R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what that means to the.... Playwright!

You make sure that the props that you've borrowed for your last show were carefully packed up and given back to their original owners. You made sure that your actors took their shoes off when they entered the space that y'all were rehearsing in. You've always made sure that everything that you've borrowed is given the greatest degree of respect. But do you give that same respect to the people that wrote your scripts?

Now I know that most of the time you're getting your scipts from a catalog of plays or a tattered old book of church skits and sketches. The playwrights of these works deserve respect too. What we're focusing on here is the young playwright or author in your group or congregation that pens your scripts. They may never have asked for anything more than to see their work onstage and may be so willing to bend over backwards to accomodate your needs that they're willing to let you have free reign over their work. But one of the biggest crimes that I see theatres and drama ministries doing over the years is failing to give authors and scriptwriters their proper respect. And that's a tragedy.

To further shed some light on this issue I have to both bust a common myth to theatre ministries and confess to a mistake that I too have been known to make from time to time. The myth that most drama ministries buy into is the, "We own all the scripts that we perform" myth. I know how this myth spreads around because I've bought into it myself sometimes. We're scrambling to find a script for our next performance so we dig into the big filing cabinet of plays that we've amassed over the years and pull out that on mass of tattered photocopied pages we pulled out of a drama ministry book that we saw that one time. Or in the cyber age out their it could be that one of your members found a cool script online or saw a great YouTube video of a skit that another drama group did. You see it and say, "Hey WE could do that."

In those instances we get into the atitude that the script is our property which is only half true."  The scipt is property, but it's not necessarily yours. It's actually the property of the playwright who wrote it which he graciously loans to you to use. In fact in secular theaters the playwright is paid a royalty whenever his script is performed and must give permission before any performances can be done. Failure to do so often winds up with the theater being sued. You're not even allowed to photocopy the scripts (If you have been guitly of doing this with your drama ministry scripts don't freak out. Most Christian play publishers that I know include the right to photocopy and perform their scripts with the price of the book. If you have any doubts check the information in the front or back inside cover of the book.) So when you use another playwrights work you are actually just leasing the script for the period in which you are rehearsing and performing it.

So what can you do to show the proper respect the property of your resident playwright? These suggestions were taken from the Dramatists Guild Playwright Bill of Rights.

• Include them in your decision making process: Before you make any changes, arbitrary or otherwise, run it by them. Ask them for their input in rough moments or problem areas. Allow them to be present whenever you're rehearsing or preparing to perform their plays. You wouldn't hinder a mother from watching her baby grow up would you? Well the script is the playwright's baby.
• Give them credit: It may be near impossible for your group to pay the playwright for his work, (although if you are paying more than a hundred dollars or so a quarter for your regular play catalogs I'd consider it). Instead take every opportunity to give them the credit for their work and share any of the praise. Include them in any publicity that comes from the performances.
• Acknowledge their ownership: Always ask for permission from them before you even think about performing one of their plays. Listen if they have reservations about a direction you're taking with a scene. If you're going to archive their script or want the option to perform it again at least lay everything out in a verbal contract (one in writing is better. One in writing in front of a lot of witnesses is even better). Above all just make sure that there is some kind of agreement between you.

This isn't meant to scare you into never using resident playwrights ever again. It is, however meant to change your attitude towards scripts and give the playwright the respect that they deserve.

No Script Necessary: Alternatives to Going "By the Book"

So you're thumbing through the old drama catalogs and poring over every file of past scripts that your group has compiled over the years and still can't find anything that speaks to the issue that is plaguing your congregation. Just none of the words are leaping off the page saying, "I'm the one!" So what are your options now? Are you just going to have to settle for a sub par script?

Well before you do think about these options that your group can use in a pinch. These are based off the art of improvisational theatre meaning that nothing is written down. Many people remember improv from the show Whose Line is it Anyway that made the art form famous. The only problem with this is that some Drama Ministries will look Improv over as more of a "comedy thing" or more for "acting games". But improv actually predates the Renaissance in the Dark Ages when "scripted theatre" or plays that were written down were outlawed.  Traveling performers, practioners of Commedia Del Arte, would create long pieces of theater that were completely unscripted. But how did they do that? Well here are three exercises that can take your group from basic idea to finished project.

Exercise 1: Bubbling
Bubbling (or in some circles popcorning) is where you take the central idea that you want your scene to talk about work it around to get the juices flowing. Have your actors walk across the room in an undefined path. As they walk throw out a topic (for example stealing). As they walk around your actors will each say the first word related to that first word that relates to it. (for example convenience store, money, embezzlement). Take the first word out of what they're saying that resonates with you and throw that idea out to them. The cycle continues until your group can't think of anything. Write thse words out as you say them. Have your actors think about these words for a few minutes and without too much rest segway immediately into the next exercise which is...

Exercise 2: Workshopping
Workshopping is where you break your team up into pairs or trios and have them take turns onstage improvising different scenes using the ideas that you just came up with. So if you're workshopping stealing then three of your actors could get onstage and act out a scene where a daughter is confessing to her mother and daughter that she stole money from the family vacation jar. Then the next trio will come up onstage and try out a completely different scene. This isn't the time to try to polish anything. Nothing that goes onstage right now is necessarily going to be the finished project. This is the time for your group to tell you what they want to talk about onstage. After you finish one round ask your actors these questions...

• What characters/ideas stood out to you?
• What moments really made an impact on you?
• What characters from other scenes do you want to see in a room together?
• What ideas or characters best serve the main theme?
• What scenes seem to be connected?
• Do some scenes seem to come before or after each other?

Your next job in workshopping is to shake everything up and mix and match characters and scenes and see what new ideas come out. After each round of this ask your group the same above questions. Don't let this go too far and get too complicated or else you run the risk of workshopping something to death. That comes about when you fall in love with the exploration of different possibilities and the fun of being onstage and stop watching and listening for the story to come out. You know when to stop when all of your actors start repeating themselves and going over the same territory or one scene just stands out and screams "I'm the one!" It might take two or three sessions to do this or it might come out in just one so always schedule for more time than you think. When you find one or two scenes that are just begging to be polished move on the to the next step which is...

Exercise Three: Creating the Scenario
Scenarios were scenes used in Commedia Del Arte that served as the "script" for the show. It's not a regular script as in every line and stage direction is written down. A basic scenario has a title and short description of what goes on in the scene complete with a beggining, middle, and end. So taking some of your scenes and ideas from the previous exercise you can polish them up in rehearsals creating a scenario. So your finished scenario could look something like this...

The Family Jar

Little Cindy confesses to her parents that she's been stealing money from the family jar where they save up funds for the annual vacation to the Grand Canyon. Mom and Dad have a nice but funny talk with Cindy and explain to her that stealing is wrong. The Dad counts the money and finds that there isn't enough money to go to the Grand Canyon and discovers that no one ever wanted to go anyway. They decide to have a staycation instead. The End.

Remember that Imporving like this takes a little time. These aren't like acting games on Whose Line that take a couple of minutes. Long-form improvisation takes time and rehearsal... Wait! Improv takes rehearsal!?! Actually in real life it takes a lot of practice and rehearsal to make a good scenario. Just because there is no script doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of work involved.

So try these exercises out with your group and see what happens. Hopefully next time that you have a lack of scripts you'll put down the catalog and start creating new works that will do your team proud!

Do I always have to preach?

You’ve had this discussion many times with your pastor. You’ve gotten criticism after criticism from deacons and elders of your church. You’re getting pressed from all sides that every time your Drama Group performs that there has to be a “message”. This could have many meanings. It could mean that they want every skit you perform to be a dramatic sermon. It could mean that they think that the only service that they believe the Drama Ministry can perform is to be evangelists in special events outside the church and never be brought into the church.  But you’ve been itching to do this hilarious comedy show for a fall festival but no one wants to hear about it. You start to wonder, “Is my drama ministry’s real job just to ‘preach’ to people?”

I’m reminded of the time in the early church when the apostles found that there was a need to feed the widows and orphans in the church. They were too busy to do this job themselves so they had the group of believers nominate men from their numbers to do it. Thus the first instance of deacons was born. Several secular theatre groups are set up with a mission statement. Most of them are non-profit organizations that have a specific function or need to fill. Most Drama ministries are set up that way too, although sometimes unknowingly. In a perfect world a group of theatre artists or drama enthusiasts get together to form a group that has a significant ministry to the congregation and the outside world. In the real world as Church Drama people we all know that usually the pastor or director of music walks up to you and says something to the effect of, “we want a drama group and you’ve been in community theatre once or twice so you can be in charge of it.” To tell the truth too many times drama groups are formed just because a church wants to keep up with the other churches in the community that have them. If that is the case for you what does that mean for you? What can you do about it?

·         Determine your Drama Group’s mission: What need in the church are you fulfilling? As much as it is an artform theatre is also a tool. It’s much easier when it has a purpose. Ask yourself these three questions.

o   What are three needs that our drama group wants to fill?

o   What are three ways that we are going to fill this need?

o   What are three effects that the congregation will experience because of this ministry?

So using this exercise a good mission statement could be…

The Greater Love Players is formed to show Christ’s love to the members of Angel Valley, emphasize the value of Christ’s self sacrifice, and give members of Angel Valley Church the opportunity to minister to the greater community. Through theatrical performances, puppet shows, and personal testimony Angel Valley will become aware of God’s love for them, the opportunity of a relationship with Christ, and hope that a new life in Christ brings.

As you see in the example above the three lists are blended together to form the backbone of your group’s ministry. By looking at this mission statement you can easily see that the fictitious drama ministry wants to do, how they’re going to do that, and what they want to happen because they’ve done it. Now if it’s easy for the outside observer to see that then it should be just as easy for the ministry to see that too. With a mission statement like this you can easily look keep your ministry on track. Now when you get those requests you can say, “that’s not what we do,” or , “that’s not why we’re here”. 

The second part to this is that you need to discuss this with the pastor and anyone else that should be involved. Discuss your lists and your mission statement with them and how that compares to what expecations they have. That way you can have all of the discussion up front and not when you've already invested both time and money in the endeavor.

            My hope is that, by getting a foundation started your drama ministry can withstand the stormy seas without falling apart.

The Awesome Power of Rehearsal Cubes!

When it comes to building sets for your drama group the most complicated thing you might have is a couple of folding chairs and a table that you pulled from the foyer or narthex. In regular creative worship applications this works wonderfully.  But as your group considers doing special or seasonal events and maybe even touring those things might not always be available to you.  You may not have the money or resources to build big sets and move them from venue to venue. But there is one handy kind of set piece that can be made to fit every situation.

The history of rehearsal cubes, unit blocks, or set boxes is kind of vague but every theatre I’ve been involved with has had at least a set of these stacked up in a corner somewhere. They’re called rehearsal cubes because they’re customarily used in the early rehearsals of a play when the set isn’t completely finished yet. That doesn’t mean that they don’t make their way on stage all the time. Here are just a few points where I can sing their praises…

·         They’re Multi-taskers: There is room for only one multi-tasker in any theatre and those are the smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. Rehearsal cubes can be used in their original form in their many shows. You can stand, sit, and dance on them. If they’re built securely you can even jump up and down and take stage falls on them. You can stack them so that they make columns and walls and lay them all out together to make an impromptu platform. Once you start to discover all of the things that can be done with them then you’ll never be able to stop at a set of just four or five. I love them so much that I brag that if I had a set of thirty rehearsal cubes and a pile of scrap wood I could build just a set to be proud of.

o   But there’s more: These babies aren’t just mulit-taskers on the stage they can be a great help offstage. Put a hinged lid on the top and some handles on the side and then you have prop storage for every touring occasion.

·         They have Strength in Numbers: The best benefit of rehearsal cubes is found when you have sets of four or more. Most theatres have sets of them in two or three sizes: one set of cubes at chair height, as set of long benches, and a set of oblong rectangles that double as barstools. That doesn’t mean that those are the hard and fast rules. Whatever size that your Drama Ministry needs is good for you. If you’re planning on touring then it would be beneficial to make a set that best fits in the vehicles that you’ll be using to get there.

·         They’re Easy to Build: A Google search will show you that no one is really selling rehearsal cubes (or not at prices that you would want to pay). That is because most theater departments find it easier to build themselves. They can be made out of basic lumber and materials that can be found at the local hardware store and a set of four is about an afternoon’s set of work. There many different ways to build them and plans are found on the internet with a little searching. A few links for further information are found below.

Rehearsal cubes are great tools for the Drama Ministry that is beginning to branch out of the sanctuary and into the secular world. They are a kind of “gateway” set piece that can get theatre departments started building the materials and tools to tackle bigger pieces like platforms and flats. These little boxes are worth their weight in gold to any Drama Ministry!

You Can't Show That Onstage!

There are a lot of things in the bible that wouldn’t make it even in an R Rated movie. From Samson slaughtering thousands of Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone to Tamar tricking her father-in-law into having sex with him to Saul consulting a witch to have a séance. And that’s just the Old Testament. In the New Testament Jesus is brutally crucified in all four gospels and the apostles are continuously beaten and flogged in Acts. All of these stories were put into the bible for a reason. But are they appropriate for all audiences?

            That’s a problem that faces Drama Ministries too. There are so many stories that you can tell, so many gripping plays or dramas. Even if you wrote all of your own plays directly from Bible stories the examples that I’ve shown you above prove that you are still going to run into some pretty gory or racy material. So when it comes to choosing scripts for a performance or stories for your repertoire what are things that every drama ministry needs to remember. What are your responsibilities to the congregation?

·         Be honest: Jesus tells us that we are supposed to be salt and light in this world. We are supposed to have a message relevant to our audience. There are some ministries out there that won’t perform skits with villains, broken homes, homeless people, etc.. We are afforded a rare opportunity to bring not only the truth of this world to the congregation but how God’s love and His plan fit into that world. To put something on stage that is completely fake is a form of lying.

·         But be age/audience appropriate: There is a reason that we have a Precious Moments Bible, and why children have their own programming on television. There’s a reason that teens are reading different books than their college age siblings. Each age group has its own issues and problems to deal with, And there are some topics and messages that younger audiences aren’t mature enough to deal with yet. So the next time your Drama Group is going to do a show you have to take into account whether you’re performing for a children’s group, youth group, or a congregation of all ages.

Think of ways that your Drama Group can be salt and light in this world. What new needs or issues does your congregation face? What new skits or shows can you do that will make you relevant to your youth group? Take some time to let the Lord guide you to new messages that he wants you to share.

Tech Tip: The Tech Ten Commandments

  Maybe the collective carpentry prowess of your group couldn’t build a birdhouse much less a set. Maybe you remember that the last time that you had the resident carpenter in your church build you a set you had to drive an actor to the emergency room. You’re tempted to throw up your hands and say, “Dear Lord, if only there were some simple rules or guidelines that would help us get through this show!”
            Don’t worry, help as arrived. As a set builder for several shows I’ve seen things some things go horribly wrong and other things go horribly right. I’ve worked on shows that were terribly convoluted and other shows where it seemed that the set practically built itself. I’ve built that one set piece that took several hours to build but was only seen onstage for six minutes. And through all those years of building sets I longed for just ten simple rules that all theater’s or theater groups could follow that would save everyone time and money!
 So without further ado…
The Ten Tech Commandments

Thou Shalt Not Bite off More than You can Chew:
This can be broken in more than a few ways and often very innocently. It starts with pride. You think that with your skills and your people that you can take on building the entire set without any help. Or you feel that because you have two or three builders on call that you can keep shoveling more and more set pieces on top of them. But remember that while you can always have fundraisers to get more money you will never be able to get back the time. And as deadlines approach the more that you took on makes you and your group work harder and harder taking your focus away from what is really important, God’s message.
Thou Shalt Not Use Nails or Glue:
There are some applications in conventional stagecraft where this rule can and must be broken but the spirit of the rule is this… Theatre is a temporary art form. A show goes up on Wednesday and closes on Sunday and the audience goes on with their lives and the Drama Group goes on to the next project. If the writer of Ecclesiastes was a theatre person he would still use the words “vapor in the wind” to describe it. In essence whatever set you build you are going to have to take apart a little while later. Nails and glue are meant to be permanent. And the more time that you have to take to take them apart is more time that you can’t spend doing something else.
Thou Shalt Not Kill Your Actors: 
 You might be aware of the stereotype of actors being a clumsy lot. While some things are out of your control there are a lot of things that can be avoided if people just take the time to inspect their work afterward or take into account the safety of the actors BEFORE they start work on the project.
Thou Shalt Have a Back Up Plan: Murphy will strike at the time that is the most inconvenient to you. Things will get broken in dress rehearsal; very important projects won’t get done in time or be missing a very valuable piece that can only be found in a hardware store forty miles away. Never think that it won’t happen to you. Bad things can happen if you build an entire show around a pivotal set piece only to realize that an audience will never see it. A back up plan in the planning phase can help save hours of worrying later. Remember, Murphy will always show up, it is only our job to be ready for his visit.
Thou Shalt Not Make something that You will Never use Again and then Keep it:
This came from my days as a college theatre student spending untold hours in the shop basement tearing apart set pieces that hadn’t seen daylight for years that people had just shoved down there willy nilly after a show. They were always oddly shaped  and took long sweaty hours to pull apart. The foundation of all set pieces are stock platforms and flats (simple units that are all the same size and can be put together to build a set. I’ll be talking about these in later posts) It is common nature to think “out of sight out of mind” when it comes to storing your props and set pieces. But when you’re putting stuff away remember that if you can’t see yourself using it again in the next three shows then it will just be taking up space in storage that could be used by more useful things. It might take more time to take it apart but the investment pays for itself when you don’t have to do it later.
Thou Shalt Never Throw Anything Away:
This may seem like a contradiction of the previous rule but it has its own wisdom in it. The previous rule tells you to take apart anything that you won’t use again. It never said to throw what it was made of away. A ten foot wide hexagonal platform may not be used again but the wood that it’s made of, the screws that you used to put it together, might make reappearances in another show. In essence if it isn’t taking up too much space and you see yourself using it again then by all means hold onto it and never let it go. This especially is true with special props and costumes that one only finds once in a flea market or a yard sale.
Thou Shalt Never take a Shoestring Budget Seriously:
I worked with a technical director once that seemed complacent with putting subpar sets onstage. The one show that broke the camel’s back he put up flats with jagged plywood edges showing, gaps in seems, and mismatched flooring on the walls. He was content with hanging pieces with shoe string and holding things together with duct tape. It was a set that I was ashamed of putting in front of an audience. He gave me a long list of excuses about not having the proper budget or trying to meet deadlines. To make a long story short he doesn’t work with me anymore. As much as a Drama Ministry has to see its actors as ambassadors for the Church likewise a set is also the ambassador of the group. If the audience sees set pieces hanging from shoe strings or ragged edges on the set or other forms of shoddy workmanship it reflects badly on the group and the tech people as good stewards of time and the Church’s resources. I emphasize that one should make every effort to save time in building a set but it should NEVER be at the expense of the overall workmanship. Take pride in your work and make every diligent effort to make it right the first time and someone won’t have to come along behind you and waste time fixing it.
Thou Shalt not get OCD:
Again this is a rule that seems like a direct contradiction of the rule that came before it. I emphasized taking every effort to make sure that the finished product is something that you can be proud of and that the audience will enjoy. But what every beginning set builder must realize is that the audience will be looking at the set from a distance. Very rarely will any member of the audience be less than ten feet away from your set if you’re in a sanctuary setting. So when something starts bother you about the set. Step back to the first pew and look at it. Now go back to the last pew.  That flaw that is bugging you when you stand onstage will be barely noticeable in the first pew and at the last pew you won’t be able to see it at all. So remember to take a step back. If you’re focusing more on the set than you are on the story of the play then there’s a problem.
Thou Shalt not Compensate for Bad Acting with a Beautiful Set:
You got all the coolest lighting effects and the newest thing in sound equipment. Your revolving set would rival the stages of Broadway itself. Except that when your actors get onstage they can’t remember their lines, they don’t know where they’re going, and they break character every five seconds. If the only reason that you built that set was to give the audience something to look at besides the bad actors then there’s a big problem.
Thou Shalt not Put all of the Work on “that guy with the tools”:
It’s easy when someone in the church steps up and volunteers to help out with technical stuff to praise the Lord and gladly shovel off all of the stuff onto him. But remember that we are the Body of Christ. While we delegate the work of walking to our feet and legs the brain still tells the feet to walk and where to walk. The good body works together doing what it needs to do. While it is smart to delegate tasks to the people who are most qualified to do them that doesn’t mean that once you give it to someone else that it isn’t your responsibility to check in on their progress, or that it’s not your fault as The Director of Drama Ministry when something goes wrong. If someone needs help make every effort to get them assistance. If someone voices concerns over deadlines or budget take them seriously and discuss options with them.

Now my ten commandments for building sets will never be like God’s Ten Commandments that are all inclusive and can never be changed. But over almost a decade building sets I’ve found that there are ten guidelines that can help everybody…especially drama ministry groups that are just starting out. After your group has gotten a little more experience under your belt you’ll find that you can see the times where you can bend a rule every now and then. My rules are based on the idea that since most Drama Ministry groups don’t have all of the money that they ever wanted for a show then time has to be their greatest asset. So these commandments are meant to keep theatre groups from wasting the time that they have and avoid spending any money that you have.

            Verse: 1 Samuel 16:75 The Lord does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.

            If there’s one question I’ve heard Christian Actors ask all the time it’s “Am I sinning if my character does something bad onstage?” And we’ve all been in that situation. We get cast playing the villain in a show or something our character does onstage is something we wouldn’t be caught dead doing onstage. You begin to wonder if doing these things onstage, and getting into the character of one who would do them is leading you to sin yourself. Because of this issue a lot of actors and Drama Ministries shy away from perfectly good scripts and stories with potential to do the Lord’s work.

            But instead of shying away from this issue like some people I’m going to point out a key point in the issue that people often look over in discussion. The core issue of sin is that it is a blatant disobedience of God’s law. You are shopping at the store and an old lady in front of her leaves her cart. You see that she has left her purse inside it and it is wide open stuffed with dollar bills. You know it’s her property and that you shouldn’t but you choose to take some of the money and run out of the store. Now that is a blatant disobedience of God’s law telling us to respect other people’s property.

But let’s say that we take this scene to the stage. Now you’re not yourself. You’re pretending to be a person who is shopping at the store. One of your fellow actors is in front of you pretending to be the old lady with the purse. Both of you read the script and saw the part where your character steals the money and you’ve rehearsed this part for a couple weeks now. And to top it all off the money isn’t even real, it’s the property of the troupe’s along with the purse and at the end of the show it comes out of your pocket and stays in prop storage. So the question is: if this theft was prearranged beforehand and you have had permission to do it did you really steal the money or were you just pretending to?

            In the theatre world our characters might be asked to do several things including break several commandments, be mean, and hurt other character’s feelings. But all of it is done for pretend. To assume that God will see you committing any of these acts onstage, you pretending to do these things, and hold it against you implies that you think God is stupid. God is omniscient, meaning that he knows everything that’s going on and not only that, he can see into your heart. Just like when he counseled Samuel on who to choose as the next king of Israel he can read your mind, look into your inner most self and see what’s going on inside you. That means he knows the difference between what you’re doing and what you’re pretending to do.

            So what is acceptable to do onstage and what isn’t? Well it’s not as easy as offering a list of hard and fast rules. I can only offer two guidelines that I offer every Christian actor that comes to me with these problems.

·         Look to the message of the piece: Just as you are to avoid causing you brother to stumble and fall you are responsible for the message your play puts it across. If you advocate a stance or posture that goes against God’s teachings then you are responsible for their sin.

·         If what you’re doing onstage negatively affects your life offstage don’t do it:  Obviously even though you are pretending to be someone else onstage when you smoke that cigarette on stage the smoke is still going into your lungs. In that case what you did onstage negatively affects your life offstage. In the church world this can take other forms, like maybe you are cast to play a married couple opposite one of your best friends. You look into the audience offstage and see your best friend’s boyfriend or husband giving you the stink eye. In that case what you’re doing onstage can affect your relationship with your friend offstage.

While again these are not exhaustive hard and fast rules they can stand as guidelines to direct your thinking to the real issues. If you’re ever in doubt feel free to talk it over with your director or the rest of the cast. Drama Ministries should be a place where you can talk and discuss the issue in the play and how they affect your walk with God. You never know if one of your cast mates is having the exact same problem.