So why go to the International Thespian Conference, especially if you do not have a thespian troupe? It is a tremendous week of high school theatre with no requirements to attend. This past week it was at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

So what goes on for that week? More than fifty productions are presented by schools from throughout North America and abroad, a full schedule of workshops are offered by theatre professionals, as well as individual performance events and a student playwriting program.  It also gives students the opportunities to audition for college and university representatives and Thespian scholarships, and a chance to hang out with other students who love theatre.

When we attended the conferences I met wonderful people, saw some great shows — which I later produced — and took incredible classes as well as picked up some much needed credits to further my climb up the seniority list. My students and I all went to something different and would share what we learned each night. We always left the conferences with a wealth of wonderful new theatre information. This sharing of ideas was the very best thing we all gained from the conferences — except one thing!

One of the shows we saw was Catch Me If You Can performed by a Florida troupe, a great production and mystery, one we did several years later.  When I retired in 2000 one of my kids had a going away party for me at the theatre that had been my home away from home for 37 years. Many of my students attended, several from out of town. One in particular was a young lady who had seen the mystery when she attended the conference. She also brought her husband.  He had been the lead in that production and they had met again when she was working in a theatre company in Florida and married — so really great things can happen at these conferences! 

‘Tis the season to choose your Christmas plays! “Christmas in July” is a reality for those involved in choosing a Christmas script. Though we’re all in summer mode at the moment, it isn’t too soon to give some thought to the inevitable Christmas play rehearsals of autumn. Here are some new offerings and some of our most popular children’s plays, pageants, and musicals for the holiday season:

During the next 28 years we traveled to the conferences every other year.  We primarily presented workshops on children’s theatre—see our recipe below developed from the 25 children’s shows we performed over a span of 20+ years.

CHILDREN’S THEATRE RECIPE

6 Cups of Ingenuity, Imagination, & Invention

Ingredients

1/2 C           A strong opening

1/2 C           Color (mix this very well throughout the production, including set, costumes, & makeup)

1/2 tsp.        Setting

1/3 C           Moral

21/2 C         Movement  (this must include dance and music)

1/2 C           Animals

1 2/3 C        Audience involvement (doing chases, asking for help, holding imaginary objects/animals)

Mix all ingredients well.  Let marinate about three to four weeks

Time:  1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Yield:  A very successful play.

On several occasions we performed shows that were not written for children, using more clever traveling ideas. For Thurber Carnival we purchased the slides along with the scripts.  However, we did not want to worry about a slide projector and screen so we transferred the drawings from the slides to white poster board and created boxes. Each box required six pieces of poster board, all the same size (a top, bottom and four sides). We copied, in black, Thurber’s line drawings, one for each piece of poster board (giving us six different settings). Five holes were punched on each side and the posters were then laced together with black yarn. As each new story was presented the boxes were turned to illustrate that story.  The cardboard laid flat when not laced, making traveling a breeze. This would work well for designs of walls or trees, as well.

The set and costumes for Elizabeth 1 were created out of “found” objects our drama department had acquired over the years.  See The Drama Teacher's Survival Guide  for a detailed account of that production. Below is an excerpt. 

All wore leotards I had on hand, the boys wore sweat pants and running shorts, and the girls wore muslin rehearsal skirts. For Elizabeth we used a child’s inner tube to add fullness to the skirt, a cut off sweatshirt for her top, and a paper crown we had gotten for our production of Cinderella.

You can find a picture of Elizabeth 1, Mary Queen of Scots, and Burley under Photos To Enhance Your Reading on my web site www.margaretfjohnson.com.

Run-Down Window Shade

The first conference we attended was in Portland, Oregon. Because of our production of Annabelle and the traveling we had done to the Shrine hospital in Spokane, we were invited to perform a children’s show on the main stage. We chose to do Beauty and the Lonely Beast. Again we had to travel, so we decided to concentrate on costumes that each student could take as their luggage. The play required two sets, a lot of hats (the fairy godmother loved hats), and smoke. My husband came up with an ingenious set and flash pots.

We needed three items: window shades, music stands, and acrylic paint. We started with plastic-coated window shades (these are stronger than the regular shades and washable) and acrylic paint (it has a plastic base and will adhere to the shade). We created both scenes by using the back and the front of the shades. Before any design was painted on the shades, he made a drawing to scale on graph paper of a run-down house (for the first scene, see the picture) and French provincial panels (for the prince’s castle).

Next we needed 6 music stands. He took the top off the music stands and raised them as high as they would go. A piece of wire was fixed to the rolled down shade and put in the top of the stands to hold the shade in place, suspending the shades on the music stands.  The animals came in, picked up each shade, and turned it for the scene change to the prince’s palace. The device of turning the shades for each scene called attention to it and was incorporated with the play. This design was simple and traveled easily.

The show was amazing. The fairy godmother made her entrance on roller-skates down the very long steep aisle singing “I love hats” in a broad cockney accent at the top of her voice—the two cats we incorporated into show were at the bottom to catch her. The rest of the music was right on and the flash pots did their thing beautifully although today we would not allowed to use gunpowder, shorting wires, and coffee can lids! (Never had everything worked in rehearsals!) The show was a hit, not only for the folks at the convention but at the Portland’s Children’s hospital as well.

This would be the beginning of many journeys and performances at the Thespian conferences.

Endorsed by performers from Saturday Night Live, the Harold is the long-form improvisational tool that helped many actors on the road to TV and film stardom. This innovative method is described fully in the book Truth in Comedy by Charna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim "Howard" Johnson. This insightful book has become the bible for wannabe improvisers.

Art By Committee, Charna Halpern's sequel to the best-selling Truth in Comedy, comes with a DVD featuring performers demonstrating the instructions and ideas covered in the book. The subjects in this text progress from a discussion of the latest improvements to the Harold, to techniques used by today’s best improvisers, to anecdotes about the late Del Close and his work with the author in developing the Harold.

Charna Halpern recently celebrated her twenty-fifth year in business as director of i.O. Chicago (formerly ImprovOlympic) and i.O. West in Los Angeles. Watch for Charna and Truth in Comedy, featured on the current season of MTV's The Real World: Hollywood.

Have you heard the term “human video” and wondered what exactly it is? This emerging new art form is spreading across the country in churches of many different denominations. Kimberlee Mendoza, author of The Human Video Handbook, says, “Human video … combines music, choreography, and drama.” She adds, “The point behind a human video is to portray a strong Christian message using multiple senses.”  The term was coined from its similarity to televised music videos. The live performance is the reason for the “human.” The impact of music combined with the artistry of movement makes human video a powerful experience for both performer and audience.

We are an increasingly visual people – human video speaks volumes to a country accustomed to televisions and computers. Why not introduce human video to your congregation? Those who feel more comfortable performing without the pressure of memorizing lines would take very readily to this expressive art form. There’s a tremendous amount of wonderful Christian music in many styles out there, so the possibilities are endless. From traditional to contemporary, ballads to rock, there are hundreds of human videos waiting to be created that are just right for your church, no matter what your worship style. Discover it for yourself!

Staging a play is one thing, but staging a musical is something quite different! A musical is many times more difficult because your key actors must be singers and your singers must perform as actors. You can spend as much as you like, make the show technically as complex or as simple as you prefer. The music, the lyrics, the dialogue, the pathos, the comedy, and ultimately the energy of the performance are the heart and life of a musical. Scenery, lighting, costumes, and special effects are secondary.

We've designed our musical comedies to accommodate this problem. With every show we provide a rehearsal/performance CD with professional voices to help teach the songs to your young performers. It can be used in practice by your cast or even as a back-up for the show itself.

To help everyone we published a book titled Staging Musicals for Young Performers.  It covers everything from selecting the right musical to casting, rehearsing, developing the right choreography, preparing the sets and props, and how to find or make your costumes. It gives details about all the basics with sample forms to keep everything organized, a glossary of theatrical and musical terms, and how to acquire performance rights and get parental volunteers to help with the show's many production details. The book was written by Maria Novelly and Adele Firth, an actress in repertory theatre. Both collaborators have taught English and drama in America and Europe. Novelly is also the author of Theatre Games for Young Performers.

Scenes Keep Happening

Scenes Keep Happening, the latest release from popular author and playwright Mary Krell-Oishi, offers forty-eight true-to-life scenes for guys, girls and mixed casts. These scenes are written as teens speak with the drama and emotions of adolescence.

The scenes in this collection vary in length from five to ten minutes. Themes include bullying, dating, driving, sex, sports, vanity, drugs and more. Offering both humor and drama, these scenes make excellent contest scripts due to the reality of the characters, language and situations.

Sample scenes include: “Being a Woman,” “The Bully,” “Poetic Justice,” “The Secret,” “Alone on Prom Night,” “Facing the Enemy” and many more.

Make It Mystery

Best-selling playwright Craig Sodaro is also a best-selling author! His book, Make It Mystery, offers twelve royalty-free mystery plays to fit a variety of staging and casting needs. From classic farce to supernatural suspense, each one-act play has an element of mystery that is often laced with comedy. Sodaro serves up an assortment of gripping tales guaranteed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

This text is especially workable for middle school and high school students, but actors and audiences of all ages will revel in the fun and suspense of each of these plays.

As summer is approaching and we can say good bye to the 2007-08 school year, it brings to mind stories of “What I did on my summer vacation.” No, not really, but I did do several great things during those summer breaks from teaching.

First of all, summer was a time to catch up on house cleaning that had lain dormant during the 9 months of teaching and directing. But we will not go there!

The first thing I did as a rookie was to start a summer theatre program. I had been introduced to children’s theatre in college and loved the experience it gave me as an actor.  Not only is it wonderful to have the young audience members ask for your autograph, but seeing the wonder in their eyes and their reactions to the play is something that every actor needs to experience.  It is doubly rewarding when you are performing for little ones in a hospital.  

We live relatively close to a major children’s hospital in Spokane, Washington, so I decided to do a children’s show that we could pack up in a car and take to the hospital. Cinderella was chosen, as it needed very few men. (You can see a picture of the backdrop my husband drew on page 217 of The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide.) With the help of several parents, we car-pooled the 175 miles—this was in 1964 when gas was cheap—and had a very rewarding day. 

This led to another scheduled performance the following Christmas.  I had been cast in the Harder’s play, Annabelle Broome, in college and wanted to do it as my Christmas offering to the cities of Missoula and Spokane.  Well, serendipitously this turned out to also be the Christmas my husband and I decided to get married (we had been going together for 9 years). All the plans for the trip had been made long before the wedding plans, so two days after the wedding, 20 students, 2 chaperons and the newlyweds boarded the train for Spokane.  Again the show was a hit and all had a great time.  Those now-60-year-old kids still talk about their honeymoon.

This performance led to our invitation to perform at the National Thespian Conference in Portland, Oregon.  More on that next time.   

Now that Mother’s Day has passed, I’m curious: Did your congregation hold any special events for the women in your church? Many churches plan a Mother-Daughter banquet or retreat. My church plans an annual tea with a theme, and the guys graciously volunteer as the servers. This year was “The Asian Experience,” complete with sushi and parasols. I’ve been taking my daughter since she was tiny, and now she’s taller than I am!

Over the years, I’ve watched our moms and daughters get totally engrossed in a special drama just for them. They’ve laughed themselves silly some years (Paris, S.D. Festival of Fashion, Chick Flicks) and teared up other years (Mother and Child). On my to-do list for future Mother-Daughter Teas are: Church Ladies, Spring Cleaning, No Makeup Required, All in the Life of a Woman, and The Prodigal Daughter Plus Five.

Don’t miss an opportunity to honor and pamper the women of your congregation with a special mother-daughter event! It’s a tradition they’ll eagerly anticipate year after year.

Playwright Laurie Allen certainly knows how to please. Her first book, Thirty Short Comedy Plays for Teens, was so successful that we asked if she would write a sequel. Without hesitation she said, "I'd love to!" and added, "But this time why don't I make the book Sixty Comedy Duet Scenes for Teens? That will give your customers twice as much for their money."

We didn't hesitate either. "You're on; go to work," we said.

A few months later her new manuscript arrived. We read it and laughed through every page. Her scenes were as creative and true-to-life as her former work. She's clever, she's witty, but best of all her scenes are all on target for teens. They provide a wide variety of easy-to-stage scripts ideal for use in the classroom and/or for contests or variety shows.

This collection of scenes is for two performers in middle school or high school. The scenes are divided into three sections: (1) Two Boys, (2) Two Girls, (3) Boys and Girls. All scenes take place within the confines of school, and the characters are daring, outlandish, and uninhibited. They are people every teen knows and the topics are current.

Sample titles include "Text Me," "Mathematically Challenged," and "Mistaken Infatuation." Many of Allen's competition pieces have gone all the way to national speech and forensic competitions.