Opportunities for Growth: Art Awareness
Photo by Monica Silvestre from Pexels.
Cash Campbell
During the fall sports season, it's no secret there is a huge buzz around the school when the playoffs start for our Hamilton Charger football team, and when other sports like volleyball and basketball start. Our football team has been working hard in the off-season and finished the regular season as undefeated GMC champions. We have announcements encouraging students to buy tickets, and there are plans for tailgates and student section themes to excite the student body. That's all great, and as a student who attended most of those games, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
That being said, you can only imagine the disappointment on my face when I walked out to a small audience waiting to see our own school's One Act show that qualified and won every single award at the State Theater competition that same fall season. As a choir co-president and the A Cappella president, I love being part of Hamilton's community by singing the National Anthem before any game, then staying on to cheer after. We wish nothing but the best to the other programs, but we would like that same support back from the community. The issue with this lies in the fact that the arts do not get the same recognition as other programs. It is not a competitive issue; we do not want to tear other programs down. We just want to be known and recognized as much as everyone else.
As a former football player, I know what it takes to be a part of a winning team/culture. Even though performing is not the same as physically competing, the process of creating a show that has a strong flow and is entertaining at the end of the process is the same in performance as it is in sports. The process of putting a show together is incredibly overwhelming, and overlooked. There is a huge mental strain when it comes to the audition process, memorizing lines and precise choreography, then having to put that together with intense vocal music all while conveying the ideas of the character you're playing at the same time. Not to mention, there is a two-week span where our performers are at the school until 8 pm running the show before we have an audience, and way before that there are times when we have to give up 3-5 hours out of our Saturdays to run parts of the show. While all of that is incredibly hard, we still love it. This commitment and dedication allows us to put on award-winning performances. This is equally as hard as showing up to Friday morning mat drills, or having to do workouts, learn install, and practice for our next game.
There are some very quick fixes that can be done to make the arts a more significant and celebrated part of the student body culture here at Hamilton. These can be things such as:
PA announcements by cast/crew members the week leading up to the show
A table at lunch to sell and promote tickets
More administrator presence at shows
Feature pop-up ads on the district website encouraging community members to buy tickets
More regular district email communication featuring the show (perhaps a district video spot interviewing cast/promo)
District social media posts helping to advertise the shows/concerts
Recognition of awards (One Act) over the PA and at pep rallies
I hope that in the future, the arts can be a more solidified part of the Hamilton student culture. I truly do believe that with this goal being accomplished, we will have a more secure, friendly, and entertained student body all throughout high school.
