Self-Supporting Scenery

209699 Resource 203097 203800 203800 1216996186842 1217000016969 Controlled What a Drama Teacher Does in the Summer, Part 6

Acting in Summer Theatre 1

Anytime a drama teacher gets the chance to get out from behind the director’s chair and work as an actor, it only makes her a better director.  As directors we soon forget what it is like to be an actor, and being reminded every so often is very helpful—if nothing else to learn what not to do or say to one’s cast! When our summer high school theatre program ended, I got a chance to work with summer theatre in the tent.  Yes, you heard right, under a circus tent. We have a wonderful walk by the Clark Fork River and along the shore was a great piece of land that was perfect for pitching a large circus tent and doing summer theatre. The University of Montana and the city made an agreement that the city would rent the tent and the university would provide the platforms, chairs, lighting, and the plays. A bar was commissioned to serve wine, beer, and appetizers. It was a great way to spend an evening; however, there were several drawbacks. One was that the tent was placed right next to our main bridge, so every Saturday night we had additional sounds effects of cars speeding and  backfiring while motor cycles zoomed by at the most inappropriate times. It was also hot, or rainy, or cold—the temp was never quite right—but we loved it! The troupe of actors was recruited from the U, given a small stipend and credit. Three shows were produced each summer.  I became involved the third summer playing Aunt Eller in Oklahoma.  It was a very hot summer, so the ironic thing was when Curley started to sing, ”Oh what a beautiful morning,” it was sooo hot that no one believed it was morning (and it got a laugh every night), but the corn being as high as an elephant’s eye was extremely believable. We ended the season with Guys and Dolls. The night we opened, we had just finished the opening number when smoke filled the tent. The audience and actors were herded out the various exits, firemen were called, and it was discovered that the cables used for lighting, housed in a trench, had caught fire.  The stage/lighting/set crew stayed up all night and we opened the following day.  That was just one of many interesting experiences we had under the tent.   9 application/xml false acting musicals outdoor stage outdoor theater summer drama summer theater Summer theatre Self-Supporting Scenery How to construct free-standing scenery to convert any space into a theatre. https://www.meriwetherpublishing.com/CatalogDetails.aspx?cat=15 Musicals from Contemporary Drama Service Full-length musicals for middle school and high school https://www.contemporarydrama.com/Catalog.aspx?cat=41 Directors' Resources Directing texts from Meriwether Publishing https://www.meriwetherpublishing.com/Catalog.aspx?cat=3 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 ascheck 63.253.82.222 false true false false true 218193 false false true false false false true 257146 Resource 218193 173239 173239 1280838666127 1280838666127 Controlled RE: What a Drama Teacher Does in the Summer, Part 6

stage lighting helps to convey what is going on, about to happen, and or to redirect the emotions of the audience.good information <a href="http://www.louielighting.com/"> Please check out </a> 10 application/xml true Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.12) Gecko/2009070812 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.12 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 112.196.3.10 false true false false true 203097 blog blogsite/ContemporaryDrama/web