JUN
22

Why a One-Act Musical?

By Flip Kobler 

Flip Kobler began his performing career as an actor before morphing into a writer.  Flip and his wife, Cindy Marcus, 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, including Best of Both Worlds, the one-act version of the popular Mirror Image. 

So, you’re thinking of producing a musical?  Good for you!  Before we go any further, let me ask this:  Have you thought of doing a one-act musical versus a full-length musical?  Both are great, but in the plus column for the one-act are a few practical perks.  One-acts mean less rehearsal time, which allows you to get it going quickly.  Fewer songs mean you’re not spending endless hours in music rehearsals and cleaning up choreography.  The best perk is they can usually be produced with a smaller budget!

My wife and I founded our own theatre where we direct shows with teens.  Sometimes our budgets range from non-existent to whatever change we can scrape from under our car seat.  If this sounds familiar, fear not.  Don’t try to do a big production if you can’t afford it.  It’ll look like you didn’t have the budget.  Embrace what you are, not what you’re not.

One way around this dilemma is to have the kids do all the sets and costumes.  Stress this fact in the program, in ads and in your curtain speech.  You’d be surprised at how forgiving an audience will be when they know the kids did all the work.  All together now:  “Awwwwwww!”

Another strategy is to minimize.  Black turtlenecks and black pants can costume an entire show with simple representational items to distinguish your characters.  A simple tiara for the queen, a vest and cowboy hat for your buckaroo.  Can’t afford a set?  Then don’t have one!  Black Box Theater is a creative way around that roadblock.  Don’t shy from the simplicity, embrace it; your audience will go along for the ride.

One technique we use a lot is to have the actors become the set.  Two guys can hold a drapery rod with lace curtains and voila!  Your black box becomes a living room.  Have a girl hold a set of scales and put on a blindfold, and we’re in a courtroom.

This is also a cool way to introduce some of the newbies to theater.  They get a moment in the spotlight, oohs and ahhs from Mom and Dad, and they never have to say a word.  They are as important as anyone else on the stage without the pressure of learning lines or blocking.  We usually do this with the terminally stage-frightened or the “I’m too hip to be a thespian” kids.

A one-act musical also requires far less rehearsal time than a full-length.  Sticking to a schedule with your rehearsal time can really help when you’re pressed for time.  A good rule of thumb:  get to it, get through it!  Get through what you have on the books today, even if it’s not perfect, close to perfect, or anywhere near anything that someone might mistakenly call perfect.  Better to go back and clean up later than to have an opening night where nobody has even looked at the last five pages.

And if you’re worried a one-act simply isn’t enough for your audience, consider this solution:  produce two shows, a one-act musical and a one-act play.  Perform them the same night with an intermission.  The audience gets a lot of bang for their buck, and it also helps with the conundrum, “What do we do with all these kids?”  If you have a lot of students in your department, this may be a great way to give everyone a role that’s better than “fourth-flag-carrier-from-the-left.”  A lot of shows can be complimentary and even work on the same set with the same lighting design.  Have the cast from one show be the crew on the other, and they get both onstage and backstage experience.  Pretty cool, huh?