Outsourcing: Raising the Curtain on the High School Musical
Partnerships between schools and performing arts industry organisations are part of a recent trend for an increasing majorityof secondary schools who are striving to raise student standards and seek a competitive edge. The purpose of these engagements is varied but includes; teaching artists, technical, design and set construction and live performance experiences.
Education Director, Matthew Aris believes that a major area in which schools are engaging with arts industry with more frequency is in the production of musicals.
“Most schools produce a full-scale musical once every year or two years with surprising amount choosing to stage these shows in professional venues”
One of the biggest barriers in delivering a successful high school musical has been the lack of knowledge of just how much work is involved. Staging school performances - especially musicals require a wider scope of skills, resources and roles than schools alone can provide. The reality is that performing arts teachers just don’t have enough time and capacity despite an expectation to do so. It is a slow process of re-educating for a cultural change within the education sector.
Typically, the responsibility for producing a high school musical has been dealt to a small group or even one overwhelmed performing arts teacher who is expected to complete their regular curriculum responsibilities at the same time as juggling multiple production roles – including technical and design roles that they may have little to no training in. The result – no matter how skilful the teacher-director - is a decrease in the quality of the production from both an aesthetic and educational outcome perspective
“Schools who can’t source the expertise within their community can approach the arts industry. Our job is to harness the potential of the talent and pair them with the schools”, said Matthew.
“Some of the positive results of this collaboration are that teachers can focus on a smaller amount of roles that they have experience and feel confident in and schools learn to become industry-ready and this is especially important for an increasing majority of schools who utilise professionals performing arts spaces to stage shows and events. Our industry partners also benefit – not only through the regular income that school shows provide but also by taking on roles as mentors – which they really enjoy.”
Matthew believes outsourcing is the way of the future and proposes schools sharing resources so, for example, more than one high school can deliver the same production, one after the other, using the same props costumes and set pieces. The PALINK website has a range of ready to hire shows that schools can choose at a fraction of the cost of building alone.
“Our clients are not just relying on what they have at the school. They are outsourcing for lighting; they are outsourcing for set. They have recognized where they may have a weakness, where they don’t know that area and they have covered that weakness with someone who does and that gives you such a broader spectrum.”
This is PALINK’s mission – to bring the two sectors closer together and show how big an impact outsourcing can make.
To find out more visit. www.palink.com.au