November 18, 1998

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to the Beloit Call’s coverage of the Beloit High School production of Cinderella, or rather, the lack thereof. I find it unacceptable that a small town newspaper cannot provide adequate coverage of this major school event.

Yes, I know that a picture and caption did appear in the Monday, Nov. 16 edition, but that effort was practically laughable. The small picture was of poor quality and displayed only two members of the cast, and the caption barely provided any information. What about the countless other people who devoted so much time and effort to produce a good musical? The cast of dozens, the orchestra, the technical crew, the directors and their assistants--no mention of these hard-working souls was made. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to attend the production, and to see the collective effort of all these students, teachers, and parents presented to the rest of the community in such a meager manner is pitiful.

There are many students, such as myself, who may not participate in sports, but do take great pride in their involvement in other activities such as music. While I have nothing against sports or the coverage of them, I do not believe that it is too much to ask for adequate coverage of a major musical event as well. Sporting events are held every week; a musical is held once every other year. I know that music is not as interesting as sports to many people, and I am not trying to sway public opinion, but by sufficiently displaying the results of two months of excruciating work by a musical’s staff, a newspaper can aid in showing that other students also deeply care about what they are involved in.

The most common argument here is that, in a larger city, the musical would not have received any recognition at all, or perhaps just a few lines in the "Events" section. This may very well be true, but Beloit is not a large city. While I am not trying to dictate policy, should not the objective of small town newspapers such as the Call be to provide the populace with solid, substantive information about the community’s events? As aforementioned, a BHS musical is only held once every other year. Each performance draws hundreds of art aficionados, and if that is not a major community event, then I am hard pressed to think of one.

I do acknowledge that the Call will usually give some coverage to important non-athletic school events, but the complete lack of interest shown for the production of Cinderella is truly sad. In the future, please consider devoting more attention to such great events.

Sincerely,

Andy Miner

BHS Senior