Getting the Biggest Bang for Your Buck

What! You want me to expand my production program? Do you know how much work and potential grief (crying students, angry parents) I already have.

Well, what if you could expand your program and student opportunities for both acting and directing with just a tiny bit more effort from you?

If you are teaching in an educational theater programs, you probably find yourself limited in the number of productions you can mount. One straight play and one musical a year are as many major productions most school theater departments can muster. You may manage to schedule a performance of one-acts or 10-minute plays to augment your schedule and performance possibilities.

One inexpensive way to expand your season and opportunities for your student performance is through the use of staged Readers Theater.

There is a wide range of Readers Theater from actors with one or two rehearsals standing in front of music stands to almost fully staged “readings” (actors script-in-hand) with props and movement. Where you fall on the spectrum will depend on your resources, time, and student abilities.

So, what’s in this for you?

Introducing a wider range of dramatic literature to your audience.

Giving your students an opportunity to direct as well as act

Providing a “trial run” for material you would like to perform but need to judge the reaction of your school community

Increasing performance opportunities for all students, but especially for those students with difficulty learning lines. One difficulty I’ve seen in a lot of student performances is that student actors have difficulty combining the tasks of memorizing and delivering line. Being able to work with book-in-hand will allow them to focus on areas like pacing, comic timing, and enunciation–skills that will transfer to their off-book performances.