Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: What would you do?

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   Our Board is split down the center with regard to our upcoming season. We've been around for about five years and have had our ups and downs, but have been for the most part successful staging 1-2 productions a year. As with most newer groups, we have a small core of 4 people that we can rely on to do 98% of the work. The two scenarios which we are looking at are either doing 1. three productions next year, two adult (spring and fall) and one childrens (summer), or 2. one adult production (spring), a children's summer workshop and a one act play festival in the fall. This is the first time we are trying to set a season in advance. In the past, it was "rolling" schedule where we would concentrate on one production at a time. Our hope is that by having a set Schedule in place for the new year, it will be easier to find people to support the activities of the group as well as avoid  "burnout" by having our ducks in proper order in advance. Both scenarios would be ambitious. Two key questions are, A. Which will be easier to do, a standard two act play (something with a single set and cast of 6-8), or to organize a Festival of one-act plays, and how much lead time is neccesary to stage such a festival. B. Would you do a children's workshop followed by a small production consisting of skits, or a full blown production. We have had our greatest support from both the audience and backstage for our childrens full productions which typically involve up to 30 kids. 

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Guests Guest	Topic: What would you do? Posted: 11/23/01 at 9:28am
	Our Board is split down the center with regard to our upcoming season. We've been around for about five years and have had our ups and downs, but have been for the most part successful staging 1-2 productions a year. As with most newer groups, we have a small core of 4 people that we can rely on to do 98% of the work. The two scenarios which we are looking at are either doing 1. three productions next year, two adult (spring and fall) and one childrens (summer), or 2. one adult production (spring), a children's summer workshop and a one act play festival in the fall. This is the first time we are trying to set a season in advance. In the past, it was "rolling" schedule where we would concentrate on one production at a time. Our hope is that by having a set Schedule in place for the new year, it will be easier to find people to support the activities of the group as well as avoid "burnout" by having our ducks in proper order in advance. Both scenarios would be ambitious. Two key questions are, A. Which will be easier to do, a standard two act play (something with a single set and cast of 6-8), or to organize a Festival of one-act plays, and how much lead time is neccesary to stage such a festival. B. Would you do a children's workshop followed by a small production consisting of skits, or a full blown production. We have had our greatest support from both the audience and backstage for our childrens full productions which typically involve up to 30 kids.

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Guests Guest	Posted: 11/23/01 at 12:01pm
	My 2 cents worth. We don't preplan our season. When we have a group that wants to do something, we do it. I am afraid that if we plan too far in the future, we might not have the people to do the project when it comes time. I am also afraid that something might coem up that we couldn't do because we were committed to another project. For example, we were invited to produce a show at our local big theater last June. It was a wonderful opportunity to build credibility and has given our small group more publicity than we could get on our own. Given that you want to preplan your season I like the idea of childrens productions. Workshops are ok to do but I think the kids need a goal to work towards - some sort of public performance - to show what they have learned. Kids shows like Charlottes Web serve that purpose well. I guess you could also do skits and scene studies for the kids but we have never done that. All of our extended adult workshops end with scene performances. We have produced two One Act Festivals and assisted with another. Each has had at least one locally written play. The two we have produced were aimed at new directors and actors. As producer, the One Act Festival is triple the headache but for the directors and actors it works well because it is a chance to try the theater without all the time committment of a full production. We still use the same rehearsal period we use for the full productions because of the learning curve for the new people plus we have more demands on our rehearsal facility so they can't rehearse as often as a single production. A nearby town, about twice our size, does an annual one act playwrights festival and produces the winning plays. Don't know if this helps - the only words of wisdom would be to try to find a season that the board can agree on unaminously.
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