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How to Start Producing a Play
What is Unique about Playwriting?
Different Genres of Plays
About the Lengths of Plays
Deciding on Setting for a Play
Deciding on Time Period for a Play
Importance of Cast Size for a Play
Motivations for Producing a Play
How to Budget for a Play
Different Types of Theaters
About Musical Plays
Inspiration for Play Making
Brainstorming for Play Production
Exercises for Creating Plot Points
A Guide to Play Production
Professional playwriting is similar to owning your own business. Learn about playwriting as a career from … More
Learn how playwriting differs from other forms of storytelling with expert playwriting advice in this free… More
Learn how to find inspiration for writing a play, including use life experience, news and other characters… More
Learn the importance of the cast size for a play with expert playwriting advice in this free play producti… More
Learn how to decide on the setting for a play and the elements of the setting with expert playwriting advi… More
Learn various exercises for creating plot points when playwriting with expert playwriting advice in this f… More
Learn the different genres of plays including the difference between classical and modern theater with exp… More
To write a stage play, first develop a basic story outline that carries the characters from the beginning … More
Learn the importance of well-developed characters in a play with expert playwriting advice in this free pl… More
People inspire us all the time to create new characters for stories. Learn some ideas for producing your … More
Learn what a plot for a play is and how to lay out a plot using a plot diagram with expert playwriting adv… More
To write a good plot, every incident must happen for a reason, and the actions must cause an immediate rea… More
Stage play scripts are formatted slightly different than movie scripts, with some of the differences being… More
Learn the various benefits of staged readings in a play with expert playwriting advice in this free play p… More
Summary: Learn the importance of the cast size for a play with expert playwriting advice in this free play production and theater video clip.
Steve Caverno attended the University of Southern Mississippi where he received a BA in theatre. Since graduating he has had several plays produced across the country. He is currently...read more
"STEVE CAVERNO: Hi. My name is Steve Caverno on behalf of Expert Village, and today I'll be talking to you about playwriting basics. In the film industry, you can have a cast of hundreds. On stage, cast size is usually limited. We'll look at some exceptions on this rule as well. In the modern theater, you usually want to have four to six characters in your play. That gives the actors a chance to have a meaty role. And also, if you're a producing company, you want to get a play to where you're probably not paying like 100 actors unless you're on a Broadway budget. In a cast size also to consider are the exceptions to the rule such as musicals or high school productions. It's a big secret that musicals are probably the most lucrative form of theater; they're very spectacle orientated, and you can have a chorus line, and you can have all kinds of big events happening. And so, in musicals, you might require a lot a large cast and you can get a large group of people to audition for a musical whereas a drama, you might have slightly smaller turnouts. Also in high school, high schools are looking for a play that can encompass the entire class. You don't want to have a four-person play, and then have the rest of the 20 students in the class having nothing to do. You can only have a few technicians and a few people on book, so at that point you want to have a large cast. You want to have something you get everyone involved. So there are exceptions to where you might want to go with a larger cast size. But traditionally, in the modern theater, if you're writing a comedy or drama or something you want widely produced in colleges, in regional theaters and even on Broadway, you probably want off of Broadway, probably not Broadway, you probably want to go with the four to six cast size."
eHow Article: Importance of Cast Size for a Play
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