As we embark on a new year that means SUMMER STOCK THEATRE are about to start or are just around the corner. I wanted to tell a true story of what happened to me four years ago and why your mental health is key.

Musical theatre in both American and Mexican cultures has turned around and showed us that historical musical theatre can succeed. America has productions like "Hamilton and in Mexico's case, we have "Josefa".

It’s audition season. Over the coming days and weeks I know I’m going to see plenty of requests for men. Extending auditions or callbacks looking for more male participants. Male actors receiving phone calls asking, begging, pleading with them to not merely come audition but come be in the show. Because for seemingly every 10 females to audition, maybe 1 or 2 males come out. And yet theaters continue to produce works that require more men than women in roles. Why? I think it’s more than time the ladies took center stage. And there’s more than enough works for us to do just that.

Dear “Everyone who told me that I can’t”,
If it wasn’t for you
I wouldn’t be here before you today.

There is no doubt that the musical theatre fandom is a passionate bunch. Musicals, no matter if they are successes or flops, can be fiercely defended. So we here at OnStage Blog wanted to find out what is your favorite musical over the past 17 years. 

Since Facebook now has a really fun poll feature. We'd figured the easiest way to do this is to do it bracket style. 

Musical theatre is in an odd position within the theatre world. Musicals grace Broadway stages and car stereos across the nation. They become pop culture icons and films.

They also get a bad rap.

A recent article about Green Room Etiquette on OnStage Blog took me back to all of the great times I’ve had in Green Rooms, and had me looking forward to all the great times I (hopefully) have ahead of me in them. I can picture the furniture, layout, and shade of green (or other color) of each Green Room in which I have spent a significant amount of time, as well as the faces of the people I shared them with (probably because they were made up in some distinctive way). When I first heard the term “Green Room,” it was in reference to a room the defining feature of which was that it was bright green. I didn’t know it had anything to do with theatre beyond my high school. Now I know better, and I know it was probably not green by accident, but because of theatrical tradition. I’ve also noticed that not all Green Rooms are green, and yet they all retain the color in their name. The name’s the thing, and so I went in search of the definitive origin of that name, and reader, I will tell you right now that there is none. If you keep reading, though, you will get to consider, as I did in my research, all of the wild reasons and theories that have been given based on centuries of theatre history.

Nothing brings people together like theatre. Student theatre is no exception to this and is a huge uniting force on campus. It is an opportunity for people who are not pursuing professional careers in the industry to get involved in an amazing community of people. Never in my life have I met a more diverse, hard-working group of people than those that put on shows as students. 

In response to Brad Pontius’ piece, I do agree that it’s okay for theater to be competitive, but he fails to mention one major part of theater. It was born of competition. In Ancient Greece plays were performed and playwrights were able to showcase their skills for the chance to win money and fame. The City Dionysius Festival was the Super Bowl of Ancient Greece. The reason that we have some of these plays extant is because they beat the competition, or they were able to stay intact, either way they won the historical lottery. Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Aeschylus all won that competition and that’s why their work is still performed today. Don’t belittle theater to keep an aspiring actor from realizing what it is; pure competition.

When I first got “into” theatre, one the best pieces of advice I was given on how to cope with rejection was along the lines of: “go home and cry, then move on and try again”. I think we all try to skip straight to the “move on and try again” part, but it's not that easy. Give yourself a break.