Representations of Musical Theater in High School Musical
The Disney Channel movie High School Musical from 2006 takes place at East High in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and follows the two protagonists Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez as they audition for their school's winter musical Twinkle Towne. Troy is on the high school basketball team, while Gabriella takes part in the Scholastic Decathlon, which creates conflicts in their schedules and cliques of friends. Their competitors in the audition for the lead roles are the twins Sharpay and Ryan Evans, who are the co-presidents of the Drama Club. Troy and Gabriella are supported by Kelsi Nielsen, another student and the composer of the musical, who teaches them her songs.
Audition Process
Since High School Musical ends with the protagonists getting the lead roles in the high school play, the focus of the plot is on the audition process, rather than on rehearsals and performance. In the movie, the students sign up for auditions by writing their names on a paper hanging in the hallway among the bulletin boards that reads “Audition for the School Musical! Sign up Here!”. There are separate lists for pair auditions for the two leads and single auditions for the supporting roles.
However, it now also seems to be common that students sign up for theater auditions via google forms posted on the high school websites. Jessica Harms, a theater teacher in Massachusetts wrote a blogpost on “Running Successful Auditions” for schooltheatre.org in 2017. In her blog post, she shares an audition sign-up form for one of the musicals she directed. Next to their names, students also have to share their email address and are even asked to explain what interests them about the role they are auditioning for and what would make them a good candidate. Rather than choosing between auditioning for the lead or a supporting role, students are free to choose between levels of commitments and responsibility, whether they are willing to rehearse 3-4 or 2-3 times a week. The sign-up process is individual, meaning that students do not audition in pairs, as shown in the movie. Furthermore, students get more than one chance to audition. In High School Musical, Troy and Gabriella ask to audition as Ms. Darbus exits the auditorium. She then responds by saying: “We take these shows very seriously here at East High. I called for the pairs audition and you didn't respond. Free period is now over.” In Jessica Harms' sign-up form, students can choose between four different audition slots on two separate days or can even make alternate arrangements with the teacher. Furthermore, students are asked whether they have any time conflicts with the performance and rehearsal dates and times. In the movie, the students' time conflicts with juggling several activities is disregarded by the teachers and they do not adjust accordingly. In our interviews with people who have experience with American high school plays, a music director at a high school in Oklahoma told us that students sign up for plays on a sheet in the hallway. Another high school student, who was part of the production ensemble in a high school in Boise, Idaho said the sign-up sheets were hung up in the auditorium, while another interviewee who took part in high school plays in Louisiana said he had to fill out a sign-up sheet at the audition. Kimberly Patterson wrote a “Teacher's Guide” to auditions for Musical for Tams-Witmark. She also asks her students to fill out applications as they are waiting for their audition. In conclusion, it seems there are different options for having students sign up for theatre auditions: while some do sign their names on sheets of paper hung up in the school, some fill out forms at the audition, while others fill them out online. Considering that the movie is from 2006, it may explain why they would use paper sign-ups instead of online sign-ups. However, it does not seem to be common practice to sign up specifically for a lead role or to sign up in pairs.
The auditions in the movie are held in the auditorium during free period. According to our interviews, all auditions had set time-slots and usually took place either after lunch, after school or at night. The National Center for Education Statistics conducted a report on Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools in 1999-2000 and 2009-10. One of the studies in this report asked 18,000 drama and theater instructors on the 2008-09 staff about the primary space they used for their instruction. More than a half, 52%, used dedicated rooms with special equipment, while 22% used dedicated rooms with no special equipment and another 22% used a gymnasium, auditorium or cafeteria. The remaining 4% used another type of space for their theater instruction. One German exchange student who took part in an American high school theater production of “The Crucible” also told us about her audition which took place in the auditorium. Although this is not the most common option, using an auditorium for theater instruction is realistic in American secondary schools.
In High School Musical, the audition process includes several stages. Students are expected to sing a song from the play they are auditioning for and, in the callbacks a week later, students have to perform another song from the play. Students practice for callbacks individually, outside of auditions, rather than doing rehearsals together. Two interviewees told us that they were able to choose their own songs for their auditions and another one performed a scene of their choice. In addition, some, like the director from Oklahoma, also had students do monologues and dance auditions. When it comes to playing roles and doing dances, they are, according to our interviews, not prepared beforehand, but done after short instructions at the audition itself. Jessica Harms writes that the shows for the upcoming season are announced at the end-of-the-year-banquet and the scripts and an audition packet are made available for the students to read and prepare. The audition packet includes the whole script and all the songs. In contrast, Kimberly Patterson expects her students to do the research on the show themselves. In our interviews, no call-backs were mentioned, the roles were usually decided by the teacher and committee/assistant after the first audition. In two cases, the jury had students read for a specific role they were considering for them to make their final decision. Overall, it seems to be most common not to expect the students to be fully prepared, much less for two separate auditions. If further demonstrations of skills are needed, then students are usually shown or taught a scene, song or dance at the audition, rather than having them prepare it themselves for another date.
During the auditions in High School Musical, the students sing on stage, while the theater teacher, Ms. Darbus, and the other students auditioning watch from the audience in the auditorium. Kelsi Nielsen, a student and the composer of the musical, accompanies the other students on the piano during their audition. Based on Patterson's experience, students prefer “closed auditions”, meaning that there are no other students watching them, which is why she usually separates the auditioning area from the waiting area. The composer in the movie asks the students what key they would like to sing in. Kimberly Patterson also highlights the importance of not letting students sing a capella, because they have to be able to match a pitch. Sharpay and Ryan, rather than being accompanied on the piano, brought their own musical arrangement of the song, which is more fast-paced than the original. Patterson also makes sure to provide either an accompanist or an aux cable for the students with pre-recorded musical tracks. During the auditions of High School Musical, students sing a complete song from the play they are auditioning for. However, in her blog post, Kimberly Patterson explains that students often are not fully prepared, which is why she sometimes has students sing a song that everyone knows, like Happy Birthday. A student we interviewed confirmed the audition experience of High School Musical as being quite realistic. She also performed on the stage of an auditorium with a jury of several people watching. In the movie, only about a dozen students are seen in the audience and on stage. However, Jessica Harms, who describes her audition process in a blogpost, writes that it usually involves around 80 students at her school. Considering that the movie takes place in Albuquerque, the biggest city of New Mexico, you would expect more students to attend the auditions than shown in the movie.
Student-written works
In High School Musical, Kelsi Nielsen is responsible for composing musicals at East High School. She writes the haunting melodies the other actors are performing on stage, such as ‘What I’ve been looking for’ or ‘Breaking free’. Besides taking an enormous amount of time and commitment, writing original full-length plays or musicals for high school productions requires much creativity, remarkable skills and a significant level of self-confidence from the students – especially considering the rather high quality of Kelsi’s work. So how realistic is this depiction of students writing and performing original musicals?
The Survey of Theatre Education in U.S. high schools from 2012 investigated which types of theatre performances were produced in schools offering at least one show per year. The vast majority of the faculty-directed productions are full-length performances: 85% of the respective schools reported that they do at least one full-length non-musical play annually and 78% produce full-length musicals. This ranks musicals among the most popular high school theatre productions. Consequently, the survey shows that it is not unusual to have at least one musical production per year – like East High in the movie.
Data collected by NPR Ed reveals that the most popular plays and musicals at American high schools throughout the last decades have been classics, such as the plays ‘Our Town’ and ‘You Can’t Take it with You’ or musicals like ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ and ‘Oklahoma!’ although there is a tendency towards more contemporary titles, especially Disney works. This suggests that the majority of theatre productions are not written by students but rather reinterpretations of traditional works. However, the 2012 Survey of Theatre Education further reveals that 26% of total productions are student-written works. Considering this noticeable number, Kelsi’s work becomes more realistic than it might appear at first sight. Nonetheless, the survey does not include any information about the exact types and length of these student-written works. So, it might be that these student-written productions also comprise shorter, less extensive works, which might again restrict the credibility of students composing whole full-length musicals as depicted in High School Musical to some extent. Answers in the interviews we conducted considering student-written plays were also mixed: while the majority responded that they could not think of any original plays during their time at high school, a band director at Norman High School, Oklahoma, mentioned a project called “One Acts”. In cooperation with English classes, students write 20-30 minute one act plays which are performed by the drama club members. Thus, although producing student-written works may appear odd to many people, they actually seem to exist at some high schools.
Omasta, Matt. “A survey of school theatre.” Teaching Theatre, vol. 24 no. 1, 2012, pp. 8-28.
Professionalism, Exclusiveness and Competition
The productions in High School Musical seem to be very professional for school theatre. For instance, the auditions in the movie High School Musical suggest that a high level of skill is required in order to be able to participate in the musical. Other less skilled students seem to have no chance to be part of the project, not even as supporting actors (Ryan: “The theatre clubs needs more than just singers, it needs fans – buy tickets!”). Sharpay and Ryan are continuously highlighting their experience, thereby emphasizing their superiority over other (possible) participants. Also Ms. Darbus’ behavior towards lesser skilled students is rather depreciating and exclusive.
In the context of the 2012 Survey of Theatre Education teachers were asked about their students’ prior experiences. While 29% of the teachers reported that the majority of students were offered theatre classes or similar experiences at middle school, 7% mentioned that theatre programs were already available in elementary school. Furthermore, data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics suggests that about 45% of public secondary schools offered instruction for drama or theatre whereas 4% of public elementary schools provided instruction specifically for theatre with even higher numbers including drama/theatre activities as part of other curricula. Considering these results and assuming that various schools produce more than one show per year, it might be possible that Sharpay already participated in 17 school productions – as she claims in the movie – if she was really dedicated.
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Regarding the required level of skill, we could not find any restrictions for participating in drama clubs on the various high school websites we trawled through. Answers from the interviews we conducted with people involved in high school theatre productions – either as students or as a tutors – correspond insofar as there are usually no constraints for students willing to take part in the productions. As the Director of Instrumental Music at Norman High School in Oklahoma pointed out “We do try to be inclusive - if a student is willing to commit the time to participate, we will find some part for them.” Nonetheless, the majority of the interviewees reported that they try to keep productions as professional as possible, yet keeping in mind that the students are still teenagers.
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Whereas there tend to be no real restrictions for participating in the drama club in general, there seem to be higher requirements for the lead roles. Both students and directors we interviewed mentioned that usually the most experienced and highest achieving students get the lead roles, while less experienced students and freshmen rather play less significant roles. Therefore, competition for lead roles might arise, especially among the most dedicated students. However, interview answers concerning competitiveness in high school theatre productions are mixed: whereas some interviewees confirm that there was indeed competition for the lead roles, others stress the social character of the drama club, suggesting that the focus was rather on participating regardless of the final casting of characters.
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Hence, although schools may try to keep the productions adequately professional, drama clubs seem to be more inclusive in reality than represented in the movie. Regarding the professionality and the commitment required by students, it might well be the case that there is competition especially for the lead roles – at least at some high schools. Therefore, it also seems plausible that Sharpay, as a long-time member and co-president of the drama club, is upset about newcomer Gabriella and basketball star Troy being considered for the lead roles. However, her and Ryan’s competitive behavior in High School Musical may still be exaggerated to some extent.
Time conflicts
The above-mentioned professionalism goes along with a considerable expenditure of time. In the movie, Kelsi admits that she devotes nearly all of her time to songwriting and setting up the musical. Sometimes, she even skips classes for composing and practicing. Furthermore, there is a time clash between three different events – the callbacks of the drama club, Troy’s basketball game and the scholastic decathlon in which Gabriella participates. This suggests that engaging in high school theatre and musical productions is very time intensive.
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The 2012 Survey of Theatre Education supports this assumption: 84% of administrators responded that theatre is at least “somewhat time-intensive” compared to other activities, while 51% even rated it as “very” or “extremely time-intensive”. Likewise, all of our interview partners confirmed that the productions are highly time intensive. Depending on the school, the drama club meets 3 to 5 times a week over a period of about two or three months. According to the answers of our interviewees, the total amount of time spent on theatre productions varies between 10 and 14 hours per week, becoming even more intensive towards the end of the rehearsals. As one former participant admitted: “Especially as we were approaching the opening night, rehearsal time increased exponentially, meaning that my life only consisted of school, rehearsals and sleep.”
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Consequently, this implies that time clashes may occur between drama club rehearsals and other activities, such as basketball training or practicing for the scholastic decathlon, which might be time intensive, too. Some of our interview partners also suggested that by participating in high school theatre or musical productions students may have to forfeit other activities during this period.
Clique Behavior
The huge amount of time spent with one another during the production process may result in the emergence of cliques. However, the different clubs and teams do not seem to be as exclusive as suggested in High School Musical. According to the interviews we conducted, the groups of participants tends to be mixed and may also include athletes, cheerleaders or students involved in other activities – as long as there are no time conflicts. Hence, there seems to be no need to stick to the status quo.
On the whole, we can assume that some things displayed in the movie High School Musical are more realistic than others. American high schools seem to differ regarding their drama/theatre activities: some schools have specific facilities like an auditorium while others do not, some drama clubs perform student-written works while others might prefer traditional performances and also the audition process seems to depend on the specific school. So, whereas some people might deem something as unrealistic according to their own experience, others may have different opinions. These variations between different high schools also seem to reflect the diversity of the United States in general. Of course, as a Disney movie, High School Musical and the high school life represented in it are dramatized to some extent. Although drama clubs tend to make the productions as professional as possible, asking a considerable amount of time and dedication from the participants, the time conflict with three events taking place at the exact same time as well as the competition between Sharpay and Ryan and Gabriella and Troy seem to be exaggerated for dramaturgic reasons. Nonetheless, as one of our interviewees admits: “While High School Musical is an extreme dramatization of the American high school, there are some aspects of it that are right on par!”
Works Cited
Elpus, Kenneth. “Understanding the Availability of Arts Education in U.S. High Schools.” Art Works, 2017, https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Research-Art-Works-Maryland6.pdf. Accessed 12 Jan. 2020.
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Harms, Jessica. “Running Successful Auditions.” Educational Theatre Association, 7 Nov. 2017, https://www.schooltheatre.org/blogs/jessica-harms/2017/07/11/running-successful-auditions. Accessed 12 Jan. 2020.
High School Musical. Directed by Kenny Ortega, Walt Disney, 2006.
Nadworny, Elissa. “The Most Popular High School Plays And Musicals.” NPR Ed, 31 Jul. 2019, https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2019/07/31/427138970/the-most-popular-high-school-plays-and-musicals. Accessed 23 Dec. 2019.
Omasta, Matt. “A survey of school theatre.” Teaching Theatre, vol. 24 no. 1, 2012, pp. 8-28.
Parsad, Basmat & Maura Spiegelman. “Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools 1999-2000 and 2009-10.” National Center for Education Statistics, Apr. 2012, https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012014rev.pdf. Accessed 23 Dec. 2019.
Patterson, Kimberly. “NOW WHAT? A Teacher's Guide to Directing Musical Theater, Part 4: AUDITIONS.” Tams-Witmark, n. d., https://tamswitmark.com/blog_items/now-what-a-teachers-guide-to-directing-musical-theatre-part-4/. Accessed Dec. 2019.
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