Why I came to dislike musical theater

This is an edit of an earlier blog that I had deleted and I am now reuploading.  Not much of the information has changed.  Angie was a temporary professional acquaintance and I have long since lost touch with her.

Why I came to dislike musical theater 2/11/13

I had an exchange  on Twitter with a (former) acquaintance of mine, Angie, about the whole 'Glee and Jonathan Coulton debacle' and how it has added to her disgust with the television show Glee which I have had all along.  I mentioned the phrase 'musical theater fetish' to her which I figured needed some explanation and elaboration.

First off, I am not particularly a fan of musicals.  I get that some people like them and I've no problem with that.  However, the attitude regarding them that I experience during my days being involved with West Hall Drama turned me off to musicals even further.  I do not have the same distaste of them that I use to but this could be because I don't have to 'be backstage' and privy to the behavior going on back there.  Let's also note that I do not believe that this kind of behavior goes on backstage during the production of every high school, college, and professional musical (or theater as a whole) production.  At least, I hope it doesn't (though I suspect much of it does).

That said, I began to formally get involved with West Hall Drama during my junior year.  This was after some prodding by the school's Art teacher who had been teaching the drama classes during my sophomore year there.  The same year that I got involved, a new Drama teacher began handling the classes and the school's productions.  This lady's background was 'dance choreography' and it was not surprising to a few of us that her 'bread and butter' were musicals.

However, it was surprising just how she showed her love of musicals.  From day one of my being involved in West Hall Drama, I saw an atmosphere that openly discriminated toward people who were not 'musically inclined', who were interested in the backstage stuff primarily, or (if I can be blunt) who were not 'sexual' in some manner.  This teacher openly allowed and encouraged several of the Junior and Senior students to engage in several romps in the main dressing room.  I have long suspected that she may have participated in one or two of them but I'd like to think that I am just jumping to conclusions on that one.

Here's where the musical part comes in.  The core group of students that were involved in these 'little escapades' were a group of seniors and a couple of sophomores who were all this teacher's little group of musical theater 'aficionados'.  This bunch, nine or ten of them if I recall correctly, were only wanting to 'do' musicals and were prone to expressing this in ways that suggested they were 'getting off' on the material.  In one infamous incident, they proudly celebrated and bragged about having had one orgy in the teacher's office and another in a hotel room on the way down to a competition.  (Think it was the 'one act play competition' but it has been a while and memory is fuzzy.)

Meanwhile, I was on the sidelines like several other students in the class.   Being that I was not a musical person, amongst other things that I was not, this teacher consistent refused to allow me to participate in learning various technical things in the class.  I stuck with it out of hopes that I'd get to direct a one act play during my senior year like a couple of the seniors did during my junior year.   That said, I did what I could/was allowed to do to contribute to the class.  I and others in the class were consistently made to feel unwelcomed and unwanted in the class by several people there.

I never once got why some of the students and the teacher were 'getting off' on the musical theater stuff but there it was happening in front of me.  I came to believe that this was the typical behavior for musical theater and, to a lesser extent, theater companies as a whole.  (I was led to believe a few other things too because of this teacher and the class that I shall go into here.)

However, I did what I could to get as much positive stuff out of what WAS a very negative experience for me.  I managed to get a Lifetime Membership into the "International Thespian Society" out of my time there but that's not really worth anything.  (Well, to my knowledge it is not worth anything.)  I also became extremely suspect of drama teachers after my experience in that class.

As a side note: I would later co-write a piece, specifically write a segment, performed by the West Georgia Theater department that (ironically perhaps) had sexuality as an underlying theme to it.

As another side note: it didn't deter my interest in the performing arts.  I still would have liked to direct a theater production at some point... just not a musical.  (Oddly enough it would probably be something Shakespeare related if given the choice.)