Theatre Directing
Discussion
I suppose I am at the fledgling stage of a new journey.
It started early in the year with a twenty week course with an established director based at the Everyman here in Liverpool.
He also teaches at various places and has Grin Theatre.
My history is being drunk and booking a beginners acting course about five years ago... I act, write, stage manage and set design and build... Recently finished a radio play that is still being edited and awaiting funding, I thought with script in hand it would be easy, boy did we have to work hard.
Three weeks ago I watched a couple of inexperienced youngsters perform a 5 minute well written piece in a small fringe venue, they got great audience reaction, a good number of them said it was the best of the 7 performances... My wife agreed.
I had made my directing debut, can't explain just how proud and happy I was.
Had a first 'live' meeting earlier with a writer I have acted for, I agreed last week on the phone to direct her latest work.
A somewhere between 60/90 minutes WW2 play... 20 scenes... So 20 transitions !!!!!!
Supposed to be 6 actors, now 13, songs have been added as have musician's. Writing is like the Ladybird book of cliches.
F##k me.
So out of my depth, but I shall act the part of a director and see where we end up.
Rehearsals start 7/1/24.
It started early in the year with a twenty week course with an established director based at the Everyman here in Liverpool.
He also teaches at various places and has Grin Theatre.
My history is being drunk and booking a beginners acting course about five years ago... I act, write, stage manage and set design and build... Recently finished a radio play that is still being edited and awaiting funding, I thought with script in hand it would be easy, boy did we have to work hard.
Three weeks ago I watched a couple of inexperienced youngsters perform a 5 minute well written piece in a small fringe venue, they got great audience reaction, a good number of them said it was the best of the 7 performances... My wife agreed.
I had made my directing debut, can't explain just how proud and happy I was.
Had a first 'live' meeting earlier with a writer I have acted for, I agreed last week on the phone to direct her latest work.
A somewhere between 60/90 minutes WW2 play... 20 scenes... So 20 transitions !!!!!!
Supposed to be 6 actors, now 13, songs have been added as have musician's. Writing is like the Ladybird book of cliches.
F##k me.
So out of my depth, but I shall act the part of a director and see where we end up.
Rehearsals start 7/1/24.
My wife does it over here in Southern California (Standard is pretty high considering the number of out of work actors are about).
It seems like an awful lot of hard work for little / no money
She seems to thrive on it though and is either acting or directing something pretty much year round.
It seems like an awful lot of hard work for little / no money
She seems to thrive on it though and is either acting or directing something pretty much year round.
Amateur Musical theatre seems to be a rather masochistic labour of love. My daughter recently auditioned for Young Cosette in a local theatre production of Les Mis (she was devastated when she made the shortlist but didn't get the part). Even organising the auditions looked pretty horrific - they had upwards of 300 auditions to get through to shortlist for the feature roles, then all the recalls to get the different shortlists together to try out the major duet combinations.
ETA: Castle on a Cloud gets quite wearing the 5000th time you hear it sung.
ETA: Castle on a Cloud gets quite wearing the 5000th time you hear it sung.
Edited by kambites on Friday 10th November 22:34
InformationSuperHighway said:
My wife does it over here in Southern California (Standard is pretty high considering the number of out of work actors are about).
It seems like an awful lot of hard work for little / no money
She seems to thrive on it though and is either acting or directing something pretty much year round.
This will be my first paid thing, not much for the effort, suppose I'm not in it for the money.It seems like an awful lot of hard work for little / no money
She seems to thrive on it though and is either acting or directing something pretty much year round.
During the recent Liverpool Fringe over a 10 day period I was in theatre or rehearsals 12 times.
My late farther was heavily into musicals as musical director.
Having played guitar in the band for one with him, I can see how additive it was.
My fathers career was in music, orchestral management (mainly at the BBC) and additionally he was a very talented organist.
Musicals were a hobby , we lost count but it was over 60 productions, usually one or two a year with well established am-dram groups.
Due to his contacts, the band was made up mainly professional London players, a few very good amateurs and the brass section was usually from the RAF Central Band. He would do all the arrangements himself, with the dining table piled high with the scores whilst he worked on them.
It may have been an amateur production, but the music was as good, if not better then any London show.
Having played guitar in the band for one with him, I can see how additive it was.
My fathers career was in music, orchestral management (mainly at the BBC) and additionally he was a very talented organist.
Musicals were a hobby , we lost count but it was over 60 productions, usually one or two a year with well established am-dram groups.
Due to his contacts, the band was made up mainly professional London players, a few very good amateurs and the brass section was usually from the RAF Central Band. He would do all the arrangements himself, with the dining table piled high with the scores whilst he worked on them.
It may have been an amateur production, but the music was as good, if not better then any London show.
Where are we now... Dress Rehearsal on Saturday, matinee and evening show the following week.
In have lost count of the hours I have put in each week, rehearsals, meetings, phone calls, thinking and planning.
I am currently mentally exhausted, everything is constantly running round in my head.
BUT...My actors are brilliant, even the one still not off script, they listen to everything, act upon suggestions, I think they appreciate that I get up and show them what I mean in a French or German accent.
As we have progressed I get to just sit and watch them grow and blossom, it is a fabulous feeling.
Not all is serious, we play, joke and laugh, we are a team, I suspect at 20.30/21.00 on the 16th I may have a year in my eye.
I have been asked to direct the 2nd play in the trilogy, I love my writer, we get on and work well together... Most of the time.
Yes I will do it, she can write it, produce it, I will edit the script twice and that is it, nothing will be added, words or actors unless anyone leaves.
It has been a blast so far, boy it takes it out of me though, I suppose that is the learning curve.
Do I love it... Of course I do. It's a marvellous thing.
In have lost count of the hours I have put in each week, rehearsals, meetings, phone calls, thinking and planning.
I am currently mentally exhausted, everything is constantly running round in my head.
BUT...My actors are brilliant, even the one still not off script, they listen to everything, act upon suggestions, I think they appreciate that I get up and show them what I mean in a French or German accent.
As we have progressed I get to just sit and watch them grow and blossom, it is a fabulous feeling.
Not all is serious, we play, joke and laugh, we are a team, I suspect at 20.30/21.00 on the 16th I may have a year in my eye.
I have been asked to direct the 2nd play in the trilogy, I love my writer, we get on and work well together... Most of the time.
Yes I will do it, she can write it, produce it, I will edit the script twice and that is it, nothing will be added, words or actors unless anyone leaves.
It has been a blast so far, boy it takes it out of me though, I suppose that is the learning curve.
Do I love it... Of course I do. It's a marvellous thing.
Edited by waynedear on Wednesday 6th March 20:38
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