How To Direct A Better Theatre Show

If anyone ever said that theatre was easy, they were fibbing. Theatre is a demanding, time consuming art form, and requires the dedicated participation of a number of talented individuals. Or, one extremely confident and dedicated individual, in the case of a one person production. However, even in the case of a one person production, the show would be a great deal better with the help of a lighting technician, and perhaps a prop manager.

The point is that it is not an easy task to put up a good show, and without the proper approach, an excellent script and good actors can deliver something substandard. It is, therefore, important to understand the key elements that make theatre shine.

Focus On The Medium

Theatre takes place on a stage, which instantly means that a few very important rules must be taken into account. For starters, theatre is for the audience, not for the actors or the director. Hence, the entire production should be 100% built around the audience’s point of view. The actors should never face their back to the audience, and it should be taken into careful consideration what each seat in the theatre can see, at any given time.

Plus, there should also be an enormous amount of effort put into ensuring that actors can always be heard. If the back row of the audience can’t hear, they will quickly get bored and start exploring bingo online for money on their phone instead. Either your actors must be capable of projecting their voices to the back of the theatre, or microphones must be organised.

Keep It Simple

But speaking of technology, it should be used minimally, but with maximum impact in mind. The more props and technical aspects to your production, the more chance of each of these extra gadgets failing at the wrong time. Rather focus on acting, and the script, than attempting to elevate your production with probably unnecessary add-ons.

There is always the temptation to go big, and this is a good thing. But rather focus on going big with the basics, as opposed to elaborate props and lighting effects.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

If you think you’ve rehearsed your production enough, rehearse it again. Then again, and again. Yes, it can feel tedious having to keep doing the same scenes over and over, but there really is no substitute for a prepared group of actors and crew. Much of the natural feel of actors will also come from them being relaxed, which will be directly related to how familiar they are with the production.

Scout Your Venue

Rehearsing in your backyard is one thing but being familiar with the actual venue something else entirely. Be sure to check out the actual venue well beforehand and ensure that it will not cause any complications. Try and rehearse at least a handful of times at the venue, or as many times as is possible. A great production and good artists can easily be ruined by a venue not fitting in with carefully rehearsed scenes.