Props, Costumes, and Set... Oh My!

Props:
So far I have made two one handed swords, a broad sword, and a shield. I still need a spear, and axe, two more swords, and half a dozen shields. My stage manager, Carole Anne, is also looking through the script to find the more obscure props like goblets and and platters and such.

Props are probably the most time consuming thing for me right now. They require a lot of effort to get looking stage worthy, and then after they are used in practice I have to go back and "clean them up". I am also trying to stay within a low budget. This means most of my props are homemade from wood or cardboard.

Costumes:
Number one thing about the costumes is that they are expensive. I spent 200 dollars on costumes in one afternoon. I try to lessen the cost of costumes by purchasing used items from thrift stores and salvation armies. An old dress can easily be turned into tunic, and that has been what i have been doing primarily. What happens is my mother will take the measurements of one of my actors, then we find a costume/dress which will fit them. Then we cut the dress at the arm pits and the thighs in order to give it the tunic looks. After that my mother hems it and then adds trims or an emblem based on what I have envisioned for the costume.

Set:
The set is my biggest stress causer right now. It is 100% not built. I know exactly what I want for the set, however, I have to wait for the spring concert (3 days before my performance) to be over before I can build my set. This weekend my father and I will hopefully be able to come into the theater and build all the peices of the set and store them offstage. From there we will set them up once the spring concert is over.

Rehersals

For the past month and a half we have been holding rehersals on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, from 4-6 or 6-8. Rehearsals at first were tough because of sports, sickness, and and cast list still being worked on. But as we have gotten further along my cast has seem to become more dedicated, and I have learned how to be much better at organizing the rehersal schedule.

Generally speaking, I start rehersals out with warm ups. We play drama games like "pass the clap" to focus, we massage our faces, stretch our necks and backs, and then play games like "die" and "bunny" in order to get into the theatre mood. From there we start running whatever scenes we are doing that day. I generally get through 2 or 3 scenes during one rehersal. I also work around my actors schedules all the time. If they can't make practice at the begining I do other scenes first which they are not in. Or if they have to leave early we do their scenes first.

Probably the most difficult thing during rehersals has blocking the fight scenes and then getting my actors to be able to do those fight scenes. I finally finished the last fight last evening, but I still have a lot of work to do to get my actors to know the fight well.

With only about five rehersals left, things are starting to get a little more stressful. Only a few of the actors are off book (partially because I just finished the final corrections yesterday) and the blocking is far from being memorized. We have no set to practice on yet, and we still need half a dozen props. However, with this being my last week of classes, there is plenty of time to nail these last few things down.

Cast list: At long last

Here it is finally!

Gareth – 21

-Tylor

Linnet – 30

- Carley

Arthur – 32

-Wamsley

Lyonnes – 20

-Emily Kengis

Lancelot – 27

-Nathan McNabb

Gawain -26

-Joe

Knight of the Red Lawn – 30

-Mr. Pristes

Blue knight – 29

-Mr. Eckerson

Black Knight – 25

-Brendon

This has taken a lot more work then I thought it would. I started with at least 3 people in mind for each of the roles and began going around asking people if they were interested. One of my big selling points was that, for the freshmen through juniors, this could be something they could put down on their college resume. This, however, did not turn out as I thought it would. Most people who were interested were interested simply because they love drama. And the others... maintaining their grades for college was the reason they were hesitant to participate. This caused me to look into getting faculty members into the mix of actors. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of getting lots of people in the community involved. It was not difficult to find several interested teachers, which was great for me because it eliminated parts I had to find actors for, and then allowed me to move the "potentials" from those parts to other ones. However, as my cast began to narrow down, I found it harder and harder to get the people I wanted to act in my play. In an effort to get the FA community involved as well as cast the parts, I tried opening up three or four parts to the whole high school via and Open Audition (where previously I had been asking people individually). I was very disappointed at the turn of of this attempt. I made an announcement during a community meeting about the open auditions and asked people to email me if the were interested. I think I only got three responses back. This forced me to go back to asking people personally, something which I was having an increasingly difficult time with as I was looking at Seniors who, in their last 2 semesters of school, were not looking to dedicate their time to something of this scale. After at least two weeks of badgering two people I really wanted to have act, I finally got a decisive no from each of them. Luckily for me I was able to find a lower school teacher (lower school being an area I had not previously looked at) who was wiling to take one of the parts. For the other, I asked a fellow drama student who had shown mild interest at the beginning and then dropped off the radar. He, however, was much more enthusiastic after the month or so that had gone by since I had first asked him.

Finding people who fit the roles the way I wanted turned out to be quite difficult. Between their own inhibitions towards acting, and their busy schedules, this task became very daunting. However, after a month of scouring the schools acting potential, I finally got together a cast which I am excited to direct, and that I have high hopes for in terms of the final product. Two months left until the performance...

The Senior Exhibit Process

Hello guys, your fellow playwright here, Walker.

For those who may stumble across this blog, this is based on the process of my senior exhibit... which just so happens to be writing and directing my very own play.

A Breif Overview: The play will be an version of the Arthurian Legend of The Kitchen Boy. I am going to write the play, direct it, and supervise prop, costume, and set design. There is also a possibility I might write a piano score for background music to the play.