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"For actors to develop something alone, they would need to be creatures so highly developed that they would hardly need rehearsal either; they would read the script and in a wink the invisible substance of the play would appear fully articulated amongst them... the director is there to attack and yield, provoke and withdraw until the indefinable stuff begins to flow... the director must sense where the actor wants to go and what it is he avoids, what blocks he raises to his own intentions. No director injects a performance. At best a director enables an actor to reveal his own performance, that he might otherwise have clouded for himself."
"For actors to develop something alone, they would need to be creatures so highly developed that they would hardly need rehearsal either; they would read the script and in a wink the invisible substance of the play would appear fully articulated amongst them... the director is there to attack and yield, provoke and withdraw until the indefinable stuff begins to flow... the director must sense where the actor wants to go and what it is he avoids, what blocks he raises to his own intentions. No director injects a performance. At best a director enables an actor to reveal his own performance, that he might otherwise have clouded for himself."
-Peter Brook, The Empty Space
-Peter Brook, The Empty Space
Advanced Showcase: A Culminating Project
Advanced Showcase: A Culminating Project
Our final project this year is a self-guided tour of a theatre style of your choosing. Excepting improv, working solo, partnerships, or groups of 3, you are to choose and research a theatre style, then, ultimately, perform in that style with appropriate content.
CONTENT REQUIREMENTS
EITHER Decide on performance theory first, then choose content;
OR Decide on content first and research from whence it was written
Choose content from a published source: no original material, no monologue books, no musical theater.
Content will be found in entire plays, or scenes from plays; I will assist you with the process
Classroom Performances WITH Presentations between May 4 - 15, 2026 (TBA)
Classroom Performances WITH Presentations between May 4 - 15, 2026 (TBA)
Extra-Curricular Performance WITHOUT Presentations on May 11 - 15, 2026 (TBA)
Extra-Curricular Performance WITHOUT Presentations on May 11 - 15, 2026 (TBA)
A Presentation and A Show
PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS
A spoken, TedTalk-style group presentation, 10 mins max. The entire group, in costume, in front of your set.
Biographical information about the playwright, its time, its culture, framed by why the play is significant
A synopsis of the style/theory: how it works, its purpose, why it looks/sounds the way it does, including how you applied what you learned to what we're about to see
A synopsis of the play/content and its given circumstances
A shared Slides Document with uniform formatting is highly encouraged. Presentation is expected to be rehearsed, polished and informed.
Please cite your sources.
SHOW REQUIREMENTS
No scripts onstage, unless content requires otherwise
Partnership/Group will collaborate together; orphans are an assumed solo-performance
10 - 20 mins. long, curtain to curtain
Design will be just beyond "rehearsal grade": no pantomime / use actual props; costumes are suggestive; actual lights up/down; suggestive "+" set; atmospherics and/or underscoring
Props & Set pieces will be provided by THMS Theatre Dept.
Costumes as required by the performance theory
Sound and Light support provided by the THMS Theatre Dept., but you need to figure out board operators
Directing and Leadership
Directing and Leadership
Theatre's Hierarchy of Leadership
Theatre's Hierarchy of Leadership
Donors / Audience
Board of Directors
Artistic Director & Administrative Staff
Production Manager
Stage Manager (production only)
Assistant Stage Managers (production only)
Director (production only)
Designers / Board Operators
Actors (production only) / Resident Artists
Crew
Interns
Every job is important: don't avoid your job by doing the work of others.
Are you a Boss or a Leader?
Are you a Boss or a Leader?
The boss accomplishes goals by demanding compliance from its ensemble and doing all the work;
The leader accomplishes by encouraging and fostering its ensemble and editing others' work.
Theatre is a collaborative artform. :)
Professional theatre is organized by season: like educational institutions, our seasons start in September and end in May.
During a season, a theatre could do up to five plays and / or musicals.
Fall is typically time for a legit play;
Winter is typically time for Holiday-themed productions;
Spring is typically time for a musical.
Summer is the off-season where theaters go into Rep and / or training schools.
The Life of a Production
The Life of a Production
A production describes the entire process from choosing a play to strike, and its accomplished in steps:
ONE to TWO YEARS before opening. Artistic Director decides the running order for a season
ONE YEAR to SIX MONTHS before opening. The director is hired. Research begins; gathering given circumstance, narrowing style.
THREE to FOUR MONTHS before opening: HIRE DESIGNERS. Work begins on all aspects of design.
NINE WEEKS before opening: ACTOR AUDITIONS. Actors either prep a monologue or play sides.
EIGHT WEEKS before opening: TABLEWORK or TABLE READ. Actors and director read from the play, stopping to discuss.
SIX or SEVEN WEEKS before opening: REHEARSAL. Partial company called to rehearsal: memorization, blocking, design tests. Actors are memorized when they return to rehearse the same scene.
FOUR WEEKS before opening: RUN-THROUGHS. Play is ran by act or in total. Technical director leads load-in when the sets, costumes and props arrive to stage (if they haven't already). Lights hang/rig/focus/color; sound wires speakers and preps mic track. Board operators and crew watch the play.
THREE WEEKS before opening: TECHNICAL REHEARSAL or TECH. Director leads cue-to-cue where actors run chronologically through the play but skip moments without technical performance. Board operators and crew join the company. Director attention transitions from actors to designers.
TWO WEEKS before opening: DRESS REHEARSAL. Actors don costumes; company practices efficiency. Final notes from director to actors and designers
ONE and a HALF WEEKS before opening: FINAL DRESS REHEARSAL. Ideally no notes are given; production is ran as if audience is present
ONE WEEK before opening: PREVIEWS. Test audiences are invited at lower ticket cost, the show may stop due to safety concerns
OPENING. The play is locked in: no more changes to design or performance
CLOSING. The play receives its last audience
STRIKE. Technical director steps in to remove set, sound, costumes, props and lights and return the stage to neutral.
Directing: "The most skilled audience member in the room"
Directing: "The most skilled audience member in the room"
Realistic <-------------------------------------------------------- Brecht Line ---------------------------------------------------------> Symbolic
Story first, Message Second Message first, Story second
subtle message --------------------------------> Blatant message
subtle message --------------------------------> Blatant message
Create the most believeable narrative experience for your audience
Fosters actor empathy and imagination to generate tension
Mediates colleagueship
Motivational blocking & stage picture
Create an experience that keeps the audience on message
Clarifies actor expression to most efficient communication of message
Presentational blocking & stage picture
PRODUCTION RESEARCH
PRODUCTION RESEARCH
When considering a production, a few opening questions for the artist:
What makes my production relevant to contemporary time? What makes the production relevant to the audience/community?
Given that answer, what is the best aesthetic to achieve that goal?
Traditional mise-en-scene?
A re-interpretation?
A Mise-en-scene describes a specific production's look and feel. For example, in a retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest the mise-en-scene is going to be less traditional- we'll set it in space- in order to support the themes of adventure, foreign/unknown lands and the clash that occurs between two different cultures who don't trust each other.
RELEVANCY
RELEVANCY
There's no right answers here: the fact that you're interested in delving further is the only "correct" path. So, without the need to defend your preference, what ignited your curiosity about the content or style that you chose? There's personal relevance:
"I want to broaden my knowledge/experience"
"I want to be seen"
There's societal relevance:
"I want to broaden others' knowledge/experience"
"I want my commentary to affect societal change"
TRADITIONAL vs. SOMETHING NEW
TRADITIONAL vs. SOMETHING NEW
Now that we have a bearing on what our purpose is, what is the most efficient mise-en-scene to achieve that goal?
A traditional retelling of your content could be used to broaden your knowledge base. Conduct research on prior productions: what they looked like; who were the actors and what were they known for; who was the director and what were they into; who was the company and what was their original intent
A re-interpretation of your content could be used to share the relevant themes of your content with your audience. The themes in Titus Andronicus- revenge, power shift, political strife, immigration, etc- are relevant to your audience, but EGA and Shakespeare's original text doesn't communicate your message: what have contemporary practitioners done with your content; what aesthetic would support your communication
Blocking
Blocking
Blocking is the path of action during performance. Sometimes called topography, the movement of actors onstage should support either the actor's objective or the play's message.
There's TWO types of blocking: PRESENTATIONAL and MOTIVATED.
MOTIVATED BLOCKING
MOTIVATED BLOCKING
Goes with realistic media
Actors move around stage in reaction to partner
Subtle cheat out in order to be seen AND maintain believability of really having the conversation
Design supports given circumstances of play and actor's objective
Performance space has no suggestion of pretense; it's as if the setting was sliced from real life and dropped onstage.
Fully working, real objects/props (possibly even belonging to the actor to encourage empathy)
Actors need toys to create action using them
Lights are in a wash, meaning full stage is lit to suggest lighting IRL but also so the audience can see everything the actor does
PRESENTATIONAL BLOCKING
PRESENTATIONAL BLOCKING
Goes with symbolic media
Actors "present" or "show" their performance to the audience
Extreme cheat out (full out to the audience)
Levels, stage positions and lighting onstage support clarity of message
What's important to see/hear/pay attention to? Does the audience look where you want them to? Is it interesting enough to hold interest so they understand your message?
Need set and props that efficiently suggest given circumstance
For example, background of living room set not necessary if audience can see sofa and coffee table; a realistic school hallway isn't necessary if there's a sound of a bell and all actors have backpacks.
GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES
It starts with the play text and finding the rules of the performance, or the Given Circumstances. These are the irrefutable facts on which the mechanics of the play work: a violation of the rules changes the expression of the play.
How Symbolic is it? Subtle or Blantant?
How Symbolic is it? Subtle or Blantant?
There are TWO sets of rules:
Rules governing YOUR CONTENT (given circumstances)
Rules governing YOUR PERFORMANCE. It's called "style" or "theory"
Style/Theory rules are a set of principles that fit together to produce a UNIFIED PRODUCTION
How does Design communicate with an audience?
How does Design communicate with an audience?
All art is an attempt to communicate with its audience to create empathy: "I understand what you mean." Art - thereby theatrical design - communicates by comparing THIS to THAT.
American Theatre Wing has produced a series of videos outlining the design counterpoint to theatre. While the actors are onstage, designers are creating costumes, properties, lights, sets, sound, and projections.
THIS (event, moment) + THIS (event, moment) = THIS communication
THIS (event, moment) + THIS (event, moment) = THIS communication
...and it's not as simple as that. Sometimes the comparison is between these million things + these million things; or this thing at the beginning + this thing at the end !
Design
Design
Realistic <-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brecht Line -------------------------------------------------------------------------->Symbolic
Subtle, impressionistic, story-based Blatant, expressionistic, message-based
subtle message --------------------------------------> Blatant message
subtle message --------------------------------------> Blatant message
Realistic <-------------------------------------------------------- Brecht Line ---------------------------------------------------------> Symbolic
Tension, Believe in the story enough to get lost I Message / Theme, keep them on message
REALISM
REALISM
One Way to Direct: Psychological Realism (Elia Kazan)
One Way to Direct: Psychological Realism (Elia Kazan)
Kazan was best known for directing Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, a movie starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh and Kim Hunter. Streetcar, originally a magical realism play by Tennessee Williams, debuted Method acting from An Actor's Studio in Hollywood, changing the acting style from "Classic Hollywood" to "New Hollywood". Some characteristics include
creation, discussion and application of deep and far-reaching given circumstances for the role by the actor and the director, providing justification for and inspiration to find a role's behavior during performance
an actor's experience "in the shoes" of their role, where the actor will have experiences outside the play that'll allow the actor to live as closely as possible to their role's
COMPOSITION
COMPOSITION
Composition is Viewpoints' act of creation. Experienced actors are tasked with
VIEWPOINTS
VIEWPOINTS
Mary Overle, Anne Bogart and later Tina Landau developed the Nine Viewpoints directing style which develops action and mise-en-scene for any given content. Based on dance, the nine are separated into the Viewpoints of Time & Space:
Time
Time
Tempo
Duration
Repetition
Kinesthetic Response
Space
Space
Spatial Relationship (placement on stage)
Gesture
Shape
Architecture (set - levels, doors, anchors - lights, entrances/exits)
Topography (movement onstage)
MOMENT WORK
MOMENT WORK
The Guide of Tectonic, Kaufman created Moment Work as a means to devise theater performance.
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
The Viewpoints Book
The Viewpoints Book
A Director Prepares
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