I just finished directing Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth with a new community theater group. Because my vision had some ribald moments and some tender moments and some very intense ones, I asked the actors to run any closing night pranks by me before launching them, especially if they thought the jokes could possibly be disruptive.
We had worked for months on one intense moment -- the one where Mrs. Antrobus says "Abel, Abel, my son". On closing night, an actor (who is also a director & should have known better), completely upstaged Mrs. A & got a big laugh from the audience. I was very angry & someone made the mistake of asking me how I felt about the antics.
My position has always been that actors may go ahead with closing night jokes as long as the audience doesn't catch on. I am one of the founders of this new troupe, and don't want to be a big downer for them. But how do I get across that the closing night audience deserves a really great performance as much as the other audiences, & really didn't want to spend their money and time watching us try to make each other crack up? Thanks for any words of wisdom.

Closing night, traditionally, has been what we affectionately refer to as "F*** with the Director Night." We, too, have a rule that says that pranks are tolerated (but not encouraged) if they are invisible to the audience and if they don't disrupt the play AT ALL, provided that they not overdo it (a cast member trying to suppress laughter once is reasonably funny; a cast member trying to suppress laughter twice is tedious).

But letting cast members know how far is too far is important. We had one instance where someone out of nowhere tossed a quip out to the audience that brought the play to a screeching halt. The director went completely berserk, and now we know not to do that anymore.

Closing night jokes can be a lot of fun but I strongly discourage them. For our local theaters, closing night is always a special time for the cast and audience. It is the last time the cast will be together for a show. The closing night audience has come to share that moment with the cast and crew and is entitled to the absolute best show we are capable of. We also have special recognitions for the Directors and Tech crew at the curtain call.

To reduce the "need' for closing night jokes, I have a fun makeup rehearsal the night before the closing week shows. I encourage the cast to do anything they want at that rehearsal as long as the play flows.

We also encourage "surprises" during the run. The rules for surprises are (1) It must be something that your character would do. (2) It must not change the lines. (3) It must be appropriate to the mood of the show at the time. (4) It must have some relationship to the show. For example, in the last show I directed, (Female Version of the Odd Couple), Florence shows Manolo and Jesus pictures of her husband and children. Florence changed the pictures almost every night getting more and more outrageous each night. (I heard that on closing night the pictures were baby pictures of the actors playing Manolo and Jesus - There are some things that the Direcctor should not know). The guys were always looking forward to the pictures and really looked at them - not just the stage "glance at it". In a show I was in, I had to put on a tie. I never knew what the tie would look like when I looked for it in the suitcase. It was always appropriate and I had fun with it.

In my warm-up before the final show, I remind them that this is the last show, the last time they will see the results of two months hard work. This is the show they will remember in the future. They owe it to themselves, their other cast members and the audience to give them the best show possible. There is always a cast leader and I talk to them before the show and urge them to talk to the cast about not doing anything that might damage the experience. So far this has worked.

I have a reputation as a pretty easy going guy but I would not be a happy camper if someone did something to damage that last show. I think the cast knows and respects that.

Hope this helps.

Doug

The general consensus of this thread is that there is no room for pranks and joking around. I have to concur. From the first rehearsal to the closing night pep talk I insist my actors have fun and enjoy themselves, but I shall not tolerate pranks and joking around. I’m not an ogre. My actors thoroughly enjoy themselves and working with me on a show. Most of them look for my auditions. As far as pranks and joking around, such levity is best left to Middle School productions.

Beth Said:

“I asked the actors to run any closing night pranks by me before launching them, especially if they thought the jokes could possibly be disruptive.”

A very dangerous statement to make, Beth. This is where you made your first mistake. This set the tone that you would tolerate such nonsense.

Community Theatre, heck ANY theatre is fun! Jokes and pranks aren’t, especially to a paying audience. I even found trash through rehearsals to be disruptive and childish. I actually had serious actors that wanted a good run through tell me that if they had know the rehearsal was going to be “loose” they would have “called in sick”

My advice is that the director must maintain decorum among the cast. Telling your actors to let you in on the action before going ahead with their antics and then allowing said antics is asking for trouble.

A tag line of this very site is “Home of the Professional Amateurs” We should take this statement very seriously. We may not be paid for our work, but that doesn’t give us a license to be un-professional in our attitude and our productions. Community Theatre needs to be as professional as the Big City Pro Theatres. Once we loose site of that simple fact, we will begin to loose our credibility and ability to mount productions worthy of an audience.

Fiat Lux!

Bil K

Beth, I think some of these folks are in denial. I've been around community theatre enough to know that these things happen, and a director that doesn't address it is asking for trouble. I tell my casts to do the show they've rehearsed, the audience deserves a good show, yada yada...but I tell the stage manager to keep an eye on them and alert me of any "surprises" they may be planning. Then I talk the perpetrator(s) in private. Usually, the fact that I've found out is enough to discourage them. I always tell them that their reputation is more important that a few laughs and disrupting a show is a hard reputation to live down. That approach has never failed.