, just for the prestige. The only other kids we saw auditioning in the studio was a girl from Philadelphia, which is an hour and a half away from the community center where all the rehearsals and the first 4 show will be held. I tought that was odd, isn't there any theatres in Philly? Why would you sacrifice 6 months worth of Sundays for a community production. Of course, I thought, the director will certainly discourage them from making such a commitment.

Boy, I was mistaking. After callbacks and casting, we had a little orientation yesterday. My daughter already had the feeling she wasn't interested, but we went anyway, just to see if she could relate to the cast or the director. Basically to find a reason to stay.
The director started by saying how big of a deal it is to play off-Broadway. To prove her point, she introduced one of the cast members, an 11 year old...now hold your breath....from NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!! That is 8 hours of drive one way! For 6 months! Every Sunday! With 4-5 hours of rehearsals, plus 16 hours of drive, that's 21 hour workday for an 11 year old. And people clapped their hands, they were all happy for them. My kids and I were about to scream: what's wrong with you all???? Did you loose your mind? Did collective insanity set in and no one knows right from wrong? My younger-one put her hand up, I grabbed it, and ask her what she wanted to say. Her answer: "I wanted to know if we can run out of here".
I'm so glad I'm raising sane kids.


That's why I'm not so eager to become a stage mom. I don't want to loose perspective of what is important and what's not. Seems like people would give up their family life for the success of one member of the family. Even if that success would be guaranteed, which it isn't,  to hurt all in the family to satisfy one is crazy.
And be realistic, a show in New York, that is only going to be seen by your parents and grandparents, is hardly a ticket to fame.

2 comments:

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  2. Dear "DivasMom"

    Again, I am sorry that we were not able to use your daughter in our production. I know you were extremely disappointed. We had a very successful run and finished strong at the off-Broadway venue, Theatre for the New City in NYC. This is easily confirmable. Your posting is deceptive. You imply that we oversold our project and held auditions in NYC for "the prestige". This is false. We produced our show in NYC. Not everyone will be thrilled with our casting choices.

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