At any high school football game, you can see bleachers full of students and parents covered in paint and wearing their school colors. On the flip side, many performing art shows have less than half of a full house.
It would seem that Drama students who have practiced every day, Band kids who spend hundreds of hours on their instruments, Choir kids who aim for the perfect pitch, and Dance students who tirelessly work their bodies should get the same respect as the athletes who play sports. I believe this is not the case.
The Performing Arts deserve more respect, more funding and more time in the spotlight. Drama student Scout Pettitt, a sophomore, agrees.
“People don’t devote enough money to what we need for the theatre,” Pettitt said. “Erin is trying to raise money for a lift, … we have to do this for ourselves.”
Some people may argue that sports teams bring in more money, so they deserve to get more attention and fanfare. Pettitt disagreed with this idea.
“No, they bring in more money because there are more games than productions,” she said. “If we were to do a show every month, which would be impossible, we would have as much money as them.”
Just as a student athlete practices their sport every day, Performing Art students work tirelessly at their craft. Band and Choir Teacher David Ahrens stressed the amount of time his students put into the Arts.
“There’s a ton of time commitment and practicing and rehearsals during school,” he said.
So, with all this time put into practice, why can’t a show be put on in a month? Even with all the time and effort put into practice, it’s been deemed impossible. According to Performing Arts students, this is because of the memorization and technique required for a show. Every movement is blocked out, and the songs and lines have to be memorized in most shows.
Sophomore Aydan Rossovich says memorizing lines is the hardest part of theatre for her.
“The hardest part of theatre is memorizing lines and getting up on stage in front of a large crowd of people, all of which you can’t see,” said Rossovich.
So, even with all these challenges, Performing Arts still don’t get enough respect.
Senior Lukas Brodie, a football player, wrestler and lead singer in the band The Hype, demanded that the Arts get more respect.
“I don’t think Performing Arts get the respect they should,” Brodie said. “They could get more for sure. The Arts should get the same respect as sports.”
Overall, the students in Band, Choir, Drama and Dance need more recognition, and possibly even more funding. Even at a school that offers many diverse classes, the Performing Arts still get pushed to the side, and if the Arts are pushed to the side, so are some of our most talented Bruins.
