The End of the Production

You start with auditions (See post Getting It All Started for more information) and go through the performance nights (See post Lights, Camera, Action for more information). You might think that is the end but there is still one thing left. After the months of preparation and the performances are over you have set strike.

What Happens at Set Strike

Set strike is when the play is over and its time to put it all away. There are multiple things that happen.

• The biggest job is to take apart the set and put it away. It takes months to put the set together but only a few hours to take it all down. It’s a bitter-sweet thing because when it’s all put away its empty. The feeling that the stress is over is great but its sad because you won’t perform that show again.
• After the set is taken apart it has to be put away. We have a place outside for the bigger piece and a woodroom inside for all the 2 by 4s and stuff like that. What we like to do is to have people bring the wood to the woodroom and have one maybe two people put it away. That way it stays more organized and people wont get hurt as easily. Safety is a big thing on this day because we have had many injuries. I am normally in charge of the woodroom and last year some stuff fell on my head because there were too many people and I got a concussion. That’s why we only let so many people in the woodroom.
• Another thing that has to be done is to put away the props. When putting away the props you can’t just throw them all in one spot. You need to organize so that you can find them again. For the generic props there is a place easy to get to. For the props that will only be used in the show you just did there are bins that go in the back where they are harder to get to.
• Costumes is one of the things that take the longest to put away. You have to make sure everything is washed because face it. When you’re on stage in costume with the lights shining on you, you sweat like a pig. Once they have been washed you have to put them away where they go. It’s not the hardest thing but it takes a lot of time. Putting away the costumes is just like putting away the props. There are bins for generic costumes and bins for costumes specifically for that show.
• The last thing that needs to be done is the floor. We paint the stage for every show. Sometimes it is many different colors and other times its just one. Even if the stage is paint one nice color we still have to paint the stage because it gets beat up. The set constantly running over it or the taps on our taps shoes take some of the paint right off. So after every show we repaint the stage.

Conclusion

Set strike is a very import thing. If we were to leave the set up we couldn’t use the stage for other things. It might take a lot of work to take apart the set, put it away, paint the stage, and put away the props and costumes it is necessary. After this day is over you have completed a production! If you would like to see our rendition of Shrek the Musical check is out below! Or if you would just like to see what we are up to now check our facebook page or website Zcenterstagetheatercompany.

Act 1 of Shrek the Musical

Act 2 of Shrek the Musical

 

Lights, Camera, Action

Once you have done monologues (see my post Getting it all Started), built the set, and rehearsed the time has come. After the months of hard work you finally get to the performance. There are a lot of nerves but if you all work together the show will be great. Opening night is the scariest night of all. If you stay focused and let the nerves drive your energy and character you will do amazing.

 The Nerves

The week before the performance is the stressful tech week. If you want to know more about tech week check out my post The Most Stressful Week of Your Life as an Actor. At the end of the week you finally open. It might be scary but once you get started the nerves die away. The first scene is always the hardest. If you can get past your first scene you’re set to go for the rest of the show.

 The Crowd

You might think that the only thing that counts is the cast and crew. That is not true. The crowd is almost as important as the actors and tech. On a good night the crowd will laugh and be engaged in the show. Actors will feed off of the crowd’s energy. If the crowd is having fun the actors have fun, if the crowd is not engaged the actors are not as engaged as before. There is nothing more satisfying for an actor as a good crowd. Likewise, there is nothing more dissatisfying as a boring crowd.

 The Mess-ups

No matter how much you work or try there are always a few mess-ups. For the show we just did, Shrek the Musical, there was only one big mess-up. If you would like to see some pictures of the show check out our Facebook page. At the end of the show there is a wedding scene. It takes place inside the castle but a tree was left out on stage from the previous scene. Some of the newer actors didn’t know what to do and sort of freaked out and just walked past it. As a veteran in drama, I knew to just grab is and get it off stage and fluent and sneaky as possible. In situations like this the best thing to do is to stay calm and think it through in your head and take care of it.

 The End

It’s a bitter-sweet thing when the performances come to a close. You are very happy because the stress is over and you can have a life again. But it’s also sad because you don’t get to do the show again and you don’t get to do a show with the seniors again.

 Conclusion

At the end of the shows you get a feeling of success. There is nothing like knowing you did a great performance and brought joy and entertainment to people. Theatre is something quite close to my heart and I love to share it with others.

 

“There’s no business like show business, there’s no business I know. Everything about it is appealing, everything that traffic will allow. Nowhere could you get that happy feeling when you are stealing that extra bow…” –There’s No Business Like Show Business from Annie Get Your Gun.

The Most Stressful Week of Your Life as an Actor

After months of hard work come tech week, also known as dress rehearsal. This is the week before you open. You run the show as if you had an audience. Costumes, props, lights, sounds, and set are all used. If you want to know more about what happens before this look at my posts Getting It All Started and The First Week

This is Morning person from Shrek the Musical. It’s a tap number with dancing rats.

1. Costumes

Costumes are a very important thing. You can act as much as you want but without a costume you don’t look like your character. For tech week you wear all of your costumes. If you have multiple parts and/or costumes you practice your changes. Sometimes you have several scenes to change and other times you have 30 seconds to change. During this week you have to get used to changing in the right amount of time.

2. Props

Props are anything you hold in your hand or a decoration on a shelf that gets used in the play. When you start out you have to pantomime your props. Once you get to dress rehearsal you will have all your props and must use them. Pantomiming a prop and using an actual one is much different . Getting used to having a sword in your rather than air takes a little time.

3. Lights

By tech week your lights should all be programmed. Being on stage with the lights is extremely hot. To be able to stay in character with the heat takes a little practice. Also you need to know where the lights are so you can stay in the light when you are supposed to. This week gives the tech people doing the lights time to get their cues right.

4. Sound

The sound part of theatre involves several things. Mics, music, sound effects, and set change interludes are all a part of the sound. Mics can be quite testy. You have to find the right volume and follow the actor speaking or singing. The actor will change dynamics and the sound people have to adjust to them. Music is import for a musical. Without music the singers would never stay in the same key and it would sound terrible. You also have to know when to start the track. Sound effects are just a cool thing that adds another dimension. For Shrek we use a lot of roaring, farting/burping, and dragon sounds. Set change interludes are normally just the music of the song in the last scene that covers up the sound of the set getting moved.

5. Set

By dress rehearsal you better have all of your set done. If you don’t you’re kind of in a lot of trouble. During this week you solidify what set you move where and when to move it. For Shrek we don’t have much for tech people so actors got to jump in and help out when we could. The more you do the set changes the faster and easier they get.

Conclusion

As a person in theatre the most stressful thing is the tech week. Dealing with everything like costumes, props, lights, sound, and set can seem like to much. When it’s all over you look back and see how much changed and got better throughout the week. And when this  week is over you are ready for opening night!

What Type of Actor/actress are You?

I’ve talked about auditions in my post Getting It All Started and about the first week of rehearsal. In theatre there are two main types of acting. One is called method acting and the other we call James-Lange acting. Some people are completely one or the other but most people use some of both.

Method Acting

Method acting can seem quite weird for some people. A method actor or actress really feels the part. So if their character is a very happy person then they feel very happy. If their character is upset they feel upset. There is no formula for what to do, you just act like you feel.

Some method actors or actresses can snap in and out of character. Meaning they can get into character very quickly and still feel what their character would be feeling and as soon as they stop acting they go back to normal.

Others have to prepare to get into character. Some people will simply think of something that makes them feel how their character if supposed to feel. Then there are people who listen to music to get into it. There are people who have to do this for an hour or so in order to get into character and can feel like that for the rest of the day or night before they get back to normal.

James-Lange Acting

This style of acting is basically the opposite of method. Actors or actresses who use this type of acting don’t really feel the emotion that their character would be feeling. It all comes down to a formula.

If their character is sad they know to drop their head, pull their arms in, and make a sad face. If their supposed to be happy they lift up their chin, stand up tall and big, and smile. If they are mad they’ll look up, roll their eyes, cross their arms, and maybe pop out their hip.

For these people they have to prepare before the performance. They don’t have to take time that day to be in character but they have to think about all the little moves, parts to the formula, when blocking the scene. If you want to know a little bit more about blocking you can visit my blog post The First Week.

What type do I use?

I am definitely a method actress. I use little to no James-Lange acting. Getting into character doesn’t take me too long unless I have to be really sassy or mean. I can do it but it just takes a little longer. Normally what I do to get into character is just think about some experience I’ve had similar to that of my character. I also sometimes listen to music or just sing a song to myself.

Getting out of character can be a little bit harder for me. Last year I played Jane in Mary Poppins. In one of the scene Jane’s father yells at her. Normally I was able to push it to the side and move on for my character, but one night I couldn’t. The entire rest of the night and some of the next morning I was really upset because I was still stuck in my upset character. I eventually snapped out of it and got back to being my normal self.

Conclusion

Method and James-Lange acting are quite different but they are both very useful. Neither of them are harder or easier than the other it just depends on you. When you act do you really feel something or is it just a part you play? Try out some different types of characters and pay attention for emotion. If you really feel something that the character would feel you’re method! If not you’re James-Lange! Here is a fun quiz to see what actor your type of acting matches. And here is a short one for what kind of actor you are, it doesn’t use method and James-Lange but it’s still a good one.

 

 

The First Week

After auditions the first week of rehearsal begins. If you want to know the process of auditions visit my post Getting it all started. The this week is much different than the rest of rehearsal.

 Day 1 & 2

The first day of rehearsal we start a read and sing through of the entire musical. This just means that we read our parts all the way through and do our best at sight singing the songs. It’s pretty fun because you get to see who is playing what and how they are going to play them. We never get through the whole thing in one day so we take the second day to finish it.

Day 3

The next day we start to learn the music with all the parts. We normally begin with the big cast songs. We start with these because later the smaller group songs will meet with our music director while people who aren’t in that song do blocking or choreography. Learning the music is harder than you would think. Your part by itself is pretty easy but putting it with all the other parts can be quite difficult. With lots of practice together as well as by yourself it will all come together.

Day 4

We keep going over more music but instead of learning it all together we split into sectionals. Sectionals are where each part goes into a different room with a keyboard or piano and learns their own part. Once our time is up we get back together and sing what we learned together. This only works for certain songs.

Day 5

The last rehearsal for the week some of us kept working on singing, others did blocking, and the rest worked on choreography. Blocking is where you are at in a scene, where you move to, and how you get there. Choreography in simpler terms is dancing. Our choreographer is amazing. She pushes our limits but doesn’t make us do more than we can handle. It gets quite difficult but we pull it off in the end. Small group choreography is sometimes choreographed by someone other than our choreographer because she does the big cast songs that are much harder. If you would like to see some choreography from Shrek the Musical you can look at Freak Flag or the tap number in Morning Person by the Broadway cast.

Saturday

We don’t have a lot of people who are just tech. So all of us actors or actresses help build, paint, and decorate the set. Most Saturdays we have what we call a work day. On these days we go and make the set. We have people who are good at construction so they build the base of the set. Then there are people who can use power tools but are not necessarily able to build the bigger things and make them safe so they face the set. To face the set you have to measure and cut masonite and then screw it into the frames of the set. Other people are decorators who once the set is made and painted will add banners or other such things. Then we have painters. We have people who will do the base paint and people who detail paint. Detail painting takes a lot of time because first you sketch it, then you paint it, and then you have to outline it with black otherwise you can’t see the detail from the audience.

The picture below is of our set after only three work days. If you would like to see more pictures or want more information you can visit our drama website Z Center Stage or our Facebook page.

Getting it all Started

As you might already know from my about page, I’m Sara and I love theatre. The dramatic arts is a way to express yourself, have fun, and learn many different skills. It is also a way to bring enjoyment to other. Throughout this blog I will take you along on a journey through a high school musical production. Right now we are working on Shrek the Musical. If you would like more information on our production or would like to buy tickets you can visit our website z center stage theatre company. There is much more to a show than what meets the eye.

“Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.” – The Sound of Music

The first thing you have to do for a production is auditions. Not only actors have to do this but also the tech. If you want to be a part of the tech crew you have to fill out an application, do an interview, read the script, and wait for the directors to tell you whether or not you made it on the team.

If you are wanting to act there is a whole different process to go through. You must fill out an application noting whether you want a main part or just to be a part of the ensemble. One thing that you might not really expect is a dancing audition and you have to read the entire script. They want you to read it so that way you know the story and what is going on.

Then you have to pick out a monologue. You can find practically any type of monologue you want online. Our director also has books of monologues if we want to use one from that. When picking out a monologue you want to keep in mind the character you want but you don’t want to do one from the play or musical you are doing unless otherwise told to do so. I have spent hours upon hours searching for monologues but after you do a couple you start to figure out what you like to do so DO NOT stress yourself out if you don’t find one right away that you like. Once you have chosen your monologue, the first thing you do with it is memorize it. By the time you memorize it you should already have an idea of what you want to do to act it out. Then, as you might have guessed, you try it out. Practice, practice, practice. You definitely need to do your monologue in front of someone else, preferably someone with acting experience but even just your family would suffice. You want to perform it in front of someone so that you get some outside feedback. Sometimes you think you’re acting really well and moving a lot when in reality you’re standing still and are not conveying any emotion.  Then you can work together to get out all the little kinks. If you want to learn how to do a proper monologue with the introduction you can go to our website page How to prepare for your audition.

You also have to practice singing. For our program we are required to sing parts of songs from the musical we are doing. Everyone just going for an ensemble part has to sing two songs that the chorus parts sing. If you are going for a lead or a supporting lead you will sing the chorus songs and a song or two from the character you are going for. The directors tell us which songs are for what and then we have a few weeks where we get together once a week to practice the songs together and then you can go home and practice on your own. Again you need to practice, practice, practice.

Finally the days of auditions arrive. The first day of auditions we do the singing. It’s just you, the stage, and the directors. For this part we all wait in the band room, which is connected to PAC (the stage/auditorium), for our name to be called. When it is your turn you walk onto the stage and wait for them to tell you what they want you to sing. They will start the track and you’ll sing. Once they are confident they heard everything they wanted to they will dismiss you.

The second day of auditions we split into three groups. Group one will do their monologues for most of the directors and everyone else in your group. Group two goes and does their dancing audition with our choreographer. There is no preparation for this. She teaches it to you as the audition. It’s just to see whether or not you have feet. The third group goes and practices their monologue. When its time the groups rotate until all the groups have gone.

If they need call backs they will post who they want to come back and when you go they will tell you what they want you to do.

Then the agonizing wait begins. After a couple of days you will get your cast letter telling you if you made it and who you got. You just have to respond to the director whether or not you accept what you got. Then you can start the rehearsals!