Putting It Together—a crash course in running your first musical

Putting It Together—A Crash Course In Running Your First MusicalJustin M. Brauer

Your Staff

Director Music Director

Split Vocal Director and Orchestra Director?

Choreographer Set Designer Lighting Designer Sound Designer Costume Designer Stage Manager

Hair/Wig/Makeup Designer Assistants

Get students involved!

Fill these roles with: Other teachers

From other schools? Outside hires Parents

Selecting A Show

Licensing house Music Theatre International Samuel French Tams Witmark Theatrical Rights Worldwide Rodgers & Hammerstein

Full Production? School Edition? Junior? Requirements (see http://www.mtishows.com/shows for selection tools)

Cast Pit Tech

Other Planning

Who is in charge of contacting the licensing house? Who is paying for the rights to the show? Where will auditions and rehearsals be held? Where will the set be built? Where will the performances be held? Who is designing/distributing marketing?

Print (posters and articles), TV, radio, social media

Designer Meetings and Dramaturgy

Why this play now? Traditional? Reworking?

Who are these characters? What is this show’s history? Why does this belong at your school? How will it look? What are you trying to tell? What are you trying to teach?

Auditions

Where are sign-ups posted? Who is at auditions?

Director, Music Director, Choreographer Stage Manager? Assistants? Are all of your students in the room at the same time? Is your whole staff in one room the whole time?

Auditions

What do students need to prepare? Song- one minute? 32 bars? Monologue?

What will be taught at the audition? Group choreography

Does not have to be from the show Use this time to ask to see something differently, if you need it

Shows your students’ range and ability to take direction

Callbacks and Casting

Post early in the day so students can make travel plans with parents Do you need to call everyone back?

Tell students: A callback does not guarantee a role, nor the other way around. A callback simply means we need to see/hear more/different.

When/where are casting results posted? Will you discuss casting results with students? If so, when?

First Rehearsal!

Introductions Yourself The staff The musical Your vision The cast

Read-through Hand out scripts

Originals? Copies? With music? With stage directions?

Read by Stage Manager

Rehearsal Process

Have at least the first month planned on paper to give to parents and students

Start with music Choral first, then break it down further This may be as little as two weeks, but may take longer depending on your show and

your students Just like planning a regular lesson

Start with warmups Don’t spend too much time on any one piece Review at the end, keep it positive Show your students how much work they have accomplished

Rehearsal Process

Start with music After choral numbers are learned, teach smaller ensembles and solos Remember- you don’t have to call everyone every day

And if you do, you need to have activities planned to keep them occupied when they aren’t actively rehearsing. This could be helping with technical elements, creating lobby displays, working on homework, etc. It will help to have either other staff members or parents to supervise.

If possible, don’t put any music on its feet that hasn’t been taught already When to be memorized?

After two rehearsals

Rehearsal Process – After Music

Blocking and choreography Be wary of using the Cast Recording for blocking/choreography

rehearsals Lyrics and music may be different, underscoring and dialogue may be

shortened Multitask!

If half your cast is in blocking rehearsal, teach the other half choreography, or use that time to review material you’ve already covered

Rehearsal Process- Cleaning

Aim to have the whole show learned by two-thirds of the way through your process

This will give you plenty of time to do full show runs and take time to clean things that have either been forgotten or just need more work

Alternate days- running an act, cleaning that act

Technical Elements

When is tech coming together? If dedicated Tech Director, they can work with tech students during

rehearsals If not, you will need to schedule extra time to work on technical

elements Remember to leave time in your rehearsal schedule for your cast to be

measured for and try on costumes You may require your students to come in a certain number of weekends

to work on tech

The Pit

Pre-recorded or live? Student players? Professionals? Both?

Where are they coming from? Rehearsal Process

Band calls Sitzprobe Dress rehearsals

Make sure you have: Stands Chairs Stand lights Extra copies of music?

Keyboards

Most musicals written after the early- to mid-seventies will require keyboards with patches

You can either program these yourself either on the keyboard or in Mainstage (for Apple computers only) Common keyboard lines for programming:

Yamaha Motif or MOX Kurzweil PC3K

You can also pay for someone else to do Mainstage programming for you Some licensing companies will rent programming (compatible with Apple

or Windows computers)

Keyboards - RMS

Keyboards – Yamaha Motif

Keyboards - Mainstage

Tech Week and Performances

Tell students and parents to expect late nights, but give specific end times

Day One: Cue-to-Cue Do not call the orchestra to this rehearsal

Subsequent days: tech runs Leave time for at least one dress rehearsal- straight through, no stops

Opening night! Give students time to get into makeup and costume with plenty of time

for pre-show announcements and traditions

After Closing Night

Use your student cast and crew- after the last performance (either that night or the next day,) everyone is involved in strike

Set, costumes, pit stands, lights, chairs, instruments

Recommended Reading

Music Direction for the Stage, Joseph Church The Enraged Accompanist’s Guide to the Perfect Audition, Andrew Gerle

The Director’s Craft, Katie Mitchell Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy, Michael Chemers The Musical as Drama, Scott McMillin

Our Musicals, Ourselves, John Bush Jones Enchanted Evenings, Geoffrey Block Showtime, Larry Stempel

Questions?Whole presentation available at JustinMBrauer.com