Vision

So you’ve selected the show you are producing this year and you have come up with an incredible vision for the show. This is going to be awesome! Obviously, you want your students to share in your excitement – but how will you help your students to clearly understand your vision and buy in to it right away? Using the senses to communicate your directing vision helps students to really immerse themselves into the world of the show that you will be creating together. Continue to reinforce your vision both before and throughout the rehearsal process. Try the following suggestions to help illustrate your vision and make it super-clear for everyone involved. Many of the suggestions can fall under two or more senses; work with your students to notice the crossovers. Sight• First and foremost, create a vision board with images pulled from the internet or cut from magazines, as well as sketches and drawings. Post it in the rehearsal space so students can see it and refer back to it. • Use video examples – either clips from previous productions that illustrate what you do (or do not) want to do, or clips from movies, television, or music videos that inspire you. • Create a visual timeline of the show from beginning to end, using a long roll of newsprint. Include instances that occurred prior to the show that trigger the situations within the show. Have students find or draw images to add to the timeline and make it more visually appealing. • Create a connections board showing how all the characters in the show are related to each other – marriages, family members, friendships, colleagues, servants/masters, and so on. Have students create images of the character that they are portraying, and then pin them up on a bulletin board. Use yarn or string to connect the characters. Notice if someone isn’t connected to anyone – why is that? Also think about broken connections, such as former friends, exes, or enemies. Use a different colour of yarn to illustrate those connections. • Find books, magazines, and articles that are either about the show or set in the same time period as the show. Have them available for students to look through when they’re not immediately being used in rehearsal. Sound• Create a soundtrack or playlist of songs that inspire your vision. Share it with your students and explain why you selected the songs you did. Have students suggest songs that could be added to the playlist. • If your show is set in a certain time period, choose a song from that era and play it at the beginning of rehearsal. Who sang the song? Why was it influential to the era? Then let students select songs for upcoming rehearsals. Why did they choose the songs they did? • When talking about the show, use descriptive language to get students excited. What adjectives and verbs can you use that will get students amped up? • If your show is set in another country and uses accents, have students listen to internet talk radio stations from those countries to hear what the accents sound like. Touch• Create a 3D model or diorama of your set. Create small cutout figures of the actors and move them around the set to demonstrate how transitions and scene changes will work. • Include tactile materials such as fabric swatches, carpet samples, props and costumes pulled from your stock to use as examples. Allow students to touch the materials and describe how they feel. • If your show involves specialty props (such as swords or guns) or special effects (such as a swinging rope or a crash mat for stunts) and safety permits, allow your students to touch and try out the items – under supervision of course. This will also help to remove the temptation to play with the items backstage or during pre-show/post-show. • Have an aesthetics day where students recreate hairstyles and popular makeup looks of the era of when your show is set. This has the additional benefit of giving you the opportunity to select and approve hair and makeup looks for the cast members and gives students the opportunity to find out how to create the styles and how long it takes. They’ll also quickly figure out if they will have to do pre-show prep at home before call time. Smell/Taste• Note – Be very careful when approaching smell and taste with students. Be sure you are aware of any allergies or sensitivities that students have to particular foods and scents. If your school is a scent-free zone or has restrictions on what food items can be brought in, combine smell and hearing by using descriptive language and visualization techniques to evoke the smell and taste senses. Also, be sure that any food items are prepared in a clean and safety-approved environment. • If your show had a signature dish, what would it be? What were the popular meals and drinks of the day? Create a sample menu of what people would commonly consume. • Look through your script to see if there are any references to food or drinks. Make them for your students to try at an early rehearsal. • Create a “scentscape” for your students. Have students close their eyes and then talk them through a “scent tour” of the scenes of the play. What does the world of your play smell like? For example, if the show is set in a carnival, describe the scent of crisp fall air, the pungent odor of gasoline from the rides, and the various yummy smells of the food vendors such as cotton candy, candy apples, popcorn, and French fries. If the show is set at a beach, you might smell salty seawater, sunscreen, and various scents from picnics and barbeques.

Choosing a show for your school to produce can be challenging. But once you have selected the show, the hard part is done, right? Well, it’s one thing crossed off your list, but your list is about to get much longer–there is a whole host of other concepts to consider. Here’s a jumping off point for approaching your script, inspired by the ever-useful “5 W’s” – who , what , where , when and why. Please note: First and foremost, always ensure that you have obtained the performance rights and paid the appropriate royalties before you start the production process! What is your vision for the show?The overall look and feel of a show is called the director’s vision or concept. How do you want your show to look, feel, sound, smell? Can you summarize your vision in one sentence? This vision will help you convey your ideas to your cast and crew, as well as your audience. All your artistic choices must advance your vision. Your vision should include both your design concept and your approach to the material. Let’s say you are producing William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. R&J has been done thousands upon thousands of times. To keep things fresh, you will need a specific vision and approach for your production. Will your R&J be edgy and neo-gothic, sprawling and bohemian, traditional Italian, modern and trendy? What style of theatre will you employ? Commedia, puppetry, poor theatre, physical theatre, theatre on skateboards? As an aside, remember that some shows (like those written by William Shakespeare) are in the public domain, but rights-based shows sometimes have playwright’s requirements in the script that could limit your vision. Do not make any changes to a script without the playwright’s permission–to do otherwise is a copyright violation!) Where is the show happening?Consider the “where” both logistically and in terms of your overall vision. Most likely your show will be performed in your school’s auditorium, but perhaps another venue might be available? Think beyond the set as well–consider lighting, sound, special effects, pre-show and post-show atmosphere and decoration. Perhaps you can decorate the hallway leading into the auditorium to get the audience in the mood right away, or create a photobooth where audience members can hang out before the show and during intermission. (Bonus points if they take photos and post them to social media–free publicity!) When will the show happen?The length of the show and difficulty of the material will help you to determine how much rehearsal time you need to adequately mount the production. Will you rehearse twice a week for twelve weeks, or four times a week for six weeks? Will you need more rehearsals closer to showtime? Be sure to have all of this information in place before running auditions, as you will want to make the time commitment clear to your students. It will also help you to plan what scenes will be rehearsed during which rehearsals. Be sure to allow time for choreography and vocal rehearsals if you’re staging a musical. Also, allow for some “TBA” (to be announced) rehearsals in case you get ahead of or behind schedule. Who do you need for this show?Theatre is a team effort, and you need to know how many people will be required to make the show happen. This goes beyond how many actors you’ll need for the show. What crew roles are necessary, and how many students will be needed to ensure everything gets done? You’ll need team members in many different capacities–stage management, props, costumes, set, tech, box office, front of house, publicity, and so on. Will you take on a student assistant director? Can you assign senior students to head up different crew departments? (Delegating to others is absolutely necessary for your own sanity!) Will you require parent volunteers? If so, for what positions? Will any other staff members be part of the production, and in what capacity? Why this show?Why are you passionate about this script? What are you hoping your students will get out of working on this particular show? Does it tie into your class curriculum or any special events going on? (It doesn’t have to, but it’s something to consider) What are you hoping to get out of working on this particular show? Knowing the “whys” of your production will help you to get crystal-clear about your vision and the meaning behind producing this particular piece at this particular time with these particular students.

Directors need to have a vision for the play. That means ALL directors: professional, community, high school, and middle school. Why is it important to have a vision? • A vision gives the play a drive, a look, a tone. • A vision creates a unifying factor—something that can be communicated not just through the text but through staging, lights, sets, sound, and costume. • A vision helps students focus on the bigger picture. It’s more than learning lines and blocking. • A vision gives a director purpose; it’s the creative element the director brings to the table. Visions do not have to be complicated and esoteric. The simpler the vision, the easier it will be to convey to the cast, crew, and designers. There’s nothing wrong with a vision of fun and frivolity. Just make it clear and then be consistent with what you’re trying to achieve. For Example: I directed the original production of my Alice in Wonderland adaptation Alice. The line of dialogue that really jumped out at me after reading the book was from the tea party: ‘We’re all mad here so you must be, too.’ I thought it was interesting that Alice’s response was that she didn’t want to be mad, like she didn’t want a cold. What was my vision? My vision was to focus on the madness of Wonderland and see if the other characters could make Alice crazy as well. I created a huge physical division between the Wonderland characters and Alice. Alice was the only character with flesh showing–all the others were as inhuman as possible. I had a trio of girls play the Cheshire Cat instead of one to emphasize the fact that the cat wasn’t “real.” The Wonderland characters mistreated Alice at every opportunity; shoving her, towering over her, pinching her. They hissed at her from the darkness. She was not of their ‘world’ and the only way she could be is if she changed, becoming more like them. This is how I took my vision of “mad world” and translated it to the staging, to communicating acting choices, and to informing the costuming. How Do I Find A Vision? • Highlight the one word, image, or action that speaks to you in the script. • Find music that represents the story and the main character. • Give each character a colour. • Find magazine pictures, pictures of art, sculptures—anything that can help you and everyone you talk to about the play to SEE the play. • Create a scrapbook. The more visual the vision can be, the better. Exercise #1 Go see a play and try to decipher the director’s vision. Write it out in one sentence. What is the director trying to say with his or her interpretation of the play? You might find that this is a difficult task and, if you do, think about why that is. If you can’t see a vision, maybe it’s because the director’s hasn’t created one. Exercise #2 Take the script you’re working on. Describe the play using the five senses. What is the taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell of the play? How does describing the play in this way define the play for you? This is an excellent exercise for student directors who might have no idea that directors need a ‘vision.’ Exercise #3 Play ‘What If?’ with the text. That’s how many of the most interesting visions are born—a director simply said “what if” and then went for it! What if Romeo and Juliet took place today instead of in the 11th century? What if Sweeney Todd was set in a mental institution where the patients played their own instruments? What if the alienation of the main character was shown in the costumes, with everyone else in black? Example: What if Hamlet was played as a metaphorical contrast between LA and New York? Claudius and Gertrude are ‘LA’ people; they’re tan and wear bright colours. Polonius wears Hawaiian shirts and a bad toupee. Gertrude looks like she’s had a facelift. Claudius is Hamlet Sr.’s much younger brother so he’s closer to age and looks to Hamlet Jr. Hamlet, on the other hand, is New York flung into a human being – he scowls, wears a lot of black (combat boots and a satchel), and smokes. Ophelia also dresses like this because she loves Hamlet. But hers is a more subtle, or really, a less successful look. She’s such an awkward girl. Maybe she hides the black under a bright sweater, so Polonius doesn’t find out. Maybe she has a secret tattoo. Both she and Hamlet have incredibly white skin in comparison to everyone else around them. The new Denmark is kind of like a party—a luau where the Beach Boys are always playing and the light streams across the stage like bright sunshine. It’s a big change after much darkness. But is it really a party? Or has evil just papered over the darkness with fake cheer and brightness? Colours: Bright vs Dark Texture: Sun and Sand vs City steel Sound: The Beach Boys vs hard guitar and drums Sight: Bright colours, beach, but it looks like it’s trying too hard. There’s a fakeness to it. Also, Hamlet looking incredibly out of place on a beach. Smell: It smells like the ocean, but a fake air freshener version of the ocean. There’s also the occasional “rotten” whiff. Taste: Tropical Fruit and ice cream. But everything looks better than it tastes. The play has a clear visual conflict. There’s a clear colour palate for costumes, lights, and set. There’s a defined sound to the play. There’s a set direction. There’s a very simple visualization of light and dark (which plays in opposite to who are the light and dark characters in the play). This is how a vision can work for you. O** ne thing to always keep in mind…** Remember that while the director’s vision is your own interpretation of the script, you have to stay true to the playwright’s intention. You can’t come up with a vision and then change the play to suit the vision.

A vision board is a visual representative of the look of the show. Directors can use a vision board to illustrate their concept of the show to their design team. It can also be used to illustrate the mood of the show that the director intends to evoke onstage. A costume designer can use a vision board in a similar way; to illustrate their design concepts for the show. It clearly displays the overall image of what each character will look like and wear onstage, including costumes, hairstyles, and makeup. Each actors can even create their own vision board for their character to help them get to know the character. How do they visualize their character? What do they look like to the actor? What clothes does the character “choose” to wear? A vision board can inspire other aspects of the design, from the props and sets to the sound and lighting. The following exercise puts students in the role of costume designer. Assign each student a different character in a show they are currently studying, and follow the directions to create a vision board for that character. For a bigger challenge, have them go through the process for ALL the characters in the show to create an overall cohesive look! 1. Read through the script and make note of the following:• The year or time period the show is set in. • The location of the show. For example, a show set in Africa will have very different costume needs compared to a show set in Antarctica. • Any specific or essential costume notes included in the script. For example, a stage direction might say something like “Fred removes his hat and sets it on his desk” or “Minnie bursts into the room, dressed for bed.” You’d note that Fred needs a hat of some kind, and Minnie needs some sort of nightwear. (Pajamas? Nightgown? Bathrobe? What suits the character best?) • If the character changes clothes in the show or wears the same costume throughout. (How many costume changes? Are they all necessary?) 2. Think about your “vision” for costuming the show.Are you going to stick to the date and location stated in the script, or go in a totally different direction? I have seen productions of “The Scottish Play” performed in many different ways: traditional Scottish garb, black, witchy, and Gothic costumes, or Desert Storm fatigues. Describe your vision in five words or less. Perhaps your version of “The Scottish Play” will be “elegant, vintage, and flowy” versus “black, witchy, and Gothic.” Whatever you choose, make sure that every design aspect of the show supports your vision. Think about your costume details from head to toe. It’s not just the actual clothing that the character wears, but also specific hairstyles, makeup, accessories (hats, gloves, jewelry, belts, bags), and footwear. Although technically any item carried onstage is a prop, if an item is essential to the character (like a fan, a makeup compact, a weapon, or a book), include it in your vision board to illustrate that it is an essential part of the character. 3. Here’s the fun part – creating the vision board. Here are my two favourite ways:• Analog – Get some scissors, glue, a stack of magazines, a big piece of poster board, and start creating! Look for images of clothing, makeup, hairstyles and words that describe the character’s look. Cut them out and create a collage on the poster board. Include printouts from websites, sketches, colour palettes, and textile samples such as fabric swatches, ribbons, trims, and buttons as well. • Digital – Pinterest is a great website that can be used to create a digital vision board. It’s like a virtual bulletin board where you can “pin” images from around the Internet to your own curated profile – and it’s free to join! If you’d rather not join a website, collect appropriate images from the web that illustrate your vision for the show, and put them together in a PowerPoint slideshow, or create a digital collage using Photoshop or similar editing program. Whatever your concept, creating a vision board will help clarify and cement your ideas into an appealing visual display. Be sure to send us photos of the vision boards you create!

Why create a Mission Statement for your theatre program? Aren’t things like ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ better suited for corporations? Amy Pugh Patel, Theatre Teacher, Director, and DTA Instructor, shares her experience in this post. To learn more about creating a mission and vision for your drama program, check out Amy’s course Mission Possible found on the Drama Teacher Academy website. Reason #1: A Mission Creates a CultureDeveloping a mission creates a unified culture for you and your students. Before creating a mission statement, I knew why I did theatre but did not know why the students did it. After creating a mission statement for our program, we understood each other better. Reason #2: A Mission Inspires and MotivatesThe mission statement helps to motivate and inspire students to dig deeper than their initial reasons for taking drama. We had our program’s mission statement printed on the back of t-shirts, as a visual reminder and inspiration for students and teachers. Reason #3: A Mission Determines the Aim of Your Theatre ProgramThe mission statement creates the path that your program is going to be on. It also creates checks and balances. You can evaluate every group decision, procedure, and activity by asking: “Does this directly support our mission or should we do something different?” Reason #4: A Mission is ValidatingSome people view drama as a frivolous, unnecessary school department. A mission statement communicates the significance and strength of your theatre program to sponsors, parents, prospective students, and your school administration. It shows the rest of the world what you do, why you do it, and how you do it. A theater program with a clear mission statement will draw more people to support and advance its cause. Reason #5: A Mission Defines PurposeCrafting a mission statement forces you to determine the underlying reasons for doing what you do. With my theatre program, I realized that I needed to incorporate students’ voices into the program’s mission. I couldn’t dictate what was important to them. Writing a mission statement is a joint effort between teachers and students that will unify your program. If you’re ready to dive in and develop a mission with your students, check out the DTA course [Mission Possible](/dtacourses/mission-possible-creating-a-mission-and-unified-vision-for-your-theatre-program)_. The course takes you through each step of the process: how to ask the right questions, examine your school’s culture and traditions, write and revise your program’s statement, and shout your statement from the rooftops. Find out more about the course by clicking on the video below:

It’s an easy thing to say. People say it all the time: I want to act, I’d love to be an actor, I’d die if I wasn’t acting. But what do these sentences really mean? • Do you want to be in movies? TV? • What kind of movies? What kind of TV? Sitcom? Drama? Disney? Would you shun one over another? • Would you do commercials? Voiceovers? • Do you want to be in theatre? Straight plays? Musicals? And there’s more to consider – what level of performing would make you happy? • Broadway? Regional? Touring? Community? • Do you want to be a star? • Do you want to be famous? • Do you want to act in your spare time? • Are you happy making a modest living? • Would you be happy as an extra? • Would you be happy doing commercials? Once you’ve defined what you want, and what would make you happy, what are you willing to do to get it? What’s your discomfort level? • Eat ramen noodles for a year? Five years? Ten? • Do seventeen odd jobs to pay the rent? • Sleep on a couch? • Do a horrible project just because you were cast? • Work with an abusive director in a wonderful project? • Do nudity? There are lots of possibilities to consider, many of which require discomfort. The sentence is no longer simple. When you’re thinking “I want to act” there’s no discomfort at all. It’s warm, fuzzy and pleasant. It’s a dream. When you say “I want to act” in your dream it happens instantly. You get the perfect role in the perfect project. Everything is warm, fuzzy and pleasant. But it doesn’t work that way for thousands and thousands of wannabe actors. Let’s say you’re the most talented person in your school and better still, you’re also the most beautiful. Let’s go even further and say you’ve done some local theatre, and maybe even a local commercial or two. You’re not unwise to how the business works. You’ve even made a specific choice to go to LA instead of New York because you want to be in movies and TV. You pack your life into your thirdhand used car and head to Hollywood. In your very first audition you walk into a room of actors who are not only talented, not only beautiful, but they all look exactly like you. You no longer stand out. What will you do?What will you do if you don’t book a gig that first week? That first month? That second month? Six months? What will you do if your dream doesn’t turn into reality? There is a vast difference between a dream and a vision. A dream is a wish for something to happen. A vision is a step-by-step action plan. Consider the notion of running a marathon. Many people say, “I wish I could run a marathon.” Imagine waking up one morning and running 26.2 miles without any training or preparation. Sounds crazy but every big marathon has hundreds of people like this. And most of them fail miserably. Running a marathon does not have to work like this. There are hundreds of step-by-step programs freely available to teach anyone how to run a marathon. None of these programs involve wishes – they all involve specific steps. They start out simply: you run X number of times a week designating one of those runs as the “long run.” Over a set number of weeks you slowly increase the length of the “long run.” Each week you add more and more miles until you reach the point where a marathon distance is within grasp. Anything is possible if you break it up into small steps, always moving forward. So when you’re thinking about pursuing a career as an actor, don’t be the guy who wants to be a marathon runner overnight. Don’t be the actor who says, “I’m going to Hollywood and land a film tomorrow!” You’ll hurt yourself. Instead, put together a strategy of small steps. The finish line will appear further away, but every step you take will be one step closer. And you won’t be sitting around without a plan, waiting to be discovered. Acting is a fickle business. Some actors do nothing and end up on top. Others craft a specific vision for themselves and get nowhere. Luck is involved. You can’t avoid that. But you can make yourself luckier by making choices. You can decide to go to school. You can decide what your main focus will be. You can decide to take classes. You can be fully prepared when that lucky break comes your way, and you can know what your next step will be if something falls apart. But wait, you say, I’m just in high school. What can I do? Start by defining your parameters. Here are ten questions to get you started if you’re thinking about becoming an actor. 1. Who are your favourite actors? Start defining who you like, why you like them, and what about their acting appeals to you. Find interviews where your favourite actor talks about being an actor. 2. What type of acting do you like best? Movies, TV, theatre? What about this type of acting appeals to you? 3. Depending on your preference list five movies/TV shows/plays that you love. Why do you love them? What interests you about this specific genre? 4. In your chosen five, identify your favourite scene or monologue. What do you connect with in this moment? What makes this moment come alive for you? 5. Identify five roles that would you be perfect for. Why? Start thinking about what kind of roles you’d excel in. 6. What audition piece would you choose to demonstrate why you’d be perfect for the part? Start thinking about how to use audition pieces to land parts. Do you have a variety of audition pieces at the ready? 7. What is your current level of expertise? Be honest. What do you know, what skills do you have? 8. How can you further your expertise? Make a list of activities you could do to further your skills as an actor. Do you have access to classes? What can you learn on the internet? Don’t self-censor. Put down everything and anything regardless of time or money. 9. What is standing in your way of becoming an actor? (e.g. You live in a place without access to movie auditions.) List every obstacle. 10. What can you do to overcome these obstacles? Brainstorm on tactics to deal with what’s in your way. Don’t worry about whether or not you can complete these actions, just write them down. And a bonus question: Where do you want to be in a year’s time?Some additional thoughts: If your first thought when you’re listing activities that will further your expertise is “I can’t!” (e.g. I can’t, that’s too expensive. I can’t, there are no classes in my area. I can’t, my parents won’t let me) then acting is probably not for you. You don’t need to have the solution to these problems right now or even this year. But your gut reaction will tell you if you’re truly driven to work toward an acting career. So what can you do if location is an obstacle? Research summer camps or classes that you could travel to. What if money is an obstacle? Get a part-time job or a summer job and work out how much money you’d have to save to pay for a class. Put your plan on paper so you can show your parents what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. How do I turn this list into an action plan?Take each item and list out the steps it would take to complete that item. Some will require more steps than others. Let’s say one of your items is: I need headshots The steps to acquire headshots would look like this: • Research what professional headshots look like. Get examples. • Research what it costs to get headshots done. • Figure out how I’m going to pay for them. • Research photographers. • Choose one. • Make an appointment. • Go to the photo shoot. • Receive contact sheet. • Choose headshot. • Get prints made. Don’t worry about doing all these steps at once. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Divide the list of steps into the following lists: • Items to do this week. • Items to do this month. • Items to do this year. Choose a specific day each week to check in with your list. Are you on track? There are so many people who have the dream of becoming an actor. So many people say those words: “I want to be an actor.” How will you be different? What steps will you take to turn those words into a reality?