Traditions

The Hugging Circle

History

The Hugging started in Youth Theatre before any one person can remember. This tradition is to bring the cast together and to define when the preparation for the show is to begin and to leave everything else behind. The seniors are fully in charge of this event and this is the time to make any anouncements to the rest of the cast, to scold and re-lay down the rules, to give encouragement, and to decide on gifts and cards to thank the crew members.

Rules

The hugging circle is formed starting at the dress rehersals and not before, and continue to and through the strike party.

The crew members are not allowed in the hugging circle, only the cast, until the strike party. At the end of the strike party everyone may assemble in the "last hugging circle" who was involved with the play in anyway.

As suggested in the title everyone gathers in a circle in a space big enough to accomodate everyone. The lead characters must be aligned in one spot of the circle.

The senoirs make their announcements (usually decided before hand on what should be mentioned). This can include collecting money for crew gifts and also a mention of when an where to sign cards (usually as they leave the hugging circle towards the dressing room) and anything else the crew has said or other points of interest.(Remember to ask if there is anything else or any questions.)

Once the anouncements are finished, whoever has been asked to say a prayer will begin.

The hugging then commences with the first lead in line and one by one each person follows the line around the circle to give each cast member a hug and a sign of a prosperous show along with a few encouraging words. Keep quite, it is only between you and the person you are wishing to do well.

Remember never to say the dreaded GL word (You may use Break-a-leg, have a great show, give it your best, or anything else you can think of).

The oldest male senior is to have a variety of certs and plenty for each member, as he continues around the circle he offers the certs to each cast member and they each take one.

The Youth Theatre Handshake

If I told you, I'd have to kill you!!!

All of the males in the cast are shown and taught the secret handshake. It's not a big thing if the girls figure it out, but they don't care as much. It's a guy thing. This can be used anytime with any cast member, but is most frequently used in the hugging circle.

Opening Night

Opening Night is very important and very special night. On this night the cast and crew dress up more than any other night of preformance upon arrival. Every night of performance it is customary for the cast to decide on where they are going out to eat after the show, this is unsupervised, and a time for the group to have fun, joke around, and wind down. On opening night the Youth Theatre Board supports and arranges a place for everyone to meet after the performance where there can be food, games, dancing, sports, and of course watching the nights show.

Posters

Starting Openning night the extra posters that were to be advertised with are hung in a line on a wall, one for each person on cast, crew, orchestra, and others. Under each poster sits a brown paper bag. These posters are there for each peron to sign everyone else's durring intermission, before the show or after the show. You must not be late on stage because of signing a poster. Sometimes people will not be able to sign everyone's in the amount of time, but you can also ask durring the strike party. The bags are for gifts that audience members have given to the crew to give to a cast members, or trinkets, candies, or an uplifting note, that the members of the show would like to give each other.

Prom Night

The Lord only knows when and why this was started. The senior girls of the cast decide on one night (Who knows if there is any rhyme or reason to the decision, they're girls!) to wear their prom dresses when they come in. Again, I don't know why this apeases them so, but I don't know any guy who does not roll their eyes at the mention of this obscure tradition. I suppose you have to be a girl to understand.

Nerds

NERDS ARE NOT A PERSON. Nerds are a silly, funny, out-of-place, or mistake action made by a cast member during the run of the show. Nerds are written as suggestions by fellow cast members and placed in a sealed box. Common categoreies are Humming Bird in Heat, Backstage Romance, Upstaging, and Misuse of Props/Costumes. After the last show, the senior members of the cast gather to pull out the Nerds to choose winners and to decide if any Nerds are inappropriate and should be thrown out. At the strike party, the nerds are announced and the winners are given awards, having a connection to the show and made by the senior members. The Nerds are a fun way to bring together the cast to laugh at and prolong the memories of the funny occurances that go on durring the show.

The Rubber Chiken

Rules

1. The Rubber Chicken will be awarded each year to a cast member of the Youth Theatre of Hardin County.
2. The Rubber Chicken may only be awarded to members of the current cast. The production staff is not eligible.
3. The Rubber Chicken may be given in commemoration of any mistake, accident, goof, blunder or blooper.
4. The decision as to who will receive the Rubber Chicken belongs to the current owner of the award. That is, each year's recipient decides who will receive the award the following year.
5. Each year's winner is responsible for the care and feeding of the Rubber Chicken, and must return it to The Youth Theatre of Hardin County at the end of their one year term.
6. In the event that the winner of the Rubber Chicken does not participate in the show the following year, the Rubber Chicken will be returned to the director. The director will then have to final decision on who will receive the Rubber Chicken that year.

The Ceremony

Each year, before the Rubber Chicken is passed on, the current holder of the award must stand and read aloud the entire history of the Rubber Chicken.

The History of the Rubber Chicken

The Rubber Chicken Award is one of the Youth Theatre's oldest standing traditions, almost as old as the hugging circle. It was founded in 1981 by the then director, Wanda Vowels.

1981 - Bye, Bye, Birdie (The Inaugural Rubber Chicken Award)
The Inaugural Rubber Chicken Award was awarded to Darren West for never (in rehearsal or in performance) making it to the stage without talking to at least one girl.

1982 - Annie Get Your Gun
The Rubber Chicken was awarded to Barbra Parish for inspiring the Youth Theatre rules against Public Displays of Affection.

1983 - Oklahoma!
Lonnie Fuson forgot to load his gun, causing a potentially climatic scene to end with a disappointing "Click, Click." The blunder was published in the revue along with his classic cover line "Dern, I forgot to load my gun!!"

1984 - Kiss Me Kate
The Rubber Chicken was awarded to John Shore for appearing on stage after making only half a costume change. Thus he became the first Shakespearean actor to appear on stage wearing a purple tunic from the waist up and a gray suit from the waist down.

1985 - Guys and Dolls
The Rubber Chicken was given to Chris Lockie who decided to adlib a line when he couldn't open a manhole cover, thus giving Youth Theatre its first and last racial slur.

1986 - Damn Yankees
The award was given to Kevin Deweese for managing to injure himself during every performance.

1987 - The King and I
Shannon Moerman received the Rubber Chicken for accidentally educating the brush-up rehearsal audience. (She performed a cartwheel with her T-shirt untucked and flashed those present.)

1988 - Hello Dolly
The Rubber Chicken was given to Dee Dee Tully, who forgot that a body mike works quite well even if your not on stage. She was clearly overheard discussing possible career prospects afforded her by her costume. "I look like I should be standing out on some street corner trying to get some business."

1989 - Annie
Tara Hundley earned the Rubber Chicken when, while playing the title role, she missed her first entrance on stage. (Why she was in the boys dressing room instead of on stage was never explained to anyone's satisfaction.)

1990 - Funny Girl
Amy Terry performed a scene ahead of time, then followed it by performing the correct scene. When it was time for the wrong scene to be performed correctly, she performed the wrong scene again.

1991 - Anything Goes
Tim Sexton was on the far side of the auxiliary gym when he hear his cue line. Needless to say, he was a "LITTLE" late for his entrance.

1992 - No, No, Nanette
Can anyone ever forget the exploits of Chelsie Laughlin and the vacuum cleaner?

1993 - Fiddler on the Roof
The award was presented to Guy Sallee when he forgot the words to "The Rumor" and began singing in Yiddish.

1994 - Meet Me in St. Louis
Lisa Hill was the first dancer ever to receive the Rubber Chicken for her unique down and up choreography to the waltz.

1995 - Cinderella
(The 15th Anniversary of the Rubber Chicken Award)
For her wonderful rendition of the UGLY stepsister Joy, the Rubber Chicken Award is presented to Amy Dudgeon. No one will ever forget the rolling eyes, over done make-up, interesting placement of her handkerchief in the Gavotte and creatively decorated shoes of her high TESTOSTERONE performance!!!!

1996 - Crazy for You
(The 25 the Anniversary of the Youth Theatre of Hardin County)
As it has been stated the Rubber Chicken may be given in commemoration of any mistake, accident, goof, blunder or blooper. This year's recipient ROLLED all of these into one. The award goes to Josh Crepps for rolling his truck over in a ditch while trying to reach for a bag of chips. This all happening the day before the second weekend of the show. During Josh's first year in Youth Theatre he was a pain in everyone's butt - this year he proved to be a pain in his own BUTT!!!

1997 - Singin' in the Rain
For the Hilarious performance Anne Raine is awarded the Rubber Chicken. Although she "never looked lovelier," she got "the whipped cream in the kisser," every single performance.

1998 - 42nd Street
On the 25th anniversary of the Marsee's contribution to the Youth Theatre of Hardin County, the Rubber Chicken is presented to Sean McKinley for always wanting to put on his make-up and never wanting to take it off, for getting stuck in the director's chair, and for swimming through the curtain while trying to make an entrance.

1999 - The Wizard of Oz
This year's recipient of the Rubber Chicken managed to flash the audience her dance trunks every night, and for the Scarecrow falling on and twisting her knee on brush-up, making everyone prepare another plan in one day, just in case she couldn't go on, but managing to put on a smile on stage and play a beautiful, yet slightly limping, Dorothy for the final 3 nights. This year's Rubber Chicken is presented to Bethany Stiles.

2000 - Dames at Sea
This year's recipient of the Rubber Chicken managed to always flash her butt to the audience during practice, always apologized when she said something wrong, late with her come back lines, always late to rehearsals, forgot to bring the suitcase back, was never sure what she was dancing in Choo Choo Honeymoon and the dance for Good Times are Here to Stay, she always ended up looking to the cast to see what dance step they were doing next. This year's Rubber Chicken is presented to Miss Rebecca Uhey.