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Wolfgang Pauli posted:I wish Sondheim, and music theatre composers altogether, would vary ranges more than they do. I have a friend who pretty much can't get a leading role for another twenty years because the only leads in her range require a woman at least in her forties. Alto, I'm assuming? I suppose traditionally soprano parts are given to the young heroine, while older women are given the lower alto ranges. It's similar to the convention of older male authority figures as basses in operas. Yeah, it's surprising looking at Sondheim scores, something like A Little Night Music. It seems like most of the female roles are for alto. A lot of the writing for females is well below middle C, down to around a low E. I dunno, I would assume that there are directors out there who are looking for the best voice for certain roles, regardless of age. Parsifal fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Jun 5, 2010 |
# ? Jun 5, 2010 18:35 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 19:44 |
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My Theatre professor gave the class a challenge of reading every single play performed in class, suggested for monologues, or produced on campus that year. The final list has 129 plays, many from playwrights I've never heard of until that class. One of my discovered favorites is Steven Dietz. Is anyone familiar with his work? Information on him has been hard to track down. His plays always have a very powerful theatrical atmosphere to them, almost like a type of magical realism. Besides that, the plays I've read never lose energy and often have memorable images and moments. I highly recommend "Lonely Planet" and "More Fun Than Bowling".
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# ? Jun 9, 2010 04:15 |
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Named Ashamed posted:My Theatre professor gave the class a challenge of reading every single play performed in class, suggested for monologues, or produced on campus that year. The final list has 129 plays, many from playwrights I've never heard of until that class. My university put on "Private Eyes" by Dietz. Helped build the set for it, and ran lights. I wasn't that impressed with it, to tell you the truth. But it might be because we had so much drama with the actors that it made me kinda hate the play. However, the script is decent. I'm been hearing a lot about Itamar Moses. I've also really liked the little I've read of Rebeca Rebeck. Edit. I forgot to talk about Dietz writing style. It is quite similar to magical realism in the loopy time line, weird repetitions of scenes, situations, etc. He's not a bad writer, but he's definitely a challenge to stage and direct.
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# ? Jun 9, 2010 07:10 |
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:I'll get that question out of the way then: how the christ do you learn improv? Because it certainly isn't that Spolin book. Well YSD is free 2nd and 3rd year plus a stipend (about $350 every 2 weeks) and usually about 150 hours of assigned work-study at $13/hr. My first year I only had about $7000 in loans, and after that everything was grant money. If you're a visual designer, give it a shot because Ming Cho Lee is only going to be around for another 5 years or so. The TD&P program is pretty rad too.
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# ? Jun 12, 2010 09:29 |
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Buggerlugs posted:On a non-musical note (see what I did there?), does anyone know of a decent play (full length) that would accomodate a mostly (as in only one guy) female cast, and isn't called Steel Magnolias? a lot of Mac Wellman stuff can be cast gender-blind or is mainly female, if you've got the physical space to move the audience around Fefu and Her Friends is an entirely female cast, it could be cool to do a kind of reverse Shakespeare thing with an all-female cast instead of an all-male one, [No Exit] is one of my favorite Sartre plays which could be 1 man and 3 women (the valet is not really a gender-specific role), with a woman playing Apollo you could do The Eumenides (how many people depends on the size of the chorus, any role doubling, etc etc), you could triple-cast one guy as Creon Jason and Ageus and do Medea maybe.
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# ? Jun 13, 2010 12:37 |
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My big problem with grad school is that I have to choose between Writing, Designing, and Directing. gently caress that, it's two years away.
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# ? Jun 15, 2010 10:39 |
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Oh man, this is the thread I've been needing. What's the director scene in this thread like? I'm in my sixth and (finally) last year of school, with a focus in directing, and I'm planning on getting out there to start my own theatre company soon. I have a few connections in Austin so it may prove kinda easy. Also, this isn't really to plug myself (but of course it kinda is), but about a year ago, I directed a show, "dark play or stories for boys," and I really think it could be appreciated not just by the thread but the entire site. To sum it at it's most basic, it's about trolling on the internet, so I think that'll strike a cord. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFimBsXxHms The following parts are in the Video Responses. The opening doesn't translate well to film AT ALL (plus my actors couldn't find their drat light!), so bare with it, it picks up quickly. Also, I guess I should say that it has guys kissing, so I guess if you're that put off by that stuff then you should stay away.
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# ? Jun 15, 2010 14:00 |
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El Tortuga posted:Also, I guess I should say that it has guys kissing, so I guess if you're that put off by that stuff then you should stay away. You're posting in a thread about theatre, so I wouldn't worry. I've also had a hard time watching productions on film, because they feel different. Laughs are quieter, that guy with the cough is louder, the lights are suddenly too bright, someone isn't projecting enough even though you could hear them from the back of the room... I'll check out your link once Flash decides to work again. antiloquax fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Jun 15, 2010 |
# ? Jun 15, 2010 15:18 |
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:My big problem with grad school is that I have to choose between Writing, Designing, and Directing. gently caress that, it's two years away. Amen, except for me its one year away. I've heard from a lot of people though to take a couple of years off and teach high school, since you get to do a little of everything. It's what you don't end up hating that you get your masters in.
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# ? Jun 15, 2010 16:47 |
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El Tortuga posted:What's the director scene in this thread like? I was surprised that so few people were really accustomed to things I just thought that I should naturally do, like be there to cue actor entrances, check on people going onstage to see if they have their props, see where people are and how things are going. Just things that I naturally thought a manager should be doing. I did, however, go into it thinking that the job was all record-keeping and pre-production work. As soon as Midsummer opened, however, I knew just how wrong I was. You make or break an SM by the performances and how quick they are to react when something goes wrong.
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# ? Jun 15, 2010 17:59 |
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Geekboy posted:I took 12 years off from doing theater for various reasons and got sucked back in last year. I ended up playing Charlie Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown for my community theater, got talked into getting on the board for the group, and am directing Little Shop of Horrors for them this summer. It wound up being fun anyway. I'm one of the few people, I think, to simultaneously work the puppet and perform vocals for the Plant. There are many good reasons not to do this, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Just give me better puppets next time, thanks.
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# ? Jun 18, 2010 03:20 |
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Bimmi posted:I probably don't have to tell you this, but make sure you have your prop situation for LSOH nailed down as early as possible. The guy who directed ours rented a set of plants sight unseen which turned out to be broken, unusable trash. We were still gluing pieces onto the rebuilt props a half hour before curtain, and the show just barely escaped being a complete clusterfuck on all counts. The (rather giant) plants are in my garage, so I definitely have that part worked out. I'm going to have my other props worked out as quickly as I can, but the plants are in good shape. I went to see them because some other folks talked me into it, convinced I was just going to go get some ideas for how to build my own. Well, turns out they were way bigger and way cooler than anything I could have done on my own and it cost a lot less to rent them than what I would have ended up spending on them. Turns out the director I rented it from builds boats in his spare time and has a friend with a degree in puppetry who helped him, so they were far more qualified than I am.
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# ? Jun 18, 2010 05:00 |
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Buggerlugs posted:On a non-musical note (see what I did there?), does anyone know of a decent play (full length) that would accomodate a mostly (as in only one guy) female cast, and isn't called Steel Magnolias? El Tortuga posted:What's the director scene in this thread like? I'm in my sixth and (finally) last year of school, with a focus in directing, and I'm planning on getting out there to start my own theatre company soon. I have a few connections in Austin so it may prove kinda easy. Next fall or spring I'm hoping to round up other like minded people on my small campus and be artistic director of a new works festival. Probably a 1 hour 10min play fest most likely. I'm going to try to lasso some music composition majors into collaborating on some 10 min musicals for the fest as well. I hope to fail or succeed spectacularly. Forget Forgive fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Jun 18, 2010 |
# ? Jun 18, 2010 05:47 |
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Just out of curiosity, how long did your one acts last? We just did ours last semester and the scheduling was all over the place. We ended up doing three nights of all nine directors, it ran three to three and a half hours with one intermission.
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# ? Jun 19, 2010 19:20 |
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My theater group is going to be doing The Government Inspector this fall...and I get to costume it. Should be interesting at least.
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# ? Jun 20, 2010 00:30 |
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:Just out of curiosity, how long did your one acts last? We just did ours last semester and the scheduling was all over the place. We ended up doing three nights of all nine directors, it ran three to three and a half hours with one intermission. I lost my Theatre virginity with my one act. As such it was sloppy, over in a flash, but felt really drat good. However, I don't know where the script is anymore and I don't care much to unearth it. It's too weird to live, but what a glorious moment it had in the limelight.
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# ? Jun 20, 2010 02:39 |
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On the subject of OAP's, my college has a one-act festival every year. I don't know how many people here are from Texas, but it was ran as closely to an actual UIL one-act festival as possible. The plays couldn't have been any longer than 40 minutes or the lights go out and the curtain closes, no matter where you are in the show. I mean, there was a bit of a grace period, but if you still had 5 pages left to go, you were getting the lights turned off on you. There were 32 shows total, spaced out over six nights, with 5 or 6 shows a night. I was required to go to all of them and it was painful. All the shows were good, but 2 and a half hours of theatre for a week straight is too much for anyone.
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# ? Jun 20, 2010 02:56 |
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Geschi posted:My theater group is going to be doing The Government Inspector this fall...and I get to costume it. Should be interesting at least. El Tortuga posted:On the subject of OAP's, my college has a one-act festival every year. I don't know how many people here are from Texas, but it was ran as closely to an actual UIL one-act festival as possible. The plays couldn't have been any longer than 40 minutes or the lights go out and the curtain closes, no matter where you are in the show. I mean, there was a bit of a grace period, but if you still had 5 pages left to go, you were getting the lights turned off on you. I think the Shameful thread in CD has inspired me to take a shot at adapting ComFuture by Margarita Sharapova to the stage. It's a Russian road story where circus performers get lost and have to hop from train to train to try and reach the circus train. Wolfgang Pauli fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jun 27, 2010 |
# ? Jun 22, 2010 12:14 |
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Anybody know some good 10 min plays? I'm going to organize a 10 min fest at my college next semester (hopefully).
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# ? Aug 1, 2010 05:45 |
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Named Ashamed posted:Anybody know some good 10 min plays? I'm going to organize a 10 min fest at my college next semester (hopefully). I'm in the same boat. Look at Teresa Rebeck's Katie and Frank. I liked it a lot, but it has the type of ending that you either hate or love. Itamar (Moses also has good stuff that's short. If you or anybody else knows anything, please post. I need five plays and I'll be starting my search in a couple of weeks.
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# ? Aug 1, 2010 07:09 |
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Named Ashamed posted:Anybody know some good 10 min plays? I'm going to organize a 10 min fest at my college next semester (hopefully). I was in Arabian Nights last spring, and we also did Soap Opera, Dr. Fritz, Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage, the one with the couple roleplaying and the guy's friend shows up, and probably another one I forgot.
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# ? Aug 1, 2010 10:36 |
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David Ives is a good short playwright, but everybody does his work for short play festivals. Same with Eugine Ionesco and Christopher Durang. Not that I don't love their works, but you just see that kind of absurdism done all the time in short play festivals. The best database I've found for finding plays, especially 10-minutes ones is http://www.playscripts.com/. Then a ton of collections of short plays, a lot of times dealing with similar subjects and ranging from absurd to comedy to drama to even musical. Plus, they have full-length scripts, and it's also a really easy-to-navigate site that you can probably find anything you need on. But! The coolest thing is that you can read samples of all the plays, usually getting to read everything but the last fourth. There, that's my long-winded recommendation of Playscripts, Inc. Though, for what it's worth, my favorite playwright is S. W. Senek. You should look for "An Ongoing Examination of the True Meaning of Life."
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# ? Aug 2, 2010 22:22 |
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If you are thinking of going to the Stratford Festival, you should instead not go to the Stratford Festival. That is all. Edit: But in all seriousness, unless you can get student rates it's not worth the drive or money. It's no better than any other regional theater and it caters more to the "I went to Stratford " demographic than it does the "I love theater" demographic. unlimited shrimp fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Aug 6, 2010 |
# ? Aug 6, 2010 15:16 |
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Finished my first show as a director this last weekend and am trying not to come down too fast off the bubble. We did Little Shop of Horrors (a bit ambitious for a first timer, I know) and while we did fantastic I'm not sure if we made money yet or not. Since it's community theater, the real goal is just to pay for your next show but it would be nice to not be a drain on our limited funds with this one. I'm jumping straight back in and agreed to direct a friend and his co-star-as-yet-to-be-determined in The Last Five Years before the end of the year in a much smaller venue. Something's telling me I should have directed these in the opposite order. Then again, if I'd done the "small" show first I never would have agreed to do Little Shop because I would have realized just how much work it is. For the record, even though the production was waaaay better because I both directly dealt with and talked with the cast about the Faustian themes and did things like put everyone involved in Seymour's downfall in purple, audience members will only tell you that it was funny and they had a good time. You'll still know the real reason why, though. OH, YOU WILL KNOW.
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# ? Aug 11, 2010 05:08 |
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Geekboy posted:Finished my first show as a director this last weekend and am trying not to come down too fast off the bubble. We did Little Shop of Horrors (a bit ambitious for a first timer, I know) and while we did fantastic I'm not sure if we made money yet or not. Since it's community theater, the real goal is just to pay for your next show but it would be nice to not be a drain on our limited funds with this one. Congratulations. Do you hate actors yet? I consider just breaking even a success with most productions, but I hope you get enough to sustain your next show. Are you working as part of a theatre company, or would you be working with different people in your future ventures? You know, one of the weird things about directing is that everyone seems to have an opinion they want to give you. It's always funny when they're conflicting opinions given at the same time. I've actually started putting a disclaimer on playbills saying that, if anyone wants to tell me what they would have done better, they need to buy me a beer first.
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# ? Aug 11, 2010 06:46 |
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antiloquax posted:You know, one of the weird things about directing is that everyone seems to have an opinion they want to give you. It's always funny when they're conflicting opinions given at the same time. I've actually started putting a disclaimer on playbills saying that, if anyone wants to tell me what they would have done better, they need to buy me a beer first. In my experiences with directing, I've found it's these up-and-coming, twenty-something directors (which I am one of) that are the ones that are keen to just tell you how they would have done something, rather than actual criticism or critiques. But maybe that just comes with being young, though I know I do my best to look at a show I'm critiquing through the eyes of the director and try to realize what their own personal concept is. If my peers wouldn't misconstrue it as sounding pompous or full-of-myself, I'd add something like that to my playbills as well.
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# ? Aug 11, 2010 23:27 |
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How does an actor from Georgia in his junior year of high school further his career? I have a fairly good résumé; I'm a Thespian, been in several productions with my school, including two competition pieces, and I have been in several community theatre (The Henry Players) shows as well. Does anyone have any advice for a college or a troupe or an agency of some sort? I like Columbus State, but that's sort of reaching for the stars, and I liked Armstrong Atlantic as well.
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# ? Aug 12, 2010 04:10 |
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My advice is nontypical, but it worked for me. Find a good writer/director and make an internet video. Something funny, original, that'll show off your chops in a different way than seeing you in person would. It's dynomite to have a resume that someone can look at five minutes of and say "Wow! This guy is funny!*" *And not think necessarily, "hey! This guy was in something well lit, paced, written, that played to his strengths!" Hollywood gets a lot of casting done by star power. Also, change your username to "Trans Talented".
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# ? Aug 13, 2010 04:26 |
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trans fat posted:How does an actor from Georgia in his junior year of high school further his career? I have a fairly good résumé; I'm a Thespian, been in several productions with my school, including two competition pieces, and I have been in several community theatre (The Henry Players) shows as well. Does anyone have any advice for a college or a troupe or an agency of some sort? I like Columbus State, but that's sort of reaching for the stars, and I liked Armstrong Atlantic as well. Well, for starters, I'd say that what you do to prepare all depends on what you plan on doing after you graduate. If you're going to college, then here's a piece of advice, stay away from the larger universities. At universities that have hundreds of theatre students, you're nothing more than a number. And good luck getting cast in anything unless you're a grad student. My university has about 100 majors and 4 acting professors, and that's a good size to ensure that you get some exposure and experience. All the acting classes in the world won't do you any good unless you get some stage-time. It might help though to hear what you're gonna pursue before giving any really good advice.
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# ? Aug 13, 2010 04:41 |
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Well, I'd like to be a theatre major, but as of yet I'm still undecided on the issue of pursuing acting as a career. My second choice of a major would be advertising. In all honesty I'm not even sure if I can Advertising/Theatre at Columbus State/Armstrong Atlantic/Piedmont (I forgot about Piedmont). I don't know anyone with good enough equipment to actually warrant a video. I've had ideas from time to time but I'd rather not make a terrible video. I'll put more thought into it, though.
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# ? Aug 14, 2010 01:52 |
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trans fat posted:How does an actor from Georgia in his junior year of high school further his career? I have a fairly good résumé; I'm a Thespian, been in several productions with my school, including two competition pieces, and I have been in several community theatre (The Henry Players) shows as well. Does anyone have any advice for a college or a troupe or an agency of some sort? I like Columbus State, but that's sort of reaching for the stars, and I liked Armstrong Atlantic as well. Your odds are made infinitely better by being an actor-techie. I have two friends who worked at Pioneer Playhouse in Kentucky this summer and one acted in most of their productions on top of doing props and costuming and such. Actually, you should definitely go to next year's SETC since it's in Atlanta and there's plenty of high school attendance there. And even if you don't get anything, there's a guy from the New York Film Academy who runs a really small 10 minute film contest (like 12 people entered in 2009) that'll get you a free summer there. I don't know who's doing the keynote next year, but this year it was loving Judith Malina. Wolfgang Pauli fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Aug 19, 2010 |
# ? Aug 19, 2010 10:16 |
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Would anyone point me in the direction of some interesting graduate programs for playwriting and direction? I still have 3 years left of my undergraduate English and Theatre major, but I'm looking ahead for a graduate program after that. The only ones I know of right now are Iowa Writers' Workshop and Yale School of Drama, both of which are badass for their own reasons. It would be foolish to stop the search there, especially since they both seem very hard to get into (what up, Yale?), so I'm interested in any type of graduate program for Theatre.
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# ? Aug 19, 2010 22:29 |
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Rutgers has quite a good graduate playwriting program, but they only admit two students a year. Emerson in Boston also has good programs, with a concerted emphasis on supporting their students' post-collegiate work, but I believe the playwriting and directing programs are sharply separated, falling under the Creative Writing and Theater departments respectively.
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# ? Aug 20, 2010 00:33 |
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Golden Bee posted:My advice is nontypical, but it worked for me. I can't really agree with this as good advice. While it may have worked for the poster, the last thing directors (assuming you're looking for stage-work) is something that doesn't get straight to the point. If you're looking for for work in stage, and you decided to make a reel (which isn't actually a bad idea), all they want to see is you standing on a stage, reciting your monologues or songs. The more you try to "spice it up," the quicker they'll lose interest. However! If you're looking to do film, then other methods for reels too. First, if you're gonna use something that's not just monologues on a stage, then be careful about what you choose. I heavily advise against making something up to be directly used for the reel. Odds are you'll end up pandering and making it too obvious what you're trying to show, even if you don't realize it. For example, if you were a decently-made student film, or something local, then that's a great choice. Auditioning for directors is always tricky, and it gets even trickier when you have to use a reel.
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# ? Aug 20, 2010 04:56 |
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antiloquax posted:Congratulations. Do you hate actors yet? Since most of the actors in the show were people I'd call my friends and I'm still hanging out with them (and am in another show, this time just acting, with 3 of my cast members and my producer), then I certainly can't say I hate all of them. There are a few I could choke out, though. We did actually have one person who literally hit the end of her talent rope and it was fascinating and sad to watch. She had a great audition, but it became apparent that she just wasn't quite up for the role she had. The poor woman worked her butt off and certainly put in the hours and effort, but she just literally wasn't capable of doing any better than she did. If it were a professional production, she probably would have been fired. Nobody gets paid (well, except the orchestra) in our productions, so you can't just boot someone for not being up to snuff. We're a community theater group of all volunteers, so theoretically the cast for every show could be completely different but it usually consists of the same core group with a few new faces and stragglers here and there. All in all it was a great experience and while I was suckered into jumping straight into directing another show, it's a lot less complicated. We're going to put on The Last Five Years before the end of this year, which is a two person musical that is sorta pre-cast. I technically have to hold public auditions due to our by-laws, but there's no way I'll cast anyone I don't 100% trust since it's a cast of two and they both have to be great. quote:You know, one of the weird things about directing is that everyone seems to have an opinion they want to give you. It's always funny when they're conflicting opinions given at the same time. I've actually started putting a disclaimer on playbills saying that, if anyone wants to tell me what they would have done better, they need to buy me a beer first. I actually wanted more feedback than I got, but I see people doing this all the drat time. I heard things from people here and there as I went (which ranged from great advice to terrible, terrible ideas), but I didn't have anyone say anything other than I was "too nice," which drove me nuts. I would say the hardest thing I had to overcome was the fact that as an actor, I tend to completely obsess and come up with my character almost 100% before the first rehearsal with anything other than a small part. Apparently, not everyone does 3/4 of the work for the director before the show even starts. They talked me into running for president of the board for our group, so now I'm "in charge" I guess. We'll see if that was as good an idea as they thought once I'm done laying out everything I want to do to re-vamp our group and bring us back out on top. There are several theater groups in our small town and while we're the oldest, there's a splinter group that was formed by a guy who got tired of the board telling him he wasn't allowed to walk in with a cast and budget with no auditions or discussion that sells more tickets, but is less interesting artistically. This is partially because he does only shows his sponsors approve (he has the local bank giving him $30-40K, for instance - we haven't pursued donations at all up to this point) and put his show a month before our big summer musical. So now I get to steer things in a new direction or just make everyone mad at me. We'll see what happens.
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# ? Aug 20, 2010 05:42 |
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Named Ashamed posted:Would anyone point me in the direction of some interesting graduate programs for playwriting and direction? I've heard the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Institute is good. The kind of good that means you don't even have to go to grad school. Geekboy posted:We're a community theater group of all volunteers, so theoretically the cast for every show could be completely different but it usually consists of the same core group with a few new faces and stragglers here and there.
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# ? Aug 20, 2010 09:26 |
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:This is the way educational theatre works, too. You fight tooth and nail to hang on to new blood. Amen. Too bad that nine times out of ten, the new blood are unreliable divas. Though I guess I count as new blood since I quit doing theater for 12 years and just came back last year. Unreliable or a diva, I am not.
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# ? Aug 20, 2010 14:34 |
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Named Ashamed posted:Would anyone point me in the direction of some interesting graduate programs for playwriting and direction? I went to California Institute of the Arts for their theater program in costume design...It is a pretty well renown school when it comes to theater. But it's expensive as all Hell. Cool if you are into really artsy off the wall stuff... Although I will say I HATED most of their performances they put on. There was one director there who did amazing stuff, and everyone else did really obnoxious pseudo intelligence poo poo like the one man Macbeth where the actor stripped throughout the entire performance and the set was 10,000 pounds of black sand, or the play where 7 girls played one role and traded lines and the set was a bunch of white doors and windows that they stacked and rolled around through the performance
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# ? Aug 20, 2010 23:38 |
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My plan is to try and get a job at Kenyon College since it's fairly local and then let them pay for me to take music and theater classes. The likelihood of making a living in the arts is low enough that I really just want to get better at it and enjoy what I'm doing. If an opportunity arises, that would be great but I'm not exactly holding my breath.
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# ? Aug 21, 2010 18:21 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 19:44 |
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I have no idea what I'm going to do for grad school (two years away starting Monday fuuuuck) since every theatre grad program demands that all programs be separated because only small theatre programs are intelligent and let people train in multiple disciplines and make them unemployably overqualified.
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# ? Aug 22, 2010 08:31 |