I recently came on as the new director at a very active-parent school. After auditions and casting for the spring musical, there was quite a bit of commotion in the community. So, I decided to use the upcoming parent booster meeting to let the parents in on my process.
Seven steps to speeding up the scene changes in your productions so they don’t kill the pace of your show.
I know that tech remains a weak link for many middle and high school theatre educators (fewer and fewer, but still many many). And I know how overwhelming the job is, teaching multiple "preps" plus directing shows plus producing all of the tech aspects. There is no time for taking tech theatre classes at a local university; there's barely time to breathe. On the other hand, you know that building a strong program means including tech - and those kids who are hungrier to create backstage than risk being onstage - and that means teaching it.
Most students don’t have a lot of leadership experience, and yet a good, strong student-centered theatre program relies on a continuous round-robin of student leaders. Here are some guidelines and suggestions for how you can train your students to be thoughtful and effective student leaders.