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GoldCanyonLady
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Quote GoldCanyonLady Replybullet Topic: intermission
    Posted: 1/04/13 at 5:06pm
We are just blocking a new 3 act play but I want to make it a 2 act play. Is there any rule on when a good stopping point might be. This play, Let's Murder Marsha, is continuous with no scene changes or time changes. There is one spot where no one is on stage for a minute and only knocking is heard. One of the actors is pushing for that to me the cut As the director, I think that is a boring spot and would rather have the cut when someone just discovered something surprising and let the suspense go on during intermission. What does anyone else think?
Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.
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Majicwrench
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Quote Majicwrench Replybullet Posted: 1/04/13 at 11:57pm
How long is the show?? Last few shows I have eliminated intermission. Tightens everything up.
 As Director, it is your call, go with your gut.
           Keith
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GoldCanyonLady
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Quote GoldCanyonLady Replybullet Posted: 1/05/13 at 2:28pm
Our play this year will be close to two hours and that is just too long for most senior citizens to sit and that is who we are.

So you do not stop at any time in your last few plays?

Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.
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edh915
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Quote edh915 Replybullet Posted: 1/08/13 at 9:34pm
I'm not a fan of limiting the number of acts to only two. Any good play has a narrative flow and a very specific dramatic arc. My recommendation is to limit both intermissions to ten minutes each. Once, when I directed The Matchmaker (a four act play, I went with three acts - first and third combined into one, and the other two acts each on their own - a 15 minute intermission followed by two 10 minute intermission.

Edited by edh915 - 1/08/13 at 9:35pm
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David McCall
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Quote David McCall Replybullet Posted: 1/09/13 at 7:12pm
In some cases you need to get permission to alter the play in any form including adding,moving,or eliminating intermissions. A lot of groups just do what suits them best.  Everywhere I work always has an intermission so they can sell refreshments.
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GoldCanyonLady
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Quote GoldCanyonLady Replybullet Posted: 1/10/13 at 9:16am

We don't sell refreshments so that is not the issue. There are no breaks in the action in this play. I mean the acts go right on where they left off the act before. Why the playwrite choose to do this I don't know (Monk Ferris --really Jack Sharkey). So since changing the intermission from 2 to 1 isn't important my real question is:

Should the break leave the audience anxious to get back to find out what is going to happen instead of any other old time like when the stage happens to be empty for a few seconds?

Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.
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75director
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Quote 75director Replybullet Posted: 1/10/13 at 12:28pm
Generally when I run into this situation, a three act play that doesn't really need two intermissions, I take the intermission between Acts 2 and 3.  Typically in the three act structure that's where the action should be at its crisis moment, so it sends the audience out to the restrooms excited to come back.  I would not take the break just because the stage happens to be empty for a moment.  In the case of this show where the action is continuous just run Acts 1 and 2 together as if the act break didn't exist.  My 2 cents.
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Quote edh915 Replybullet Posted: 1/10/13 at 1:18pm
75director is right, as GoldCanyonLady recognizes, too. The intermission should come at a dramtic/crisis point in the play. Typically, in a three act structure Act One is the set up, Act Two is the complications that ensue from the set up, and Act Three is the resolution. Do NOT under any circumstance put in an intermission just because the stage happens to be empty at one moment in time. The intermission should leave audience eager to get back to their seats to see the final resolution.
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Quote falstaff29 Replybullet Posted: 1/15/13 at 6:09pm
A lot of times when I've been in three-acters, the director will have one standard length intermission (10 or so), and one that's just, say, 5 minutes for people to stretch and to preserve the dramatic tension point.  I honestly prefer that to any other solution.  But if you really only want one, then please use one of the act breaks the playwright has already created rather than making your own.
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Quote Rorgg Replybullet Posted: 3/20/13 at 12:40pm
This is one of the reasons I shy away from 3-act plays.  They're generally too long to do without intermission, and awkwardly cut for one.  So, you have a least-worst-solution kind of scenario.
 
The last time I did a 3-act, I went with putting the intermission between acts 2 and 3.  The lengths weren't too awkward for this, but it was awkwardly structured because acts 1 and 3 take place in the same (but modified) set and act 2, completely elsewhere.  We worked on making the scene transition as quick as possible, then using the intermission to clean up and reset.  It required some simplification of the act 2 set, but I think it worked out fine.
 
I've also seen the "chop it in the middle of act 2" setup before, and in general, I didn't really like it.  It didn't affect my scenes (I was acting in this one) but the narrative flow "felt" wrong.  Then again, it wasn't the best-written play, so that may have just been intrinsic.  But beyond that, I think that sort of thing runs dangerously close to modifying the piece as written.
 
Option 3 is to just do two intermissions.  Went to one of those last weekend.  Maybe it was okay in this case because act 1 at least FELT long, compared to the other two, but it's never my preference.  More chances to escape.  :)
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