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Step 1
Decide what kind of play you want to present: comedy, drama, musical or classic. The choice will depend on what the theater has presented recently, the tastes of your audience, and the experience of the actors and director. Classics (Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, and the like) are the most difficult, while musicals require choreography and musical expertise.
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Step 2
Obtain scripts, which may be borrowed from people’s collections, borrowed from the library, purchased from bookstores or the Internet (used copies are available cheap from websites like ABEBooks or Amazon) or rented as reading copies from script publishers (sometimes the only way to get copies of musicals, at a cost of $16-20 plus postage both ways).
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Step 3
Keep in mind the composition of your acting pool. If many more women than men tend to show up at your auditions, you don’t want to do “Twelve Angry Men.” If it’s hard to get teen actors, avoid “Bye, Bye, Birdie.”
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Step 4
Read each play, noting any staging challenges that will be hard for your theater to surmount technically. Notice whether anything in the script produces an “Aha!” reaction that makes you really want to do the play, or whether you find yourself seeing the set and action in your mind as you read. A show must involve you heart and soul if you are to devote yourself to being its parent.
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Step 5
Consult with other members of the theater and make sure you have their support for working with the play you have chosen. Part of the joy of theater is that it is a collective art, uniting the efforts of many people. You must have their cooperation to proceed.
Comments
jaydeer said
on 4/13/2009 Nicely done! I enjoyed your article and found it helpful.
waters said
on 2/23/2009 Good article 5*