#I now need to group newsies by equipment | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ceasarslegion · 4 years

Text

Musical theatre and marching band should be accepted as respectable sports

No, no, I'm serious. This isn't the theatre kid or center snare drum at high school pep rallies in me talking. They should be taken seriously as athletics and treated with as much respect. They're glossed over and underfunded and treated like throwaways because nobody within their circles seems to grasp how hard they are, or how much trained skill they take, or how much dedication they need, because they don't look like the brute strength of other athletics.

I was never very good at brute strength. I always fell on my face in gym class and struggled to even get a hold of the rope we had to climb. But different people are built for different things, it's a mammalian survival thing, and what I was good at were endurance and agility. I can run, you guys. I can jump, and I just don't fucking stop. I have excellent coordination and spatial awareness, I was always the last man standing in dodgeball because it was based on speed and coordination and endurance. Maybe I can't deadlift 50 pounds without using my legs, but you could strap 50 pounds of equipment to my torso and tell me to perform for 2 straight hours in a 5-layer peacock suit in the 40 celcius heat, all the while keeping perfect time, recalling extremely complicated drum scores in my head, and improvising in time when the basketball team decided to interact with us, and I could. That's what marching band is, you guys. That sounds hard, yeah? Because it is. And it's absolutely draining. Your whole body hurts after a performance, those harnesses like to dig into pressure points because they tend to be metal and heavier than your actual instrument in the case of us drumline guys, the actual performance feels like 4 workouts in a heat-trapping uniform that is not conducive to the amount of sweat you WILL collect, and the shit you do to prep beforehand is nuts. There's no room for being out of shape in something like that. If you've ever been in marching band, you've probably had a moment where you all slipped off your dumb-looking hats in the school bus after a performance and laughed at each other because everyone looks like they just showered and forgot to bring a towel. Bonus points if your coach made a comment about how you all smelled like shit. Ours used to bring a bottle of axe just to blast into the radius around him while we all tried to hug him.

And musical theatre isn't much better, either. I ran with this group for 2 years after high school, which was basically a cast of wonderful people who are dedicated to bringing broadway to the middle east, because we didn't get much of that out there. Every year we did 4 shows: 2 proper off-broadway spectacle acts, and 2 low-budget revue shows to raise money for the future expenses of those belty emotional boys. During my tenure with them, we knocked out 9 to 5, Sister Act, Newsies, and Anything Goes. Now, I don't know if y'all have ever seen these shows, but, uh... good fucking god. I need to point out that this was not mine nor anyone else's primary job, because we were a nonprofit. We didn't get paid. We showed up every other weekday from 7 to 10, and then an 8-hour session every saturday. Because we had to knock out shows that had the choreography of gods in 3 months. We spent 2 weeks memorizing the vocals. That's it. 2 weeks. Then we had to move on to choreography, which was so physically demanding that if I didn't have a desk job at the time where I only left to go to press conferences, I would die. I'd stumble into work on burning calves and aching feet every morning after rehearsals. Sometimes I'd just lose my voice for the entire day because I blew it out on a belt in Seize the Day the night before. Don't even get me started on how bad I was when we did Sister Act, because I had a major role. I was Curtis, because it was funny to cast the babyfaced ginger who's 90 pounds soaking wet as a feared crime lord. Because I had to stay for extra time, considering I'm a very firm belty tenor and I implore you to listen to how much he growls in When I Find My Baby. A bitch couldn't speak outside of rehearsal. And y'know how in other sports they tell you to mind your breathing? We don't get that. Your breathing minds the song you're singing, and you better keep dancing or the whole number's fucked, so take a deep breath before you run on. Don't fuck up the belt, now. If you watch the tap numbers in Anything Goes or even just the general everything about Newsies, I want you to imagine learning those entire shows in 3 months on top of a full-time job and then going through tech week and the 2 weeks we booked for production. What about that shit isn't a goddamn olympic-callibre sport??

Marching band and musical theatre are in no way things that just anyone can do. They are physically and mentally demanding. Maybe from an audience perspective they just look like coordinated dances and fun songs, but I guarantee that in every show you see, everyone's running on exhaust fumes. Stage makeup cakes for a reason, you guys. You can't see the exhaustion and sleep deprivation and total lack of complexion from eating like absolute shit for a week behind a thick layer of foundation, and just when we're all about to collapse, the lights go up and it's time for that big act 1-ending tap number. Oh, you sprained your ankle in the last one? Too bad, smile through it and give the people what they paid for. And the applause at the end while you gasp for breath is as addicting as heroin, so you'll keep coming back.

And then people have the gall to say they're not real sports. Is it because they aren't enough of a masculine wet dream for you? Makes you think.

#this has been a RantTM #shut up dames

63 notes · View notes

mrlongkgraves · 5 years

Text

World Voice Day: Helping young people find their voice

Rowan performs in “Beauty and the Beast”

This World Voice Day, we share the stories of three young people who regained their voices thanks to the Voice and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Rowan’s story

As a frequent actor in community theater, Rowan needs his voice to be strong and clear. So when his parents noticed his voice was becoming increasingly hoarse in late 2017, they asked his pediatrician about it during his annual checkup.

Rowan’s pediatrician referred him to the Voice and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction Program, and he was scheduled for an appointment at the Waltham campus. Rowan met with a voice therapist and had an exam with otolaryngologist Dr. Anne Hseu, who diagnosed him with nodules. She explained the condition was something that often disappeared with adolescence, but could often be managed with voice therapy until that time.

“At first, Rowan was a little hesitant about the consultation” says his mom, Carin Aquiline. “But after he met with the voice therapist and doctor for the evaluation at the Waltham campus, he was less skeptical about going.”

At the time, Rowan had just landed one of the lead roles in his school play. “Since he was going to be singing and using his voice more than usual, we decided to start the voice therapy right away,” says Carin. Rowan met with speech-language pathologist Roseanne Clark for 10 sessions over a period of 3-4 months.

During their sessions, Roseanne would try to work in material from his play whenever possible. “We also did a lot of speaking stuff, like making sounds and reading books out loud, which helped for sure,” says Rowan. “I used to lose my voice a lot, especially at the start and end of sentences, I’d just get cut off. That happens much less often now.”

“From our perspective, it was very helpful,” says Carin. “If he didn’t do his exercises from session to session, he could really see the difference. We also appreciated the way Roseanne and everyone at the clinic interacted with him. “They made him feel comfortable and that was very reassuring to him.”

It’s been a little over a year since Rowan’s last visit. Carin says he hasn’t had any major flare-ups, but if he gets a little hoarse, he can manage by doing the exercises Roseanne taught him. That’s a good thing, because he recently started rehearsals for a production of “Newsies” in his community theater group that will go up in May.

____________________________________________________

Nicolas

Nicolas’ story

Nicolas FloresQuero always had a hoarse voice, but his parents became concerned when it seemed to be getting worse as he got older. “We really started noticing it more over the last two years, especially when he was reading out loud,” says his dad, Jaime. “He would start reading a sentence and run out of air, like he was losing his voice. We noticed it usually got worse as the day progressed, and there were some days when he would lose his voice completely. It was like he was putting too much effort into talking.”

Nicolas’ voice issues led to trouble performing in school and difficulty communicating with other kids. “We reached out to a few speech therapists, but they didn’t want to take his case,” says Jaime. Finally, a teacher at Nicolas’ school recommended the Voice and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction Program. “We thought any speech therapist would be able to help, but we learned it’s a really specific field and Boston Children’s is the best place to go for this type of voice therapy.”

At Nicolas’ first visit, the otolaryngologist, Dr. Roger Nuss, diagnosed him with vocal fold nodules, a common cause of hoarseness in children. He recommended voice therapy to help reduce the nodules.

Alex, left, with siblings Sofia and Alex

Nicolas began meeting with voice therapist, Karen Thompson, and Jaime says they started noticing changes in his voice after just three or four sessions. “He was a little afraid to go at first, but Karen was so great working with him that he was excited to go after he met her,” says Jaime. After each session, Nicolas would come home with lists of specific words that were hard for him, and he would practice making the different sounds.

“After 12 sessions, he was like a completely different kid,” says Jaime. “We were really concerned last year, because he couldn’t even read a paragraph from a book without getting winded. Now he can speak and read out loud with confidence.”

It has been about a year since Nicolas’ last visit and he is doing great. A follow up visit with Dr. Nuss found that the nodules are greatly reduced. Now in fifth grade, Nicolas is doing well in school and loves playing hockey and hanging out with younger siblings, Alex, 6, and sister, Sofia 9.

____________________________________________________

Ben

Ben’s story

Ben Sagerian was always a social, outgoing kid, who liked participating in theater and musicals. Then in the beginning of eighth grade, he lost his voice and everything changed.

“He got strep throat that September and even after it was treated he kept saying his throat hurt,” says his mom, Jen. “We had him retested for strep and mono, but the tests came back negative.”

Meanwhile, Ben’s symptoms continued to get worse until he completely lost his voice. When forced to communicate, it was in a hoarse whisper. His parents brought him to a local otolaryngologist who diagnosed Ben with acid reflux and prescribed an antacid. This didn’t relieve his symptoms.

“By December, we were at our wits end,” says Jen. “Ben said the pain in his throat was horrible. And because he couldn’t communicate in school, he was becoming more introverted. His whole personality changed.” The doctor ran more tests, but couldn’t find a problem.

After many more unsuccessful visits with doctors, Jen did some internet searches on her own and found a story about a boy who had similar symptoms and had been treated at a specialized voice center. This led her to the Voice and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction Program.

“We had answers at the very first visit,” says Jen. In the morning, they met with Roseanne Clark and Dr. Roger Nuss. After the exam, they went into a room filled with monitoring equipment and television screens. Roseanne asked Ben to make sounds and they all watched his vocal cords on the screens while he did this. The problem was clear: Ben’s vocal cords weren’t closing, a condition called vocal cord paresis.

“The best thing was that the treatment was voice therapy, no medication,” says Jen. Ben met with Roseanne every week in the Waltham office to work on his voice. Because his voice also happened to be changing, he wasn’t used to the sound of his new voice and had become almost afraid to talk.

Ben, second from left, with his brother, Andrew, and parents, Rob and Jen, in Portugal

“I feel like Roseanne and Boston Children’s helped him not only with his voice, but also with the emotional issues around not talking,” says Jen. The family was planning a trip to Portugal that April and worked with Roseanne to make a deal with Ben. “We told him no more whispering on vacation,” says Jen. “Even though it was painful at first, he did it. When we got back, he was talking normally.”

Now a sophomore in high school, Ben is back to his former gregarious self and is involved in every musical that comes his way. He’s also an avid skier. “Working with Boston Children’s has been the biggest gift,” says Jen. “If we hadn’t found this program, I’m not sure what would have done.”

Learn more about the Voice and Velopharyngeal Dysfunction Program.

The post World Voice Day: Helping young people find their voice appeared first on Thriving Blog.

from Thriving Blog https://on.bchil.org/2GqnhYk

0 notes