The first off book rehearsals are awful. Terrible. A disaster. A train wreck.
At least in a teen theater troupe.
I wish I didn't have to be there. There is virtually no opportunity to direct.
But I have to be there.
Because if I'm not there, they won't do it.
And the NEXT rehearsal will be the first off book rehearsal.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
scheduling
I've just finished the rehearsal schedule: version 1.0-- for the current production. Scheduling rehearsals for a summer production of a youth theater is TRICKY. Our troupe insists that the last two weeks are clear for our cast members to concentrate on the play. However, when working with teens in the summer time-- with summer vacations, family events, lessons and classes, the process of scheduling involves intricate intellectual acrobatics.
I have completed a schedule that will please no one, and will barely address the needs of the production.
I've covered everything: working with the text, character work, stage combat workshops, blocking rehearsals, working rehearsals, stumble throughs, run throughs and tech. I've set deadlines for props, for lines learned, for costume parades, for set construction.
I've committed approximately 200 hours of my life over the next month and a half.
And I know I will be scrambling at the end...
Goal: for the next show I direct, I will have a set rehearsal schedule that the actors adapt to, rather than the scheduling-- and the director-- adapting to the actors.
I have completed a schedule that will please no one, and will barely address the needs of the production.
I've covered everything: working with the text, character work, stage combat workshops, blocking rehearsals, working rehearsals, stumble throughs, run throughs and tech. I've set deadlines for props, for lines learned, for costume parades, for set construction.
I've committed approximately 200 hours of my life over the next month and a half.
And I know I will be scrambling at the end...
Goal: for the next show I direct, I will have a set rehearsal schedule that the actors adapt to, rather than the scheduling-- and the director-- adapting to the actors.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Who do you love? THE AUDIENCE!
As I was working with young people, training them for performance, audience awareness had to be a part of the training.
We would do dances on stage: Look Upstage! Step Stage Right! Step Stage Left!
As we worked scenes and blocking, I would hop up and demonstrate positions that would open up actors to greater visibility on the proscenium stage.
"The audience wants to see *these* cheeks," I would say, pointing to my face, "not *these* cheeks!" as I turned around and pointed at the butt cheeks.
Lots of giggles. And they learned.
The short hand shout out of "Wrong cheeks!" would prompt the actor to re-orient, adjust, move to share more with the audience.
They learned.
"You are a sunflower!" I would say, "And the audience is the sun! Ever so subtly you move, you lean, you orient to the sun!"
They learned.
I taught them that without the audience there is no theater. "Who do you love?" I would challenge them.
The shouted response: "THE AUDIENCE!"
The audience, I taught them, wants to like you, wants to love you. Share your character, your voice, your energy, your play, with the audience and they will love you and appreciate you and give back your energy ten-fold.
Who do you love? THE AUDIENCE!
We would do dances on stage: Look Upstage! Step Stage Right! Step Stage Left!
As we worked scenes and blocking, I would hop up and demonstrate positions that would open up actors to greater visibility on the proscenium stage.
"The audience wants to see *these* cheeks," I would say, pointing to my face, "not *these* cheeks!" as I turned around and pointed at the butt cheeks.
Lots of giggles. And they learned.
The short hand shout out of "Wrong cheeks!" would prompt the actor to re-orient, adjust, move to share more with the audience.
They learned.
"You are a sunflower!" I would say, "And the audience is the sun! Ever so subtly you move, you lean, you orient to the sun!"
They learned.
I taught them that without the audience there is no theater. "Who do you love?" I would challenge them.
The shouted response: "THE AUDIENCE!"
The audience, I taught them, wants to like you, wants to love you. Share your character, your voice, your energy, your play, with the audience and they will love you and appreciate you and give back your energy ten-fold.
Who do you love? THE AUDIENCE!
Friday, May 14, 2010
post-play
After a play closes, I am of divided mind.
Part of me is sad, missing the rush and the excitement.
And part of me is ready to rest, to detach, to regroup.
Part of me is sad, missing the rush and the excitement.
And part of me is ready to rest, to detach, to regroup.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Ensemble
Ensemble is tremendously important to me. The idea of each of us contributing to the greater whole is inspirational; and in my own experience, when this is working, the result is far greater than the sum of the individual contributions. When ensemble is really working, each of us is driven, challenged, LIFTED into doing BETTER than our best work.
Ensemble is one of the guiding principles in how I choose the scripts I choose. Significant acting for everyone. Room to grow.
Ensemble is a delicate atmosphere. It is difficult to foster, easy to destroy. It is based on respect: respect for the art, respect for the process, respect for each artist and for the art in oneself.
Stanislavski described every element of the theater experience, from the hat check girl to the usher to actors to the director to the janitor, being a part of that art. A part of the ensemble.
And we must respect every part. And we must love every part.
Ensemble is one of the guiding principles in how I choose the scripts I choose. Significant acting for everyone. Room to grow.
Ensemble is a delicate atmosphere. It is difficult to foster, easy to destroy. It is based on respect: respect for the art, respect for the process, respect for each artist and for the art in oneself.
Stanislavski described every element of the theater experience, from the hat check girl to the usher to actors to the director to the janitor, being a part of that art. A part of the ensemble.
And we must respect every part. And we must love every part.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Back to the Bard
For the past eighteen years, I have been directing plays. Most of the casts I have directed have been young theater artists, from ages four to nineteen. In the past several years, I have been working with teens and young adults. The favorite playwright of these theater troupes?
Shakespeare.
I am not surprised by this. Shakespeare has been my favorite playwright since I was eleven years old. While many who meet the Immortal Bard in high school lit classes may think of Shakespeare as difficult, boring and irrelevant, those of us who do Shakespeare—experience Shakespeare in production—find excitement, challenge and timely and timeless themes.
Shakespeare’s genius is above all theatrical genius. Shakespeare’s plays, in his own time, were great commercial successes. The plays brought in audiences and kept them coming back. Because of Shakespeare’s genius, audiences continue to be enchanted, challenged and touched by these plays. The young lovers of Midsummer Night’s Dream or of Romeo and Juliet, frustrated by parents and society, are easily recognized by young lovers of any era. Macbeth’s ambition—do the ends justify the means?—or Brutus’ struggle with divided loyalty—is my loyalty to my friend or to my country?—are as timely today as they were four hundred years ago.
Most people will agree that Shakespeare’s plays are some of the greatest in the English language. Many people will also agree that his texts are among the most challenging. Why should anyone attempt such difficult plays with young actors? For me, there are several answers to this question.
Young people deserve the best, and Shakespeare is the best. Any theatrical production requires many hours of practice, design work, set construction. Hundreds of hours are required to mount a production. In my opinion, these hours are better spent on a great script than a mediocre script. Working with one of Shakespeare’s classics, you know you have a script that can succeed – because it has succeeded with audiences for hundreds of years.
These scripts can succeed with young actors. While it is true that Shakespeare’s plays have a reputation for challenging both scholars and actors today, it is also true that many of the roles were written for adolescent apprentices, boys ranging in age from ten to seventeen or eighteen. The scripts are “playable”.
In producing and performing in one of Shakespeare’s plays, young people are learning by doing. It is obvious—and confirmed by numerous studies—that young people performing Shakespeare increase their vocabularies. The richness and quality of Shakespeare’s language not only enrich vocabulary but also encourage complexity of thought. Many studies also show that students engaged in drama improve academic performance in Language Arts and Humanities.
When my troupes have produced one of Shakespeare’s plays, we have learned much more than the lines of that particular script. We have set Shakespeare’s plays in different time periods. As a result, when working on Hamlet set in the Victorian era, we have learned not only about Elizabethan England, but also about the music and mores of Queen Victoria’s time. Setting Julius Caesar in Caesar’s Rome, we learned about costume, superstition and politics. Setting As You Like It in the 1920s, we learned about flappers, flivvers and dancing the Charleston.
Perhaps more important, although more difficult to measure, are the affective benefits of performing Shakespeare. I have seen the young people in my theater troupes grow and mature in many ways. They have grown in poise and self-expression. They have also increased their self-esteem, by undertaking a task that is acknowledged by all to be challenging and succeeding in that task. By working long hours on this task with a group all committed to the same goals, young people learn team work. They learn that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts; that everyone is needed and makes a contribution. In addition, young people seeking to test their limits and find a thrilling challenge can find a positive venue for this in performing Shakespeare. Performing in front of an audience is a challenge, a thrill and excitement. Performing Shakespeare can be a positive way for young people to challenge themselves to excel.
Shakespeare.
I am not surprised by this. Shakespeare has been my favorite playwright since I was eleven years old. While many who meet the Immortal Bard in high school lit classes may think of Shakespeare as difficult, boring and irrelevant, those of us who do Shakespeare—experience Shakespeare in production—find excitement, challenge and timely and timeless themes.
Shakespeare’s genius is above all theatrical genius. Shakespeare’s plays, in his own time, were great commercial successes. The plays brought in audiences and kept them coming back. Because of Shakespeare’s genius, audiences continue to be enchanted, challenged and touched by these plays. The young lovers of Midsummer Night’s Dream or of Romeo and Juliet, frustrated by parents and society, are easily recognized by young lovers of any era. Macbeth’s ambition—do the ends justify the means?—or Brutus’ struggle with divided loyalty—is my loyalty to my friend or to my country?—are as timely today as they were four hundred years ago.
Most people will agree that Shakespeare’s plays are some of the greatest in the English language. Many people will also agree that his texts are among the most challenging. Why should anyone attempt such difficult plays with young actors? For me, there are several answers to this question.
Young people deserve the best, and Shakespeare is the best. Any theatrical production requires many hours of practice, design work, set construction. Hundreds of hours are required to mount a production. In my opinion, these hours are better spent on a great script than a mediocre script. Working with one of Shakespeare’s classics, you know you have a script that can succeed – because it has succeeded with audiences for hundreds of years.
These scripts can succeed with young actors. While it is true that Shakespeare’s plays have a reputation for challenging both scholars and actors today, it is also true that many of the roles were written for adolescent apprentices, boys ranging in age from ten to seventeen or eighteen. The scripts are “playable”.
In producing and performing in one of Shakespeare’s plays, young people are learning by doing. It is obvious—and confirmed by numerous studies—that young people performing Shakespeare increase their vocabularies. The richness and quality of Shakespeare’s language not only enrich vocabulary but also encourage complexity of thought. Many studies also show that students engaged in drama improve academic performance in Language Arts and Humanities.
When my troupes have produced one of Shakespeare’s plays, we have learned much more than the lines of that particular script. We have set Shakespeare’s plays in different time periods. As a result, when working on Hamlet set in the Victorian era, we have learned not only about Elizabethan England, but also about the music and mores of Queen Victoria’s time. Setting Julius Caesar in Caesar’s Rome, we learned about costume, superstition and politics. Setting As You Like It in the 1920s, we learned about flappers, flivvers and dancing the Charleston.
Perhaps more important, although more difficult to measure, are the affective benefits of performing Shakespeare. I have seen the young people in my theater troupes grow and mature in many ways. They have grown in poise and self-expression. They have also increased their self-esteem, by undertaking a task that is acknowledged by all to be challenging and succeeding in that task. By working long hours on this task with a group all committed to the same goals, young people learn team work. They learn that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts; that everyone is needed and makes a contribution. In addition, young people seeking to test their limits and find a thrilling challenge can find a positive venue for this in performing Shakespeare. Performing in front of an audience is a challenge, a thrill and excitement. Performing Shakespeare can be a positive way for young people to challenge themselves to excel.
the darkest hour
I'm THERE with this play. EVERY process of play production seems to have it: the point where it all is so horrible you can barely stand it.
The actors are struggling with lines.
As one costume problem is solved, another lighting problem arises.
There are key props that simply don't seem to exist.
And opening night seems just moments away.
This, I always tell my team, is just before it all comes together! Theater magic! Don't give up hope!
And this time, I am praying and telling this to myself as well!
The actors are struggling with lines.
As one costume problem is solved, another lighting problem arises.
There are key props that simply don't seem to exist.
And opening night seems just moments away.
This, I always tell my team, is just before it all comes together! Theater magic! Don't give up hope!
And this time, I am praying and telling this to myself as well!
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