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Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

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Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

Congratulations!  You’ve been hired to teach theater and direct several productions a year. You probably have the class curriculum nailed down or you are in the midst of it.  However, you realize that although you have some experience on stage as a performer, you may need some help with other facets of a production.  This post should help–Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

When I majored in theater at Stephens College about a 100 years ago, although I was mostly interested in performing we were expected to work backstage for the first semester.  I still think that’s an excellent idea. Some students who began as performance majors find they are more suited to stage management, costume or set design for instance. Plus, an actor needs to understand what goes into mounting a production.

Too many people get out there and think they are going to end up on the Broadway stage after their first audition. Many give up too quickly, but perhaps if they’d found another way to be involved with theater they would have stayed with it.

I love theater so much, I didn’t care if all I ever did was sweep the stage–it was that important to me.  If you want to know how theater saved my life, go to How Theatre Saved My Life

Newbie Theater Teacher Expectations

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

It’s only natural to think that when you enter your first teaching position in your career, everything is provided for your classroom and stage.  You may have come from a high school or certainly college which fully supported the theater arts department.  That’s understandable and certainly the way it should be.

Some high schools even have technical directors who oversee the technical aspects of productions and teach the technical theater classes.  That’s terrific!

You expect to have a lot of materials and resources all ready organized–set pieces, costumes, makeup, storage space, etc.  If the school and their theater department has been in existence for several years, you should expect to take what was left from the previous teacher and grow from there.

Did you know I have the secret to boosting student engagement?  My new book, “We’re Live! Radio Theater #101” explains my journey to implementing this unique tool in the classroom. Check it out here

 

The Reality

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

Here is the reality– In many school systems, the theater department and arts in general are looked upon as unimportant. (Because the general public does not understand what it takes to teach theater much less produce a play or musical.) Generally, the arts play second fiddle to sports. It’s not fair and not right but it happens all. the.time

If you find a school, which is not a performing arts school, who supports the arts you are lucky to teach there.

I can’t even count how many times people have said, “This school doesn’t have a budget for me!  They don’t have materials or resources for mounting a production. What do I do?”

Tip:  One question you need to ask when you interview for any teaching position should be about the budget for your classes and/or productions.  If the administrator doesn’t know the budget, this is a red flag. It doesn’t mean you don’t have a budget, but this is easy to ascertain for them and they should be willing to divulge it.

Tip:  When you interview, ask to see the stage and check out backstage as well. See if they have any costumes, props or set pieces.  Do they have stage lights, light trees and amplification equipment? Does anyone else use the stage other than the theater department?  Who and how much time do they use it?

Tip:  Find out if there is a parent booster club for the arts. They are invaluable to your success at this particular school. They can help you in many ways–fundraising, building sets and sewing costumes, advertising and box office.

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

If the school doesn’t have a production budget, the first thing you will need to do is raise money to pay the expenses of the production.  These expenses can range anywhere from $500 to (gulp) $10,000 a piece.  Consider ticket prices and talk with other teachers in the district to see what they charge.  Check out my fundraising suggestions here: Turn Your Theater Department Fundraising Into A High Performing Machine

If your set inventory doesn’t have much to offer, then you may need to build flats. There are many ways to do so.  I’d check out this video for instruction on building a Hollywood flat. Or you can build a muslin flat.

I’d suggest watching the Cal State A & L videos on youtube.com  They teach just about everything you’d need to know in a clear and concise method.

If you need help with costume design, check out my post: Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Costumes

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

One of my lesser strengths is light design. I know what I want, but I don’t know how to make it happen.  I defer to my husband about light design because he’s designed for me for years. (See the photo above)  In your case, I’d check Cal State for help there.

Did you know I have the secret to boosting student engagement?  My new book, “We’re Live! Radio Theater #101” explains my journey to implementing this unique tool in the classroom. Check it out here

My Most Important Advice

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

Many directors of school productions think they have to produce their shows having the quality of a Broadway production.  Not only is this unreasonable to expect of yourself, but not necessary.  If you do a good job and balance the production so that everything is of equal quality (your show is imbalanced if the only set piece which was completed for your set is the staircase you spent all month building for your play), then you can rest knowing you did your best under the circumstances.

You should not be expected to do more with less.  Just do the best you can understand the circumstances. You shouldn’t spend all weekend for several months working on one production. You shouldn’t be doing all the work yourself. Don’t forget that without YOU, none of the magic happens and the students need YOU the most. 

What is most important is what your students learn from the experience, right?

Here are a few blog posts that can answer some questions or help you:

Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Stage Makeup 

Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Costumes

 

My Advice for FREE

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

I am willing to advise you for free.  You can find me many places– on instagram @dramamommaspeaks, Facebook @dramamommaspeaks or email me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com.  I have been where you are now.  Luckily, you have someone like me to advise you.

No one learns much of anything completely by themselves.  A good teacher asks for advice and help.  You will be a better teacher for it, I promise!

If you’ve had any experiences you’d like to share, please hit reply and share them with me.  I’d love to hear from you.

You can contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com

Deborah Baldwin, Dramamommaspeaks

 

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

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The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

If you are considering plays for the next school year, I’d like to recommend you take a look at this marvelous play. Here are the reasons I love The Giver play. Published by Dramatic Publishing, The Giver is adapted by Eric Coble from Lois Lowry’s book of the same name.

Reason Number #1

The story line of The Giver is intriguing from the very first line. Jonas’ world is perfect. Everything is under control and safe. There is no war or fear or pain. There are also no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. But when Jonas turns 12, he is chosen for special training from The Giver—to receive and keep the memories of the community. The Giver is the only person who holds the memories of real pain and real joy. Now Jonas will learn the truth about life—and the hypocrisy of his utopian world. Through this astonishing and moving adaptation, discover what it means to grow up, to grow wise, and to take control of your own destiny.
The play has roles for 4 men and 2-4 women and extras.
The Reasons I Love The Giver Play
This novel is very popular with upper elementary and middle grade students. To that end, I’d suggest that high school theater programs mount the production and offer day performances for your area schools.

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

Reason #2 The Author

I dug around for information about Lois Lowry and found her website, Loislowry.com which states,, ” Born Lois Ann Hammersberg on March 20, 1937, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Lowry is one of America’s most popular and versatile children’s book authors. She has written in a variety of fictional forms, from the WWII tale Number the Stars to the lighthearted adventures of Anastasia Krupnik to the fantastical The Giver.
The Giver was seen as controversial by some for its violent themes, sexual content (not mentioned in the play) and depiction of infanticide and euthanasia. Others, however, heaped praise on this remarkable work, and Lowry won the 1994 Newbery for the novel. Over the years, Lowry added to this examination of a dystopian future with Gathering Blue (2000), The Messenger (2004) and Son (2012).”

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play
Reason Number #3 The Playwright 
Eric Coble was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. His scripts for adults have been produced on Broadway (Tony- and Pulitzer-nominated The Velocity of Autumn), off-Broadway (Bright Ideas), in all 50 states of the U.S., and on several continents.
His plays for young audiences include award-winning adaptations of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Gathering Blue as well as Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, Ghosts in the Machine, Swagger, Cinderella Confidential and a dozen other published scripts that have been produced at The Kennedy Center, Dallas Children’s Theatre, Childsplay, Metro Theatre Company, Oregon Children’s Theatre, First Stage, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cleveland Play House, Adventure Stage, Alliance Theatre and many others. Awards include two AATE Distinguished Play Awards for Best Adaptation and the Charlotte Chorpenning Award for the body of work of a children’s playwright.
These two power house creatives alone make this play one you should seriously consider producing.

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

Technical Challenges of the Play

When designing the set, I’d suggest dividing your stage into two places–Jonas’ home and the Giver’s home.  Give more space to the Giver’s home as most of the action occurs there.  Several scenes can be played in front of the curtain or neutral space between the two sets.
As the play progresses, Jonas begins to understand the Giver, more and more things begin to have color.  That’s a challenge.  We considered several ways to depict the changes and finally landed on  a technique magicians use–distract the audience and intrigue them to look where you want them to focus.
The Giver’s home requires bookcases full of books.  Among other things, we painted four flats to look like identical.  However, each flat was just a little different–the first book case flat was painted with all gray books.  The second flat had several books painted in red or blue while the others were gray and so on until the last flat’s books has most of the books were any color but gray.
To accomplish this, my designer hung the flats in order, one in front of the other on a track (like a closet door track in your house). In the photo above you can see the flat, upstage behind the Giver. As the scenes progressed, the crew merely slid the first flat over past the stage curtains.  Consequently, that left the second flat showing. This continued until every flat had been used.  At the same time, the crew switched out a few props on the standing bookcases, so they began to be more colorful, too.
To help contain the action, we hung pieces of grey cloth (of varying shades of gray) from the light battens. Sometimes the  stage lights would shine on the cloth and sometimes not.
The Reasons I Love The Giver Play
As you can see the costumes are simple.  You just need grey or shades of it for everyone.  Most of my cast found their own costumes and it worked just fine. We made the Giver’s costume and an older woman character’s costumes (used a bible character sewing pattern).
The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

The Biggest Challenge

The most difficult parts of this play are the sound and lights.  Since this was a community theater production, we had access to skilled lighting and sound board operators.  There are many light and sound cues and they are vital to the production.  However, if you don’t have access to both using simple lights which can dim and even live sound effects will work.
Audiences will stretch their imaginations if you are consistent in the sound and lights you choose.
The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

My personal thoughts about the play

I won’t lie here.  This is a challenging play.  The main characters have many lines. The scenes change quickly from one place to the next, the plot contains mature themes and forces audiences to seriously consider what is presented in from of them. The best comparison I can make to The Giver is The Hunger Games.
But friend, this play is worth it to produce. 
A few years ago, I was interviewed about my production,   “This production is quite a different kind of production for the Fine Arts Guild,” director Debbie Baldwin states. “Although the play appears simple to produce because the set is sparse and the actors don’t change costumes, there are lots of props that were a challenge to find. The entire show is ‘gray’ — everything! Three gray bicycles, probably a hundred gray books, a gray globe and a gray apple, for instance.”

The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

I continued, “Plus, it is filled with many particular sound cues (a heartbeat, a baby crying, a horse galloping, an elephant trumpeting, etc.) that require the actors as well as the audience to use their imagination, because there is nothing visual to draw upon for the suggestion. Jonas, the main character, sees things in color that no one else sees. From a lighting point of view, that’s difficult to portray. ‘The Giver’ speaks about falling snow and warfare. Those aren’t things that we dramatize in a play very often.
The question that we discussed was not where to find these sounds to record, but rather which sounds would evoke the emotion most effectively? The show lends itself to much creativity on our part and that’s why I enjoy directing it. It’s very inspiring.”
If you’d like some directing tips, check out Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality Or maybe you’d like to read my advice about another play I recommend. Check out: Ten Reasons Why Everyone Produces Anne of Green Gables
Have you directed The Giver?  I’d love to know your thoughts about it.  Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com
The Reasons I Love The Giver Play

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

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How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students
DIRECTING THE MIRACLE WORKER

Let’s consider how to teach play production to your students today.  As I’ve mentioned previously, I was thrown into directing my first production when I was quite young–twenty three years old to be exact. This is how to teach play production to your students.

Ten years and an umpteen amount of me directing productions later, I began producing for the theater company.  Let me tell you, I had NO idea what I was doing but after having directed and experienced that side of it, producing wasn’t all that difficult for me. You can read about my directing experiences here:  Eighteen Ways To Make Your Directing Experience Less Stressful, Part One or Eighteen Ways to Make Your Directing Experience Less Stressful, Part Two

In fact, I discovered I was good at it!

Many times in an educational setting, our students only learn about the “fun stuff”– acting and improvisation.  But there is a whole big world of other facets of theater which are not only essential but interesting! Plus, reluctant performers may find themselves in the other aspects of theater.

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

By teaching play production to your theater class, students are given an opportunity to dip their toes into various responsibilites.  One responsibility which is largely overlooked is the job of the producer. Check out this resource if you want your students to have a comprehensive look at play production.

If we can give our students opportunities to learn through play production, then by all means let’s do it!

The Ten Steps in Play Production

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

So, let’s consider this idea for your class. Here are ten steps for play production.

  1.  Class reads several plays (I suggest you check out: Don Zoldis plays.  They are terrific for something like this.)
  2. After discussing the pros and cons, the play is selected
  3. Order the scripts
  4. After scripts arrive, read thru again, students volunteer for the responsibility of which they show most interest
  5. Set a budget
  6. Hold auditions and cast production
  7. Begin rehearsals
  8. Hold several run thrus, a cue to cue (if need be) and dress rehearsals
  9. Perform
  10. Process the experience

Tips and Reminders for Play Production

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

When setting the budget, you may need to teach your students how to approximate their ticket sales if you are charging for the performance.  Make sure you include any monies the department has ear marked for the play. You are the authority on what needs to be included such as scripts and royalties.  Not all students are aware of these expenditures. Looking for something free to use in your class tomorrow?  Check out:  Lin Manuel Miranda Biography and One Pager Assignment. 

I’d suggest you do everything you can to streamline this learning experience.  Nailing down your expectations for each part of the production is key here.  Create checklists for each responsibility will help with this challenge.

If the student actors aren’t rehearsing their role, they are helping the design chairs to complete their checklists. Need some checklists to de-stress opening night?  Pick up my FREE ones here:  Director’s Helper Checklists

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

If you are presenting a one-act play, I’d suggest two or three week daily rehearsal period. If a full length play, four or five weeks of daily rehearsal will be needed.  You may need to be more liberal with this rehearsal period, however.

What is a Play Producer?

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

Although a production would not follow this pattern in the professional world, allow your producer to lead the production.

This term can have many meanings within theater, but it usually refers to a person who manages all aspects of a production, from overseeing the budget to hiring the director and other artists. Producers have to understand both the creative and business sides of theatre.
Who is best to be a producer?  Anyone an learn how, however the students with the leadership qualities are most successful–communicative, diplomatic, fair, “big picture” people.  Do allow your producer to watch over everything–provide feedback, communicate with chairs, oversee the budget, etc.

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

There is such power in cooperative learning.  Unfamiliar with this phrase? Cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.

In a recent study through the Journal of Effective Teaching,  students taught with cooperative learning strategy performed better than those taught with th individualistic learning strategy. The experimental group obtained a higher mean score of 89.91 as compared with the mean of 79.75 for the control group. The difference between the means scores of both groups is significant.

Please know the first time you attempt this, it could be difficult  with lots of starts and stops.  However, over time the students will embrace the experience and ask for more. You may end up stepping in as an actor if someone is conveniently “sick” the day of the performance or maybe the costume designer never comes through.  Who knows?

If you stay engaged with the students as they experience a class production experience, help them navigate the twists and turns while they learn and act as supervisor, this could be the highlight of your year!

My Producer Unit

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

You may not be aware, but I have a Producer unit.  You can find it here: Drama Producer Unit

This unit includes:

This 7 day unit about the theater producer is suitable for high school students and perhaps gifted middle graders. Students read a play or musical, choose a theater scenario, study the responsibilities of a theater producer, examine style, metaphor, create and set up a budget/income for their production and finish with sharing their ideas on a concept board. Through this unit, students develop a keen eye for what it takes to be a producer and critique their peer’s work as well.

 

The product includes:

  • Warm-Up Exercise
  • The Rationale Teaching the Unit
  • Teacher Script to Introduce the Unit –what I say and how I say it!
  • Quora article with questions to answer
  • Blog Post about Broadway Tricks of the Trade
  • How to Use Metaphor in Design
  • Questions to Consider when Producing a Production
  • Procedure for Each Day
  • Photocopying List
  • Musical and Play List Titles of Most Popular Productions in High Schools
  • Three Theater Scenarios for the Students to Choose From
  • List of Publishing Companies of Plays and Musicals
  • Sources & Live Video links list including clip suggestions
  • Two Assignments–one a short essay and another creating a concept board
  • Assignment Rubric
  • Peer evaluation activity

I hope you’ll consider planning a class play production in the near future.  I’ve found it to be one of the most gratifying experiences of teaching.  Observing my students as they learned how to work with one another, see their exhilaration when they show finally comes together and listening to their “aha” moments is a wonderful thing. Maybe you just want to start small and teach your students about costume design?

What class play productions have you produced?  I’d love to hear about them.  Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com!

How to Teach Play Production to Your Students

 

 

 

 

 

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

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The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

File:Children's Theatre Company.jpg

Have you heard of Plays for New Audiences? No? They are terrific.  Here are the seven reasons I recommend plays for new audiences scripts.

Plays for New Audiences is a division of Children’s Theatre Company. (Pictured above) Minneapolis, Minnesota. PNA offers contemporary works that are topical, relevant, and even fantastical. In addition, PNA offers many reimagined classics that are stage-ready for your next production.

The Children’s Theatre Company (formerly known as The Moppet Players from 1961 to 1965) is a regional theater established in 1965, specializing in plays for families, young audiences and the very young.

You really must check out this website!  Plays for New Audiences 

I ran on to the Childrens Theatre Company many years ago and picked up a few scripts for the youth theater I was administrating. Friends, these scripts are fabulous.

Plays for High School of Middle School Students to Perform

At least once a week, I read of teachers desperate to find a script to produce with their students.  Either they need one for their class to produce, or are looking for a play to use to travel and perform for their elementary or middle schools. (Next school year would be a fantastic time to do this with your students since the pandemic will have subsided and everyone should be back in school full swing.)

Here are a few I suggest, but friends there are many of which to choose.  Do give this website an afternoon to peruse.

Mark Twain

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

Reason #1: Some are adapted from celebrated authors.

A Mark Twain Storybook is about a troupe of actors who re-tell some of Mark Twain’s most popular stories in “The Quadricetennial edition of America’s most loved traveling show, The Celebrated Mark Twain Storybook and Musicale Review!” They cover Tom Sawyer, The Good Little Boy (and, conversely, The Bad Little Boy), The Jumping Frog, What Stumped the Bluejays, Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup, and The Prince and the Pauper. A Mark Twain Storybook is a vaudeville inspired, rollicking delight.

The script is forty-five pages with roles for five actors with a running time of seventy-five minutes and recommended for ages six and up.

Reason #2:  They are willing to adapt movies into plays. Generally, a movie will come out of a play version, but I like that they are willing to reverse that if the script is worthwhile.

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

Another script which looks sensational is Akeelah and the Bee.  Akeelah and the Bee tells the story of a girl with a crazy passion for words: the more abstruse and labyrinthine, the better. But this gift is almost overwhelmed by the challenge of her daily life in a tough, Chicago neighborhood. Akeelah’s aptitude earns her a spot in the National Spelling Bee, which inspires the people in her neighborhood with her courage and tenacity. (You may be familiar with this title as there was a movie of it first.)

The script is 104 pages with roles for seven males and seven females.  It runs two hours and is suitable for ages eight and up.

Reason #3:  Some plays contain original plots.

If you are looking for something concerning the Jewish culture, I’d check out The Adventures of Motel. The Adventures of Motel is a story of adventure and misadventure set in Russia in the year 1905. A Jewish boy named Mottel meets the trials of living under rule of a cruel Czar with wit and good cheer. Mottel has many adventures, from causing the whole town to sneeze, dying the river (and in effect all the laundry) blue, and eventually travelling to America. We are able to experience what life was like for Jews in Russia at this tine while being entertained by the mishaps of a young boy.

The script is fifty-eight pages in length, runs two hours and has a cast of thirteen male and eleven female.  It is suitable for ages eleven and up.

Reason #4: Many are multicultural.  Quite a few are adaptations from folk or fairy tales.

Monkey King

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

The Monkey King is a fabulous folk tale from China. I’d take a look at it if you have a large class or auditioning pool.

The Monkey King play concerns a Heavenly Palace, the Jade Emperor and the Jade Empress are holding a feast. Suddenly a monkey hatches from a rock and declares himself King, shaking the very foundations of heaven and earth. He even travels to the underworld and erases his death in the Book of the Dead. The Emperor tries to capture the Monkey, but the wild animal escapes, ending up in a showdown with Buddha himself! Buddha wins and thus begins the Monkey’s earthly adventures. He accompanies a monk on a pilgrimage, along with two traveling companions, a pig, Ba-jie, and a carp, Sha-Sen, both of whom have been sent down to earth after causing trouble in the Heavenly Realm. As with every great quest story, the journey tests the character of the four travelers. To complete the mission, each must learn to recognize his weakness and understand their strengths.

The script is fifty-two pages  in length runs one hour and  forty-one minutes with roles for fifteen male and eight female +ensemble (Doubling possible)

Talking

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

Reason #5:  They are diverse.

Based on the book of the same name, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is worth checking out as well.

In Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy  Turner Buckminster III can’t win: he’s the new kid in town, he plays baseball differently, and he stumbles upon trouble at every step. Turner’s only friend is Lizzie Bright Griffin from Malaga Island, an impoverished community founded by former slaves. The town (and Turner’s father) disapproves of their friendship, but Turner and Lizzie remain friends regardless. When powerful forces threaten Lizzie and her kin, Turner faces the ultimate test of his character—and learns a hard-earned lesson about courage and loss.

The script is eighty-eight pages in length, runs two hours (with an intermission) and has roles for four male and seven female. It is appropriate for nine years and up.

Reason #6:  They are entertaining and fun!

Bunnicula: 40th Anniversary Edition (Bunnicula and Friends) Cover Image

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

Looking for a musical?  Here is one–Bunnicula!

Bunnical is about a dancing cat, a howling dog, and a vampire bunny. The perfect pet combination for any family. It’s a dark and stormy night and Chester (the family cat) and Harold (the family dog) sit waiting for their owners to return home from the movies. Chester and Harold are more than just pets, they’re good friends too. When the Monroes finally get home, they come bearing a surprise: they’ve found a bunny in the movie theater. But this is no ordinary rabbit… this is the extraordinary Bunnicula. When the family’s produce starts losing its juice, Chester thinks he knows what’s causing the fantastic phenomenon. Bunnicula is a vampire! Or maybe Chester’s imagination is getting the better of him. Singing and dancing their way through this hilarious mystery, the furry friends find room in their hearts, and in their home, for one very unique bunny.

This musical comes with musical tracks which would be very helpful if you don’t have an accompaniast.  The show runs one hour and thirty-one minutes, has roles for two female and one male and is suitable for age six and up.

 

Reindeer in Tromso region, Northern Norway

The Seven Reasons I Recommend Plays for New Audiences Scripts

Reason #7: They offer scripts with holiday themes.

Holiday Plays

Publishers with holiday themed scripts are always a plus in my book.  Prancer concerns young Jessica Riggs’ family has fallen on hard times. Still, she keeps her belief in Santa Claus and the idea that there are miracles in the world. When an injured reindeer appears in Jessica’s backyard, she believes it is Prancer. While she is nursing the creature back to health, the whole community of Three Oaks eventually learns about Prancer, causing big problems for Jessica as she tries to return the reindeer home. Based on the cherished film, Prancer, this piece uses a heartwarming story and breathtaking puppetry to bring light into your holiday season.

Want some help with directing?  Pick up my Director’s Helper Checklist here: Director’s Helper Checklist 

Licensing and Royalties Information

I did want to touch on purchasing scripts and royalties for these plays and musicals.  If you want to purchase copies for your class to read called you need a Classroom Reading license. This is a fifty dollar per semester cost. You can download and copy as many as you need. If you want to purchase, just one it is $12.00. I think it would be better to purchase a classroom reading license. At fifty dollars,  that’s a pretty good deal since the average script cost of other publishers is usually around $10.00.  I’d seriously consider doing this if I were you.

You would need to apply for a license to produce one of their plays in order to receive a royalty quote.  I was unable to secure this information for you.

I hope you’ll check out Plays for New Audiences and their scripts.  If I was still directing and teaching, I’d be on this site like butter on bread.  They are unique, imaginative and guaranteed to be engaging to your students and audience.

If you’d appreciate additional advice from a seasoned theater teacher and director, check out:

 Ten Important Elements to Consider When Directing a Youth Theater Production

Eighteen Ways To Make Your Directing Experience Less Stressful, Part One

Eighteen Ways to Make Your Directing Experience Less Stressful, Part Two

What play publishing company are you fond of?  There are many, huh?  Leave a comment and share your opinion.  If you’d like to contact me do so at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net

woman behind DramaMommaSpeaks

The Real Skills You Should Look For In A Stage Director

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The Real Skills You Should Look For in a Stage Director

Have you wondered about the real skills you should look for in a director for the stage?

When I was twenty-four years old, I fell into directing. At the time, I was part of a blossoming community theater who produced monster seasons each year. Not only that, but they produced wonderful productions of shows such as South Pacific, The Music Man, Macbeth, The Odd Couple, etc. It was exciting!

Next show of the season was The Miracle Worker. The president of the company called asking, “There is no one to direct The Miracle Worker. We think you’d do a great job.  Would you be willing to head it up?”

Gulping, I said yes.

That was the beginning of my directing journey.  Now nearly forty years later, I’ve directed over 325 plays and musicals with adults and children alike.  Whew!

The Real Skills You Should Look For in a Stage Director

My second time to direct The Miracle Worker 

Truly, I have a perfect temperament for directing– natural born leader, charismatic, creative, inspiring and encouraging.

Luckily, I attended Stephen College in Columbia, Missouri and we trained as actors and technical theater positions.  I have plenty of experience as a property mistress, costumer, box office, house management, set construction and so forth.

There have been many times I’ve attended a production and wondered who directed it, because the show appears disorganized.  You know what I mean–one costume is fabulous while the next is from a different time period. Or the staircase piece is magnificent, but the basic set looks unfinished. In community theater, it is not uncommon for volunteers to be doing everything–performing and building the set. That’s not a negative, but a positive in my book.

(Don’t know much about community theater? Check out my post– Are You Missing These Kind of People in Your Life?)

When directing, I require my casts to put in some time building the set or helping sew costumes or gathering props.  I think it helps them to see that every aspect is important to a production.  You’ll see me there helping, too.

The Real Skills You Should Look For in a Stage Director

Julie Taymor, Spider-Man Director - Her Career on Stage, Screen - Photos - WSJ
Julie Taymore, Director of Spider Man the Musical

What are the skills a stage director needs? I was looking around the internet and stumbled upon this page from Berkley University which states,

“Successful directors possess a large suite of interpersonal skill, including personal and artistic sensitivity, aesthetic acuity, excellent communication and organization, and the confidence to lead and inspire others through a difficult and unpredictable process. They are superb multitaskers and steady as a rock in the face of adversity.

While not all directors are great collaborators, all must understand how to facilitate the collaborative process and synthesize the efforts of large creative teams. Finally, it’s vital that directors possess the ability to think critically and analytically about a text, and the passion and conviction to pursue their interpretations.

It’s the director’s job to answer the difficult question of “why”: why stage this show here, now, with these actors and for this audience? In essence, why does this performance matter?”

Their professional skills include:

  • Hiring and leading a production team
  • Casting and running auditions
  • Basic theatrical design
  • A unique vision
  • Critical and analytical thinking
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Leadership
  • Multitasking
  • Networking
  • Time management

They must be:

  • Creative
  • Flexible
  • Encouraging
  • Positive
  • Excellent problem solvers
  • Self aware
  • Inspiring
  • Imaginative
  • Ethical
  • Unbiased
  • Organized

In short, they must be perfect!  Ha!

The Real Skills You Should Look For in a Director for the Stage

Upcoming Event: Devised Theater Workshop with Rachel Chavkin | Department of Theater
Rachel Chavkin directing Hadestown, the Musical

Several times a month, I read in Facebook groups of theater teachers begging for help.  Much like my scenario, they’ve been thrown into directing the school play or musical.  It’s difficult enough to direct young actors, but it’s made more challenging when a novice director must also serve as the production’s artistic director.

Recently, It dawned on me that I could help these novices.  Oddly enough, sometimes I forget how much I’ve experienced–such as the time a student did a back flip off a bench (without my permission) only to break his arm right there in front of an audience or when a bat flew down from the catwalk of an old theater and out into the audience or the time I bumped a table with the cd player on it and made it skip a section of a dance in Fiddler on the Roof  which I directed.

Yes, I’ve been through the ups and downs and have the scars to prove it! .

I got to work and made eight checklists for directors to use the day of a production’s opening night.   These checklists include: set, costume, lights, sound, props, box office, concessions and stage management.   A director can hand them out to various crew heads and merely checked off once the job has been completed.

The Importance of a Leader Being Organized

I was looking for information about the reasons being an organized leader is important and found this great quote from www.commonsenseleadership.com,

“Being organized sends a positive image, which is so important as leaders are signal senders. We want to send an image that we have it all together, that we can and will focus on what is most important, not things that keep us busy and may not have the most beneficial impact.

Fact is, being organized enables us to be more productive, set an example for our team members and impress our external clients – to more efficiently manage our time.”

So good, huh?

Another attribute of a great director is somewhere aware of time.  They are first to rehearsals, follow their rehearsal schedule time allotments, don’t keep their actors late for unecessary reasons just to name a few.  I was taught,

If you are early, you are on time.

If you are on time, you are late.

   If you are late, you are in trouble.”

You Don’t Want to Be This Director

One director I worked with thought nothing of keeping an entire cast very late in evening at the last dress rehearsal only to give notes to just three cast members.  We were exhausted for opening night and then she’d gripe we had no energy on stage. WHAT?!? Needless to say, she ran off fabulous talent with this behavior.

Not me!  I understand my casts have volunteered and although the audience applause is their “payment”, they still gave up their free time to perform in the show.

When my cast wants to socialize during rehearsal, I ask them to arrive early. That gives them time to chat and it keeps us to my rehearsal time. Usually, I take breaks during rehearsal and stay to the time I’ve planned for each part of the rehearsal. I’m respectful of people’s time.

You have no idea how much people appreciate this.

If you want to save time, frustration and take aware your worry,  pick up a copy of  these checklists. I wish I’d had them when I began directing in 1980.

Pick up my Director’s Helper Checklist here: Director’s Checklist

Have you directed a production?  What experiences have you enjoyed?  I’d love to know.  Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or my website at DeborahBaldwin.net

woman behind DramaMommaSpeaks

Check out my book at: We’re Live! Radio Theater #101

 

 

 

 

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

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The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

MTI junior Alice in Wonderland

Life has a way of making its mark on you.  Don’t you agree?

When I was entering college,  I really had no idea what career I wanted to pursue.  Loving the arts as I did was a challenge, because I came from a family of business owners and teachers and studying something like the arts was considered frivolous and a waste of time.  (I think that’s what they thought. I honestly don’t know.)

How would my arts interest sit with them?  I know that doesn’t sound like an important thing to consider when you are starting out in your life as an adult, but I did care that my family approved of my future career pursuits.

Ironically, as things would have it, I ended up getting my teaching certification in English and later in Speech and Theater.  I loved to perform. However, when I graduated from college in 1977 New York City was not somewhere I wanted to move and pound the pavements for a possible job.  I was more practical than that.  I admire anyone who makes it on Broadway.  That has to be a tough road to go.

I had high hopes of ending up in a large high school.  At the time, jobs teaching theater at the high school level were scarce. I taught English for three years then stayed home with our daughters for eleven. Instead of teaching theater in a high school, I developed and administrated several youth theater companies for community theaters. Once our daughters were in elementary school and I no longer needed to stay home with them, I went back to teaching.

For many years, I taught at the same time as I ran the youth programs (my last teaching position included teaching students in second through twelfth) with all of these other responsibilities. It was a crazy busy time, and grueling but it was necessary and I enjoyed it.

Thirty-eight plus years later, I see my talents and knowledge were best used with students of every grade level. Because I taught many classes over the years for several different school systems, I discovered where the holes were in the curriculum and took note of them.

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

Musical Theater Academy presentation of Alice In Wonderland - YouTube

Part of my mission is to provide guidance and advice selecting a musical for a school or youth theater program.  I’ve directed over 250 plays and musicals through the years.

I’ve recommended Willy Wonka, Jr. in another blog post.  You can read about it HERE.

Another junior musical I recommend is Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

A quick synopsis—

In the most perfect day of summer, children play in a park, Alice dreams of a world of her own while her sister Mathilda lectures her on the books she is reading until Alice falls asleep. She wakes and finds a White Rabbit talking about how late he is. Alice follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole where strange creatures offer her advice. Finally, at the end of her fall, Alice encounters a talking doorknob which tells her that a place called “Wonderland” is on the other side. If you are familiar with the Disney movie version, you’ll love this script!   It follows the movie version completely.

Characters–

One of the most important reasons I recommend this musical to teachers and youth theater directors is the number of           roles available. Whoever adapted this script, did a very clever thing–wrote it so there are three Alices (one of average             size, one taller and another even larger)  That’s great from the stand point of giving more students opportunities to                 perform. Some roles can be gender fluid such as the White Rabbit and the Catepillar.

I’ve even switched the genders of the Queen and King of Hearts and cast a male as the Queen and a female as the King.  Audiences LOVED it!

Here is Marshall portraying the Queen of Hearts!

Costumes, Sets and Props–One of the most worrisome parts of directing in amateur theater is the technical aspects.  I’ve had the incredible luck to find a school where I could rent the lead characters’ costumes.  However, you can produce this show with a limited budget, too.  If you can only afford tee shirts, then use different colored shirts for each character.  For example, Alice could be in bright blue, King and Queen in red, her court in white, etc.

A set design can be as simple as perioktois painted with three different scenes to denote locations.  Or use a unit set and merely change a few set pieces for each scene.

Here’s a secret–an audience will believe anything you believe first.  Direct the show in your school cafetorium or library or outside on the playground. Now there’s a thought! Be creative and step out of the norm.  I have and it’s worth it!

The Pros and Cons of Producing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

Alice in Wonderland Jr • All About Theatre

Audience appeal–Lewis Carroll’s classic is still popular with children. Coupled with the availability of the Disney movie, it isn’t difficult to fill your theater with an enthusiastic audience. Whole families can attend without any worry about subject matter or language. The lines are quotable and well loved.  Some of the best lines are delivered by minor characters and let me tell you, a young person feels so special when the audience laughs at his few lines.

Music–Oh my gosh, it’s so clever!  It’s written in key signatures young voices can reach and sing strongly.  No trying to reach notes which are completely out of their range. Students pick it up quickly, plus Music Theater International provides rehearsal CDs for your students to use. Personally, I think the rehearsal cd is worth its weight in gold.  Students become very confident singing because they learn the music right along with the CD. If you’ve never used the MTI rehearsal CDs, you will not believe how much it helps the students.

If you are considering double casting, Alice in Wonderland works well double casted.  Check out Double Casting a Show? 

Having directed Alice in Wonderland, Jr. four times, I know it very well.  It never grows old.

 One complaint

Length–The show is a little long. The problem is the number of reprises.  There are simply too many of them, although I understand the reasons for including them–it gives more students opportunities to perform.   If you have students which can sustain their energy for ninety minutes, then great!  It’s my experience that the length drains their energy.  I mean, they are only kids, you know?

DramaMommaSpeaks Broadway Musical Units and Lessons

You may be unaware of it, but now that I’m retired I create theater ed. units and lessons for the classroom.  Some of my most popular are my Broadway musical units.

Here are a few:

Each unit is different, although I include several of the same details in every unit:

  • letter to the teacher explaining the unit
  • teacher’s script to begin the lesson
  • a warm up
  • plot
  • synopsis
  • list of songs
  • creative staff biographies
  • Tony awards the production has won
  • Trivia
  • Student’s note and Teacher’s Key (yay!)
  • Lastly, an enrichment activity page which is customized for each musical.

Irregardless of the musical you select for your students, just know that if you consider the students first you will succeed. It’s really that simple.

What is your favorite musical to direct with your students?  I’d love to hear about it.  Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net

woman behind DramaMommaSpeaks