So I'm in an acting II class at a community college. During acting 1 we were polled to find out who'd be taking acting II. When we asked casually what we would be doing in acting II the director said "anything you want". We could do one-acts, poems, scenes, mask work full shows...pretty much anything but a musical.

Fast forward to first day in acting II and we were asked yet again what we wanted to do. It was unanimous...everyone wanted to do a full show. We had 4 guys and 6 girls so we broke out the sam french and dramatists cats and highlighted every show with that demographic. It was also understood that we'd have to be our own crew as far as stage manager, props, costumes and so forth. We narrowed it down to 4 plays and the director ordered single copies of 3 of them as he already had one in his office. The next class day (tuesdays and thursdays 10:00 to 12:25) we read U.T.B.U.. It's a farce by James Kirkwood Jr if you're not familier. Anyways we started to read it after we doled out roles without knowing anything about it and started to read it. Partway through the second act we all really liked it and I went to the directors office and told him to cancel the sam french order cause we picked out show already. He was flabergasted and made sure to ask everyone if anyone had a problem with it as there were like 3 really tiny roles. All was good and he ordered our 14 copies. We started to french scene, had a set design, make prop lists and get costumes together. However there was a problem brewing.

Turns out the school defines a class project as just that and we found out that it wouldn't even be a weekend run. We'd get one night, no set, only set peices. To me this is tragic for a farce as we needed 4 doors and a large window in which my character falls out of (I'm blind in the show). So weeks go by. We're all kind of bummed and felt lied to cause that news had built up over about 3 weeks. None of us thought the show would even "go up" as none of our scenes did in acting I as promised. Our director has issues with planning I spose.

Well last Tuesday we were informed that we would be now getting two nights, ticket sales, ads printed, progams and be able to build a set...the works. We didn't rehearse becuase we had to pull flats, furnature pieces and all sorts of props. On Thursday we got the rest of the furniture and started painting the door flats cuase we happen to have the right color paint on hand.

Looking at the calendar on my wall (not one from the director cause he never made one) I'm realizing we have a total of six rehearsals not including tech and dress to be off book (yup, never gave us a date) fine tune the blocking, build a set ourselves with the help of ONE school scene shop supervisor (we can paint, just can't use powertools without someone there) paint the set and get all the business of the show done. I just don't see it happening. Had it been clear the ENTIRE semester what we were doing I could see it working.

So how doomed are we? I plan on going in on friday mornings to paint since the other guy that had the original set design also has off...but we can't come in on mon or wed becuase there's an acting I class during those times. I just want to sink into the stage trap doors.

I agree with Kathy - all you can do is all you can do - as long as you are doing your personal best, no one can ask for more.  I think it will be important that you can look back on this and know that you worked as hard as you could and did as well as you could on the project.

Consider it part of the learning experience - some day you will make use of what you have learned from the process.

Originally posted by Theatre13 One thing I've learned in 18 years of professional and semi-pro etc is that even the worst experiences in theatre are ones to learn from.

 

oh, yeah, I'm getting a really good lesson on how not to be a director. That's okay though, I'll be putting up or shutting up this fall when I direct my first show.

There is no magic formula or button to press, that will give you the definitive answer, in this game!

I agree with all the others, & yes like any game, this is the way to learn ?how to do it? From the past experience of others &/or yours!

The yellow brick road is just an illusion & to skip up it to success, needs a greater percentage of attitude, laced with empirical knowledge, than aptitude. To push ?IT? up hill with your nose!