Basic Survival Training for Live Theatre!

Whew! Sorry it's been so long since anything new was added to the collection! Since May we have hosted seven weekends of performances at Family Theatre Warehouse here in Okc. So I thought I would give a little pep talk on how to survive the stress of back to back productions it takes to make a successful theatre!

First, get in the habit of doing everything you can in advance. From selecting paint colors for the set to designing posters, costumes and program covers, do as much in preproduction to alleviate stress as possible.

Secondly, ask for help! This is a toughie for me because the majority of shows I produce are class based and I feel guilty asking people who already help pay my salary to chip in with sweat and time. But I have found that as people become more involved in the process they take on a sense of ownership that can become a valuable asset. Besides relieving some of your stress they can add dollars to your bottom line! No matter how much you just wrote that check to the ad agency for, nothing sells tickets like proud actors, techies and family members determined to fill those seats!

Last but not least remember why you went to your first audition, wrote your first script, sang your first solo, danced your first steps...IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!!! So take it easy. Take a fifteen minute nap, you may surprised how much better you'll feel. Stay hydrated and keep your diet as healthy as possible. Learn when to let go of ideas that are costing you too much, emotionally, physically or financially, and just enjoy the process!

The world's greatest job!

I have the absolute best job in the world! I am a theatrical director, I get to pretend for a living!

Think about it, if someone told you that when you grew up you would spend your days: making up stories, wearing cool costumes (remember the four year old you begging to wear your cape and cowboy boots to the grocery store with Mom?) building the coolest stuff imaginable, painting pictures, then selling tickets to people to come and watch you pretend with your best friends and stand around telling you how great it was! Way cool!

It seems to me that many people tend to forget that. They get wrapped up in “pushing the envelope” or “stretching boundaries of perception”! They forget that the most important people in this equation we call theatre, the audience, likes what we do! They want to enjoy it! Now, don’t get me wrong, ideas are important too! But face it if you never get anyone to hear your ideas you might as well spend your time in the privacy of your own home ranting and raving, it’s free!

There is a basic premise of human psychology that reveals a startling truth, nobody cares what you think! They don’t, they’re all too busy worrying about their own lives to give up valuable time to come to our theatres and be treated as if they were idiots! They’re not. Many of them are highly educated and still don’t “get it”. Maybe that’s because “it” has stopped making sense.

For example, many of us theatrical types point back to classical eras as being the “golden age” of our art. We all lament how many important ideas were being bandied about by the Greek dramatists or Shakespeare. We fail to realize that they were, many times, the sitcom of their day! This was philosophy for the masses. Ideas for Dummies! They created real characters that the average man could relate to, in real situations that made people laugh and cry. Then, and only then, they made their commentary on politics, religion, society, and it stuck! It stuck so well that their work many times is better remembered than the centuries of drama that lay between us and them!

I believe that if the theatre of our day is to regain its place in shaping ideas it needs to appeal to the masses. Does that mean going for the cheap laugh? Maybe, but then, while they are laughing, while their guard is down…slip in an idea or two. Not in a slap in the face abrupt, gotcha, kind of style, but with subtlety, with craft. Allow them the opportunity to be faced with new ideas in a way that appeals to them.

But never, never, even amongst yourselves demean and put them down, and then in the next breath bemoan the fact that they don’t support your lazy butt, oh sorry your “work”! They aren’t stupid, people can smell it when you hate them, and nobody likes being put down and patronized. I have the best job in the world, Pretending on Purpose! And sometimes somebody actually “gets” what I do!