Board Meeting to pick Spring Musical

I-Show

• Rights obtained!
• President will send notice to Baltimore Sun
• 17 people auditioned today

Waiting for more information about Vagina Monologues

President will meet with each e-board member before next semester starts.

• Exec board: Bring an idea for what you can do better.

MUSICAL DISCUSSION
*The notes below are of various comments during the meeting. They do not necessarily reflect the entire Executive Board’s opinion about a show. Please see November 17 GA Minutes for more notes on each play.

Legally Blonde

• 8 votes for it during the GA
• Read opinion letters out loud
• 21 locations + a dog
• Fun and energetic show
• Many female roles in the show and many females usually audition
• Wouldn’t get enough males to audition?

Bat Boy: The Musical

• 11 votes for it during the GA
  
• Read opinion letters out loud
  
• Southern accents
  
• Didn’t really enjoy the plot
  
• Bat boy isn’t really an iconic image that’ll be easy to publicize
  

We voted via show of hands to cut Legally Blonde and Bat Boy.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

• 20 votes for it during the GA (most!)
  
• Read opinion letters out loud
  
• Chance of kid voices would be annoying
  
• No female alto parts
  
• Funny sometimes but also irritating
  
• A few board members voted for it during the GA and have now changed their minds upon further research
  
• Very do-able in terms of tech, acting, singing, etc. Yet also no tech challenges.
  

A Chorus Line

• 14 votes for it during the GA
• Read opinion letters out loud
• Stage Manager for musical mentioned that scheduling would be an issue (19 on stage all the time). But there are also solos.
• Race-specific casting: need Hispanic female and Asian female
• Need 8 males who are triple threats. Dancing!
• Heavy acting challenges
• Little tech challenge, but more fun to design than Putnam
• More time to train assistants for design rather than building
• Mirrors would probably be expensive
• Costumes could get expensive. Gold outfits would be $57.50 per person for first week, $18 for next week ($2000 total).
• Some chorus members are only there for the first number, more likely to drop (problems in the past)
• Might not be able to afford a separate professional Director and a professional Choreographer, even if we get grants.

Sweeney Todd 

• 18 votes for it during the GA
  
• Read opinion letters out loud
  
• Bill said he’s done it and it’s possible
  
• Concern that it might be like Evita where leads are important and chorus is treated poorly
  
• Difficult harmonies. But we have Peabody
  
• Great tech challenges
  

Spring Awakening

• 7 votes for it during the GA (least!)
  
• Read opinion letters out loud
  
• More of an ensemble show than some of the other options
  
• Singing and acting aren’t well integrated. Story ends when people start singing
  
• No tech or dance concerns
  
• Actors must be able to pull off playing teens just hitting puberty. Very heavy acting!
  

We voted via secret ballot to cut Putnam County Spelling Bee.
7 voted to cut Putnam. 2 voted to cut A Chorus Line.

Final Discussion

• We may not be able to do the dancing as well as A Chorus Line calls for.
  
• We may not be able to do the singing as well as Sweeney Todd calls for.
  
• We may not be able to do the acting as well as Spring Awakening calls for.
  
• Spring Awakening received the fewest votes at the GA.
  
• VP Pro just informed us Towson University is doing Spring Awakening in the spring.
  

We voted via secret ballot to cut Spring Awakening.
5 voted to cut Spring Awakening. 3 voted to cut A Chorus Line. 1 voted to cut Sweeney Todd.

Final vote via secret ballot: 1 voted for A Chorus Line. 8 voted for Sweeney Todd.
Sweeney Todd will be the 2013 JHU Barnstormers Spring Musical!