Why Am I Directing The School Production?

 11 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Sep 012008
 

Well, actually, I’m not directing the school production … and that’s sort of the point of this post.

OK, so I’m in this fortunate position. I don’t direct the school musical and I replaced the biennial senior play with VCE Drama nights three years ago.

If you teach in a large Drama/Theatre department, this may also be your situation. Perhaps you assist one of your colleagues with one aspect of the school production, but not actively direct an entire full-scale production yourself. Alternatively, you may have no involvement at all.

But chances are, if you’re in small Drama department or are running solo as the only Drama teacher in your school or on your campus, then you’ll no doubt be expected to direct a major play or musical.

I’ve often wondered just why, as Drama teachers, we are expected to direct plays or musicals as part of our teaching load? I’m coming from a high school perspective here, where Drama teachers the world over direct entire two act plays, three hour musicals and five act Shakespeare productions every year.

I understand the many benefits of directing a production at high school. I’ve been there myself over the years and if the truth be known I sort of miss it in a way because directing was my true love in my uni days and I believe it is one of my strongest skills as a Drama teacher.

There are numerous positives in directing productions … from skills to collegiality … for both students and staff. But if we would only stop and take stock for a moment to remind ourselves most of these shows were written to be directed, choreographed, acted, sung and danced by professionals on Broadway and the West End … not students in Year 10 … for a reason.

I honestly believe the school production, while often a wonderful and rewarding experience for our students, is unnecessarily stressful for the Drama teacher who directs or coordinates it. On top of a full teaching load and rehearsals for any number of other activities at the same time, why are we expected to direct a full-scale show as well?

Perhaps we should question more often whether the benefits of directing a school play or musical outweigh the disadvantages that come with the same package?

I remember back in 2004 shocking my Deputy Principal by openly admitting to her I wouldn’t be planning a single lesson in the week of the senior play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I just said it as it was … I’ll be ‘winging’ every lesson that week off the top of my head, using the 6 Step Approach To Teaching … planning my lessons in the last six steps as I enter the classroom.

Such is the nature of the beast. If only more of our colleagues understood how it all works. We can’t of course, necessarily expect them to know the finer details of a Drama teacher’s job, so perhaps it is our duty to politely inform people what it’s like from time to time.

Drama teachers preparing school productions don’t just have lesson planning problems, but sleepless nights, endless hours (sometimes in the dark) up at school building sets, constructing costumes, rehearsing with students, printing programmes, rigging stage lights … the list goes on. We become unnecessarily stressed and anxious, so much so we sometimes find it THE most difficult time of the year in all aspects of our life, be it personal or professional.

There are of course side issues to directing the school production. Am I receiving an appropriate time allowance from my employer? Will I be getting remuneration? Or perhaps, why am I receiving neither money nor time?!? There is also the issue of whether the school production should be ‘expected’ of the Drama teacher, or simply be voluntary?

But the central issue in my eyes is why are we doing it in the first place?

Today I have other extra curricular activities to fill my plate, from VCE showcases to creative arts festivals. But these are spread in numerous timelines over nearly the entire academic year with no single activity requiring the all-consuming commitment and pressure that directing a school production does.

I recall back in the early 80s, a wonderful young American tennis player Andrea Jaeger, who officially retired from tennis with a shoulder injury at the tender age of just 19, after being ranked as high as No.2 in the world. It was clear she was simply burnt out because she started her tennis career at such an early age. These days,  the Womens Tennis Association protect young girls from similar circumstances by not allowing them to participate in professional tournaments until they reach 14.

Just like Jaeger, young Drama teachers today are suffering burnout on a regular basis because they are directing school productions as early as their first year of teaching. Where is their protection? We should be looking after our young Drama teachers and nurturing them, not assisting their early burnout. Perhaps this is yet another reason why so many young educators are disillusioned with teaching, leaving our profession a few years into their new career.

After three years of not directing the high school production with my current employer, I have come to realise that for the first time in my career, I can focus almost exclusively on the quality of teaching and learning in the Drama classroom. Granted, I look back on the challenges of yesteryear where I practised the craft of directing with musicals and plays, but today these skills still occur in smaller chunks in any standard Drama class.

Directing the school show is such a mammoth task for Drama teachers. Many of us reach dizzying heights of success with slickly polished shows and talented students of all ages on stage. Meantime, our colleagues down the street are quietly struggling with a job so demanding and difficult, they begin to question its worth.

In reality, it really doesn’t matter too much about the quality of the show produced. At the end of the day, if our motives are genuine, we are directing school productions for the students, not our egos. But after all that hard effort by students and staff, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s nice to see a top quality product at the end of the road, if we can. After all, we are rightly proud of our efforts.

So now we delve into the dangerous territory where regardless of the quantity of work for all involved in a high school show, should we just be leaving them to the realms of professional theatre? Are many musicals and plays simply too difficult for some Drama teachers, particularly the inexperienced (though of course one can argue it is the number of not-so-brilliant productions in a row that make us better directors in the long run … hopefully).

Is directing the school production a natural extension of our face-to-face Drama teaching load i.e. performance? Are they the single, most time-consuming activity on the academic calendar, yet an add-on we are not even getting paid for? Are plays and musicals of the Broadway variety too difficult for high schools and should we be producing sub-standard shows? Are they a major distraction from our primary function as Drama teachers … to teach Drama/Theatre in the classroom?

Or is directing the school play or musical simply the best activity there is for both ourselves and our Drama students and well worth all the time and effort that goes into it?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bagging or dissing the school production.

I’m not even calling for change.

But I am calling for a discussion………………

Expressive Skills and Realism

 6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 192008
 

Thought this post may be useful for teachers of junior Drama. I have combined a topic on the style of realism with the actors use of the four basic expressive skills (voice, movement, facial expressions and gesture) in Drama. This handout is complemented with basic script work.

The following is written for the student. In my case, I give it to my Year 8 Drama students (14 years old). Its language is simple and some generalisations occur due to the young age and limited experience of those reading it. All of the information on the handout is then implemented in the script work and workshopped in class, making a clear and direct connection for the students between the theory and prac.

I’m sure you have favourite scripts of your own to accompany this handout if you wish to. I used one script for rehearsal and workshopping, followed by a second script in pairs where lines were learnt and then performed for formal assessment. Some discussion about direction and blocking will also naturally occur.

The following information can be found in Word (.doc) format at the end of this post.

Expressive Skills and Realism

Style
Style in drama refers to the manner in which a theatre piece is performed. It is the how of drama. For example ‘how shall we perform this play script?’. Style is variously referred to in drama as ‘theatre style’, performance style’ or ‘theatrical style’.

Realism
Without giving it a second thought, you may already have been acting mostly in the style of realism without knowing it. It is only now that we are labelling some of your performances with a particular style and focusing on including all the necessary performance ingredients that are associated with that style.

At the heart of all drama is the need for acting to be believable. It is a strange concept, but an audience initially sits down before a theatre performance not believing. They have arrived at the theatre that evening from a busy day at the office and know full well they will soon be watching a group of actors perform a play. We are going to call the fact they begin by not really believing in the drama, as ‘disbelief’. It is then the actors’ job to make the acting so realistic that it forces the audience to hold off their disbelief and start believing in the stage action, as if it were a real life drama happening before their very eyes.

If the audience forgets they are sitting in the theatre while watching a play (or in our case, the drama classroom), then the actors have successfully made the audience ‘suspend their disbelief’, and are therefore performing a totally convincing and believable play. If a drama performance is believable, then it is almost certainly realistic and therefore performed in the style of realism. If an actor does not fully believe in his or her character they are portraying, then the audience will feel cheated. They will instantly see acting that is not convincing. If an actor does not believe in his or her role, then why should the audience?

Here is a list of some of the common ingredients essential to all realistic performances. You should carefully consider each of one of them, including them in your drama performances in class. It may prove worthwhile discussing your performance and receiving constructive critical feedback from other classmates:

  • little or no backs to the audience, unless stylised and briefly used for effect
  • loud vocal projection (louder than normal everyday conversation level)
  • appropriate stance and stage movements for the character being portrayed (remember, a young child may crawl, but an old man will walk slowly)
  • small gestures that add a convincing ‘extra touch’ to the character (also making this character unique from others on the stage in the drama)
  • suitable facial expressions at particular moments in the drama
  • stage movement that occurs naturally, usually based on certain lines
  • realistic props, costumes, lighting and sets

If performing in the style of realism, then your ‘level’ of acting must be at a certain point to begin with. It is slightly exaggerated (heightened) because if you spoke at exactly the same volume as you would in a particular situation in everyday life, then the audience may not hear you. You have to be aware of the presence of the audience and yet ignore them at the same time. However, if you over-act in a drama performance (easily done accidentally) it may border on being melodramatic. This style of acting is ‘over the top’, like that of a daytime TV soapie and is not realistic. On the other hand, if you ‘under-act’ (understate) your role, it may not be enhanced enough to satisfy the basic level needed and it too may not be a realistic character portrayal. An actor, with the guidance of a teacher or director, must find exactly the right balance (level).

A basic tip for when to move on the stage is this: an actor moves on motivation. When the spoken lines and situation in a scene ask for something, then it may be an appropriate time for a character to get off a chair or storm out of the room etc. The actor must ask him/herself ‘when would my character be naturally motivated to move?’. Stage action (movements, facial expressions and gestures) come from within the actor, naturally pushing themselves outward. So, stay true to your character’s lines and it is in the script that you will ‘see’ when to move on stage or what to do? Realistic stage movement is basically an attempt to physically illustrate a character’s lines.

Always remember that much of acting is really re-acting. Characters are rarely on the stage on their own, so most of what a character does is a reaction to another character’s spoken lines or actions. It takes two to tango.

Expressive Skills
When acting in the style of realism, focus closely on appropriately using the actor’s four expressive skills:

  • voice
  • movement
  • facial expression
  • gesture (small movements)

Vocals skills can include the use of pitch (high or low), pace (fast or slow), projection (loud of soft), tone and diction / articulation (speaking clearly so the actor may be understood by the audience). Emphasising particular words over others in spoken lines also creates the correct (intended) meaning. Actors refer to emphasis as ‘stressing’ certain words, normally underlined by the actor on the script, itself.

Large movements involve various parts of the actor’s body. Movement on the stage can occur when the actor is not speaking at all or during regular conversation. Although we take movement for granted every day, actors must take particular care with their movements, as every move, no matter how small, must be calculated and deliberate as it communicates non-verbal meaning to the audience about the character and plot.

Facial expressions occur as a result of small muscle movements in the face and are crucial for the actor. While we must always be aware that the face is the most expressive part of the body, we must also ensure we act with our entire body, not just our heads. Facial expressions must come naturally or they will look artificial if overdone and ineffective if underdone.

Gestures are small movements by the actor. These may involve the use of the hands, feet, arms or legs. Gestures can include pointing a finger at another character, waving, stroking your fingers through your hair, scratching an ear etc. Effective use of gesture often marks an average actor from a powerful one, as sometimes it is the subtleties in acting that make the difference in character believability.

expressive_skills_realism < Download Word doc

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