I think the music for Charlie Brown is hard to sing. It is not familiar and the tunes are not "catchy or memorable" If I were you, I would choose a musical that you love. Maybe even one that you did yourself when you were in high school. Is there a voice teacher in town that would volunteer her talents to help you? Or a parent with a passion for music that can help? I am a voice teacher, and I have volunteered helping with musicals for years. The plus for me, is that I picked up a few private students after volunteering, plus, I like to do community service.
If you choose a high school musical from Musical Theater International, they offer some nice helps. I do not know if they allow high schools to do the Junior show, but that would be a nice way to start. I agree with "Once Upon a Mattress" Cute show and lots of kids can participate. You can find 2 leads that can sing for sure. Look at the list on Musical Theater International and I bet something will just pop out at you. I would not double cast anything, that is double the work. "Bye Bye Birdie" is also a great show for teens, but it is not MTI.
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Get help from parents after you have cast. I suggest that you have a committee of 3 to help you with the casting. Not parents, but other teachers or people from the community that you know are musical or go to the theater often. You have the final say on the cast, but in the end, if parents complain, you can say that the committee helped with the casting.
My biggest suggestion is to get help from anyone who is willing to help with singing and dancing. Call the local dance studio and ask if any students can help you. It looks great on their resume for college. Usually the best dancers dance 5 nights a week, but there might be another dancer or teacher willing to help you. Get the word out that you need volunteers. There might even be a teacher at your school how danced up a storm in high school and can do the choreography for you. At our local high school the special ed teacher does the choreography for all the musicals and she LOVES doing it.
You can do it. Email me if I can help with questions. I am in France on a mission, but I have lots of experience. CorinneWalk4@gmail.com
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Corinne Walker
Lyon, France
Original Message:
Sent: 05-20-2016 10:18
From: Emily Olson
Subject: musicals for inexperienced singers?
Hello everyone! I know there are a lot of posts asking about suggestions for musicals and I love reading them. I have not found a discussion addressing this particular aspect, but forgive me if it seems repetitive.
Our school is planning to do a musical next year for the first time since the opening of the school 10 years ago (they did High School Musical in 2006). While I have quite a bit of musical theatre experience in performing, this will be my first time ever directing a musical. I’m very excited but also very nervous. My primary concern at the moment is the singing. (Yeah, I know, not a good concern to have if you want to do a musical.) Unfortunately, we have no choir program and are not likely to get one anytime soon. We are a large school and there are students with natural talent, but I don’t have anyone with any kind of training. We’ve done a little musical theatre in some of my upper level theatre classes, but not a lot. We have a fantastic band program and dance program and I have been working very hard to build the theatre program since I arrived last year (we did one production last year and two this year). Despite our lack of trained singers, my colleagues and I all feel like it’s time to take the plunge and try a musical. We’ll never know if we can do it until we try.
Right now we’re leaning towards “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” because it’s small, simple for tech, and seems like a good “first musical.” Personally, I love the show but it’s going to be a really hard sell to both my students and my audiences so I’m trying to at least explore other options. I also have some reservations about the cast size. I need to build my program and I’m a little worried that having a cast of 6 or 7 may have the reverse effect. It may be our best bet anyway, but I’d love to hear other recommendations. What musicals have you directed and had success with in the years that you didn’t necessarily have the most stellar group of singers or didn’t know your talent pool very well ahead of time?
Thanks!
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Emily Olson
Theatre Arts Teacher and Director
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