INTRODUCTION
The process of play production is a very tedious and challenging one. This is because it deals with the harmonization of the efforts of people with different socio-cultural and psychological make-up. It is a process in “which many things can go wrong and upset the director”, because “the activity involves many people, some of “whom may have personal problems disturbing them, irritating idiosyncrasies and habits, deviant attitudes and orientation” (Duruaku, 1997: 113). The director’s ability to put up with all this, “leading to a successful production”, is what “is so exhilarating in the end” (114).
3.1 The Process of Play Production
Although there is no dogmatic rule governing how a production can be organized, a seemingly acceptable and time-tested procedure appears to exist. This ‘rule of thumb’ procedure comes in the following order of arrangement: choosing the script, audition, casting, rehearsal, and performance.
CHOOSING THE PLAY
Play selection is the first step in the process of mounting a production. The choice of the play script by the director is influenced by a good number of factors, including the following:
THE OCCASION FOR THE PERFORMANCE
The occasion for the performance plays a decisive role in the choosing of the script. Is it a marriage anniversary, or the celebration of the dead? Is it a fund-raising ceremony, or opening of a new capital territory? Certainly, the nature of the occasion for the production will help the director to select an appropriate play in terms of genre.
THE SOCIAL REALITY
The social reality of the time performs outstanding role in play selection. In fact, Dapo Adelugba is of the opinion that “there is no point of doing a play that does not relate to the social ways of the time” (104). What is the social atmosphere like? Is it a period of great economic depression or boom? Are we in a political transition or in a war situation? A good play must capture the mood of the time.
THE AUDIENCE FACTOR
There is no gainsaying that the audience is the reason a performance is organized. The nature of the audience is a primary determinant in play selection. Is the play to be addressed to an assembly of primary school pupils or undergraduate students? It is for a collection of professionals such as doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants, economists, or government officials? A play must have a target audience.
THE STRENGTH OF THE CAST
The strength of the cast goes a long way in influencing the director’s choice of the script. It will be quite preposterous, for example, to select William Shakespeare’s Hamlet for a cast of primary school pupils. They can never scratch the play.
THE BUDGET
Some plays are quite capital-intensive to produce; others are simply not costly to mount. The funds available to the director play a significant role in influencing his choice of script.
If a director has a meager purse, but decides to choose a capital intensive play, he may end up embarrassing himself and the spectators with aesthetically poor performance. Poor financial standing can limit the director’s choice of the script.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
The place of the technical elements of lighting and sound, costumes, make-up, set and scenic effects technology in modern performance can never be over-emphasized. They help to intensify tension, create mood, atmosphere and interpret character. Some plays make great technical demands.
A good play is expected to have colour, and colour can be chiefly achieved through the technical elements of production. A director who does not intend to disappoint the audience must ensure that he selects a play that he can afford its technical requirements.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
List and discuss two elements that influence play selection.
3.2 Audition
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines audition as “a short performance given by an actor, a singer, a musician, etc. to test whether he or she is suitable for a particular role”.
Audition is a kind of performative examination. Indeed, Bowskill rightly observes that “audition and examination are performances and should be approached with the same rhythm as for an opening night” (334). Since the “purpose of the auditon is to sell yourself and your abilities in an economic way,” (333), the auditionee is expected to prepare himself or herself in a wide range of materials because he or she may never know the shape the audition may take.
Audition depends largely on context. Adelugba makes an elaborate explanation of this when he postulates that:
It depends on auspices. Who is producing what? What does the producer want? Does he want something limited to the Department? Or is the area of casting the entire country, the entire world? You have just to go for the kinds of persons and materials that you think would be closest to how you have envisioned the character and the entire layout (105).
Most educational theatres organized audition within the members of their Departments. Wealthy commercial theatre groups often organize international audition. So, as Adelugba says, it depends on auspices.
Audition takes may forms. You may be given a prepared speech to read out and interpret before auditioner(s), or you may be assigned a particular role in a short scene. Audition may also take the shape of improvisation. The essence of improvisation may be to test the actor’s creative ability or “sharpness of imagination”.
Audition can also take the form of chatting or interview. It can be either solo or group affair. The type to be used is determined by the director or the audition committee where such exists. Because oftentimes, the auditionee is not always told beforehand, the material he or she is to present, it is always advisable that the auditionee prepares a wide range of materials before attending the audition.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
What is audition?
3.3 Casting
Casting is the by-product of audition. It is by definition, the actual assignment of roles to the actors and actresses consequent upon
audition. The term ‘cast’ is the collective name for all the actors and actresses selected for a performance.
TYPES OF CASTING
There are many types of casting. A few of them are discussed below.
CASTING BY APPEARANCE
Casting by appearance otherwise called type-casting is a common kind of casting method. Here certain actors and actresses are given certain roles because their physical appearances seem to be in agreement with the physical attributes of the characters as described by the playwright. These physical attributes include colour, size, shape, height, body-build, and so on.
Although type-casting appears to make the director’s job very easy, it is necessary to remark that “looking the part” as perceived by the playwright is not all the director needs in creating characterization. This is because ‘looking the part’ is not the same thing as good acting. Harold Clurman buttresses this point when he posits that “An actor’s looks will impress an audience initially but after his first minutes on stage, it becomes aware of what he or she communicates (or fail to communicate) through acting” (68). There are certainly some roles in which physical qualities are desirable, but such roles must not possess strong “dramatic bone”, which the actors’ inability to showcase on stage through good acting, will make the audience to complain. “It is on record that, Edmund Kean who was of small stature, made a great Macbeth” (69) on stage. Acting evidences show that sometimes an actor who appears rugged physically often excelled in playing romantic character than executioner. Whereas a soft-looking actor may be more convincing on stage playing a mean and tough role of an assassin. The implication of all this is that there is more in a person than meet the eyes.
Again, a role can be seen from different directorial prisms. The character, Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is known to have been played in ambivalent manner. He has been interpreted as a tragic character, as well as a comic character. So, there exist a lot of possible ways of interpreting a role. A single meaning is only possible when the director has chosen to interpret a play in a particular way. Choice is always necessary because the playwright may endow a character with so much talent that may be impossible to be located in any single living human being. When this is the case, what should inform the choice of the actor is the aspect of the character’s personality which the director decides to emphasize, and which best helps him to realize his concept through acting on stage. In summary, type – casting may appear expedient but it can also be misleading. As Clurman would say “there is no absolute in casting” since “a director’s choice in casting is delicately nuanced and motivated by a variety of considerations” (70).
CASTING BY EXPERIENCE
Certain actors and actresses are sometimes assigned some roles because of their wealth of experience. In a commercial theatre, “it is customary to seek stars for leading roles” (66). In places where people are conscious of the theatre, some people patronize the theatre even if the play is a poor one, at least, to admire their cherished actors and actresses. Even in educational theatre, there is the tendency to over use certain student-actors and actresses because of their experiences. However, Duruaku rightly posits that “casting by experience is especially good for major roles when there is perhaps little time to start looking for suitable actors”.
CASTING BY NECESSITY
Necessity they say is the mother of invention. Sometimes, according to Clurman, “the problem of casting often reduces itself not to the question of the best actor for a particular part but of “who can you get” (66). Casting by necessity obeys the dictum, “if the admirable is not available, the available becomes admirable” .
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
Discuss one type of casting method you know.
3.4 Rehearsal
Rehearsal is the level of actual interpersonal relationships, where the actors and actresses communicate with one another, and occasionally with themselves and the audience, in order to artistically embody the content and form of the play audio-visually. It is the process of group exploration, experimentation and innovativeness.
Pre-rehearsal individual reading of the script, creative experimentation and research into the characters and their given circumstances must have equipped the cast with certain “modes of external expression” which will make them to enter the rehearsal arena in high spirit, a “state of confidence” and preparedness” (Bowskill, 272).
EARLY REHARSAL
In educational theatre and in certain theatre groups, members of cast are drawn from the Department and group members. Hence, there is no need for formal introduction of cast members. But in some wealthy commercial theatre groups, members of cast can be drawn from many sources, even internationally. When this is the case, the director’s first task during the first rehearsal is to formally introduce members of the cast to one another.
For many directors, early rehearsals are dominated by reading rehearsals, while for others, the play is “put on its feet” during the first day of rehearsal. Dogmatism in theatre, whether in theory or practice, has been proven to be detrimental to the growth of the theatre.
However, it is advisable that during the early rehearsals, the director should endeavor to make all the members of the cast, even the crew members, to have a complete feel of the entire play, before individual players begin to concentrate on the scenes where they feature. Bowskill is of the opinion that such a help from the director has an invaluable advantages of helping the cast to “build up an affection for the play”, and to, become involved in the possible varieties of meaning and experience to be found in the play” (269).
At this stage of rehearsal, it is necessary for the director to define the ethos of the production by letting the cast to know the concept behind his chosen interpretation of the play. This has the advantage of aiding the members of the cast to tailor their various efforts towards the realization of the director’s notion of the play. It is ideally also at this stage, for the director to make available the rehearsal schedule to every member of the cast. Rehearsal schedule should indicate the total length of time in which the rehearsal of the play is expected to take, as well as specific time allocated to daily or each stage of rehearsal. It should equally specify the venue for the different kinds of rehearsals.
BLOCKING THE PLAY
Early rehearsal which constitutes the formative stage in the rehearsal process, is immediately followed by the type of rehearsal which in theatrical parlance, is referred to as blocking. Blocking is the crucial stage of rehearsal because it marks the actual commencement of getting the shape of the play. By definition blocking is the positioning of the actors and actresses on stage; the varied forms in which the members of the cast relate to one another in terms of movements and postures within the stage space. Blocking is the crux of play direction. Harold Clurman rightly observes that it does not only give “the production bone structure”, but that it is “the heart of direction, brain, blood, nerve and spirit” (109) that give the play life.
It is on record that some directors insist on the cast getting their lines committed to memory before blocking starts. There is nothing wrong in this method if the director has ample time at his disposal to rehearse the play.
However, other directors cause memorization of lines and blocking to occur simultaneously on stage. This approach helps the director to cut offlines which fail to work on stage without qualms. My experience as a theatre director indicates that there is always a problem in cutting off portions of the play which the actors have committed to memory. Sometimes, you find some actors unconsciously rendering certain lines which the director had cut off because they had internalized them before blocking. In fact, in the plays I have so far directed, I allowed the actors to go on stage, scripts in hand, not only because I never had the whole world to rehearse those plays, but essentially because I see blocking as a period of exploration, innovation and experimentation. I see it as a period in which the director’s genius and ingenuity should be stretched to their very limit.
It is during blocking that the director showcases his creative spirit. It is through it that the director translates his theoretical knowledge of sublimity, pace, rhythm, tempo, colour, balance, etc. into concrete practice. Through the way the director positions the actors on stage, the audience perceives mood, atmosphere, and even human qualities such as affection and hatred, courage and timidity, etc. Apart from the director’s ingenuity, blocking is, however, influenced by other factors such as the stage design and geography and even the arrangement of the playhouse itself.
Because blocking feeds on innovation and experimentation, it is never done in a hurry. It is never a one attempt effort. The director’s original blocking in his prompt book should be seen as a preliminary thing, something to be improved upon, and not something final. Theatre is a group affair. Consequently, the director does not need to be a dictator. The players’ opinion ought to be respected in matters of blocking. They should be given a certain latitude to exploit their own creative spirit. As Jean Vilar would say, “the actor is not a machine, neither parrot nor robot”. He is a homo-sapient, a creative and thinking being. On stage, he must not be caged; his genius must be allowed to flower.
RUN-THROUGH REHEARSAL
Blocking is usually done scene by scene. Sometimes, a director may wish to block the final movement of the play before the very first scene of the play. He may decide to start blocking with the most difficult segments of the play before the less difficult ones no matter where they occur in the play. However, after satisfying himself that all the segments of the play have been thoroughly blocked, he calls for a run- through rehearsal in which the actors and actresses are caused to present the play from the beginning to its end without any interruption. The purposes of the run-through rehearsal are to harmonize all the scenes of the play which are usually separately blocked, and to time the performance, in order to see whether the time it lasts actually corresponds to the normal dramatic time, usually not more than two hours in the modern times. If the director is not satisfied with the first run-through, he can call for special rehearsals to correct certain identified problem areas; and then asks for another run-through.
TECHNICAL AND DRESS REHEARSAL
This is the final stage in preparing a play for performance. Technical and dress rehearsal is like the production night, except that it does not have a paid audience. During this rehearsal, all the technical elements of lighting, sound, scenery, props, make-up and costumes are caused to accompany acting. Technical and dress rehearsal is a period of artistic integration. Before it, “all the members of the production team have been working independently” and “it is only when all these individual elements of production have been integrated and the play runs through without hitches, that the play will be deemed ready to go on stage” (Anagboso, 1988:17). During the process of technical dress rehearsal, certain technical and artistic problems that can mar the production are identified and dealt with. During the technical night, often called the preview night, the director, the crew members, as well as some experts and patrons of the theatre invited by the director offer constructive criticisms aimed at making the performance an electrifying
one.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4
What is blocking?
3.5 Performance
Performance is the actual making out of the final product of the corporate efforts of the playwright, the director and the cast and crew to the audience. It spells out the success or failure of these groups.
Although the proceed from the box office can economically testifies whether a performance is a success or failure, the major determining factor vis-à-vis the success or failure of a performance is its audience. Duruaku notes that “bad plays have been known to attract great audience while some good plays fail to pay their way” (130). Audience turn-out can make a play to succeed or fail economically, but in terms of satisfaction and quality, success or failure of a play depends on whether or not the play meets the expectation of the audience with respect to acting and aesthetic value.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 5
What factors can make a performance to succeed or fail?
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we have explained the process which the director follows in a bid to realize a performance physically on stage. We maintained that even though there are no dogmatic rules about play production procedure, there appears to exist certain time-tested rules of thumb, which according to their ascending order include play selection, audition, casting, rehearsal and then performance.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this study, we specifically examined the factors that influence the director’s choice of script, the nature of audition and its context, casting types, the various stages of rehearsal and what they entail, as well as the factors that can make a performance to succeed or fail.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
What is blocking?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Anagboso, Okwudili (1988). “Theatre Production and the Principle of Artistic Unity”. In Theatre Forum.
Bowskill, Derek (1979). Acting and Stage Craft Made Simple. London: W.H. Allen.
Clurman, Harold (1974). On Directing. New York: Collier Books – Macmillan.
Dasylva, Ademola (2003). DapoAdelugba on Theatre Practice in Nigeria. Ibadan: Atlantis Books.
Duruaku, A. B. C. (1997). A Handbook on Drama and Theatre.
Owerri: Colon Concepts.
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
Vilar, Jean cited by Clurman Harold (1974). On Directing. New York: Macmillan.
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