Trafford Publishing: For Love of Drama: How to Create School Plays that Show a Profit and Erupt with Life and Love

Here is the full reference card for this book...

If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

For Love of Drama: How to Create School Plays that Show a Profit and Erupt with Life and Love

by Rolf McEwen

238 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-0992; ISBN 1-4120-3165-6; US$21.50, C$25.00, EUR18.00, £12.50

An outstanding guidebook on how to direct plays that audiences love, performers love and directors love.

Read more!

About the Book About the Author Excerpt Catalogue Information

About the Book

This book is about acting. It's about money. It's about people who love the arts. It's about performing arts and how to make them happen in high school--how to make them affordable by selecting great scripts to attract paying audiences. The sale of tickets provides the revenue to pay all costs of play production, with a profit margin to boot.
The book provides practical suggestions for budgeting, cost control, play selection, auditions, casting, rehearsing, planning, discipline, and performance.
The book exudes the joy that accompanies working with artistic young people who are intent on excellence. It communicates the director's personal philosophy of allowing actors to begin a play by creating their own character development which can be shaped by the director over time. It promotes the concept that the students, not the directors, do the work. The students study the play, rehearse the play, and perform the play with guidance from the director, but without excessive direction. The director, for example, allows students to do the stage management, the lighting design and operation, and the sound effects. The director does not go back stage at all during rehearsals or performances, leaving students to solve their own problems and to make the production happen without adult assistance. The result is serious student responsibility and determination. The result is team work and cooperation.
Ideas for publicity are provided in the text, as well as suggestions for play selections, planning arrangements, budgets for various plays, and ideas for acting and directing. The director's philosophy is revealed, including persuasive arguments for the great value derived from participation in performance activities.
The book is a manual for creating and maintaining a drama program which brings out the best in the actors, stage hands, and technical workers. It makes an argument that there is no need to curtail or eliminate drama, dance, music, and other performing arts when finances grow tight, because these programs can pay for themselves if quality shows are performed for a public that is willing to pay for good perfomances.
For Love of Drama makes a passionate plea for the establishment of artistic programs in the schools which allow students to inspire their minds, develop their skills, and enjoy working with other talented young people in creating excellent performances.
Go ahead, treat yourself to a little love for the arts by reading this lively book. It is accompanied by 94 dramatic stage photos taken during rehearsals, revealing quality acting, costuming, and set design. It's a wonderful manual filled with practical ideas on how to keep a performing arts program thriving for the sake of gifted young people.

About the Author

Rolf McEwen has been a high school drama director for 18 years. He has initiated new programs in three schools, establishing performing arts programs that allow students to develop and display their artistic talents in drama, instrumental music, song, and dance. He also teaches literature and photography. His love of literature results in his frequent use of scripts adapted from selections of literary classics, allowing students to memorize and perform plays demonstrating ideals and language which inspires and instructs.
His love of photography results in the creation of a portfolio of 300 or more photos of actors on stage taken during the final dress rehearsal of each play when costumes, make-up, set-design, and skill levels are most presentable. He enjoys the challenge of creating artistic images of actors on stage expressing emotions evoked from passionate interpretations of character, dressed in exotic costumes, surrounded by intriguing light.
McEwen believes that theater offers audiences an opportunity to see and hear important thoughts and ideas which can draw attention to essential themes of life. Beauty and truth can emerge on stage with an intelligent script in the capable hands of trained and talented performers. For this reason he has over the years selected plays adapted from literature by great authors including Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Charlotte Bronte, Moliere, and Shakespeare. He has directed The Diary of Anne Frank, Great Expectations, The Miracle Worker, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jane Eyre, and other plays adapted from literary classics.
For musical drama he has directed The Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof. In the musicals he has encouraged extensive dancing. In his performance of The Middle Class Gentleman, by Moliere, he incorporated several singers and five ballet performances employing six dancers.
He believes the stage when adorned with live action in a small theater provides an intimate atmosphere in which gifted performers can speak to the hearts, minds, and souls of members of an audience. It is an opportunity which cries out for exploitation for the sake not just of the young performers, but for audience members whose delight in viewing a fine stage performance can help restore our faith in humanity and society.
McEwen earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Puget Sound in 1969, and a Master of Education degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1991. He studied art, music, and history for a year in Rome and Vienna. As a life-long learner, he has attended summer sessions at eight colleges. He has written The Good Trip Maui, Survival Tactics for Office Workers, Poem Soup, The Joseph Story, and Esther the Queen. He has been published in various magazines and poetry journals. He has worked as a freelance writer and photographer for newspapers and magazines. He has been selected for Who's Who Among College Students, and Who's Who Among High School Teachers. He served as student body vice president of his university. He has taught school for 25 years, and is still going at it. He also maintains a photography business and photo gallery, Rolf McEwen Photo Art, in Albany, Oregon.

Excerpt

Why produce the musicals if they cost so much?
Audiences love them, for one thing. But the most important consideration is what musicals do for the students. They allow us to do a stage presentation that features not only actors, but also singers, dancers, and of course the musicians in the orchestra beneath the stage. The art department and the woodworking students can also get involved in set building, painting, and decoration.
So a musical drama brings together several artistic endeavors, and this magical encounter provides students with a wonderful experience of cooperation and teamwork. They gain appreciation for the artistic gifts of other students. They learn to work together, the musicians waiting on the actors, and viceversa, the dancers doing their thing, and the stage crew, the lighting and sound technicians, all working together to create an evening of music and song and storytelling to touch the hearts of the people. Students learn life skills. They learn courage, cooperation, timing, discipline, projection, movement, teamwork, and mutual respect. It's a wonderful experience for the students, and I believe the relationships they develop and the skills they acquire can stay with them forever. And then there are the good memories, of course.
I emphasize that the most important part of the drama experience is the love we show for our fellow performers, and the cooperation and respect that we demonstrate daily in the rehearsal process. 90% of our time is spent in rehearsal. Rehearsal is a lot like life, working through daily disciplines without glamorous lights and costumes and jewelry and the applause, but only my voice shouting at them, correcting them, encouraging them, in loud, sweet, gentle, melodic tones.
You sound like a pretty fierce director.
The kids need to be pushed. Nothing gets done without leadership and discipline. Students often come to rehearsal tired. They want to sit down on the couch and sleep. They want to talk to their friends. Directors have to have a plan, they have to know what they want, and how to achieve it, or they will appear to be indecisive and unsure of themselves. This invites others to jump in and take charge, and then suddenly there is more than one director, and that leads to problems, to confusion, to rivalry.
Directors often are given plenty of advice by parents and students and administrators. But there can be only one director if there is going to be peace and order. Someone must make the decisions, and not everyone is going to like it.
Do you enjoy your work?
I love it.
Why?
I love the kids. I work with wonderful people, generous people, with parents who want to help the kids develop their skills, demonstrate their talents, and enjoy life. With all the horrible things that happen every day in the world, isn't it wonderful to do something beautiful at school with good people working together? So we sing and dance and play the flute and act out stories that inspire people to make the world a better place.
Do your students ever fight and argue?
With certain groups we have had conflict, disagreement, and anger, but that provides an opportunity to get the adversaries together to work it out, to talk about it, to communicate. Usually, reconciliation works out fine. Each group has a chemistry of its own. The kids learn life skills in overcoming conflict. So the drama experience is a lot like life, a lot like the work place, because students are working together to create a performance. There will be differences of opinion, mistakes, debates, problems. We must welcome them as an opportunity to learn to overcome obstacles.
What are some of the other plays you have performed over the years?
I have tried to find stories that are inspiring, or important, or significant in some other way. I want the students to memorize good literature, stories that are classics. I want them to think, and I want the performances to inspire audiences, or to make them laugh so the play can provide some healthy relaxation. I don't like to perform a bunch of foolishness or degradation.
Here's a list of some of the plays we've done over the years: Nicholas Nickleby, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Hamlet, The Miracle Worker, Pure as the Driven Snow, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Romeo and Juliet, Charley's Aunt, Little Women, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, The Custard Caper, The Importance of Being Earnest, Arms and the Man, and Pygmalion, The Curious Savage, Get Smart, Great Expectations, Who Killed Aunt Carolyn?, The Father of the Bride, The Diary of Anne Frank, Father's Been to Mars, The Slumber Party, The Creature Creeps, and The Middle Class Gentleman.
The plays directed by my assistant include the following:
Get Smart, Father of the Bride, Romeo and Juliet, and Archie Andrews. These were great productions, and almost every one of them showed a profit of more than $1000.
Do you rehearse your musical dramas in your classroom as well?
No. We need a larger space to accommodate the orchestra and the dancers. The dancers need a slippery floor, so the carpets which cover my classroom and the choir room aren't suitable, so we use the cafeteria. We put up all the tables after school and rehearse from 3:30 to 5:00 pm four nights a week for 10 weeks. The cafeteria's nothing fancy, but it serves the purpose. Of course we have to roll in a piano from a building down the road a ways, and carry the props and instruments in and out for every rehearsal, but where there's a will there's a way. The students work hard and fast, and we get the job done.
What are the chances you'll get a theater built on campus some day?
I don't know.
Would it help?
It would be wonderful to have a stage to rehearse on where the set could be built, and props could be placed, and lights could be focused, with dressing rooms available, and a costume room, and a scene shop, a place to build, to paint, to store things. That would help us, of course. We could rehearse our musicals there, with room for the musicians and a surface suitable for dancers.
The drama students would be encouraged because they would have a building, a place to work, a quality environment with which to identify. They would take pride in it, in their department, in their work. We might as well throw in some practice rooms for musicians while we're at it, and a technical booth for lights and sound, and a second rehearsal room for the choir and the orchestra, and seats for an audience. Yes, our students would make good use of a facility that would allow them to develop their artistic skills. We could use that. I wonder who could make such a building appear?
One of the best things about having a theater on campus is that we wouldn't have to spend $1600 per week to rent one, and that would allow us to make more profit on our plays.
How do you conduct your rehearsals and performances?
When the bell rings to dismiss the class prior to the drama class, I immediately shut the shades on the windows to black out the room and help create the theater atmosphere. As students enter the room I give each a task to help set up the stage for rehearsal. Most students move desks against the back wall of the room to establish a stage area using about a third of the room, a space about 10' x 25' where the actors rehearse. The middle one-third of the room is for students to occupy when not on stage, and the other third is filled with unused desks and furniture.
By the time the bell to start class rings, the kids usually have the entire room re-arranged as a "theater." I immediately gather them together to make a two minute organizational speech, and then we go to work rehearsing the play. I turn on the stage lights, and get everybody quiet. I ask if the prompter is ready, give a count-down and the action starts. Rehearsal runs for about 40 minutes without stopping. The prompter corrects any errors or lapses of memory, and keeps the play moving quickly along. Actors must stay in character and not look at the prompter when having problems. They must stay focused on the play, the must "stay in the bubble," which means "the world of the play," the time and place they are portraying.
It's essential that actors stay focused and take seriously the rehearsal process so the rehearsal doesn't collapse into fun and games. If the action stops, it's difficult to start again. So we don't talk about the play, we perform the play. I occasionally give five second comments about movement, or blocking, or expression, but I keep the actors going so they don't lose momentum. Sometimes I sit and take notes, and give my director's notes during the last five minutes of class.
It's the students who will go on stage, not me. They're the ones that need to learn the play, know the play, perform the play. So I give direction, and let them work. I ask them when I first announce the cast to read the script carefully, to figure out how their character behaves, and to create their own interpretation of the character. They must decide who they are based upon the portrayal in the script, and they must adapt it to their own personality and style. Then I will tweak it a bit. "Give me a character and I will work with it. Give me something to work with."
I tell them to listen while on stage, to listen to what is being said by others, and to respond to it appropriately. "Listen and respond, listen and respond. Respond with the face, respond with the body, respond with the feet, respond with the voice." If I can't hear them, I tell them to project. "Don't make me work so hard to hear you! Speak up, wake up, do something! Live the lines! Don't just say words; bring them out of your heart and soul. Give it life! Live the lines, live the lines!"
And I listen and watch all the time, making little comments, keeping them working, encouraging and correcting, throwing out ideas from time to time. I don't sleep, I don't talk on the phone, I don't go to the bathroom, I don't leave the room, because if I relax then so will the actors. They'll quit working, they'll start enjoying life, and we certainly have no time to enjoy life when there's a play to be learned. After the performance, then we enjoy life. After the rehearsal, then we relax.
So rehearsal times are intense, and I stay focused, and keep them focused, and it's a constant battle! It's war against human nature. It's always uphill. But the end result brings the satisfying accomplishment that comes from a job well done. The applause from the audience is so rewarding, so wonderful, and so welcome after months of hard work. It's worth it.
Parents and friends pour on the praise, and it feels so good. And the group has worked together in cooperation to create a fine presentation. The cast respects the crew and the crew respects the cast. Everybody appreciates everybody else, and true friends have been made in the process of working together. And new skills have been learned, skills that have been demonstrated on the stage, skills that others see and say they see. It feels good.
When the play is done the war is over. And we have won. We have won the war against human nature, against laziness and procrastination. We have won the war against divisiveness and criticism. We have worked together and performed a play, with lights and sound and song and dance and music and voice.
It's the students that do the work at the theater. After the final rehearsal at the theater, I no longer go back stage except to give an occasional note to an actor. I sit with the audience during all four performances, enjoying the fruits of my labor. A student Stage Manager runs the show, and students operate the lights and sound and move the props and act the play. It's their show. They take the responsibility and they succeed or fail on their own. I have given it away. A couple of "drama-mama" mothers stay upstairs in the Green Room to help keep order in the dressing rooms and to mend costumes with the sewing machines, but the director is not backstage running the show.
I believe the responsibility they assume leads to the ownership they accept for the performance. Excellence is born out of that ownership, for they know that if each member of the team does not do his assigned task properly, then the show won't look right. No adults are there to save them. Nobody bails them out. The show must go on, and the students are the show. And they do wonderfully, and they put on shows that amaze audiences, and they are proud of their accomplishments. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's drama-rama time! Buckle your seatbelts." And we give the people a show.
Do you have photographs of your performances?
Yes, hundreds of them. During the final dress rehearsal just before opening night I take about 400 photos of the play from beginning to end. I walk around on stage shooting constantly, getting every actor and all the action. The actors ignore me, pretending that I'm not there. I get close-ups, and wide angle shots showing the set and groups of actors. I get the stage crew, and the girl that sings during the set changes. I shoot up at them and down at them. I get their expressions, I get in their face. I get them when angry, and happy, and crazy. I get their costumes. I capture the moment so we can savor it.
I order double prints, putting one set into photo albums, and I sell the other set to the actors to help defray the cost of film and processing. I have a couple of the best shots printed as 20" x 30" posters to put on the walls in the classroom. It's wonderful. Stage photography is a challenge, with the movement, and the lighting, but it's exciting to capture the decisive moment of action, to capture those delightful facial expressions, the wild gyrations, the laughter and the tears. I really enjoy taking the photos. I took 600 pictures during the rehearsal of Fiddler on the Roof. Of course, I needed 66 photos of the beautiful dancers. It's quite exhausting, really. But it's very rewarding.
Now I can look through my photo albums, remembering the good things while forgetting all the hard work, enjoying the beauty and the agony and the ecstasy of past plays, past days, past students who hopefully are going about the business of making the world a better place because of the discipline and cooperation and talent they developed as participants in the school drama program. I'll soon be back at the psychiatric ward, but they will carry on.
Do the students really learn worthwhile skills doing drama, or is it mostly fun and games?
They learn essential life skills if the program is run right. If there is a lack of discipline and excellence, then it's not so beneficial, same as with an athletic team or working for an employer that doesn't have a good program.
The kids improve their minds through memorization, and if the literature in the script is well written, as in the case of Shakespeare or Dickens or Ibsen or Wilde, then they learn good language skills. They learn to speak clearly, to enunciate, to make themselves understandable to others. Elocution. Projection. They must make themselves heard in every seat of the auditorium, so they learn to speak slowly, clearly, and loudly. They learn to work as a team, and that every member of the team is essential if the entire process is to work properly.
So all the actors are important, even the one with the smallest role, and so are the members of the stage crew, who move the set around as needed, who change the scenes, who arrange the props backstage so they can be found. An actor looks best when the make-up is done well, when the hair looks good, when the costumes fit the body and fit the time period. You can't see the actors if the lighting technician is asleep, and you can't hear if the mikes aren't operating for the singers. Somebody must build the set or there aren't any walls or doors. It looks lousy without paint. The audience reads the program, and without publicity there is no audience. Somebody sells tickets, someone creates the art, pays the bills, drives the truck, etc.
Artistic people and technical people and administrators and bookkeepers all work together in the process of creating a stage play, and if it's a musical then we draw upon musicians and conductors and composers and singers and dancers in addition to the rest. Preparing and performing a play for the stage is an awesome task drawing upon the talents of many people, and isn't that a lot like life, like the work place, like the family, like the church, like the synagogue?
Students learn to cooperate, to listen to viewpoints expressed by others, to admire the accomplishments of others, to encourage others, to assist others, to fulfil individual responsibilities in a community task displayed on stage where failure to get it right is immediately apparent to an audience. Stage presentations are not paper-and-pencil tests. Every member of the audience is a witness, an evaluator, a judge. There is no escape from the eyes of the audience.
Students learn to enjoy overcoming the obstacles and facing the audience with boldness and courage. "The show must go on," and sometimes the kids must go on stage just barely walking, sick-as-a-dog and tired-as-a-hog and sweaty-all-over with the Asian Flu and the African Cold and therefore filled with Aspirin and Ibuprofen and other magic potions of temporary medical relief. But the audience knows none of it and sits smiling through all the pain and suffering and strolls out at intermission for coffee and brownies.
The students learn to take correction and criticism, because some of us directors have ideas different from theirs, have a different style, a different preference, a different sense of decency and values. A director can get right down irritating when he's in your face telling an actor to do something differently when the actor is so delighted with the wonderful way he's just done it. There cannot be two directors. The students learn to laugh. They laugh at their mistakes when exhausted after rehearsing a scene five times in a row and still not getting it right. And they laugh at each other when something funny happens. They become less self-conscious and more aware of how they walk and talk and move. Yes, drama allows people to learn lots of things. Then there's the story line, often involving intelligent arguments, conflict, difference of opinion, and resolution of problems. Some dramatic plays are based on literary classics, teaching us about human suffering and love and generosity and sacrifice. Yes, drama sometimes speaks to the mind, the heart, the soul, and the spirit. It's a little bit like real life.

Catalogue Information