The Theatre Classroom — Community Theatre

May 5th, 2010

A positive note and theatre production tip

Inspiration

I have been in rehearsals and performances for the last 3 ½ months and I am pooped.  After working on A Christmas Carol, I had just about a month to recoup before I took on Miss Lynch in a high school production of Grease featuring students from five of our high schools.  I was the only adult. As I taught and directed this age for thirty-seven years, I was excited to be working with them, but also a bit apprehensive.  After being called Mrs. J. or Mrs. Johnson — a must in my classroom — I was now called Margaret by this cast of forty-nine teenagers. I was not sure how I would be treated — I certainly was not “one of them.”  Well, I needn’t have worried. They treated me with great respect.

I was so impressed with not only their talent, but also their commitment to the production.  I did not see any squabbling or making fun of or “being cute.” They supported each other and helped whenever it was needed.  I want to tell you this generation is a wonderful generation.  We are always bombarded with the evils of our times, especially when it comes to teenagers, and I am here to say that I am tired of the news media giving air time to the 5% who are causing the problems and forgetting the 95% who are good, caring people who will be our leaders of tomorrow. Enough on that!

Another Tip

After performing our last show in Grease, I had one day off and then started rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Having taught and directed a number of Shakespeare plays, I was very familiar with this script; however, I had never performed in a Shakespeare show. I immediately panicked because I needed to get the lines memorized and Peter Quince has quite a few (not like the lovers) but it seemed insurmountable. I did it and we had a very successful production, full of magic, fairies, and bawdy humor.

As I mention in my book The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide, Midsummer is all about magic, but in the two productions I directed I did not think to include any magic as in magic tricks.  This production did and I think it is something you could use if you ever do this Shakespeare play.

By using flash paper and a paper popper to represent “love-in-idleness” — the flower that Oberon talks of to Puck — gives just enough magic to make the audience begin to believe in fairies.  The flash paper is wound around the popper and when it is pulled, everything just disintegrates up in the air.