JAN
12

Creating a Role for Everyone

By Flip Kobler 

Flip Kobler began his performing career as an actor before morphing into a writer.  Flip and his wife, Cindy Marcus, have written for Disney and now run Showdown Stage Company and Showdown Theater Academy in Valencia, California.  Pioneer Drama Service is pleased to offer several plays and musicals by this dynamic duo.   

You’ve chosen the musical and it has a large cast and chorus, so you’re hoping to run no-cut auditions.  After all, you’re trying to grow your drama program, so what better way to do that than to involve everyone who wants to be in the show?  The fringe benefit, of course, is that the more people you involve in the show, the more people will be in your audience.

But if you’re like us, you don’t want to just shove the extra people into the anonymous “chorus.”  You want every kid to feel special, to make a difference, to have their own moment to shine.  Fear not, it is possible to give each actor his or her moment in the spotlight.

Expanding groups

When your play or musical has certain cliques that travel together — the cheerleaders, the jocks, the nerds — you can always add one, or two, or seven more people to that group.  In our show Mirror Image, we often add more to Sadie’s group (the popular girls), or the artists, or even the fairy tale group.  It’s always fun to cast some of the more obscure fairy tale characters, such as Jack Sprat, Baby Bear, or a Shoemaker’s elf.  Any time there are two or more in a group, you can redistribute the lines to add in more actors.

But what if you’re adding in so many extras that you can’t possibly give them all lines without creating a four-hour show?  Here’s the crucial point to emphasize:  Just because they don’t have lines, does not mean they don’t matter.  Young actors are notorious for counting their lines, thinking that’s what’s important.  But speaking is just a small fraction of stage presence.

Here’s a quick story about one time we once had too many actors for the speaking roles.  We added in a young girl in with the “cool girl” group.  Basically, these were just a bunch of yes-girls to the leader of the clique.  But this little actress came to rehearsals one day with her allergies in full attack mode.  And she used it.  She became the hayfever one of the group.  She’d sneeze when everybody else was saying “Yes, girl!”  As she crossed the stage, she’d drop used Kleenex like dandruff and would blow her nose with a loud honk at just the right moments.  She didn’t have a single line in the whole play, but she stole the show.  An audience favorite, hands down.

Give the chorus character

Most likely, your musical has a traditional “chorus.”  Consider giving each person a unique character.

We ran across this situation just last month.  We were doing a show that needed a crew of pirates.  It called for seven, but we cast 15.  All girls.  It was a hoot, a bunch of female pirates all “arghh-ing” their way across stage.  The problem was they all tended to blend together.  Just one big mass of lady pirates.

We didn’t want parents sitting in the audience saying, “Which one is yours?”  and the answer being, “The, one, two, three...  fifth from the left.”  That’s a terrible answer.  Each actor deserves to be more than just a face in the crowd.

So we gave each girl a definitive personality.  One actress was studying ballet, so she became the ballet-pirate, complete with a skull and crossbones tutu and ballet boots.  She’d walk everywhere on point.  Another girl was the secretary of her student body, so we made her secretary-pirate.  She wore Coke-bottle glasses OVER her eye patch and constantly scribbled notes on parchment with a quill pen, eager to write down every “by thunder” or “blow me down.”  Another was quite the athlete, so we made her the jock-pirate, with a letterman letter on her torn black tunic, high striped white socks, and a baseball glove in place of a hook.

These were small changes, but reaped huge results.  The actors came to life, they felt empowered and part of something bigger than just themselves.  They were no longer just a face in the crowd, but somebody special who stood out in the group.

And we loved hearing the parents’ fun and spirited answers now.  “She’s the nervous pirate” or “the hippie pirate,” they’d say with a smile.  Everybody became something special.

Story theater style

Story theater style is when the actors become the sets, the props, and everything in between.  This is our favorite technique, but it does require the right kind of show.  And this device can be used with five actors or 35.  The only limitation is your imagination.  Here are a few quick examples that we’ve used.

Imagine a black box theater with no set, only a few boxes.  We had two actors get on their hands and knees and become benches.  Another actress stood on a box, wore a blindfold, and held some scales like the statue of Justice.  Voila!  We were now in a courtroom.

Another time, we used six actors to create a picture hanging on the wall in a parlor.  A male with a pitchfork and a female with a dour expression held a picture frame between them and became the embodiment of Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic.  Next, we added three people on hands and knees to become a couch and an actor as a squeaky door.  Suddenly we’re inside a home.  The squeaky door guy, by the way, became an audience favorite.  His growing squeaky hinges got his own laughs every time he swung open.

We’ve used actors to make sailing ships, covered wagons, cornfields, and a bajillion and two other things.  (Might be exaggerating on the bajillion, but at least a zillion.)  Again, it all comes down to your imagination.

I once saw a production of Alice In Wonderland that used six actors, plus Alice.  The six became everything.  Four actors stood back to back, facing the four points of the compass.  They linked elbows, then bent over at the waist.  They became the mushroom.  Another actor sat atop them as the caterpillar, and the last actor lent his thumb to be the hookah pipe.  I was twelve years old when I saw that production, and I still remember it as one of the most clever and ingenious productions I ever saw.

Pre-show

Our last suggestion is to consider doing a pre-show.  Are there things your “extra” cast can do before the show starts?

Can they be ushers or sell concessions in character?  Can there be cabaret-style singing in one section of the lobby?  Can there be a “nightclub” feel onstage where a group is singing as the audience comes into the theater?

Melodramas offer the best opportunity to add in olios before and after a show, as well as during intermission.  Thanks to the nature of olios, you can offer a huge number of additional actors a few seconds in the spotlight.  This is also a great way to beef up stage time for an actor in the show who has a limited role.

You might also consider having your student write a pre-show script or take advantage of Pioneer Drama’s royalty-free skits.  Actors can perform these small sketches or scenes as the audience arrives and takes their seat or during intermission in the lobby or theater.

We have a show called Aesop’s Foibles that has a pre-show written as part of the script.  Basically all the actors are scattered throughout the lobby as the audience arrives.  The cast is frozen like statues in a garden.  Then, when the audience touches them, they launch into a rehearsed monologue or scene, before freezing again, waiting to get touched to life again.  The audience loved this interactive vibe and would wander from statue to statue, eager to hear each and every scene.

Creating a “virtual environment” in the theater is another great way to use a large cast and get the audience in the right mood.  Pioneer has a show, Murder in the House of Horrors, which takes place at an Egyptian exhibit at a museum.  Instead of ushers, have museum guards in character taking patrons to their seats.  Other actors in the lobby can play museum goers commenting on exhibits, created by yet additional actors.

If it’s a depression era show, can you have breadlines or street beggars?  If it’s set in a circus can you have jugglers, acrobats, and clowns entertaining the audience before the curtain rises?  Again, the only limit is your imagination.

Hopefully, these simple suggestions will embolden you to think big and give everyone who wants it a moment in the spotlight.  Everyone benefits!  The number of people you involve in your production correlates directly with the size of your audience, and the larger the audience, the more rewarding the experience is for everyone.  Of course, involving enthusiastic participants also energizes your entire drama program.  Remember, you rock.  Now get out there and break some legs.