Last weekend I took a break from the stresses of my life to sit down and watch the documentary Thespians which was showing on my cable company's On Demand service.
Thespians is about the largest competition for high school students for performance arts, in Florida. The movie follows four troupes who prepare and try out at regionals, then make it to the top tier statewide competition.
I found the movie interesting and inspiring. The efforts of good coaching are evident and it made me wish that all kids who would like to try their hand at performing arts could have that chance. I note that a bunch of the teen guys formerly were only into sports, but when the high school years hit they tried acting and ditched the sports and found a new passion. Another story is of a (gorgeous blonde) girl who claims to be a nerd and was very shy. Additionally she was pulled out of her shell after being raped added another layer of emotional duress to her fear of self-expression. Those stories helped to attempt to bust the myth that only loud or extremely extroverted people make good actors.
A message I took away is that when natural talent meets good coaching and hard work and perseverence all combine, fantastic things can happen.
At one point two students complain to their teacher that their performance is not what they wanted it to be. They seemed frozen and were not going forward. They had the equivalent of writer's block for actors. I loved the teacher's response which I will paraphrase: that acting is a process not a product and the only way to get what you want, to get something better than what you have it to keep working at the process. Only by working through the process over and over does an artist find and discover what makes the performance better. You can't get better by sitting around thinking about the problem or ruminating on your mediocrity or failure. You have to actually practice, practice, practice to discover what will make something great.
In the end of course there were winners and losers. However between the sheer joy that the participants had to just compete (not walk away with a medal) and the happiness of the full troupe who did an entire live play for the thousands of other student actors (not for a prize or to compete but just to perform for performance's sake), you could see that everyone was glad they competed and made it to that level of the competition.
Magnet schools are a great thing and I wish we had more of them. This film reinforced the fact that alternative education can benefit kids: not all kids need or should have a basic college prep tracked high school experience. These kids are thriving with magnet schools and with good acting teaching. (I was knitting during the movie so missed out on whether all four schools in the film were magnets or if it was just some of them.) The film also then can make the case that the arts in regular public schools (or done in the community) is important too.
I enjoyed seeing teens doing something they loved and how these teens found their niche.
Links
Thespians movie official website
My blog posts:
Thoughts on Homeschoolers and Acdemic Competitions
Deadlines Are Good