OCT
20

How to Manage Fifty Youth When Your Show Has Thirty Roles

(And make them all feel important!) 

By Wade Bradford 

Wade Bradford currently teaches English at Moorpark College and is the official “Guide to Plays and Drama” at About.com.  In addition to writing picture books and novels, Wade has written over 30 plays, including Downton Zombie and Stagecraft:  The Video Game, both available from Pioneer Drama. 

So, you’re directing a show at your local youth theater or public school.  That’s wonderful.  As a parent (and a playwright) I humbly thank you for your service.  By taking on this challenge, you will be giving dozens of kids their first theatrical experience, boosting their confidence, evoking their creativity, and changing their lives in many other positive ways.

The good news:  Over fifty young performers auditioned for the show you are directing.

The not-so-good news:  There are only thirty roles and you don’t want to turn anyone away.  What is a drama teacher/director to do?

Make Sure You Have Enough Space and Supervision

Yes, I promise I’ll discuss the best ways to utilize an extra large cast.  However, let me begin by cautioning that sometimes it isn’t wise to have too many students or performers in a show.  Ask yourself, how mature is my cast?  How responsible are they?  Consider your rehearsal and performance space.  Do you have enough supervision resources so that everyone involved has a positive, educational, and above all, safe experience?

If we’re talking about one adult for fifty kids, then perhaps you should enlist the help of parents, teachers, and assistants before the younglings overwhelm you, and it turns into a scene from Lord of the Flies.  Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme.  After all, they are drama kids.  Still, they might pull a Les Miz and build a barricade.  The bottom line:  don’t cast more performers than you can effectively direct AND supervise.

Give Feedback and Encouragement to All

When I choose my leads, I select actors who are talented and trustworthy.  I am confident that they will put their hearts and souls into the roles and that, with my guidance, they will deliver a top notch performance.  It’s very tempting for me to spend the majority of my time and energy focusing on the leads.  However, if we’re talking about amateur youth theater, approach your role as an educator rather than as a director.  Sure, you may want to be the next Julie Taymor or Mike Nichols, but don’t just focus on your stars.  Do your best to provide feedback to all of the cast members.  Whether your words are delivered one-on-one or to small groups, this large cast is looking for a fair-minded leader, not a director who favors only the stars of the show.  The girl who plays Townsperson #2 today might be playing Eliza Doolittle in the very near future.  That possibility is especially likely if she has a director who has been encouraging and constructive to all of the cast members.  Performers want to be seen.  They want to be heard.  And they want to be acknowledged for their efforts, no matter how small the role.  Acknowledgment and feedback will encourage each cast member to strive for his or her best.

Make the Most of Your Rehearsals

Daunted by the idea of having to be everywhere at once, trying to give positive re-enforcement to all?  That’s where your support team comes in.  If you are working on a musical, then hopefully you’re working with a choreographer, a vocal director, a stage manager, and maybe even an assistant director.  (If you are doing all of these jobs yourself, please go back and read the first part of this article about stretching yourself too thin.)  These good people will help you keep the cast on task.  They will also help you stay sane, but only if you stay organized.

Some directors show up to each rehearsal in Improv Mode, meaning they don’t know what they are going to work on.  They are just going to “see what happens” or “get as far as possible.”  In contrast to this, I’m a big list maker.  As soon as I cast a show, I list the cast members into categories:  leads, supporting characters, and ensemble.  (If possible, I break down the list even further, dividing a large ensemble into several groups.)

I build a rehearsal schedule to ensure that my performers will be making the most of their time.  Within their group, and perhaps with the guidance of a crew member or a responsible cast member, the actors use rehearsals to perfect their lines, learn their blocking and choreography, and practice vocal projection.  (Don’t forget, one of the biggest complaints from theater goers is, “I couldn’t hear what they were saying!”).  If there is any down time within a group, come prepared to give them theater-based activities, whether it’s improv, dance, movement, or good, old-fashioned journal writing about character development.

Bring Out the Best in Your Background

I’ve been in large cast shows in which the performers in the background were given very little direction.  I recall being an ensemble player in The Music Man.  During the production numbers, we all knew how to sing and dance well enough, but when it came time to mill about upstage while Harold Hill flirted downstage with a certain librarian, there were too many of us onstage with too little direction.  Some of us did our best to invent natural character interactions, but many of us just stood around waiting for the next song.  Those moments looked really bad onstage, until finally the assistant director took the time to help turn the clueless throng of background actors into a thriving community of Iowans from the early 1900s.

Whether we’re talking about the citizens of River City, the munchkins in Oz, or the fairies in the forest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, your large cast needs to figure out what their purpose is when they are onstage, even if they aren’t the focus of the scene.  Obviously, they don’t want to do anything that distracts the audience from the story, but they don’t want to just stand there either.  Pay close attention to the background performers in big production shows, epic movies, and operas.  You’ll find that everyone is in character, everyone has a function, everyone is a little piece of the imaginary world they are creating as a team.

Let Them Get Creative

Your show has a big cast.  That means you’ve got a lot of brain-power.  There are lots of different ideas lurking in the minds of your cast.  Why not make use of it?  Set aside rehearsal time to have your cast work in groups to develop some of their own choreography.  Let some of the cast members try blocking a scene.  Bring art supplies and ask them to come up with ideas for set decorations, backdrops, costume designs.  You might not have the budget for these brilliant ideas, and in fact some of the ideas might be far from brilliant.  But who knows?  Some of the ideas might just enhance the show, and it will thrill young performers to know that their sight gag or dance move made it into the final production.

Find Special Moments for Smaller Roles

During the rehearsal process, you’ll notice someone with a smaller role who has a special spark.  Maybe they have a beautiful voice, maybe they are good at telling a joke, maybe they are simply the shortest person in the cast.  Everybody has got something special about them, and when you notice a trait that could enhance your show, find ways to give them a moment in the spotlight.  Be inventive.  Maybe this show that you a directing has been performed a thousand times.  But it’s never been performed with your cast and with you as a director, so find out what makes each cast member special and do your best to highlight your team’s originality.

Break a leg!