What Are the Directions on Stage?

You’re standing in the middle of an empty stage, nervously waiting for day one of rehearsals to begin. You’ve read the play, maybe had a chance to sit and read it with the other people involved with the show. But today is the first time you will be moving around on the actual stage.

Do you have your script? Good. Do you have a pencil with an eraser? Good.

Get ready for your blocking.

No, not mental blocking. Blocking is the activity in which people are directed to move on the stage in a regular, repeatable pattern.

One of the first things you have to know in order to go to the right place is where “north, south, east and west” are on a stage.

Moving downstage is moving towards the audience and moving upstage is moving away from the audience..

Why?

One story is that, back in the “old days,” the audience sat on a flat floor, not on a tilted one like you find today in a movie theater. In order that everyone could see what was going on, on the stage, the stage itself was slightly tilted towards the audience.

Therefore, walking towards the audience was literally walking downhill. Down the stage. Shortened to downstage.

Uphill was the opposite. It was heading away from the audience to a higher level on the tilt. So going away from the audience is known as going upstage.

The problems of working on a tilted stage are obvious and numerous. Items would slide of the stage into the laps of the audience. Balance was more difficult. And walking for hours on a slant was hard on feet, knees, back – the entire body!

Quickly, as the size of the audience grew, theater construction  plans adjusted so that the stage was flat and the audience sat in tiers, at a tilt, in order to see the stage. But the name for the stage directions stayed.

Left and right are a little more difficult to remember, but only if you are not on stage facing the audience. These directions are given in your perspective as an actor on stage. In other words, as you stand on the stage and look in front of you at the audience, left is on your left and right is on your right.  If the person telling you where to move says “Move two steps stage left” you take two steps left. “Exit stage right” means turn right and leave!

Easy.

Of course, it is more of a problem for the person who is sitting in the audience telling you which way to go – he or she must reverse their own perspective to fit with yours. The directions are always given to match the point of view of an actor facing the audience.

Center stage is the middle of the stage. The house is where the audience sits.

This diagram shows the directions on a stage, from the point of view of the actor facing the audience.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

I’ve written too much for the introduction to the January play. The three pages, including quotes, are confusing. Should I knock it down to one? Forget the quotes completely? Just go into the play and assume the audience will figure it out?

But I now like giving the whole play a situation to work within. It gives the play an anchor, in a way. Originally written for high school students, the play had a built-in anchor – “We want you to understand the Sonnets because it’s part of your curriculum.” But, now, people are just walking in off the street, so to speak, and have no assumed context for this play. That it is a series of scenes means that it has no story to tell from beginning to end – it’s just a bunch of potentially unrelated stories. So the intro provides a way for the scenes to connect. A reason for them to exist.

What about the dance at the end? It is traditional. Plus, I want to do it. I’ve almost always added dance to my plays. But will it be confusing to the audience? Or will it provide the energetic and emotional “boost” that I hope it will. Right now, I imagine that the actors will wear contemporary dress, so their dancing will be in jeans, Dockers,  sneakers and boots. The women will probably not be wearing dresses, although dresses would look better for dancing. So how will it all look? I think the ending dance is a great way for each actor to take a bow, but will the audience go for it?

The vision I have in my head is clear, although some of my ideas are stronger than others. Each scene must tell a compelling story. As an audience, we must be engaged with the characters. The part of Shakespeare , the character called “Bard” whose job it is to recite the sonnet during each scene,  is to be shared by all – it’s too big a part for any one person. I would love to have the sonnets recited by actors with different accents. Any way we can blend the contemporary and the “Renaissance-ian” using props, costume pieces, and/or the set, is peachy by me.  In the closing, it would be fun if we could bring the stage hands (if there are any) into the curtain call/dance.

I won’t have time to do all 16 scenes, so I will have to eliminate at least six, possibly seven scenes, depending on how much time the intro ends up taking. I only have 60 minutes, including set up and take down, for the entire play. I also have to have a minimum number of scenes – I can;t go out there with a 25 minute play – and I’m not a writer so I can’t write filler. Scene changes will only take so long, and I can’t have a troubadour come in, singing songs,  to eat up time!

I’m preparing this for a competition. I’m in it to win it.

An Intro is Written

I wrote an introductory scene to the show I will be doing in January. My goal had been to provide some kind of set up so that an audience would have an idea of the “conceit” of the play. I knew the idea in my head, but forgot that the audience is not made up of mind readers. Therefore, I wrote the introduction.

The show starts in a college setting, where students are preparing for some kind of exam on the Sonnets. The students are not happy, because they like neither Shakespeare nor poetry, and the course they are taking is a combination of both. As I have one character say, ” . . . the worst of all possible worlds!”

I also have a group of quotes that I had found that referred to how Shakespere is taught in school, what it’s like delivering lines in front of an audience, and about poetry. I hoped that the quotes would tie everything together.

But, when I gave it to DH to read, he said Nope, my introduction didn’t explain where and what the show would be about, especially with the short – very short – set up for the college setting. That was only five lines (not including the quotes). It would have been finished in under 10 seconds.

So I wrote some more to introduce the school setting and the quotes as transitions to the play itself. I came up with four pages, including the quotes. I think it is clearer now, maybe a little too wordy. I may have to delete some of my favorite quotes, not to mention take words out of people’s mouths. But I want to make it clear to any audience member – who would be coming in with no preconceived notions, perhaps not even knowing they will be seeing a show about Shakespeare – what they will be seeing.

Maybe I should follow that adage – tell people what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you told them.

How to Find a Play, Part 1

As a new producer/director or theater, or as just a friend of theater, one of the first questions you may have is “How do you find a play to do?”

It’s not as difficult as it sounds – in fact, there are more plays out there, waiting to be performed, than any person could possibly do in a lifetime. There are millions of people who have written plays – some great, some terrible – who would love to have you read, admire, and produce their creation.

The easiest way to find a play is to get a catalog of plays. There are many companies who do just that. These publishing companies acquire the rights to publish and handle the work of playwrights. They put these plays together in catalogues and hope that someone like you will be intrigued enough by the write-up in the catalog to want to purchase and read the play.

These companies are in business to get plays read and produced. That is how they make their money. Therefore, they are very helpful and accommodating to your needs. They have on-line resources that are designed to make it easy for you to find many, many plays that suit your needs and interests.

You can find classics, musicals, dramas, comedies, mysteries, plays for youth, plays for older actors. You can find Christmas plays, Halloween plays, Valentine’s Day plays, You can find plays for elementary school, junior high school, high school, college and community theater. You can find plays for one person, two people, thirty or more, and everything in between. You can find plays by authors that everyone has heard of. You can find plays by authors whom no one has heard of. You can find “full-length” plays, one-act plays, and ten-minute plays. You can find plays for women, men, gay, Asian, African-American, Jewish, Latino actors, and any combination thereof.

If there is a play that you have heard of or seen (stage play- movies and television are a whole different ballgame) and you want to read it, you can do it. Some may be easier to find than others, but it can be done. The cost of buying a “perusal” copy is usually low enough that most theater professionals have hundreds, if not thousands of copies of plays that they have purchased. Perusal copies allow a person to decide if they like the play enough that they want to produce it. The situation is a little different for musicals but the general idea is the same. Of course, many plays, particularly those considered “classics” are available in libraries and on-line. Many are also available in collections.

The editions of plays that script publishing companies sell are usually acting editions. Acting editions are not the large, pretty, glossy scripts that you find in a bookstore. They are usually small enough to fit, folded, in a jeans back pocket, where they will often be found during rehearsal. They are printed on relatively coarse paper and are meant to be written in (pencil only, please) and can take many erasures (I told you to use pencil) because the actor, hopefully, writes their notes in this script. The more well-known the playwright (Christopher Durang, for example) or the more successful the play (Tony Award winning, for example) the glossier the edition.

Some plays are only available in manuscript form – that is, printed out on sheets of regular paper. If you download scripts off the internet, of course that will be the form you will print out.

It is never, ever, a good idea to make a copy of a play. The simple reason is that writers depend on you buying their creations in order to make a living. If you just copy their stuff, they never see a penny and go broke. Enough said, don’t make copies.

So, if you are looking for a play, have no fear. You will not have any problem finding one. Your problem will be in choosing among the hundreds that will interest and intrigue you.

The Sonnets are a Go!!

The reading of the sonnets was a hit.

I was worried that my choice/support of this one-act of Shakespeare’s Sonnets was a mistake. I’ve always admired those producers and directors who can read a play and find something deep and satisfying in what I read as weird and not likeable. When I sit down to read a play I need a plot, a story that goes from point A to point B in a pretty clear, although imaginative and unpredictable, line. I get restless with a plotless play which only focuses on character, issues or theme without a good story.

In other words, I don’t think I have good judgement when deciding what play to direct.

So I was pleasantly surprised and relieved to hear the reaction of the readers who came out and volunteered to bring the voices in my head to life. I was especially pleased to hear how easily the sonnets flowed from the tongues of these normal people, many never having seen these poems before. There were some experienced actors and some who had never read a play before, some whose resume reads like an index of classic community theater offerings, and some who had never even been in the high school drama club.  Yet the sonnets came through to make each reader comfortable and able to give a reading which  seemed logical and refreshing.

I had explained at the beginning of the evening that we were reading these scenes to decide whether they needed to be ‘adultified” and, if so, how. For the most part, the scenes read very well just the way they were. Switching age groups and genders and changing a reference to “the prom” here and there seems to be all that will be needed. The readers gave insightful, honest feedback on what they thought of each scene as audience and as actor.

Nevertheless, there is a challenge. I don’t know who will audition. And it has nothing to do with acting ability – I’ve directed volunteers with different levels of ability. It has to do with age. If I get all high schoolers, it will be difficult to cast the scenes which call for middle-aged or older characters. And if I get all middle-agers, there go the scenes about the Prom!

I have to pare the evening to under an hour and will have to pick and choose which scenes to perform because I don’t think I will have time to do all 16 scenes (sonnets) in the play. But if the evening comes too much under an hour, I may have to do some scenes which I was not particularly fond of and didn’t do at the reading, in order to fill up the time. I also have to take into account costume changes, which will have to happen quickly because the scenes are short, some only two or three pages long.

One of the readers suggested that there be some kind of introduction to the play in order to get the audience on the right wavelength for what is to come. Although the play isn’t written with one, there may be a need. And, if I can do it organically enough, so that it becomes a natural bridge between the real world the audience is in and the world we are developing on stage, it might be creatively interesting and useful. Of course, a theater audience is, by their very nature, already halfway in the play’s reality or else they wouldn’t be there!

I still like my costume idea, but I don’t know if it is doable. The set design will, of course, be simple. And the idea of closing with a dance is so Shakespearean that I really want to do it. It may be a surprise for the audience and a fun way to top off the show.

Most of all, I am worried about casting. I expect to cast everyone who auditions  – there are enough parts. But who will get what part, who will read the Bard, when will costume changes occur, and especially, which scenes will actually be done – those are decisions which will have to happen quickly after auditions.

Add to this the fact that auditions will occur just before the December holidays since the show goes up in January and the scheduling alone give me the shakes – how to do so much with so many in so short a time!!

After casting, of course, I will begin my grand task of directing the scenes AND directing the readings of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Hopefully the production team will be on board before then.

I guess it is time to “Brush Up on Shakespeare.”

Shakespeare’s Sonnets – Doable?

I’m preparing to direct a one-act play involving Shakespeare’s sonnets. I have so much preparation to do, it isn’t funny. Fortunately, I am very enthusiastic about it.

This particular play is written for high school students and is designed to help them understand and relate to Shakespeare’s sonnets. However, the language is stilted and unrealistic for a theatrically knowledgeable audience. I have to “adultify” it and I think that will be a huge challenge. I will use the actors to improv their own language to up the situations a bit. But the scenes are so short – 2 – 5 pages max – that there isn’t much time to get up to speed. Each scene has to start out with a bang.

Plus, the theater I’m working with has a great reputation with Shakespeare!! If I had known that, I would have chosen something else to start out with. But, I found this play  . . . charming . . . in it’s own high school way. Perhaps predictable, but that was part of the challenge I sensed when I first selected it.

Now, however, I’m not sure I’m up to the task. I want it to be great yet I’m thinking that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

I’ve learned quite a bit about the Sonnets just by doing research on-line. I know, however, that the actors, all volunteers, will have questions about interpretation, “what does that mean,” etc. Much of that will be their “job” to find out. They can look it up on-line as easily as I can.  However, I have to have a strong enough handle on the works to be able to guide them if they go off track or get really stuck. Plus, I have to know the direction I want the scene to go in – that’s what a director does!!  There are many on-line sites out there where information is available and I could get lost in them for a long time. But I also want to put my own personal stamp on the production. Provide something new and interesting. Or else, what’s the point??

Most importantly, I have to make it “theatrical.” Shakespeare brings so much simply through his wonderful writing and is so easy to get into – if done well. I must bring out the drama, the passion, the fun, the enjoyment and delight which grabbed me and, I hope, grabs an audience and keeps them focused on the action –  on what is going on on-stage. I plan to bring in music and dance. Music is a wonderful “short cut” for many emotions. Who knew that this would be old hat for this theater – I thought I was being musically innovative.

Perhaps this all  just means that I am a good fit for this place. I can only keep my fingers crossed and work hard.

Where is the TV Show about Life on the Little Stage?

People are drawn to people who create things. Cake bakers, architects, computer game designers,  people are drawn by a sense of interest and intrigue to people who think things up off the top of their heads and make new things out of everyday ideas and hunches.

On a tv crime show, we wait until the moment the detective suddenly gets that spark of insight that puts mundane facts together in a new, previously unseen way. We are amazed when scientists think outside the box and develop a new theory based on known yet overlooked information. We’re delighted to see a sculptor create a new object by welding together everyday ones. And we love to watch everyday people, our friends and neighbors, take on new personalities, display hidden talents, and make us forget who they are and who we are in a  local community theater production.

One of my friends  forwarded a clip to me from the 1980’s TV show “Fame”, which reminded me that shows about creative people are not new, just rare.  We now have  television programs like “Glee” and “Smash,” and the movie “Black Swan,” which all deal with creativity in the performing arts. Much of the drama from these shows comes from the fact that the people involved work with other artists on both a personal and an artistic level.

The problems faced in these shows are surprisingly similar, whether the location is a local high school or an international stage. And that’s how it is in real life. Who’s sick, whose voice is shot, who doesn’t show up for their solo, whose accompanist can’t carry it off, who gets along with who, the world of amateur performers is riddled with minor surprises that keep everyday, unglamorous people on their toes and that challenges each player to become more creative than they ever knew they could be.

Additionally, real life small performing companies have more of a struggle when faced with the same problems as big organizations because they have fewer resources to fall back on. Hence, the need for more creativity.

Developing a team that works creatively as one is as fascinating as any sports team drama and just as real. Getting many personalities to fuse into one with a common goal is just as challenging. And observing adults act like children and children act like adults is just as amusing, not to mention eye-opening.

An audience watching/listening to a performance only sees the end result. Anyone who sings in a Church choir knows that the hymn is just a small piece of the experience of putting together the music. A violinist knows that practicing the sheet music is only part of preparing for the recital.

So, when is television going to put together a good show about community theater? The tales to be told are endless. The personalities to be found run the gamut of quirks, talents, and neuroses. The problems that arise, the problems solved and the problems that remain unsolved, would provide scripts that would last longer than Law & Order.

From the cliques that intimidate new people to the friendships that only develop when one collaborates creatively, from the people who don’t show up, to the ones who do but can’t produce, from romance and kindness to jealousy and envy, from comedy to heartbreak, and from disappointment and failure to success, imagine how tension-filled and uplifting a show it could be.

Where are the writers? Where is the producer? I’d watch a show like that.

Who Does Community Theater?

This may be a very legitimate question.

Before television, communities not only banded together to bring community theaters to life, but fought, hard, in many communities, to keep them from dying early deaths. Community theater was a popular form of public entertainment, at least as popular as bear-baiting and public hangings.

These days, television tends to keep people at home. It’s so easy to stay at home. There are tons of entertainment to be had at home.

So, who is crazy enough to buck the trend and go out and  “do” community theater?

I have some ideas.

People who have seen live theater and have had an inexplicable, gut reaction to what they have seen on stage. People who have been taken out of the reality they were in and enjoyed the reality created before their eyes. People who have a certain creative talent that comes to life through carefully prepared words and actions, an enigmatic blend of the “extremely rehearsed” and the “never-been-done-before.”  People who are inexorably driven to exercise their creativity and become absolutely addicted to the teamwork, the comraderie, the stress and the sweat of doing theater.

Not just singers, dancers  and actors, but also designers, composers, directors, writers. Craftsmen who work in paint, light, fabric, sound, wood, metal, plastic. Young people who are moved by a good story. Adults who relate to a great character. People who enjoy a shared experience, as at a sporting event when everyone around you is cheering for the same team.

Since a play is life, concentrated, people who “do” theater are people who have the intestinal fortitude to swallow an hour and a half/two hours of concentrated life. Theater isn’t reality. Not even reality television is reality ((unedited, reality t.v. would be very,very boring).  Theater is reality times ten.

People who “do” theater know that there is a grace, a power, a depth of feeling,  a shared humanity that comes out in theater that is untapped by any other form of spectator activity.  Good theater, like good music,  moves people and people who “do” theater want to be movers.

Let’s explore together the who, what, why, when, and where of community theater, then get down to how to bring it to, and enliven it in, your community.