Talent Show update

Because I'm insane or something, I've agreed to be the director of the Girl Scout Talent Show this year. This is an annual event that has seen some ups and downs. When Diana was a Brownie scout (1st-3rd grade) her troop participated every year. At Junior level (4th -6th) I took over her troop. Now we're in the Teen Girl program (7th to 12th grade) and I have a troop of Sophomores.

I'm relying heavily on my teen scouts to help me with this. I have some other leaders in various roles, but it will mostly be up to me to make this thing work.

Last night was the "Auditions" for the troops & solo acts. The troops will all get in no matter what. The solo acts really had to audition, since we can't fit them all into the show. We aim for about 20 acts total, so the number of solo slots depends on how many troops participate.

I had 12 troops signed up to audition, and 4 didn't come. I don't know the story on 2 of them yet, 2 others called & bowed out. However, I had 2 other troops sign up last night, so I'm only down two troops. I think we have at least 10 girls signed up for solo acts, so we might not have to even cut anyone (which would be nice! I don't want to tell anyone they didn't make it!).

So that was two hours yesterday evening of collecting information on how many girls, type of act, what they needed for the show, etc. Now that I have this info, I can move forward on collecting donations as prizes for the troops. The individuals will get a bouquet or something, as well as a DVD of the show. The troops should also get a DVD of the show.

This year we'll be at the High School for the first time. In the past we were at the community college, but they are asking for $700 for the use of the theater, compared to less than $200 for the High School. Plus, the high school is closer, and smaller, so it looks like you have a full theater.

So far on prizes, we have a couple of nights at campgrounds. I have to send out request for donation letters to local merchants to try to get more prizes. We need something for every troop participating. The last few years, the woman in charge didn't think the girl should earn prizes. She wanted the girls to do the show for the experience of being on stage. That works once. Then you don't have any reason to participate if you're not just a ham. Consequently, the quality & number of acts dropped dramatically. To cover the cost, she raised the ticket price. So you paid $10 per person for a crummy show.

I'm dropping the ticket price down to $3 for adults, and $1 for children. We'll have prizes to hopefully get better acts, and have girls participate annually. My girls would have done it no matter what, and kept up the quality anyway, just because. But they're all a bunch of hams. :)

I'll post more on this as I pull out my hair when things go wrong. At least the audition is over, and we should have enough acts for a decent show!

:)