Curtain Up! E-Book

Charon Williams-Ros

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

This comprehensive, hands-on guide to making theatre – perfect for any school, college, youth group or amateur-theatre company – gives you the knowledge you need to take your productions to the next level. Curtain Up! is packed with invaluable advice and practical tips on every aspect of putting on your show, including: - Direction: from choosing your project to casting, rehearsals and opening night - Vocal Direction: give your singers and actors the confidence to deliver great performances - Choreography: step-by-step advice on bringing your choreography to life - Production Design: use set, costumes and more to realise your vision innovatively (and come in on budget) - Puppets & Props: inject some practical magic into your production – and how to make your own puppets - Scriptwriting: beat the blank page and pen your own original show - Lighting Design: maximise your resources to create a whole world on stage - Publicity: identify your audience, reach them and get those bums on seats Each section is written by an experienced theatre professional, laying out the essentials of every role and offering creative, practical ideas to breathe new life into your own theatre projects. Also included is a section on planning, with tips and worksheets to assist with everything from budgeting to selecting your production team. Wherever and however you make theatre, this inspiring, empowering and highly accessible manual will help make your next production your best yet! 'An extremely useful starting point for anyone wanting to put on a school or amateur theatre production… Lots of really useful ideas for where to begin when putting on a show but also contains a variety of useful tips for use in the classroom' - Drama & Theatre Magazine

Leseprobe

A Nick Hern Book

Curtain Up!

first published in Great Britain in 2023

by Nick Hern Books Limited,

The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road,

London W12 8QP

This ebook first published in 2024

Copyright © 2023 Each individual contributor

Illustrations copyright © Greg King

The authors have asserted their moral rights to be identified as the authors of this work

Designed and typeset by Nick Hern Books

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84842 852 2 (print edition)

ISBN 978 1 78850 737 0 (ebook edition)

CONTENTS

1 DIRECTION

Practical and inspiring advice on the role of the directorby STEVEN STEAD

2 VOCAL DIRECTION

Taking voice to a new levelby SHELLEY McLEAN

3 CHOREOGRAPHY

Step-by-step advice on bringing choreography to lifeby JANINE BENNEWITH-VAN WYK

4 PRODUCTION DESIGN

Innovative design that won’t break the budgetby GREG KING

5 PUPPETS & PROPS

Practical magic in fun, easy-to-read recipesby PETER COURT

6 SCRIPTWRITING

Ideas and practical hints on writing a musical revueby CHARON WILLIAMS-ROS

7 LIGHTING DESIGN

A comprehensive guide to stage lightingby TINA LE ROUX

8 PUBLICITY

Expert advice on how to get the audience off the couch and into the theatreby ILLA THOMPSON

9 PLANNING

Extra tips and worksheets to assist with planning a production

INTRODUCTION

Curtain Up! serves as a highly accessible, introductory guide to theatre-making for any school, college, amateur or semi-professional theatre company. Each member of our team has experienced the frustration of not having enough time to assist more than a handful of the drama teachers or youth theatre groups who have asked for help with their productions. This is our solution: a comprehensive guide which contains the relevant information we believe will take any production to the next level.

Like theatre, this book is a collaborative effort where each member of a professional production team reveals the essence of their specific craft. As it is written by a team, it should be read by a team, either in its entirety or by those chapters relevant to their job descriptions.

You can find a useful resources pack to download, print and share at www.nickhernbooks/curtain-up

We hope you find Curtain Up! useful, and wish you all the very best with your productions!

Charon Williams-Ros

Directing professional adult actors, amateur actors, or casts of young actors is fundamentally the same job: You have to be one-third team leader, one-third psychiatrist, and one-third nursery-school teacher! And the basic tenet of being a director is the same for whoever you are directing:

You are there to make sure that the story the actors are there to tell is being well told.

Every piece of information that an audience receives in the process of watching a story told by actors – whether that information is visual, aural, or emotionally subliminal – is important. The actors cannot ever fully appreciate the impact that their movements, their positions, the underscoring music, the scenery, the costumes or the lighting might be having on an audience, because they are in the picture. But the director sits outside the picture, as an audience member might, and acts as an editor and facilitator, and guinea pig, constantly checking the semiotics being transmitted from the stage – which is just a posh way of saying checking the flow of communication from the stage to the audience.

How a director goes about this very specific and sometimes very lonely job is very subjective, and varies widely from director to director. But every director has a process, no matter how much it may differ from their colleagues. And that process will include certain common fundamentals covering preparation, casting, scheduling and staging. Though there might be vastly divergent opinions on the more esoteric aspects of theatre-making, like textual analysis, voice work, workshopping and movement exploration, these four practical elements should be part of any director’s process, whether they are doing Red Riding Hood at a kindergarten or King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Before we take a look at the practical aspects of putting a production together, it is worth saying that when working with young people especially, one should have a much stronger sense of structure and intention than one might need with experienced adults. There is no doubt that children have enormous amounts of creative energy and often vivid imaginations, but in order for these to truly be unleashed and harnessed, they need structure and order, and a clear sense of common purpose.

PREPARATION

This part of the director’s journey is hugely personal and very private. It would begin with choosing the material. Or, very often, being told by your headteacher to ‘Do something for the Year 5’s next term’, …and then having the headache of choosing the material.

When you are looking for a play or a musical, or a story that you are hoping to workshop a production around, be realistic about the time you have, and the talent at your disposal. If you only have a short rehearsal period (and for young people anything less than four weeks is short), you are better off doing a short one-act play, perhaps with a few simple songs and a small cast. Don’t choose a book musical like Disney’s Beauty and the Beast because those big shows need much more rehearsal time because of the music and choreography that has to be learned.

In my experience, every minute of stage time in a musical number requires an hour and a half of dedicated rehearsal time just to get blocked or sketched out, let alone polished.

Similarly, if you know that you have a couple of really good actors, who are not the strongest singers, don’t choose a musical like West Side Story just because you love it! There is no shame in choosing something modest in scale and doing it well.

When you are looking for a show and your local library only has The Complete Works of Shakespeare and a couple of murder mysteries from the 1940s, don’t despair. The internet is a wonderful tool, and you can find almost anything you could wish for. Search online for ‘Plays with 15 Characters’ and check out the great websites that come up which are sure to inspire you. Sites like applays.com, Concord Theatricals and Nick Hern Books will be full of inspiring scripts at reasonable prices.

Whether you decide to write your own piece or use one already written, analyse it carefully:

⦿ How many scenes are there?

⦿ What scenic/visual elements do those scenes require?

Divide the piece up into manageable chunks to make creating a rehearsal schedule easier:

⦿ How many actors are required?

⦿ Can I fit in additional cast somewhere if I need to bump up cast numbers?

⦿ VERY IMPORTANTLY: What is this play/musical about? Does it have a message or a central theme? And how does it make me feel?

That last point is very important because it is your point of creative departure, and it is this little nugget of understanding or feeling that you will be communicating to your cast, which will serve as a foundation and as a goal as the process continues. Even when you are in a slough of despair and feel that it’ll never come right (and don’t worry, everyone feels like this at some point), hang onto that essence of what makes the piece resonate with you personally, because then you can steer the ship in the right direction. Without having a clear understanding and relationship with the piece, you will flounder, make random choices, and be a poor leader. If you don’t feel something for the piece, or don’t really understand it, don’t do it. Even if you are doing a simple kids’ play and your principal feeling is a sense that it is just a joyous romp, hang onto that doggedly.

And when it stops being a joyous romp, start working at making it one, or fix the bits that are stopping it from being a joyous romp!

COPYRIGHT

It is very important that you realise that all published material is subject to copyright and may not be performed without a licence to do so. This includes all performances where there is going to be any sort of an audience, whether they are a paying audience or not. The only exception may be if you are doing an extract of a play or book as a part of a lesson in a classroom or a private reading. But the moment you have any spectators at all, you do need to obtain permission from the rights-holders. Some material falls into the ‘public domain’, usually writers who have died seventy years or more prior to the intended performance. This makes works by writers like Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe or Oscar Wilde, for example, copyright-free.

However, if you choose an ancient Greek play or similar, thinking that it must be out of copyright by virtue of it being in the public domain for over two thousand years, the translation or edition you are using will, in all likelihood, have been written and published relatively recently and will need to be licensed. You can find out who the rights-holders are and where to contact them for permission to perform, on the first page of most published plays or scores. It is also worth noting that there is a different licence, pricing structure and often even a different licensor depending on whether you are applying for amateur or professional rights. So, know which you require. (If you are not paying your actors, or they are students, then you are looking to secure an amateur licence.)

A heads-up about musical scores: although many operas and operettas are out of copyright, their orchestral parts are not and need to be bought or rented from the publishers of the musical scores.

CONCEPT

Another vital area of preparation is choosing your concept.

This is essentially deciding how you are going to present the piece you have chosen. It is a really creative and potentially fun and rewarding part of the process, because there are no wrong answers, and there is no one sitting in judgement over you. Let your imagination run wild! But keep reminding it of practicalities like budget and time!

You can conceptualise on your own or in collaboration with a design team if you have such a luxury. Chatting freely with your set and/or costume designer can often unlock your concept more fully and push you out of your immediate comfort zones.

Your concept might be as simple as choosing a period or colour theme.

For example, you might elect to do The Pied Piper set in the Middle Ages, with costume and scenery themes in the jewel colours and style of stained glass of the period. Or you could decide to set the same play on a Caribbean island in the nineteenth century and use a colour theme of red, yellow and green, the Reggae colours. Do you see? The same play, but vastly different concepts.

The theatre offers hugely diverse possibilities in terms of concepts for shows. There are no rules. Well… no rules except:

Actors must be audible and visible.

But whether you decide to set Treasure Island around a swimming pool, or do a promenade performance of Dracula where the cast lead the audience from spooky basements to echoing courtyard, always ensure that the spaces you’ve chosen can be adequately lit and amplified if necessary. Very often your concept will germinate from that little nugget of affinity or understanding that you have identified in the early part of preparation, because that is your own creative imagination leading your choices.

There is, however, absolutely nothing wrong with just staging a production the good old-fashioned way on a proscenium arch stage and opening and closing the curtain when you want to do a scene change.

Although you might have reservations about this approach not being innovative enough, it’s worked for centuries so why knock it now? As long as what is revealed when that curtain rises has been fully conceptualised, or thought through from moment to moment, and helps to tell the audience the story.

Remember, making theatre is fundamentally all about the storytelling.

Your concept may be very visually oriented, and so, if you are not a dab hand with a paint brush or hammer and nails, it is good to have someone who understands your concept and can help you realise it. You might be influenced in your vision for sets and costumes by a myriad of stimuli ranging from:

⦿ Classical Greek sculpture to Disney cartoons.

⦿ The abstract squares of Mondrian and Rothko to the super-realistic works of Rembrandt, Edward Hopper or Norman Rockwell.

⦿ Travel writing, your own travels, or a friend’s holiday snaps of the Amazon or the Sahara.

The sources of inspiration for creating a concept are plentiful. Explore them! And get your designers to come on the journey with you, adding their own details and touches to flesh out and fulfil your vision.

CASTING

I have heard it said by other directors that 80% of a director’s job is casting. Cast it well and the show does itself. Well… I agree to some extent. The right personalities can certainly make a production come alive in a spectacular way. But a director still needs to steer even the most experienced actor in the right direction.

In an educational environment, there will always be a couple of kids who you know have the goods to play certain roles. They are the charismatic or obviously talented individuals who you can’t help but notice. Cast them by all means. They will be the backbone of your cast. But there will also be many shy or introverted kids just waiting for an opportunity to express themselves who could really surprise you. It’s worth taking a chance on them. Hold auditions, give everyone a chance to shine, and then follow your instincts. They will invariably be right.

In auditioning your cast, make sure that they prepare something for you, a poem, a speech, or a song if appropriate, and hear them one by one. Don’t let them read cold from the script. Very few experienced professionals are good sight-readers (and children usually are not!). Sometimes, a good way of auditioning is to hold a group movement session. For example, if you have decided to produce Pinnochio, describe each character and get everyone to create their own little scene or improvised movement: Pinocchio, Geppetto, Blue Fairy, Fox and Cat… you’ll soon see which performers have affinities with which energies and who shows the most potential in each role. Again, the results could surprise you!

Quite often, if you take a risk casting someone unlikely, you can be very pleasantly surprised at how they grow with the challenge. But equally, don’t put these types in key positions in the cast. If they should experience a loss of confidence for any reason, or prove unequal to the task, it’s not a train crash if they are playing a small role, but it’s a problem for you, and for them, if they’re playing the lead!

SCHEDULING

I know this sounds boring, but honestly it is a major part of being a director. By scheduling carefully you are not only managing your production’s development to opening night, you are managing your cast’s expectations in terms of their time and commitment, and this is hugely important. I know directors who keep their entire cast hanging around for hours in the rehearsal room even when there is only a scene for two or three characters being rehearsed. This (especially with young people) creates an atmosphere of boredom and frustration which is hugely counterproductive to the creative process. Engaged, active minds and bodies are more receptive and productive.

Here is an example of what a schedule might look like.

Mon 1 April

2.30pm:

3.00pm:

3.30pm:

(5pm finish)

Cinderella, Buttons (Scene 1)

+Fairy Godmother

+Ugly Sisters, Prince (for big song end Scene 1)

Tues 2 April

2.30pm:

(4pm finish)

4pm:

(5pm finish)

Cinderella, Buttons, Fairy Godmother, Ugly Sisters and Prince (Recap Scene 1)

Forest Creatures (Ballet)

Do you see why breaking the piece down into chunks is a necessary idea?

⦿ Allow about half an hour for every three pages of text, and at least an hour for any musical rehearsal.

⦿ Schedule breaks! You need them and so do the cast. Every hour and a half, take ten minutes.

⦿ Stick to your schedule wherever possible. It gives you and your cast a sense of structure, support, and is a constant reminder of your ultimate goal.

If you run out of time and don’t finish the scene you scheduled, don’t work late to complete the work. It’s not fair on you or the cast. Of course, five minutes’ overtime won’t harm anyone, but working way over the scheduled cut-off time sends all the wrong messages:

⦿ That the schedule is flexible and irrelevant, so arriving late is not a big deal.

⦿ That you as a leader do not have a handle on the work you are doing.

It creates a sense of instability and a luck of trust. It’s better to finish when you said you would, and go home and find a spot in your future schedule to make an adjustment to accommodate that scene. No one minds small changes if they are given a bit of warning. Build an hour’s vague ‘recap’ time into a weekly schedule which you can use to catch up if you are behind for any reason. You can detail these on the schedule with:

Fri 5 April 2.30pm: Recap: Cast TBD (to be detailed)

Then the cast know that they might be called for that rehearsal and will wait on you to tell them.

REHEARSALS

I have touched on aspects of staging in the section on Concept, where you can choose what context or space you want to stage your production in the grand scale. So I would like to explore the intimate elements of staging a production: working with the actors in the rehearsal studio.

Okay. You have a script. You have a cast. It’s your first rehearsal. What do you do?

Blocking: This is literally the opposite of what it sounds like! To block actually means to free the play up physically and choose the movements the actors will make.

Well, before you block, a full cast read-through is a really good idea. Get the whole company and all your technical team in from the word go, and involved from the very first step. This is a good time to chat briefly to them about your concept, about the journey you are all embarking on, and to show them some of the designs or reference material that have inspired you. This will in turn inspire them, and give them a sense of focus and ownership.

Read-throughs can be dreadful, so don’t despair! Actors overact or underact out of insecurity, and often misread lines, stressing all the wrong words. Just smile and make a mental note to fix those things in rehearsal.

A read-through is just about putting your collective toes in the water before the big plunge!