If you really think that this exception to the norms represents the lifestyle of more than an exceedingly miniscule percentage of American teenagers, or that disagreeing with that perspective means that your parents raised you locked in a gilded tower, then your sense of perspective is grossly undeveloped and you have even more growing up to do than I thought.

For once I agree with Beagle. But I also think that disregarding a show because of the mature context is an entire different thing than disregarding a show because of the ages of the characters.

I also wish to state that there are several kinds of experience. I have met 50-year-olds who has not gone through half of what I have gone through during my short time in this world, yet they can claim to have more experience than me. Why so? Because the overall experience is greater, but I could claim to have more experience with grief and sorrow, seeing that I have gone through more grief and sorrow than said 50-year-old. Was this understandable or am I not making any sense?

well i went to a high-school play and in the movie or whatever they had a sex scene! (luckily they didn't show it in the play

It's failing in science and math partially because the educational system in the U.S. leaves room for the late bloomer, unlike other countries. I mean, can you all imagine having to do calculus in elementary school?

Her experiences as a teen sex icon and rock star are certainly an exception, but her lifestyle isn't. Go to just about any ghetto and you'd see tons of kids up that alley, except without the fame. (And for the record, the "norms" depend all on who you are and where you live.) If you really don't believe that lots of kids struggle with drugs, disease and homelessness, all I can say is that you have been very sheltered at best. If anything, you are the one who needs to get out from under the rock you've been living under and grow up.



Also, you have to keep in mind that a large part of acting is using your imagination. Sure, maybe sheltered teens don't have much in common with any of the characters in Rent. But you could say the same about pretty much any actor playing a character significantly different from thelselves in terms of emotional experience. Do you think Jodie Foster had any inkling of what it was like being a child prostitute before getting cast in Taxi Driver? Does Meryl Streep have anything resembling the kind of life experience of the main character in Sophie's Choice? Part of why many of us act is so that we can live out other people's lives. If we chose only to play characters close to us, we wouldn't be actors.

First of all, I must say it's cute that you keep clinging to the idea that it's the "sheltered" teens who don't have much in common with the characters of Rent. It's only Rapunzel who hasn't been there, the rest of us totally know all about it. Caitlin's brother even bought us some beer last weekend.

True, you don't have to be playing yourself every time you set foot on a stage, but you do have to have the life experience to know what you're talking about. If you want, go ahead and insist that the members of a high school drama club can relate to being homeless drug addicts with AIDS... it just makes you look adolescent. There's a world of difference between that jump, and Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice. (PS - Most high school performers are not exactly Meryl Streeps to begin with.)

Maybe they should be. To broaden the horizon of certain people.

Not necessarily. Do you think Jodie Foster, at 14 years old, had the life experience to play a teen hooker?






Acting isn't always about relating. For many people it's about using your imagination and allowing emotion to rise organically from the script.

Like Meryl Streep, most high school drama club members are not Jodie Foster.


You don't get it. I'm trying to explain to you that your imagination as an actor can only go so far before you have to know something to back it up, and you're just not getting it. Trying to have this conversation with you must be my punishment for playing Romeo too young. I hope this isn't what I looked like at the time.

Ha, we finally agree on something!

I think k-12 should be for developing the basics and helping students learn what interests them and what they are good at. They can focus on their interests in college.

But American school art and music are crap. They are too focused on self-expression and not learning. Ok, maybe k-2 can be self-expression but after that teach the techniques. I mean the only good music education a person can get is by taking band. Everyone should know the basics of reading music. Students should be exposed to music, art, theater, dance, etc. And I don't mean observe but participate. Get them involved early before they become too cool and cynical for all that. Even undergraduate education in college does some of this as it requires a certain amount of humanities credit.

Aside from that teach
Math
Literature/Grammar
History/Geography
Science

Give them equal weight. It's ridiculous when I hear stories of kids unable to find the US on a map.

And squeeze in physical education everyday 2 days aerobics, 2 days weightlifting, and 1 day teach a sport.

And I don't know how or if it is done anymore but as a kid I had to take industrial arts. I was taught basic drafting, metal shop (cutting, bending, and soldering metal), woodshop, basic electronics (even made a crude electric motor). Girls took home economics. I guess all that is sexist today?

That's why actors do their research. When Leonardo DiCaprio played Arnie in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", he spent countless hours with mentally retarded children at a day care center to observe their emotional and mental processes. And, in the case of Meryl Streep, do you think she personally knew what it was like being in Auschwitz? I've never heard her talk about her character preparation for that particular film, but I'm guessing that she may have spoke with Holocaust survivors, read books, watched documentaries, etc. Of course she'll never relate to the character in the same way that someone who actually lived through the Holocaust would, but she recreated the experience to the best of her abilities for the purpose of a film. And that's about as much as any actor can do.


Idina Menzel, Wilson Heredia and Anthony Rapp were only 22 when they starred in Rent and it doesn't seem that any of them had much in common with their characters in terms of life experience. But they did their homework and used their actors' imagination to create believable performances onstage.

What country teaches calculus in elementary school?

Part of the problem is that attitudes toward science and math are culturally negative in the US. If you like science and/or math, you must be strange and uncool. This is reinforced by Hollywood. And what else that bugs me about Hollywood is if science and math are shown in a more positive light a la supporting the plot, it is shown as coming easily as if it is a gift rather than requiring a lot of time and effort. An example of that is the film "Legally Blonde".