BW

Fri, Aug 28, 2009 : 11:38 a.m.

@ Edward Vielmetti Thank you for posting our shows at Huron. Additionally, we end the school year with FINALE! 2010, an eclectic collection of student-directed one-act plays, performed at 7:30pm on June 4th and 5th. @ RonAnnArbor You may be surprised by the number of factors that go into consideration when determining the shows that will be produced: 1) What characters, relationships and conflicts in the scripts would be challenging and interesting for my potential cast? 2) Would the casting for a show be fair to the young women that will audition for it? Typically, I get three times more females than males at auditions (so Ive never had the opportunity to direct MACBETH at Huron). 3) What technical aspects -- set design, lighting, sound, costumes, makeup -- would be challenging and interesting for my potential techies? 4) When doing musicals, what would be challenging and interesting for the musicians? 5) What would my target audience be interested in seeing? 6) Whats actually available? Some shows have restrictions or are not available to the public yet. 7) What would interest me as a director? Selfish? Perhaps, but ask any actor what its like to work on a show whose director isnt really into it, and Ill show you an actor who left the show. In the roughly 100 plays Ive directed, Ive had only a couple of repeats. 8) What would play well in the two different theatre spaces as my disposal? 9) What will compliment the other productions in the same school year? 10) What will compliment the three previous years worth of productions since a student has the potential of being in 16 shows during their time at Huron? Working in educational theatre, I want my students to experience as many forms of theatre as possible during their years with the Huron Players: comedy, farce, drama, tragedy, musical, political, classical, period, contemporary, presentational, representational. 11) And then theres the one you are interested in. What have other theatre groups done recently? There are 5 AAPS middle schools, 6 AAPS high schools, multiple local colleges and universities, the Performance Network, The Purple Rose, Riverside Arts Center, and more community theatres, childrens theatres, and private middle and high school theatre groups than I could possibly list here. You can tell by the quantity of theatre groups around the area that it would be impossible to take all of them into consideration. Given the roughly 2100 Huron students who might audition for me, relatively few of them worked on YPTs production of AIDA. If they are not interested in working on my production of AIDA this winter, there are, as you can see, many other opportunities for them around town, including more great shows from YPT (for whom I proudly directed several plays many years ago!). Bj Wallingford Producer/Director, Huron Players