A Gang Show is a theatrical performance with a cast of youth members of Scouts and Guides. Adult leaders and parents help out behind the scenes. The aim of the shows is to give young people in Scouting and Guiding the opportunity to develop performance skills and perform in a close to professional theatrical environment. Opportunities are also afforded to young people to work backstage, in front of house roles and as musicians in musical items and in the pit band.
The production teams and cast, all volunteers, participate in many hours of planning, writing, composing, choreographing, building stage scenery/props, making costumes and rehearsing for several months before the actual performances. In order to reach the required performance standard for a Gang Show, a high level of commitment is needed from all involved in the production as well as support from their families. A typical Gang Show would require participants to attend between 15 and 30 rehearsals in preparation for the performances.
In addition some Gang Shows are organised in the manner of a typical scouting/guiding activity with the participants perhaps grouped into patrols, or attending special Gang Show camps, awaydays and activities in order to develop and enhance team cohesion.
Performances take place in theatres, schools, community centres – anywhere with an appropriate level of services for the show to function. Performance runs range from one day up to two weeks, and tickets are available to the general public. In the best examples, Gang Shows are an excellent shop window for the Scout movement.
While a Gang Show is always a performance by 'amateurs', the show attracts costs similar to a professional production, despite the huge amount of volunteer hours put in. Many shows are lucky enough to have the support of local businesses through advertising and sponsorship. Others have to do all the fundraising themselves.
Read more about Gang Show: Gang Show Format, History, Organisation, Gang Shows Around The World, Signature Tunes
Famous quotes containing the words gang and/or show:
“We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting disguised in the seeming gang of gypsies and peddlars.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)