technical theatre

Prop-Making Fun: Building Wellington the Dog for “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”

Posted on by Thtrthts

(Featured image by Pittsburgh Performance Photography. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, directed by Jessica Zack, 2024. Lighting design by Craig Soich.)

A few months back, I was asked to build a prop dog for my friend’s production. This prop can be a bit of a challenge– as I was searching forums and Facebook groups for inspiration, I found a number of people looking for advice on how to approach it– so I thought others might find an explanation of my process useful.

Image description: A photo of a prop dog on the edge of a stage. The dog resembles a black-and-white border collie. There is a prop garden fork stuck into the dog, sticking straight up, as if the dog were impaled.

(A photo of the finished prop, in the performance space.)

I had not read the play prior to being asked to construct this prop. The director gave me creative freedom to approach it as I saw fit. I started by looking for some inspiration photos online. One of our friends informed us that the original source material, the novel, says that the dog is a poodle– I wasn’t very keen on trying to create poodle fur (or spend the money to purchase it), so I decided to go another direction. I thought a border collie color scheme, with distinct black-and-white patches, might be striking and more easily readable on stage. This ended up being a convenient choice, as it made purchasing fur from Joann Fabrics much cheaper in the long run (more on that in a bit).

As is my favorite way to start constructing many props, I began with trash! The “core” structure of the dog was several bunches of plastic grocery bags filled with other grocery plastic bags. I arranged these into a roughly dog-shaped form, and then taped them together with masking tape, and then painter’s tape when my tape roll ran out. On a whim, I threw bits of tree branches from my yard into the legs to serve as some more solid supports– In hindsight, I’m not sure this really served any good purpose, but it seemed like a good idea at the time and certainly didn’t hurt anything. I just stabbed four sticks into the underside of the bag-dog, wrapped additional bags around them, and taped everything together.

(Bag-dog in all its glory.)

The result was a dog form that was extremely lightweight, but also held its shape surprisingly well for nothing but plastic bags, tape, and a couple sticks. There was no exact science to taping it together, I just threw tape anywhere where it seems like it would help unify the bags. It’s helpful to stuff a ton of bags into one bag, do the same for another, and then sort of mash the open ends of these together to “marry” them into one, and tape them together this way– I think this helped create a more solid structure.

It is worth noting that the plastic bags, cheap and plentiful as they were for crafting, did make it so that the dog made a distinctive crinkling sound when moved. So, if this is a problem for you, you may want to find another material, or maybe experiment with using additional tape to help deaden the sound/eliminate extra movement that would create the sound.

After this, traced the shape of the dog form on some old fabric, cut out the shape twice, and hand-sewed these together to make a fabric pocket to cover the plastic bags. I have really never sewn anything before, but this was meant to be an unseen interior piece anyway, so I didn’t stress about it and considered this good, low-stakes practice.

(I did eventually also cover the legs and tail with fabric, too– I guess I didn’t take a photo at that stage!)

Once the entire form was covered in fabric, I used that fabric as a surface to sew fur onto. For a brief time, I wondered if I could just sew the fur directly to the bags, but I don’t think that would’ve worked.

I purchased my fur in 9in x 12in sheets from Joann Fabrics. The POP! Brand fabric sheets were cost-effective compared to regular fake fur, and conveniently available in black and white. At time of purchase, these were only $4 each. I ended up buying 7 black sheets (which was the store’s full inventory of them, so I’m glad it was enough!) and 4 white sheets, and I had an extra white sheet left over when I was done. I ended up spending $35 on fur, whereas actual faux fur fabric would’ve run $30-50 per yard, AND I would’ve needed two different colors.

I used black and white thread to sew down the black and white fur pieces, respectively. In hindsight, it probably would’ve made some more sense to sew the inner fabric “pocket” together over the dog form after sewing on the fur? But I wasn’t confident in my ability to do that correctly, it seemed a bit more complicated. I had some trouble sewing at the angle I needed to because of the paper bags inside the form, though. In the end, I also added some hot glue under each of the fur panels just in case. This helped them feel a lot more solid. (I really don’t know how to sew, it was very humbling!)

I cut the fur panels into the appropriate shapes, paying attention to the direction the fur on the pants was pointing, so that the fur looked continuous. I applied the patches carefully to the face to help sell the illusion that it was a dog– the shapes here ended up needing a bit more precision than I had expected.

(A photo during the fur process– I was getting pretty nervous around this point. The EPITOME of “trust the process.”)

I ended up running out of black fur, but I had enough to cover the side of the dog that would be visible– I decided I wanted the dog’s back to be to the audience, since that seemed easier to sell an illusion of. Trying to make very realistic looking legs and paws seemed more challenging. I still included the legs just in case someone was sitting at an angle where they would be visible– to camouflage the fact that I ran out of black fur, I just sewed some scrap black fabric over the spots I would have covered in fur. In the end, this saved me money on fur, anyway, and the difference from the audience was really not visible at all.

Shoutout to my mother, who noted upon seeing my work-in-progress that the dog really needed an ear– I added a flap of black fur to the head, sewed down the part where it attached to the head, and put a single stitch at the other end, taking care to position it so there was a small kink in the center. It really looked like a dog’s ear! I was pleased, and I think it made a big difference to the final product.

(The finished dog prop.)

Once the dog was done, I had to set my attention to the second part of this prop– the cause of its death. Wellington the dog is stabbed with a garden fork, and that garden fork is meant to be sticking out of its body when the lights first come up.

I debated just buying an actual tool or borrowing one from a friend, but I feared this might be a safety hazard on account of the pointy ends, plus I wasn’t sure how much work it would require to make such a heavy object stand upright. And, frankly, I didn’t want to spend the money.

I did have some EVA foam materials lying around from a previous crafting project… that I ended up deciding not to use EVA foam for. So, I decided to try a second thing for the very first time with this project and build the garden fork out of EVA foam.

This process was rather quick and haphazard– I spent a bit longer than anticipated on the dog itself, so I finished up the garden fork in the hours before leaving for the theater to drop the prop off! I used some triangle-shaped EVA foam dowels attached to a square-shaped dowel to make the fork end of the tool. (I can’t find the exact dowels I purchased, but they were similar to these.) I cut the dowels to length and applied a bit of white glue to fit the pieces together. Once this was sufficiently dry, I covered the joints with foam clay. I applied the clay all around the joint, then dabbed my fingers in a tiny bit of water to shape it. Some of this shaping was on a very small scale, so I used the rounded head of a straight pin to get into areas I was struggling to reach. This ended up being a surprisingly useful sculpting tool!

I used a larger foam dowel for the shaft of the fork. I attached this piece to the “fork” part in the same way that I attached the fork tines. I used some flat cuttings of an EVA foam sheet for some detailing, and for the handle on the very top. Anywhere where I had an awkward edge I wanted to smooth over, I applied more foam clay.

(I’m not saying it was stellar work, but it definitely did the job I needed it to do!)

To get the fork to stick out of the dog, I used tape to attach a thin, straight stick to the back. Literally, just a stick from my yard! I had been looking for something more like a garden spike, but I didn’t have any of these on hand and figured a stick was just fine.

After waiting a bit for the foam clay to dry, (and admittedly, I should’ve waited longer– more like 24 hours instead of 2!) I spray painted the entire thing with a mix of black, silvery gray, and some red for the handle. The spray paint really brought the whole thing together. I spray painted the stick that would hold the fork upright black, so that it really wouldn’t be visible with the black set behind the prop.

(The fork after painting. I loved how the sort of uneven job with the foam clay made the joints look like they were welded together. I was afraid it would just look sloppy!)

(A good before-and-after comparison. It went from a little silly looking to actually looking pretty lethal, in my opinion!)

I had left a gap on the dog’s stomach when I sewed the fur, so I just stuck the stick down into this gap. I still struggled to get the fork to stand upright, it kept flopping over a bit, so I went with the extremely elegant solution of just pumping a ton of hot glue into the gap in the fur until I could get it to stand upright. If it works, it works, I guess.

(A photo from the angle the audience WOULDN’T see– theatre is all about angles and illusions, after all!)

Not counting supplies I already had (scrap fabric; sewing thread, pins, and needles; lots of EVA foam materials, trash bags and sticks, spray paint, hot glue), I spent $35 total to make this prop. If you were to buy everything, this would probably cost a lot more, but many of these supplies are materials the average crafty person would have on hand, anyway. The EVA foam would arguably be the priciest part of this project– if you were buying all of that, I’d estimate adding another $40. You could probably avoid that cost if you used some other materials, I just used what I had on hand.

That covers my process! I hope this might be useful knowledge to some other crafters. If I can do it, you certainly can– I figured out how to work with most of these materials on the fly. Happy crafting!

1
technical theatre, Theatre

40 Reasons Every Actor Should Try Theatre Tech

Posted on by Thtrthts

I pride myself on being a multi-talented actor. I have had the good fortune to experience theatre in a number of on-stage, off-stage, and backstage positions, and I have really treasured these opportunities! In fact, I value them so much, that I think every actor should try them out for themselves.

Here are 40 miscellaneous reasons you should:

  1. You learn practical life skills. Almost every skill you’ll pick up in theatre tech– whether it’s a hard skill like design, construction, and electrics, or a soft skill like teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving– can be used in other domains.
  2. You get to experiment with tools you’ve never used before. Learning to use new power tools and other technology can be both fun and extremely useful even outside the theatre. I learned how to weld because I decided to try a position as a work-study tech in college!
  3. You make new connections. You’ll likely work with different people than you do as an actor, and that networking can translate to new opportunities.
  4. You become more marketable as an actor. Tech skills are a nice addition to a resume. If you do community theatre, this skill is extra useful, since much of the tech crew will be volunteers anyway.
  5. You develop your problem-solving skills.
  6. You develop your mathematical and technological skills. Essentially every role you’ll take on in theatre tech will involve some measure of either math or technology, or both. This can be a valuable way to practice these skills.
  7. You discover new ways to participate in and enjoy theatre. I’ve known many actors who have tried tech theatre and discovered they actually enjoy it much more than acting!
  8. You deepen your understanding of theatre as a whole. Understanding “how the sausage gets made” so to speak can help you better understand the art of theatre. You’ll be surprised at how this can shape your understanding of performance.
  9. You can find new hobbies. Theatre tech integrates a number of different trades and skills. You may find that painting sets or making props becomes a source of creative inspiration for you!
  10. You can pick up skills that can be useful for a professional career. As I said before, both the hard and soft skills of theatre tech can be practical in many other domains– including professional ones! For a time, I seriously considered looking into taking formal welding lessons to shore up the welding skills I learned doing theatre tech in order to get a new vocation. You never know how useful the skills you learn may be: you might even be able to build a life out of them.
  11. Or pick up a new professional career itself! Theatre tech is a career, and one that can be highly satisfying. If you experiment and find the work exciting, you might have a new career aspiration on your hands.
  12. You hone your teamwork skills.
  13. You become more well-rounded.
  14. You stay active. Theatre tech can be a decently physical job, though it also doesn’t always have to be.
  15. You learn useful safety principles. You’ll learn the importance of and how to operate useful safety equipment, and learn important rules for keeping yourself safe while working.
  16. You learn useful design principles. You’ll learn about artistic ideas that can be used in many other domains of design and decor, not just for the stage!
  17. You get to flex different creative muscles. If you’re used to acting, trying set construction, prop design, or scenic painting can be a good way to try something new and develop new artistic skills.
  18. You can become known for some niche skills. I became known as a good “strange props” person in my local theatre communities after I made a prop dog for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. This has made for some cool opportunities! If you have an interest in puppet-making, handcrafting, and mixed-media art, you can find a really sweet way to put those skills to work in tech theatre.
  19. You find joy in supporting others. I’ve found working backstage to be incredibly rewarding– getting to support a performance in a different kind of way can be a lot of fun.
  20. You’ll always find opportunities. Theaters always need volunteers (and/or paid professionals!) to run light or sound boards, work backstage, or build sets! Once you have some of these skills, they can be a great way to get your foot in the door with different groups of people.
  21. You can lend a helping hand, and maybe even save the day. It often happens that productions suddenly discover they need an extra dresser backstage, or their light board operator has suddenly become unavailable. Sometimes, theaters need a volunteer to step up right away. Stepping in and saving the day in situations like this can be super rewarding!
  22. You learn to work under pressure. Theatre techs often work with challenging time constraints put on their work. They need to find solutions for big problems, sometimes while a whole room full of actors are waiting around for you to find a fix. The work isn’t always high-pressure, but working in these conditions when they arise can be a valuable learning experience.
  23. You can discover a new sense of purpose. If you become talented with these skills and develop a good reputation, you can find yourself becoming indispensable within certain theatre communities for your skills. You may find yourself becoming hard to replace!
  24. You can hang out with friends who aren’t actors. If you’ve been trying to get some of your friends to try theatre, but they’re nervous about acting, consider getting them to volunteer for set builds or run crew with you. Or you may already have friends working backstage– join them!
  25. You might be able to find paid opportunities more easily. Finding paid acting work is notorious for how challenging it is. Some shows require more technicians than on-stage talent! Finding paid work as a technician can be easier than doing so as a performer.
  26. You’ll engage different parts of your brain. We often say that some people are “good with their hands,” or “book smart”– these are just ways that certain people have become accustomed to working. Some people develop different areas of the brain more than others as a result of the things they find interesting and fun. Actors who are more accustomed to academic skills may find experimenting with more physical and technical skills to be a fun challenge.
  27. You develop dexterity on both small and large projects. From gluing tiny rhinestones to a prop you’re making to building massive set pieces, theatre tech trains a number of unique muscles both physical and mental.
  28. You refine your eye for detail-oriented work. Being “detail-oriented” is a soft skill many employers praise.
  29. You learn to be more adaptable. You have to be when working backstage! Lots of tech tasks don’t go the way you expect them to at first, and that’s okay. You learn to work around this.
  30. You build communication and collaboration skills. Almost nothing in tech theatre is a solo endeavour– you will always be working with others, asking others for feedback, or working with others’ ideas. These skills are a must!
  31. You’ll discover greater confidence with all things theatre. Once you’ve worked backstage and you understand the theatrical process better, working on stage feels surprisingly different. The greater understanding of the art and craft can do wonders for your sense of confidence, and for banishing the dreaded imposter syndrome.
  32. You test your time management skills. If you’ve been tasked with building a prop, designing a set, or doing some other independent task, you’ll have to plan accordingly to ensure your work can be completed before any deadlines set for you. Learning to manage your time well is a must!
  33. You can make some friends in high places. I have found that taking positions as a stage manager, ASM, or volunteer scenic technician can be valuable for meeting new directors and tech directors. These people can then help get you more opportunities going forward. Who you know is definitely important!
  34. You’ll appear more dependable. Showing up at set builds and working hard is a great way to show a production staff your work ethic. People will notice!
  35. You learn to think in different ways. Working with new people and learning new skills forces your brain to discover new patterns of thinking.
  36. You’ll understand how to interact with techs better. Being a technician and working backstage can be humbling. Many actors can be quite rude to techs! Working as one can teach you a lot about how to treat others, and the impression you make by interacting with techs positively and helpfully can help open doors for you.
  37. You get to participate in theatre with less of a time commitment. Okay, this one is admittedly very situational depending on the tech position. Many theatre tech positions do not spend nearly as much time working on a production as actors do. Instead of attending weeks or months of rehearsal, many techs will only participate in a fraction of the process. If you enjoy theatre but don’t have the time to commit to a whole production, tech may be a great option for you!
  38. You learn to be inventive. I have a friend who calls theatre tech work “making gold out of trash.” You’ll often find yourself working with odd materials, on a low budget, with minimal assistance– the process can be very freeing, and a little crazy in the best way.
  39. You may find the experience useful to include on a professional resume. As I’ve said before, theatre tech is a great opportunity to learn both hard and soft skills. Listing your tech experience on a professional resume can help you resume stand out– unusual skills can provide interesting discussion in an interview! When I told a hiring manager at a retail chain that I had learned how to weld, we had a spirited conversation about it because it turned out she was also a welder… I ended up getting the job.
  40. You’ll have fun! Tech is hard work, but

What reasons have you found to enjoy technical theatre work? I would love to hear about peoples’ experiences in the comments!

1
Actor Life, Theatre

5 Reasons why Every High School Theatre kid Should Join Their School Choir

Posted on by Thtrthts

What if I told you every high school theatre kid likely has access to an excellent training ground where they can grow their performing abilities, learn important music skills, and get valuable practice with performing, all for free?

School choir is a stellar opportunity for growth that all high school theatre kids should take advantage of! Here are five ways joining school choir will make you a better, more accomplished performer.

1. You learn to read music better

Being able to read music is an extremely valuable skill for musical theatre actors. Reading music helps you learn it faster and understand it better. This means easier music rehearsals and easier audition prep!

Whether you have no experience reading music or are a sight-reading expert, practice will always be necessary to keep your skills sharp, and the more practice the better! You’ll have plenty of friends and a choir director to assist you if you get confused. Since you most likely won’t have to learn any blocking or choreography (unless you’re in a show choir), choir is an opportunity to focus on the music. You’ll be able to digest complicated pieces without having to worry about anything else.

I know a lot of performers who wish they could read music better. It’s a useful skill, and school is the perfect place to learn it!

2. You learn more about your voice… For free

Voice lessons can be expensive and therefore aren’t accessible to everyone. School choirs, on the other hand, are usually free, unless they require concert attire purchases or entrance fees for music and other materials. If there is a price for participating in school choir, the value in return for those dollars is likely pretty high– whereas voice lessons will typically be $20-$30 per lesson minimum, a daily choir class for 180 days of school that requires a one-time concert outfit purchase would probably amount to less than a dollar per session.

Of course, the one-on-one training in voice lessons is indispensable, but working with a good choir director and learning all you can about singing and your voice within that setting is a fantastic alternative. If you have specific questions or want specific help, your choir teacher should be able to help you out.

Choir settings are specifically useful to beginner singers because choir singing can explore a variety of styles and musical concepts while emphasizing principles of vocal technique. Choir is the first place many young performers learn about breath support, posture, and the vocal process, and is therefore a great place to begin training. More advanced choirs and more difficult repertoire can provide advanced singers with adequate challenge to improve as well.

3. You get more practice singing and performing

All practice is good practice! It’s generally true that if you want to become a better singer or performer, then any extra singing or performing you do is probably beneficial in that regard.

Live performance opportunities are extremely worthwhile for performers. The more you perform in front of an audience, the better you learn to deal with stage fright and focus. Practicing singing in a group is also incredibly valuable, as it requires some different skills than singing alone does– group singing is all about listening and balancing with the individual performers around you.

One of the benefits to choir participation I found when I was in school was that each choir rehearsal was essentially a mandatory daily warmup. My voice was in great shape when I was in choir– I never had a real chance to get “rusty!”

4. You train your ear with complicated harmonies

Learning to sing with others is a challenging skill. Learning different voice parts can be really difficult, and some musical theatre composers are notoriously challenging in this regard.

Choir music is written in often intricate patterns of rhythm and harmony. If you can hold your own singing in a choir, you’ll build skills that will allow you to hold your own while performing shows by tricky composers like Sondheim. And again, since choir is about the music first rather than blocking or choreography, you have the opportunity to really focus on building the skills you need to tackle any complex voicing in a musical.

5. You might not get this chance again

There really aren’t that many opportunities to sing in a choir once you get out of school.

Church choirs can be found in almost any town, so this is an accessible option if you attend church. Many cities have various choral societies, but these are often by audition, and your participation isn’t guaranteed. Almost every school has a choir, and school choirs are some of the most accessible choirs you’ll ever come across.

I don’t particularly miss much about high school, but getting to sing with a choir is definitely something I wish I could revisit as an adult.

Take advantage of this opportunity while you have it!

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Teaching Theatre

Parents, Don’t Let Your Kids Quit Shows if they Don’t Get the Part They Want

Posted on by Thtrthts

Auditioning is an emotional process.

Even adults struggle with the trials of casting. For most people, auditions are a huge source of anxiety, and of course they are: auditions are a bit like a job interview, except you’re expected to sing and dance in front of the hiring manager.

Not getting the part you want can be absolutely crushing. It’s hard not to take rejection in acting personally, because acting is such a personal activity. You stand on stage and do things the way you think you should, in your body, using your voice. You’re out on a limb! But the nature of theatre is that not everyone can get the part they want. After all, there are only so many parts, and casting is often a wildly unpredictable endeavor. Being passed over for a role you worked hard for or really wanted can feel like a deep betrayal. 

Understandably, this is hard for young actors to deal with. It’s not uncommon for young kids to be cast in an ensemble role, quit the show, and never perform again as a result. This is a really unhappy outcome.

Even if they don’t get the part they want, they’re still getting a great opportunity.

Even if they’re only in the ensemble, they’re still going to have a good time.

And they have the chance to learn an extremely valuable lesson.

No matter what, auditioning alone is a rewarding process. The thing is, actors can’t savor those rewards if they think every casting process was rigged or unfair. 

In fact, learning to take rejection gracefully is one of the more valuable lessons theatre can teach. If your kid is interested in acting, they will have to learn to take rejection… and they’ll also need that skill for when they’re applying to jobs and colleges, beginning to date, and navigating the challenges of adulthood. 

Discovering how to take rejection– maybe even what your child interprets as a failure— as a fact of life, and possibly even a learning opportunity, is an important part of becoming a successful adult. 

Parental guidance can have a big impact on how productive casting decisions are. You can remind your child that they haven’t failed, and that just auditioning was a brave thing to do. You can remind them that casting is a complicated process, and that sometimes we just can’t control whether or not we get the things we want. We can try our best to improve our skills and be the best people we can be– we can’t change anyone else, though.

If you’re like me, these are lessons you’re still learning in adulthood. It may not feel like it at first, but what a gift to begin to understand these ideas early in life! Navigating them now can reduce a lot of heartache later.

Encouraging your child to stick with the show builds commitment. It will likely teach them that something that seems like a bummer at first can turn out to be a great opportunity– a door closes, a window opens. But it’s not just about accepting the role and muddling through the show. Entering the show with a negative attitude is possibly even worse than quitting. Kids won’t learn that way, and they won’t have fun. Worse, the production staff is likely to see the negativity, which can be more damaging in the long run. This is a good time for children to learn that integrity, mindset, and reputation are important. 

And if your child has a genuine interest in performing, then any performing opportunity is a useful one. Child actors tend to balk at being “only ensemble,” but the ensemble is an amazing learning opportunity for young actors. Ensemble actors are often some of the busiest in a production. They typically play multiple roles in a production, meaning actors have to juggle many different scenes, roles, and costume changes. They’ll have to learn a lot of music and choreography. Further, ensemble roles have the benefit of being open for any interpretation. “Townsperson” is not just an inactive person on stage, they are a living, breathing part of the show’s universe– and they have to be acted as such! For creative kids, this is an amazing outlet. Kids can develop entire backstories and personalities for their ensembles roles and act them as appropriate. Not only does this flex creative muscles, it also builds up acting skills, arguably even more so than a “bigger” part. It requires them to think outside the box and portray an entirely new character in entirely their own way.

When your kid is cast in an ensemble role, stress that this is a good opportunity and a very important task. Explain how it can be creative and help your child develop a character all their own. Make sure they know that this is a fantastic opportunity to learn new acting skills! 

What if your child auditions and just doesn’t like their part? Maybe they wanted to be Belle, but ended up being Mrs. Potts instead. When this happens, you have to stress the importance of the entire cast. Every character is important, and every character can still be fun. It’s important to note that many kids don’t realize the size of their part when they’re cast. Almost every little girl wants to play Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but Flounder, Sebastian, and the Mersisters get to sing songs that are way more fun than Ariel’s anyway, like “She’s in Love” and “Under the Sea.” Often, a kid just needs time to grow into the role, and will find they enjoy it later.

Many of my adult actor friends say “side characters” are their favorite roles to play– you get your own moments to shine, but it’s also a lot less pressure to perform, and easier to learn. It’s the best of both worlds!

I think it’s important to also note that directors value their entire cast. When even one actor quits, it can really shake up a director’s plans. Getting cast as a role you didn’t want can be hurtful, but quitting as a result hurts everyone else! Many directors are wary to cast actors who are known to quit in these situations, as it can make the actor seem unreliable. Quitting can have negative repercussions for years to come. 

The bottom line is that your child will almost undoubtedly end up enjoying the experience of the show. Encourage them to stick with it, and they’ll be glad they did! It is very important you not let your child quit when they don’t like their part! This sends a really strong message about work ethic. You can’t always quit your job or your classes just because you don’t like them.  You shouldn’t always quit your hobbies as soon as they become difficult or frustrating. Although there’s a lot of value in letting kids have agency and make choices, parents guiding their children through this decision can be instrumental for helping kids grow. Quitting sends the message that some roles are unimportant and that kids can back out of things they’ve committed to, and it will hurt the rest of the cast. Help them see the value in sticking it out. They’ll thank you eventually!

Time for a conversation with your kid about their audition? Check out my article “What to say to your child when they don’t get the part they want.”

0
Theatre

Story Time: One of my Favorite High School Theatre Memories

Posted on by Thtrthts

I wanted to try something a little lighter and sillier for a change– I thought it might be fun to start sharing some stories from past performances. I certainly have a wealth of them.

One of my favorites from high school is from my sophomore year. I was playing a character who wore a big, oversized robe, with long sleeves that dragged almost to the floor. The robe was heavy and made of thick, bulky fabric.

Read more: Story Time: One of my Favorite High School Theatre Memories

The Thursday before our Friday opening night at our school was always our “preview night,” a a night with limited attendance, reserved for school faculty, production volunteers, and the actors and staff of our district’s middle school drama department. It was always an exciting night– the promise of getting to show off in front of our favorite teachers and next year’s freshmen was especially thrilling to our teenage sensibilities.

And this preview night was going great! I was feeling confident and in my element. The whole cast was having a blast.

In one scene, an actor came on stage holding a hat she had worn in the first scene. (The hat also had some fake hair extensions hidden in it– the character was supposed to “cut her hair” between scenes.) During the course of the scene, I would pass this actor a silver platter, and she would take both the hat and the platter offstage with her. This would leave my hands free to perform my big solo to close the scene.

On this night, I hand the actor the platter. After doing this, I’m blocked to turn to another actor, who was standing on my other side. I do so, and I feel an odd tugging on my sleeve. I pull my arm away, and I notice the actor I’m now talking to has a funny look on her face. But I am an *actor*, and I am in the zone, and I do not break character! My character admonishes both of the others, and they exit.

Then it’s time for my solo. It’s fabulous! The audience is hanging on my every word! The energy is magnificent. They’re laughing at all the right moments, and when I finish the song, I get wild laughter and applause. I turn to walk off the stage, and there is a cluster of faces visible in the wing, staring at me.

Funny.

I get backstage, and before I can ask what’s going on, the actor who had given me the funny look earlier grabbed my sleeve and lifted it up.

Attached to the bottom, swinging from pins covered in fake hair extensions, is the first actor’s hat, complete with locks of fake hair. When I had passed her the silver platter, the hat had become attached to my sleeve. She’d tried to grab it back, but didn’t want to ruin the flow of the scene (we were in high school, after all, and running on a heady combination of adrenaline, stage fright, and sugar), so she left it. The other actor, too, hadn’t known exactly how to approach the elephant in the room, and so they both left… and left me to sing my entire solo, wildly swinging around the hairy hat attached to my costume.

Well, the audience loved it. And the middle school show’s staff told me they used it as a teaching moment to illustrate the importance of staying in character even when you have a prop or costume mishap. Which… yes, I absolutely knew the hat was there the whole time, and uh… it was absolutely intentional on my part that I didn’t remove it, and it’s definitely a testament to my superior focus as an actor. Yes… for sure, go with that!

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Guides and Tips, Uncategorized

Feeling Sick During Tech Week? How to Deal

Posted on by Thtrthts

Let’s begin with a throwback.

My senior year of high school, I was cast as the Witch in Into the Woods. School theatre was my entire life, so I was stoked all through the rehearsal process. Inevitably, though, as we got closer and closer to tech week, I found my boundless, passionate energy beginning to flag. I felt run-down, fatigued, and eventually sick. My voice started to get scratchy, and then started failing altogether. After wrapping the show one night, I found I could barely speak.

This situation is obviously not ideal, and for a number of reasons– I was at risk of serious vocal injury and definitely in need of a good rest. Unfortunately, the nature of performing school or community theatre is that you sometimes don’t have that option.

Vocal strain and fatigue should be taken seriously, as should illness. Your vocal folds are delicate muscles, and pushing through injury and sickness can cause more serious and lasting problems. That said, if you don’t have the option of taking a break just yet, there are things you can do to keep yourself in as healthy shape as possible.

I ended up performing all four of my shows as the Witch without any significant issues. Here are some tips.

Read more: Feeling Sick During Tech Week? How to Deal

Please note that I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. I am not a voice expert. I am merely a performer speaking from my own experiences. The following are my own opinions.

1. Seriously, take a break if you can

Before you read on, I’m going to double down on the riskiness of “just pushing through.” Hear me out: your voice is a part of you, and injury can potentially cause lifelong vocal problems. Unfortunately, a stressful tech week can be the “perfect storm” of conditions that make injury likely. Plain overuse over a single week isn’t necessarily that likely to lead to a lasting vocal disorder, but overuse isn’t the only factor contributing to vocal strain issues. Tech week likely involves long hours of using the voice, possibly coupled with illness or allergies, or poor air quality inside old, dusty theaters; it probably includes eating less-than-healthy meals and drinking caffeinated beverages that might cause acid reflux; it almost certainly presents a number of miscellaneous stressors that can lead to excessive muscular tension and all the associated complications. These many factors combine and create a situation where serious medical issues associated with the voice may develop.

It’s really worth assessing the options you have. Does your production have an understudy you can rely on– even if only for a single show to allow you some time to recover?

If there isn’t an understudy available to cover for you, I would recommend searching for a certified laryngologist in your area and getting your situation assessed. It may be worth specifically searching for one with experience working with singers and performers.

2. Consider seeing a doctor

A specialized throat doctor called a Laryngologist will be able to tell you how serious any vocal problems you may be experiencing actually are, and can provide suggestions for how to best move forward. If you are genuinely concerned about your voice, this is the best way to know your concerns will be adequately addressed.

If the doctor assesses your situation and finds that it’s not safe to continue performing at this time, they will be able to write a note to any teachers/professors/show staff who may want written record of your condition.

If you are feeling sick (don’t we all inevitably get that terrifying cold halfway through tech week?), you may want to see a doctor to treat that sickness, or take OTC medications as directed. Keeping your immune system in good shape is important, as sickness can make any inflammation, pain, or fatigue you’re experiencing feel worse.

3. Use vocal rest periods to reduce fatigue

Think of your vocal capabilities over the course of the day like a glass of water. There is only so much water in the glass: you’ll want to save some for when you really need it.

When your voice is strained, even speaking can be additional stress for overworked muscles. Periods of vocal rest, where you don’t speak at all, can be very helpful for allowing the voice time to recover. Obviously, this can be hard to achieve, especially if you have a job that requires speaking or are a student who has to attend school during the day, but even staying silent for an hour or two at a time is better than nothing. When you’re not vocal resting, be sure to use your voice mindfully and carefully.

I’ve written another article about vocal rest that goes into further detail. You can read it here.

And if you find the idea of being quiet for hours at a time daunting, I have an article with tips for getting through it here!

4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

You should be drinking plenty of water throughout the day already as a singer, but this is doubly important when you are dealing with vocal issues. Plain water is king when it comes to hydration– avoid sugary sports drinks, as the sugar can possibly cause further irritation.

Vocal phonation occurs when the vocal folds vibrate together, and those vocal folds are covered in mucosal membranes. Keeping those mucous membranes hydrated is key for easy production of sound.

5. Get plenty of rest

Sleep is a critical bodily function! Sleep is especially important for maintaining and recovering good health. If you’re not feeling your best, rest is absolutely crucial.

Sleep can be hard to get during tech week. If you’re feeling sick, don’t feel guilty about calling out of work or school to get some much-needed extra sleep. If your cast usually goes out after shows, consider skipping this and putting yourself right to bed instead.

6. Use pain relievers mindfully

Remember that treating the pain of a sore throat is not the same as curing it. Taking pain medication (or using a more natural method of pain relief, such as hot tea) will temporarily lessen the pain, but it won’t resolve the underlying issue itself… and resolving that underlying issue is key!

At worst, taking pain relievers can be counterproductive for healing. They can make you think you’re feeling better, so you go on stage and belt your face off, only to feel much worse later that night. Absolutely take medications or your preferred natural remedies as needed– but don’t let the temporary relief lull you into a false sense of security!

7. Communicate with show staff

This one is last because it is MOST IMPORTANT!

Communication is always key in an art form as collaborative as theatre. If you are feeling sick or strained, you must mention this to your stage manager and/or director, music director, voice coaches, or any other relevant staff. This is important for multiple reasons.

First, if you’re feeling sick in rehearsal, it’s a good idea to take it easy so you don’t hurt or exhaust yourself. If you do this, you must communicate with staff. Staff will always understand if you say, “hey, I need to dial it back tonight, my throat is killing me.” If you don’t say anything, they might mistake your gentle choices for lack of effort or care.

Second, it’s just never good to surprise your staff. People both on and offstage depend on audible cue lines. Sound balancing will be shaped around your work in rehearsals. Failing to communicate can lead to unnecessary confusion and frustration.

It also lets your staff know how you’re doing. If you’re feeling so sick that you’re worried you might not make it to the end of the weekend’s performances, your staff needs to know that. They may be able to make plans to help support you, or may even have to make plans to replace you in case of emergency.

The bottom line is that communication is a MUST– even when everyone is feeling healthy!

Final Thoughts

There’s no shame in getting sick or feeling strained during a busy production process, but taking care of yourself to prevent further problems is absolutely necessary. You, and your entire production, will be in much worse shape if your situation goes from bad (a sore, fatigued throat) to really bad (being unable to speak or sing at all) to catastrophe (medical emergency or persistent issues stemming from misuse).

If you don’t do anything else on this list, the most important thing is that you communicate. Always keep your production staff un the loop. You’ll feel better if you make feeling better a priority!

Looking for more tech week tips? Read my ULTIMATE tech week guide here.

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technical theatre, Theatre

Costuming a Cadre of Creatures for “She Kills Monsters”

Posted on by Thtrthts

I made my directorial debut for community theatre doing Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters. This is my absolute favorite play, I had long been hoping to put it on one day. When I finally got the opportunity, I was absolutely thrilled– and startled by the sheer amount of work this meant I needed to start on, pronto!

She Kills Monsters is about two sisters getting to know each other (with a twist) through playing Dungeons and Dragons. Like many of Qui Nguyen’s plays, this one is action-packed, full of fighting and off-color humor. The main character, Agnes, and the rest of her party fight against swarms of classic D&D baddies. Creating these monsters can be a real challenge.

Since the show is so popular, I thought others might find it helpful to hear about my process!

First Trial

Initially, I wasn’t sure how exactly I would pull off these monsters… but I’ve always been a crafty person, and I started making plans for my monsters early on (before I even officially knew I’d be directing the show!).

Discovering Wintercroft LLC marked the moment that I knew I could put this show on, even if I didn’t have a dedicated costumer.

Wintercroft designs papercraft templates for masks, jewelry, and home decor. Their masks are really remarkable. The templates are mostly quite easy to assemble (the site provides a difficulty rating and crafting time estimation for each mask– some are harder than others), and very cost effective. The templates generally sell for under $10, and once you own the template, you can print it as many times as desired. The masks themselves are constructed out of thin cardboard (think cereal box material) and glue.

Instead of buying Halloween monster masks at $10-30 bucks a piece (or more), you could hypothetically craft a whole group of monsters for no more than $15 (one template printed multiple times, made with some cereal boxes you scavenged from your pantry, and add the price of some glue sticks).

To test out the process, I decided to use Wintercroft’s Dragon V2 mask as a trial. The process was a lot of fun, and turned out looking pretty good. My mistakes with this first test were using cardstock instead of thin cardboard, and opting for the “untabbed” construction method (explained in the template files), which both created a much floppier final product than I was hoping for.

(My first trial went pretty well, and looked pretty cool, but I had hopes that switching up my method would have even better results.)

So, I went back in for a second test-run, this time using cardboard and trying the “tabbed” construction method.

The basic process, in a nutshell: You print the templates on paper, cut them out, glue them to the cardboard, cut those out, and fold all the pieces on the dotted or dashed lines as appropriate (the templates explain all this, too). Then you use the matching numbers on the edges of the pieces to put the whole thing together, like a puzzle, gluing as you go.

(Some pictures of my second attempt. I used card for this one and had some help from duct tape. Bottom right shows you what the inside of the templates look like– there’s tape over the numbers that show you what piece goes where, but as you can see, the pieces are also lettered.)

This version was a lot sturdier, but I was still a bit unsure of how this would hold up for performance, especially during fight scenes or in the dark backstage. I had horrible visions of someone dropping their mask and stepping on it in a rush.

In searching for solutions, I found this video from Ultimate Paper Mache, explaining the process for super sturdy, quick-drying paper mache using brown paper bags and a specific brand of wood glue. It seemed like exactly what I needed! I’d never done paper mache, but the process seemed really simple (and fun), so I decided to give it a try.

I invested in some wood glue, ripped up some paper bags, and got to work. The process was easy, I just did exactly what the video said– the most time-consuming part was just waiting for the paper mache to dry. I found it seemed the most sturdy after about 24 hours of drying. Materials-wise, I found heavy paper bags (think grocery bags or food delivery bags, like you get from Chipotle or McDonald’s) to be better than paper lunch bags.

One coat of paper mache was pretty solid, but I decided to try doing more to see how sturdy it could get. I did a test with one coat of paper mache on the interior of the mask and two coats on the exterior, and the result was SO sturdy that these masks felt borderline indestructible. For good measure, I sealed everything in with a clear coat of mod podge.

With these tests done, I figured Wintercroft was a really good option for my monster needs. I sent the company an email to ask if it was okay to use their masks in a theatre production, and they gave me the go-ahead! On to phase two…

Plans, Designs, and Further Tests

I started searching for Wintercroft templates that I could use to create the various monsters for the show. Of course, Wintercroft didn’t really have the specific creatures I was looking for, but I was excited about the prospect of using additional cardboard, paper, and mixed media details to really make the templates my own. Using Procreate on my iPad, I started drawing up some plans.

(As a sample, this was the plan for the Bugbears, which ended up being my favorite monsters! I ended up simplifying/changing quite a few elements from this first design, but those mask add-ons are exactly how the final product turned out.)

I decided to try out the process of modifying the masks, so I got started on some Bugbears.

I repeated the same process I did with my test dragon. I made the masks, covered them in paper mache, and sealed everything with mod podge. Then I painted them, sealed the paint with more mod podge, and got started adding some additional details. The teeth were as simple as cutting triangles out of extra cardboard and glueing them into the mouths. I decided to make the ears out of EVA foam (not really sure why when cardboard would’ve worked just as well… but that was also as easy as cutting out shapes and painting them, for the most part).

I decided to get a little more ambitious with the hair pieces. I bought a number of crappy “ponytail extensions” on Wish, all slightly different textures and colors. I handmade a wig for the mask by cutting locks of hair off these extension and gluing these individually to a strip of fabric. I alternated different styles and colors of hair to make the wigs more “wild” and unkempt looking. I also added some lengths of twine (and put some beads on some of these, just for fun) and some strips of different fabrics, to help break up the texture. I liberally applied more glue over all of this and put another piece of fabric down over the top, so I had a sort of hair-fabric sandwich– then, once this was dry, I attached it to the top part of the mask using velcro pieces. I wanted the wigs to be removable, just in case. I repeated this process but with shorter pieces to create beards.

(Miscellaneous process photos of my Bugbears. These were SO FUN. The wigs took a stupid long time, but it feel like the final result was so worth it.)

These turned out pretty much exactly how I’d pictured them, so I was confident that my plans were going to work out. Now I just had to make a whole lot more.

Lots and Lots and Lots of Mask-Making

I finished my planning/designing process and tallied up my monster count: 3 goblins, 3 kobolds, 3 bugbears, 4 liches, 2 mindflayers, a cyclops, and a beholder. I also needed 5 dragon heads for Tiamat (which will be its own post in the future). This was a total of 22 Wintercroft masks. Wintercroft’s website suggests that their masks take somewhere between and hour (for easy masks) to 8+ hours (for hard masks) to build… and that was just to build the mask itself, leaving aside time to paper mache, paint, and adapt the masks to suit my needs. AND that also didn’t account for the rest of the monster’s costumes: the mask was only supposed to be one part of the whole outfit!

Mask-making became a pastime not just for me, but for my whole family, and on a few occasions for some of my co-workers, too. The process of cutting the templates out, gluing them to cardboard, and then cutting the cardboard pieces was so simple that anyone could do it. I was lucky to have a number of helping hands for this step.

The actual assembling of the masks was time-consuming and lot more complicated, so I primarily did this myself. (I had some help to finish assembling the last 2 or 3 at a set build during the rehearsal process– big thanks to my volunteers!) This step took me about a year. My bugbear tests were in September 2021, and I continued to work on masks until the month of the show, November 2022. To be fair, a lot of the construction happened after summer 2022 and was crammed into those few final months, so it’s not like I was crafting nonstop for 14 months.

Some tips and tricks for working on Wintercroft templates I picked up during this time:

  • If you’re making a lot of creatures, be prepared to gather a LOT of card. You can scavenge this from a LOT of food and household products. Cereal boxes, frozen pizza boxes, tissue boxes— anything along those lines. You want the boxes to be in good shape (not crumpled up/folded). I explained to my coworkers what kind of cardboard I was looking for and asked them to save theirs for me— I ended up with a ton! 
  • I said above that the “card” the templates call for is NOT the same as cardstock. Cardstock could possibly be used for some small details, though— just not for big, structural shapes. If you’re really struggling to collect enough card, you could possibly experiment with this.
  • I found wood glue to be a really good adhesive when glueing the pieces together. It dries fast and solid. You only need a tiny bit. Use less glue than you think you need, and use your finger to smear it flat on the tabs, so it doesn’t take so long to dry. Glue sticks also work, but maybe not as well.
  • You have to hold the pieces together while they dry. I found paperclips and chip clips really useful for this— you could glue a piece, throw a chip clip or paper clip onto the spot you’re trying to get to stick together, and set that aside for a minute to dry while you worked on a different piece. 
  • I found a combo of glue and tape to be useful— the tape helped to keep the pieces solid while the glue was still drying down. When I started getting really impatient, I tried to use a stapler when sticking pieces together. I feel like glue and tape/staples together work better than just staples or just tape. I wouldn’t use staples on a mask that has to fit close to the face, though, for fear of someone getting scratched or poked!
  • In general though, a lot of the mask-making process is just waiting for glue to dry. Podcasts and 8-hour YouTube videos were my best friends during all-nighter crafting sessions.
  • These templates are very adaptable! You can modify elements of the templates, or Frankenstein some together in some interesting ways. You can also get creative with mixed-media experiments to create some really cool results, like I did with my bugbears. Don’t be afraid to experiment and work with your own ideas. Even a good coat of paint can totally change the vibe of a mask.

Here are some photos of all of my finished Wintercroft monsters:

Here are links to each of the templates used:

This was a boatload of work. I can’t say I regret it– I did have fun assembling all these! If I were to do it all again, I would finish more of the construction in advance (cramming most of the work into the last few months before the show was a bad call, lol) and probably enlist some more help.

Garments and Final Touches

Masks were not the extent of my monster plan. Unfortunately, they were much more time consuming than I was expecting them to be, so I SORT OF ran out of time for the rest of the costumes.

My plans for the rest of the monster costumes weren’t elaborate, anyway. Many of my monsters would need to make some pretty quick changes (I planned my cast so Evil Gabbi and Evil Tina played 5 different creatures each through the course of the show), so I wanted to go pretty basic, anyway. I simplified my original plan so that, generally speaking, each monster costume was a mask plus one or two other garments at most. The “base” for each monster costume was a plain black shirt and black pants so that other elements could be added on top.

Since Tilly draws on her high-school trials and tribulations to create her adventure (the Succubi are her cheerleader nemeses, and her guidance counselor appears as a Beholder), I decided to lean into this and make give each group of monsters a classic teenager archetype. As it happens, I work at an escape room that was getting rid of a locker room themed game, so I scored a number of sports jerseys that they were going to throw out. Pretty much every other garment we used came from either Goodwill or clearance Halloween stores. We got a few finishing touches from Amazon.

The kobolds, pack-hunter lizard folk generally considered to have less-than-average intelligence, were a perfect fit for the “jock” stereotype. I cut apart the football jerseys I got from the escape room so that they resembled basketball jersey-tanks. The kobolds also got sweatbands for their wrists. Since I had the football jerseys, I decided to make my cyclops into a football player– it seemed appropriate, since I planned on making the cyclops the “big boss” of the fight montage at the end of scene 5.

The big, hairy bugbears were grungy burnouts, a la Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club. They got some flannel shirts from Goodwill. The skull-faced liches made perfect goths– long black cloaks for them. We made the goblins punk-rockers and gave them each a denim vest.

All the garments got some artificial aging with the help of some sandpaper and spray paint.

(These are the best two photos I have of my monsters– Vera the Beholder and the cyclops. Photos by KGTunney Photography. I have a few other photos, but they’re just low-quality rehearsal snaps. You can see the football jersey I got from the escape room on the cyclops.)

22 monsters down, I decided I wanted to add one more. This allowed me to add DM Biggs to the fight montage, and I thought it would be more fun if everyone got a turn to fight… so at our final few set build days, we speed-built a silly mimic costume out of a cardboard box. It figures that the monster we spent the least time on was probably the biggest crowd favorite.

(A work-in-progress pic of the mimic, and a photo of it more or less completed. I had almost nothing to do with the construction of this one besides saying I wanted it and bringing a box. Thanks, volunteers!)

The mimic was such a hit that I do wish I’d been a bit more creative with the rest of the monsters. The masks were really cool, but a lot of work, and a cardboard box with legs delighted the audience just as much if not more!

Final Thoughts

I still can’t bring myself to regret all the time I spent frantically building monsters. It was a lot of fun! If I did it all again, I’d get more creative– and either start a lot earlier, or get a dedicated costumer instead of trying to do it while also directing. (Or start a lot earlier and with a dedicated costumer… both is good!)

If you’re looking for a resource for making cheap and impressive monsters, Wintercroft is such a great resource– I can’t recommend them enough. Besides the theatrical applications, they’re just fun art projects, and they also make great halloween costumes. If you want to use their masks in a production, just email their support to ask for permission, and be sure to give them the credit that is due!

Happy monster-making!– I’d love to see some monsters others have made in the comments.

2
Actor Life, Guides and Tips, Theatre

The Secret to Success in Performing Arts: Mastering 3 Vital Traits

Posted on by Thtrthts

I’ve been around a lot of performers in a lot of different settings. I’ve directed, I’ve taught, I’ve acted, I’ve watched from both the audience and the stage manager’s booth. Every performer is unique, and everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Yet, in all of the actors, dancers, and musicians I’ve worked with, I have found that there are exactly three traits every truly excellent performer has in common.

These traits are instrumental to success in the performing arts. You won’t get very far without them, and having them can put you on top in close auditions.

If you can honestly say you have these three traits, then pat yourself on the back! If you’re not so sure, read over this article closely and do what you can to pick them up immediately.

Continue reading →

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directing, Theatre

What I Learned as a First-Time Community Theatre Director

Posted on by Thtrthts

Directing for the first time is a learning curve nothing can really quite prepare you for.

In 2022, I got the opportunity to solo direct my first full-length play. My production of Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters ended up being a big success and one of the better selling plays in our community theater’s season! I had a blast, and I also discovered a lot. 

Here is what I learned from my first directing credit!

Read more: What I Learned as a First-Time Community Theatre Director

Staring Early is Key

I began making plans for my production in earnest in 2020. While the world was shut down, I had little else to do, so I spent time workshopping designs and reading and re-reading the script. At this point, I had no idea when I would get to put on the show, but I was adamant that I would get the chance to somehow, somewhere. The play is one of my absolute favorites, and I had dreamed of directing it for a number of years by that point.

The benefit of starting so early was that I had a lot of extra material to bolster my directing proposal packet. When the theater asked for directing candidates for 2022, I was ready! The board was impressed by the work I’d done, which made my pitch all the more appealing. 

Starting early also meant that I had to do less work during the run of the show itself. Which was great, because…

Every tech and design element will take 2 to 3 times longer than you think 

Having a solid base of pre-production work to operate from proved very important. In fact, I should have done more. Without a costumer or a dedicated props person, I ended up spending days during the rehearsal process working on various props and monster costumes. It was creatively fulfilling, but super hard work. I had a specific vision for how I wanted these done, and I had a method that worked for me, so I was determined to finish them myself. It took forever.

Speaking of which…

You absolutely must learn the skill of delegation

This is a skill, because it is absolutely something you have to learn how to do. 

At our first set build, I was an absolute mess, a chicken with my head cut off. I was trying to give directions to everyone, about everything, all at once. I would give someone a job, and by the time I finished explaining instructions to the next person, the previous would be done with their task and coming to me for a new one. I ended up becoming a bottleneck in the whole process— we had so many volunteers, and because I didn’t plan properly for delegation, I couldn’t use them all effectively!

Part of this issue was simply the way this particular theater works, in which the director usually wears a lot of hats and does a lot of things themself. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a control freak, so I kind of love working this way. Designing practically every element of the production was super exciting! But the work also could’ve turned out much better if I had let more skilled people take the reins on certain things. Letting others take the reins requires some more pre-thought and communication (which is also a learnable skill). It’s worth it. 

It’s important to know a little about everything in theatre

I went into this production knowing basically nothing about lights or sound, and boy do I wish I had known more. It was difficult to communicate with my light and sound techs because I didn’t have the vocabulary to express my desires.

Before directing, it is very helpful to volunteer for and learn about as many different tech positions as possible. Many community theaters are always looking for sound and light board operators. Stage managing (or assistant stage managing) is also a valuable experience, as you’ll be at all rehearsals and can observe up close how a director works. It also gives you a good idea of some of the more practical elements of a production that many actors don’t think about— good, hands-on experience with planning, paperwork, and problem-solving.

You can probably get more done in one rehearsal than you think

Maybe this is just a me thing, but I thoroughly under-filled our rehearsals. I just really thought we wouldn’t be able to get as much done as we did. For the first month of rehearsals, we’d inevitably end up finishing everything I wanted to do within the first hour and a half to two hours of rehearsal, and then we’d end up drilling or dipping into stuff we had planned for other rehearsals until the end.

This wasn’t really a bad thing— I actually think scheduling your rehearsals just a little light so your cast has time to mess around, have some fun, and get to know each other can be really good for morale and the group dynamic overall. Not planning rehearsals to be more efficient started to bite us towards the end of the process, though, when everything always gets a little crunchy and nerve-wracking.

Don’t be afraid to plan your rehearsals rather heavy on activities. Just know that the more work you plan, the more rigid you have to be about staying focused.

Attendance and the schedule will probably be a little bit of a mess, no matter what

I was really adamant about planning out the entire rehearsal schedule in advance. I did… and then we had a slew of conflicts come in anyway due to illness, changes to another local production’s rehearsal schedule, childcare surprises, etc.

Turns out, you just can’t really organize a group of peoples’ schedules perfectly. This is why it’s super useful to have a number of “TBD” days in your rehearsal schedule, so you can catch up on things people miss. (I list these as full-cast rehearsals on the schedule and whittle them down to whoever is actually needed. Or, if we’re all caught up, they can be cancelled altogether. I only had a few of these sprinkled throughout the process, but I wish I’d had some more. You can cancel an extra rehearsal, but you can’t ask everyone to clear their schedules at the last minute to add an extra rehearsal.)

If attendance is truly a big issue for your production, you can of course fire actors who are especially unreliable. I never felt like the issue was that serious for our show.

Also, no matter how direct the schedule is, or how clear the daily call is, or how many times you said it at yesterday’s rehearsal, you will have people asking you what you’re doing that day. Always. You’ll have to embrace it. 

Giving direction is one of the hardest parts of directing

It’s not enough to know what you want (although this is a step I think a lot more directors should spend more time on). You also need to know how to steer your actors there.

This is a skill that thousands of pages of directing theory have been written on. There’s actually achieving the performance you’re trying to get from an actor, and there’s also doing it in a way that doesn’t demoralize them. Maybe I’m just too polite, but discovering how not to feel guilty giving actors repeated notes was a harsh learning curve for me. I’m still working on this today.

This is something that only gets better with practice and wisdom. Reading books on directing is super helpful, and working with lots of different directors to examine their manner is awesome. But in the end, learning to do it yourself is just really hard. Try to get experience any way you can. 

You also have to let the actors be

Some of the best and most creative decisions that will be made during the production process will come from the actors themselves. No amount of pre-planning can really prepare you for the individual chemistries and personalities of the actors in the room, so don’t be afraid to let your plans change, and let the actors do the jobs you selected them to do.

You are the director, and you ultimately have creative control. You do have to learn the art of reining in choices you don’t like, and helping actors find choices that adhere more closely to your vision. But it’s also important to learn how to let the actors take charge themselves.

Suddenly, you’ll find you have nothing to do

There is a point at the end of the rehearsal process where, after weeks of absolute panic and endless toil, you will suddenly find your to-do lists empty. Everything will be humming along without you. You will miraculously find yourself empty-handed, wandering around the theatre as your actors prepare to perform independently of you. 

Some directors will work backstage during their shows, or run lights or sound for their productions. As a first-time director, I wanted to be free to just watch my show. It was very odd when things all at once changed from being intensely dependent on me to not dependent at me at all.

At a point, the show is no longer quite yours. It belongs to the actors. You have to pass it over gracefully. 

You can never quite be 100% ready

You’ll always be kicking yourself a bit during the production process, wondering why you didn’t taking the time to learn more about X or Y or Z beforehand. That’s okay. Embrace the information you have now, and welcome the learning process.

And as the production deadline comes rushing at you, you’ll inevitably be wondering how you’re going to get everything done in time. You’re just not ready yet. You could, hypothetically, continue refining and reworking a show forever. But that isn’t how most real-world theaters work, so you’ll have to let it go, whether you feel quite ready for it or not.

Directing for the first time is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and also one of the coolest

It is a boatload of work. No one else will completely understand how much work it is. You are doomed to be the person who cares the most about the final product, and yet, in a roundabout way, have very little bearing on exactly how that product turns out. You will forever be learning and being horrified by what you didn’t know you didn’t know. You will put literal blood, sweat, and tears into the process.

And when it’s done, you’ll be dreaming about when you can do it again. 

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Guides and Tips

How to be Useful at your Required Set Strike when you have no Technical Abilities

Posted on by Thtrthts

Post-production set strikes are easiest when many people lend their hands to the cause. Unfortunately, many actors dread strike. The reality is that many actors simply don’t know how to help. While technical skills are of benefit to every performer, and I heartily recommend every actor get the gist of as many backstage skills as possible, many times the root of the anxiety is simply “what can I even do besides stand around the whole time?”

Here is a set of suggestions for everyone, no matter their strength or skills, regarding making themselves useful at strike. The list starts with the least technically-inclined options, with the “hardest” options at the end.

Read more: How to be Useful at your Required Set Strike when you have no Technical Abilities
  • Don’t be afraid to ask where you can help. The director, stage manager, and technical director should all be able to help you find something to do, and many of your cast and crew will also happily accept help if you offer it. Of course, use your best judgement—asking for direction repeatedly while others are busy with their own work gets annoying and makes it seem like you lack initiative.
  • See if any painting needs done. Some pieces may need primed and repainted if such is practice in the theater. This is almost always one of the last steps of strike, but it’s one anyone can do!
  • Get on cleaning duty. Strike requires much more than tearing down sets and lights. The lobby, house, bathrooms, greenroom, and dressing rooms may all be part of strike. Find out what needs cleaned— anyone can take care of organizing, vacuuming, or wiping down surfaces. However, remember that strike is messy business! Don’t bother cleaning anything that is likely to be trashed again by the end of the process until all of the work is done.
  • Take out the trash. As the set gets ripped apart, a surplus trash will quickly accumulate. Gathering this and throwing it away keeps the space clear for other, more important work. Remember, though, that because something has been used doesn’t necessary mean it is garbage. Again, use your best judgement— Large sheets of plywood or bits of lumber at a reasonable length can be reused, as can most hardware like screws, casters, or handles. Anything broken, badly damaged, or under a reasonably useful size should be trashed, while re-usable materials can be cleared away and re-organized. If you’re unclear on what is trash and what is useful, check in with someone first.
  • Assist with costumes, props, or furniture. Returning these pieces to their homes in theater storage is often relatively light work. On the other hand, if you have the muscle, lifting furniture into trucks or up and down stairs can be very helpful at this step— the “heavy” muscle is often assisting with the technical work at this time.
  • Remove hardware from set pieces and lumber. Before any lumber or stock structures get taken to storage, any extruding nails or staples should be removed. If they can’t be removed, you can sometimes use a hammer to pound them flat. The goal is to be certain that no one will be impaled the next time they lift that object. Using pliers or a hammer to remove these pointy bits of hardware is a very helpful activity that can be quite time consuming (in other words, if you have no idea what to do all day, this is a GREAT job to sign yourself up for).
  • Return reusable lumber and hardware to storage. Make sure you are clear on what should be trashed and what should be kept. If there are no organizational rules about where these things should go, strike may be a good time to do some organizing! Sorting like objects into their own bins or shelves is incredibly useful for future productions.
  • Be ready to help lift, lower, and store structures. There’s generally a wealth of group lifting to be done. “Stock” structures like legs and flats can be taken to storage. Often, large structures like platforms need to be lowered onto one side or moved in order to be taken apart. Even if you lack muscle, lifting as a group effort is easiest, and more hands are always beneficial. If you see people struggling to lift something, don’t take the time to worry about if you’re strong enough to help— just jump in!
  • Don’t be afraid of the power tools. Even if you’ve never used certain tools before, there will likely be someone willing to show you what to do with them.

Now that you have some suggestions for how to make yourself useful, here are some friendly reminders of what isn’t useful:

  • Don’t get in harm’s way. If you feel unsafe with something, leave it to those better equipped to handle it. Everyone would rather you pass off the job to someone else than be injured. Further, if you’re waiting for a job or for instruction, make sure you’re not, say, in the path of a light rail coming in, or underfoot when people are lifting heavy objects. Stay aware of your surroundings.
  • Don’t play supervisor. Regardless of how poorly you feel others may be doing their jobs, nothing is worse than watching someone simply stand back and tell others what to do. If you feel you must give direction to someone, do it, and then return to your own work. However, make sure you ask yourself, Am I a reliable authority on this issue? If the answer is no, keep your advice to yourself.
  • Don’t hide. This is a popular pastime for those who don’t know what to do with themselves at strike. Yes, we have noticed you’ve been mysteriously missing for the last three hours. No, it’s not a good look.
  • Don’t leave. Even if you have to leave early for any reason, try to be helpful in some way before you go. It’s better for everyone (yourself included) if you do a little rather than nothing.

Ultimately, what is important is that you find something to do. Almost anything you can find to do is helpful, so pitch in wherever you can. If you really can’t find some way to help, just ask!

Directors, if you’re looking for tips to make your set strikes more organized, check out my post here!

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