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Dare to Go Big

By Brian D. Taylor, Project Editor, Pioneer Drama Service 

Brian D. Taylor is a former middle school drama teacher and the newest addition to the Pioneer Drama editorial staff.  Working with K-12, college and community theatre groups, he has a theatrical background with experience in directing, acting and technical theatre.  When he’s not working on a production, Brian writes children’s and young adult fiction. 

No matter what type of show you’re planning, you can picture the production as a grand spectacle, with beautiful sets that capture the imagination, lots of props and set decoration that add fine detail, and colorful costumes for every cast member that give the characters a unique style.  And isn’t that — the magic, the beauty, the art — isn’t that what gave all of us the theatre bug to begin with?

Sure, if you’re doing The Wizard of Oz, you could paint a yellow brick road and build some green columns and call it the Emerald City.  But what if...?  What if you could have a fully-realized Munchkin City with a stage full of the little people themselves in whimsical costumes.  Imagine a fully realized Emerald City with towers that reach into the rafters and a population full of citizens wearing fantastic wardrobes of green.

Now, certainly all of us have very real concerns in the areas of budget and resources and time.  I get that.  While those elements must be addressed, they do not necessarily have to limit your possibilities.  Truly, real-world limitations such as time, budget, energy, space, skill, and resources can all be overcome, at least to some degree.  Phrases like “I can’t,” or, “That will never work,” should not be in a theatre artist’s vocabulary and certainly should not be a part of the pre-production planning.  Why restrict the possibilities before even giving them a chance?

So as you plan your spring production, don’t let the budget or cast size or time put limits on your imagination.  Forget all of that and allow yourself to dream up your fantasy production.  What would it look like?  I bet it’s beautiful and fun and exciting!

Now, the harder part...  transferring your dream production into the real world.  It can be done, but it will require further imagination, creativity, and ingenuity on your part, as well as your designers.  That’s right, you’ll need help to make your grand vision come alive.  So the most important part of the process is building your team.  And I don’t mean just any team.  Make your team BIG.  The extra help will remove the limitations of time and energy, so seek out volunteers anywhere you can find them.

If you’re in a school setting, you have lots of potential helpers.  Don’t be afraid to ask students (even those not involved in your program), parents, administrators, and even support staff to assist in this big plan.  Reach out to the community.  Post help wanted notices in local businesses.  A lot of times, you need only ask and the people will come.  Share your BIG vision with them and they’re sure to be just excited about making it happen as you are.

Once you have your team, assign roles for everyone and get scripts in their hands.  Have them read the play and return for a creative think tank meeting.  Here’s where you discuss the nitty-gritty details of getting it done, on time and under budget.  Since such details are show specific, we won’t be hammering those out here.  But this much is true...  it’s possible.  I know from experience.

I was asked to direct a show at a small, rural school that had no theatre, no equipment, no costumes, no budget, and little to no theatrical experience.  Despite all of that, I wasn’t about to allow my first show with these kids to be ho-hum.  We had a motto there that I still believe in:  Even though we’re a small school, in a small town, doesn’t mean we can’t do BIG things. I believed it and my design team of parents, students, and school support staff believed it.  My student actors especially believed it.  And, wow, what a production it became!  Pooling our ideas and skills paid off.  We were able to accomplish a major production with sets and costumes that were inexpensive, yet vivid, colorful, and visually striking.

To give you an idea of what it looks like, here’s what our creative team came up with to turn a simple carnival scene into a show-stopper:

• Our set for this scene was an amusement park background with roller coasters, a carousel, ticket booths and concessions.  We used cardboard cutouts and brightly-colored paints to great effect.  Many audience members had no idea they were looking at cardboard.  We even had a giant working Ferris wheel that was merely a cardboard cutout.  It operated with a simple motor we pulled from an old clock.  The set was decorated with helium balloons stretching high into the sky, multiple towering flag poles, and crepe paper streamers in motley of colors.
  
  
• For stage lighting, we draped Christmas lights from the center of the stage’s ceiling to each side of the stage.  One of our design team volunteers also scored us a set of 20 free colored floodlights and fixtures from the leftovers of an estate sale.  We put 6”x6” wood bases on them and used them like footlights.
  
  
• There were about 40 kids onstage for this particular number.  Each had a unique costume, pulled from odds and ends in our minimal costume supply, then mixed and matched and mish-mashed with pieces from the kids’ own wardrobes or from donations from the community.  Everyone had some sort of unique hat or accessory as well.
  
  
• We went BIG with the stage action, too.  We attached colorful ribbons to wooden dowels and gave them to the kids to make the ribbons dance in the air.  Other actors stood on each end of the stage, tossing painted tennis balls with ribbon attached across the full length of the stage.  Some kids had ribbons attached to their shoes and did cartwheels across the stage.  Others had buckets of confetti that were tossed in the air.  Some did tricks like hula-hooping or juggling.  We were lucky to even have a student who knew how to unicycle!

All in all we had a stage full of color, life, and action.  And we created this vibrant scene for next to nothing, using materials that were easily obtainable.

All it takes to turn your little show into a blockbuster engagement is a bit of belief, creativity, connections, and lots of help.  That’s why you’ve gathered a big team.  With many creative heads working on it, you’re sure to find clever and creative ways to make the vision come to life on stage.

So don’t limit your possibilities before you’ve even begun.  Dare to go big!  Make your dream production a reality this season!