Heidelberger's Original Memo to Pierre
To: Ken Pickering, SDHSAA
From: Cory Allen Heidelberger, Montrose HS
Drama Subject: State One-Act Festival Alternative Schedule
Date: Thursday, April 12, 2007
Finding all of the options presented in the April 10 survey unpalatable, I offer the following alternative proposal for the State One-Act Festival Schedule:
- Return to the 30-minute format.
- Qualify 16 shows from each class to State by any fair and feasible Region alignment.
- Conduct festivals for each class at separate yet nearby sites. Possible site combinations:
- Brandon Valley–Lennox–Washington Pavilion
- USF–Augustana–O'Gorman
- SDSU Performing Arts Center–Doner Auditorium–Brookings HS
- Brookings HS–Watertown HS–Madison Dakota Prairie Playhouse
- Spearfish–Sturgis–Rapid City
- Yankton HS–USD–Vermillion HS
- Huron HS–Watertown HS–NSU Johnson Fine Arts Center
- Pierre Riggs–Chamberlain HS–...???
- Run plays at each site by the following schedule:
- Friday morning shows at 9, 10, and 11
- Friday afternoon shows at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
- Friday evening shows at 7, 8, and 9
- Saturday morning shows at 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.
- Announce Superior Performer/Ensemble Play awards for each class at its site Saturday at 2 p.m.
- Select one play from each site (either throguh judges' consensus or independent rankings scored cumulatively) as the top play in class. Announce top play award at end of Saturday afternoon presentation.
- Present all three best-in-class plays in encore performance at the largest and/or most centrally located festival site Saturday evening, performances running at 7:00 p.m., 7:45 p.m., and 8:30 p.m.
8 comments:
From another director, by e-mail this morning:
"Thanks for working on this proposal Cory. I plan to let SDHSAA know that this would be my choice."
from another director, by e-mail last Thursday:
"...I think your plan has merit; however, I think it can be fixed.... Well, hopefully, the survey will ruffle enough feathers that people will respond and/or come [to the Speech Advisory Committee meeting in Pierre] on April 27/28."
Comments from Terry Winter, one-act director, Yankton HS, last Thursday:
"...Let me give you a very selfish reply. I am loath to give up the new time frame. I freely admit it is because it allows me more freedom to do whatever I want to do. That may not have been its intention, but it is a rule that clearly gives me more flexibility, and more options. I have always been in theatre to push the envelope a bit, and I hate to retract a rule that has allowed for more ambitious and adventurous work.
"I applaud the very complete schedule you have developed...but not all host places are equal. I realize that these inequalities exist now from place to place, but the multi-site plan will tax some of the venues you have mentioned. I would be in favor or making Sioux Falls College, Brandon Valley and USD the 'permanent tripod' of one-act theatre. Here again, I know this would be railed against by some...and I don't pretend that it is completely equitable in terms of logistics. Of course, it is not...but these are the three best equipped host schools in terms of physical facility, personnel and helpful intent and desire.
"Finally, as to the encore awards ceremony. I fear that your artistic idealism might be in for a bit of a bruising. Whether the festival is three days or two days or whatever, when the final awards are given I think that there will be a bolt for the buses. My experience is that most kids want to be home Saturday night. I am afraid that the schools from the same class as the winners might resent the 'first among equals' and - frankly, they will have seen the show once already. I think that
the idea of en encore ceremony is laudable...but I simply have some reservations about its practical success. In Yankton's case, I assure you that we would stay...but parents who made job changes to attend the festival performance would be unlikely to take time off again. It would be unfortunate if such an encore performance was before a smaller, tired house. Finally, the possibility of qualifying for the encore would necessitate keeping one's set on site throughout the festival. I wonder
whether that is practical.
"Please understand, I am not opposed to your plan in concept, but you asked for input and these are my reactions. If the sections must be split, I still wonder about an alternation class rotation. In any case, this issue deserves a complete debate and discussion among interested directors. This could happen at next year's speech festival. Judges should also be part of this discussion. I think that no rule change should occur before such a symposium is held. So, here are my initial thoughts. Nobody ever accused me of being brief. Keep me posted. TW"
CAH's reply to TW, 2007.04.12:
"Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Terry!
"I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts. I actually share your selfish desire to keep the 45 minutes; it gives us that much more time to make that much more magic onstage. I love having options. I would love keeping the 45 minutes; we could run 16 plays at 1:15 staggers, but under this plan, that would necessitate starting on Thursday, which would only complicate Ken's job of working out the logistics....
"'permanent tripod' -- they have a permanent site for football, so it wouldn't be unprecedented. Of course, one of my motivations is to increase the expoure of the event. I'm not sure if we get more exposure by spreading the love (and that little economic boost from selling more pizza and motel rooms in the middle of winter) to more towns or simply by having the annual showcase event at the Washington Pavilion. Brandon is still my favorite house to work in, but I wonder if we could afford to rent the swanky Pavilion for just one night.
"You're probably right that a lot of schools woul split right after awards. And some schools might be annoyed at having to stick around with their sets until Saturday afternoon. Still, maybe it will at least serve as incentive for a few more schools... to stick around for at least the full run of the festival through awards. [Ideally everyone would stick around for awards, but] I think we get as much of a boost from having the best of our best perform at a big event that we can advertise and run on schedule for the general public. Part of the reason the fine arts take a back seat to sports is that we avoid competition. I know a lot of people shrink from that word, but I think this is an area where we do need to play the same game as our friends in the gyms. Make a showcase event, call it the best of the best, championship theater, whatever, and we have an event that raises our profile. Of course, if such a public audience didn't materialize, then yes, it would be a real bummer to do an encore in front of a tired, cranky, half-filled house.
"Whatever we do, you're absolutely right. We need a discussion first. I'm on the speech convention committee, so I'll see that we have a one-act symposium on the schedule. Thanks for your thoughts!"
from another director, by e-mail, 2007.04.12:
"Your proposal is similar to how Nebraska runs their contests. They have three sites in a community or towns that are close in proximity. It allows for viewing of other shows from other classes.\ or the option of watching thoses in your own class."
from another director, by e-mail, 2007.04.13:
"I have always felt that the small schools get the shaft. Small schools are being targeted from all directions-by the state's legislators to receive fewer dollars for operation (a plan to shut down all small schools and create about 20 to 25 schools across the state eventually- in my opinion); by the SDHSAA- fewer plays/oral interp representing our division at state levels even though we have more schools in our class size [than any other class size], the smallest budgets, more students stretched to the limits, and over-extended staff with more responsibilities and preps;by the DOE to require that every teacher teaches only in certified areas no matter how impractical that may be. Sorry, I got on my soapbox."
Hey, this is everyone's soapbox! That's what the Internet is for.
from Kevin Brick, by e-mail, 2007.04.18:
"Thanks for all the thought that you put into this. I am enjoying the comments as well. A little give and take is just what is needed.
"I particularly enjoyed Terry W. comments. I also have to agree with everything he says. We have both been at this a very long time, so maybe we think alike. I would like to add a few things from my perspective as a host now and a director then.
--The 45 minute format worked quite well. I was surprised.
--The schedule still needs to be tweaked. The festival needs to start at 8:00am on Thursday. In the present format, it is too big and runs too long to take two to three hours off at the beginning.
--There was considerable "down time" between many of the shows(perhaps two-thirds?). There has to be some way that the schedule can be tightened up. I know about audiences and scheduled performance times, but the schedule should be every 45 minutes, not 50 minutes as it is now. As we found out, it is very easy to catch up if necessary. This change will result in saving at least an hour each day. This will mean that awards will not be starting at 8:00pm on Saturday evening!
--We are now meeting the public relations' needs of our colleges by rotating the site schedule. But, this festival needs a permanent site. There are way too many reasons for this.
--We played the "Superior Play" game years ago. It was a very bad thing. It is all too subjective. There is too much competitiveness anyway. (There always has been and this just made it worse).
--A showcase on Saturday night is a fine idea, but if awards are at 2:00pm, I'm warming up the bus at 2:05pm.
--The quality of plays gets better and deeper every year. All involved learn from observing everyone else. Whatever changes are made, we cannot lose sight of this fact. [emphasis added by CAH]
Kevin Brick, Manager
Brandon Valley Performing Arts Center
Post a Comment