Kid Stakes - From the Page to the Stage
Kid Stakes 2024
Putting your hand up to Direct a play can be the most rewarding nerve racking experience possible even for a person who has appeared on stage in many productions. This is particularly true when you are directing a play for community theatre. Community theatre has unique challenges but equally it can be the most rewarding. In directing you take a collective as well as a personal journey of discovery. You learn a lot about yourself as well as others. You need to build trust in those who you are directing because they are the ones who are on stage sometimes feeling very vulnerable in front of an audience. As I said community theatre throws up challenges not faced in the professional ranks and as director you need to be aware but not alarmed. you also need to be passionate about what you are doing because if you are not then how can you possible expect your cast and crew to be. This post should not be seen as an attempt to write a directing manual because frankly every production is different and requires the director to be nimble but more it is my experience interwoven with some principles that if you are considering directing may assist you in your theatrical and personal journey.
So you want to direct?
I was asked many years ago the question, how did you know that you wanted to direct? Well to answer that I need to share with you a little about myself. You see I have suffered almost all my life from a crippling lack of self esteem which of course flowed on to an almost total lack of confidence. If I was asked to do anything out of the ordinary the voice in my head would immediately tell me I was not good enough and I would make a complete mess of it so better not to do it. In 1984 I had been encouraged to join a new community theatre company in its second season of productions. In the scheme of things I was given a small role but it was the encouragement and support which I received that helped me to at least push aside my crippling doubts and after that production I felt like I was finally at home. This has shaped my over forty year involvement in the performing arts and especially how I engage with people and certainly how I direct but I am getting ahead of myself. in around 1997 I had found my school copy of Ray Lawler’s play “Summer of The Seventieth Doll” I read it several times and fell in love with his characters and the story. With your knowledge of my lack of esteem you will no double nod your head when I tell you I passed the script around to a number of people within the theatre company asking them, is it worth doing? I think these many years later I was really asking was I good enough to do this? I was looking for some form of validation. Well one of my closest theatre friends and mentor put my name up in 1998 to do the next play in 1999. I had no choice, it was now out there but before you real in shock I was not thrown to the wolves because as soon as I accepted the challenge everybody put their metaphorical arms around me and supported me in directing Summer. They knew that I needed that push and I will be eternally grateful for that.
But how did I know I was ready? Well sitting at rehearsals as a performer I had started to think about how would I direct the scene I am now watching? and over time that question got stronger and stronger. I needed to direct. I needed to bring a story from the page to the stage. In 1999 I did just that with Summer and it changed the way I thought about the performing arts and my place in it.
You have a Play
So, you went out and found the play that resonates with you. It might have taken you several years but you are now ready! You have been given the green light by the theatre company and you are already building the bones of your production team. Now, potentially, comes the hardest part of being a Director. You need a cast. What do you look for? How do you know when you have the right person? How do you go about the task of auditions? These are all valid questions. There is no one shoe fits all response. When you get people coming to you and saying they are interested and want to audition you may have never met them before or they could be people you have known for years. People can be at their most vulnerable when they are auditioning. If they are keen to be in your play they will have a mixture of emptions. They will be nervous and excited sometimes at the same time. You need to create a safe and a positive place for them to audition. Simple things like making sure the room lighting is good so people can actually see the words on the page. You would be amazed if you knew how many times I have auditioned in poor lighting. I am not going to go into a point by point list of things to do but don’t do “cold” reads. Give an opportunity for those who are auditioning to have read through the parts of the script you will be getting them to read before attending the audition so they can give you their best. Finally ask questions this will give you a sense of whether that potential cast member has taken the time to do their own pre-audition research which will give you an idea how keen they really are to be in your cast.
Some people will almost cast themselves from the moment they walk into your audition. If you get that then congratulations that makes your life a lot less stressful but most won’t. As you are listening to that person read and you are asking questions you need to get a sense of whether you as Director will be able to work with that person and together create that character. Sometimes it can be a matter of having a gut feeling about a person. They may not have read really well but there is just something that tells you that with work you will be able to get them to the stage. Finally you have cast the play but you had more people audition then you had roles. I feel your pain. Any Director with even the smallest amount of empathy hates having to tell somebody that you could not cast them in a role. When you contact that person, be kind, be positive and be honest. Give them some feedback on how they can work on their auditioning skills and definitely encourage them to try again at a future audition. It could be that their skillset could make them the star of the next production just not yours. I have missed out on more roles then I have got. I know what it’s like to be the person who missed out so I say again, be positive, be kind and be encouraging.
Conclusion.
Hold on! but we have only now got to rehearsals I hear you cry. Firstly this post is getting long without going through the art of directing. Secondly there is no one way to direct. Just do a Google search and you will find as many how to direct books as there are plays to direct. I will conclude this post by just going through a few of my principles for directing. The most important thing for me is to give the cast the room for them to express and share their own creativity and to bring that to their roles. Don’t be a Dictator! you may get a good show but you will never know if it could have been a great show if you had only given your cast some room. Make it fun, make it positive and make it a space that your cast enjoy coming to. Help build your ensemble. In the end if there are creative differences you as Director make the final decision but trust your cast and give them the time and space to show you what they can do. This may sound more like collaborating then directing and if you thought that to then my job is done.
