Guest Column
Ann Monaco
Play at Shore Regional was not always such a production

I graduated from Shore Regional some time ago, and saw three play directors in those four years. I was involved in the play with two directors for three years, both on and behind stage. When Alan Shields arrived at Shore, things changed drastically for the worse. Shields does not benefit the students. This is not Broadway, and I am sure Mr. Shields is not aware of this. I was always involved in crew, building and running.

Before Shields, we were allowed to actually work with wood and build our own set. A sense of accomplishment and pride was gained.

Before Shields, the students built the set, and some if not most of the costumes were sown or made by the students.

When he arrived, that got taken away. I was handed a broom and told by the stage manager to "sweep up after the boys," because I "couldn’t possibly know how to use the power tools."

This was all based on the fact that I was a girl. I quit building crew on the spot, only to find out later the set was being built for us anyway by "professionals." Where is pride in that?

I know for a fact student musicians in the past have been denied entrance to play in the pit.

Some years, they don’t even hold auditions to make it possible for the students to be allowed to play. Other high schools have 100 percent of the pit students, and some faculty. I’ve seen their productions, and they are just as good if not better than the pit at Shore.

It’s a high school production, and students should be given every opportunity to be in it.

The play is run entirely by a group of outsiders and non-employees of the school.

This fact alone speaks a plethora about the attitude they have. The amount you pay for a professional musician is astronomical. The parents council defends the unfair way they go about making the play. They cite, during the past 40 years, students who have participated who have gone on to Broadway or Hollywood. That’s during the past 40 years.

That has nothing to do with Mr. Shields or the lack of students in the pit.

To hire a professional dog to act in a high school play [as was done for last year’s production of The Wizard of Oz] is the most absurd thing I have heard.

When I mention this fact to others, they laugh at how preposterous it is.

When I went to Shore, there was an activity called the Young Playwrights Festival. I am truly saddened to learn this activity no longer exists. Let me tell you about this wonderful experience. The students would write short plays, then act out each other’s plays in classrooms for others to attend during a period of the day. There were no sets and costumes, and you didn’t even have to learn the lines. It was just an opportunity for the students to act and direct their own works, and see their own works being performed by their peers. This is gone now from Shore’s activities, and I wonder, is Shore trying to crush every single ounce of creativity a student there might have?

If you don’t play a sport at Shore, you mean nothing to them. Sports bring in money, creativity does not. I am truly embarrassed by everything about that school. Shore likes to pat themselves on the back and say, "Look at me, look how amazing we are." I feel bad for all who attend Shore who don’t play a sport.

The bottom line is, if a student wants to be involved in the pit, let them. You’re not hurting the play in any way; you’re making more of a student activity than a hired production.

Ann Monaco of West Long Branch is a 1998 graduate of Shore Regional High School.