Because Directors Have Absolute Control Film Is Not Considered a Collaborative Art Form
one.ane: Theatre- A Collaborative Art
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Among the arts, theatre is unique in that at its very core information technology is collaborative. Unlike authoring a volume or painting a great masterpiece, a piece of theatre has not come from the mind of a unmarried creator, just from a big grouping of people working toward a common goal. The theatre collaboration is similar to the function of a sports team, or even a armed forces unit, in that many people are doing a variety of things that all contribute to the group success. This group of artists collaborates to conceive and construct a performance that endeavors to entertain its audiences. Each of the artists involved in this process contributes uniquely to the final product. Some of these contributions are obvious, some are more than subconscious only no less important to the creative whole.
There is an art, or at least a skill, to successful collaboration. Many of you take participated in group activities and team sports and can identify with both the power of group (squad) work and the common struggles within groups to adopt a single vision. These factors exemplify both the challenge and the strength of theatre collaborations.
When working within a group, nosotros must navigate differences of opinion, entertain varying perspectives, and rise to the claiming of maintaining clear communication. Learning to heed is an important skill in this scenario. Beingness clear in idea, exact in language, and deliberate in choice of illustrative examples can be central to success.
Theatre artists must acquire the difference between giving up on our ideas when a strong phonation is advocating for something different and defending our views to the indicate that nosotros become an obstruction to consensus. I accept found when artists listen closely and truly attempt to understand one some other they are often able to notice solutions that incorporate and even heighten seemingly disparate ideas.
In theatre nosotros must channel our ideas in support of the management in which the entire product is moving. Falling silent when y'all take a solution or shutting down when your ideas cannot exist incorporated does a disservice to the entire production. A skilled collaborator will find an appropriate opportunity and utilize a productive tone to offer their opinions.
For many of us, our sense of how a theatrical production is put together stems from our experiences with theatre in our schools. For instance, many students have participated in a drama program at their high school. These experiences may lead us to the determination that all productions are created under a system wherein the show'south director makes nearly every decision and everyone else involved is trying their best to carry out the director's plan. Information technology is easy to understand why nosotros might take that impression when many of our schools have theatre programs in which the director is the merely permanent staff and designers and other specialists are merely brought in when required or when their talents tin can be afforded.
Many modest community theatres and fifty-fifty college theatres, may, due to their limited staffing for productions, leave us with a similar impression that pinnacle-down management is the but style used in theatres. However, the way most professional person theatre companies produce their shows constitutes more of a shared-responsibility model. In these companies, an entire squad works together toward a cohesive solution that incorporates everyone's expertise.
This is non to say the director's influence on the production is diminished or that they do non conduct an overarching responsibility for all elements of the production, but more that they are ordinarily surrounded by other artists working on the production who bring their own feel and imagination to ensure information technology tin be realized to its fullest extent. A director'south task includes unifying the artistic vision of the entire company. When looking at the reporting structure for most theatre organizations you lot see designers and other product staff do maintain a reporting human relationship to the managing director.
An inclusive spirit is at the center of a productive and successful collaboration. When carried through all levels of production and operation—from the producers and director to the stage director and technicians—these individuals work together, bringing their best so the end production will exist a piece of fine art worthy of their collective investment.
Those who have participated in theatrical productions understand this environment fosters a special camaraderie among the bandage and crew of a testify and the experience of beingness part of a production frequently feels like having joined a new "family unit."
Smaller theatre companies and educational theatre programs have a comparatively small-scale staff doing multiple jobs. Much similar the loftier school manager mentioned earlier, in these situations a few individuals may wear multiple "hats" required to fulfil the roles in the production.
In a typical professional person theatre organization, each individual would concur only 1 job listed on the company'south organizational chart. Information technology is important to think of these models as upward trending lines of creative responsibleness rather than a downward trending workflow nautical chart.
As y'all tin can imagine, in many smaller organizations the duties of all 30 job categories listed hither must exist fulfilled by just a few people. A scaled downward organization such as a community theatre or educational theatre programme might take an organizational chart that is simpler.
Although all of the duties are yet covered here, y'all can see a relatively small number of people make upwardly the system'southward creative staff. Observe the show's director is not at the top of the chart, just rather maintains a reporting relationship to those above. In educational theatre, the show's director may report to the section chair, manager of theatre, or fifty-fifty a school principal. In a community theatre, the director may report to and artistically satisfy an artistic director or a board of directors.
Job titles and duties are covered in Module 2, but it may be useful now to illustrate a typical scenario of how this theatrical collaboration functions:
A theatre company, school plan, or customs theatre has decided to produce a play or a flavor of plays. Each company will have its own reasons for producing the play(south) it choses, besides as for its desire to produce play(s) at all.
There's More to Know
How are plays selected for production? A school programme might choose plays based on educational opportunities, topical stories, or strong roles that provide growth opportunities for interim students. A community theatre may produce plays that provide lots of opportunities for involvement and tend towards big cast shows. A professional theatre may consider a group of plays that fits together as a season, peaks public interest, and has good potential to sell tickets. Original theatre productions are often mounted based on the reputation of the playwright. Regardless of the criteria for choices, the people responsible for programming read many plays in guild to cull appropriate material for production.
Often plays are chosen with a specific director in listen. The director may have a particular style or resume of experience that makes them a expert match for both the script and audience. They may have a bang-up rail record of working with a item theatre group. Whatever the criteria for pick of the managing director may be, once selected, they are often asked to assistance form the rest of the creative team for the product. This squad includes the producer, director, designers, choreographers, and musical directors. Some companies utilize resident designers who, equally employees of the visitor, are assigned to a particular production based on their talents and experience. In other productions the manager may be asked if they prefer to work with a particular designer or other artistic team member and, possibly, if they have preference for a particular stage manager. One time assembled, this team develops an artistic arroyo to the product known as a production concept. This concept expresses the unifying vision that each individual strives to support in creating the production elements.
The production concept is arrived at through careful consideration of the script, the reason to produce a specific story for a specific audition, the production resources, and the inspiration and insights of the particular creative team.
Consider This
If you are asked to play a part in a production either on phase or backside the scenes, consider the commitment you are making. It will consume more than only your time. Y'all are like-minded to be part of the collaboration and will have to do your very best at your task to uphold the commitment to the entire production.
One time the artistic team has agreed on a production concept, each designer develops their portion of the staging blueprint through a series of meetings and discussions. Coming together both as a group and individually, but e'er in conversation with the director (who is tasked with carrying the concept forwards through rehearsals), the creative team so begins to interact with an entire production team. Designs are delivered according to scheduled deadlines, and a procedure of budgeting funds and other resources commences. Actors are auditioned, and cast and rehearsals begin: Sets and costumes are constructed; music, projections, and lighting are created; and the entire production team is engaged in the movement toward opening nighttime.
At this signal, the artistic team is decorated supervising and revising their creative work to ensure a cohesive production. Usually, the designers on this team are working an opposite schedule from those directly involved in rehearsals. Designers work closely with the technical manager, costume store manager, or master electrician as their designs are being realized, attending acting rehearsals simply occasionally.
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Three types of technical rehearsals are mutual to most theatres. A dry tech might be the first of these rehearsals. At a dry tech no performers are present, and time is allowed for crews to become familiar with the prove elements and rehearse cues and shifts. The second rehearsal is ofttimes a wet tech. Information technology includes performers and allows everyone to larn the traffic patterns imperative to the timing of cues and shifts. A managing director may likewise call for a cue-to-cue technical rehearsal, where both crew and cast work together on shifts and cues but dialogue in betwixt these actions is not performed in order to allow for more than technical rehearsal in a shorter amount of fourth dimension. All show elements must be adequately rehearsed and finessed. During these rehearsals, think to be present, attentive, placidity, and prepared to both jump forward and go back to repeat actions in lodge to perfect cue timing.
Still, skillful theatre professionals realize the nearly of import element of collaboration is how the artistic work relates to what happens in the rehearsal room. This collaboration is where the product comes alive—where the rubber meets the road, where concept meets reality, and inspiration is tempered by practicality. It is where new ideas built-in from the rehearsal process tin inspire opportunities.
The collaborative process continues, now including performers, choreographers, musicians, stage management, and the director—all bringing their own artistic energy to the production—throughout the rehearsal process, into the technical rehearsals, and all the fashion to opening dark. During this time, the phase manager maintains daily communication to the entire product team, reporting what happens in the rehearsal room. The managing director continues to run across with the creative team both as a group for product meetings and individually with designers and production personnel in society to keep all efforts moving in back up of the developing production.
Once structure of the elements is completed, whether built off-site and loaded in or built onstage, the next stride in the rehearsal process can begin: technical rehearsals. Technical rehearsals occur when all of the various elements of the final product are brought together and tin be integrated into a single piece of art ready for an audience. It is during these rehearsals that the elements of sets, lights, projections, costumes, props, music, sound effects, and atmospheric effects are added. This is as well when a whole new grouping of collaborators join the production: the stage coiffure.
During technical rehearsals the creative team is busy refining the production elements into a whole. They work with the director to shape an experience for the audience. Meanwhile, the stage crew works under the management of the phase managing director, rehearsing scene shifts and cues and so that timing of these is both precise and repeatable. These rehearsals tin be difficult and taxing as then many elements and people demand to be coordinated. Many theatres deport the bulk of the technical rehearsals over a weekend or 2-24-hour interval period. Oft these days are run equally ten-outof- twelve days, meaning that ten hours of the required twelve-hr day are worked in rehearsal. I accept heard people describe the technical rehearsal process as like to "watching pigment dry." It is truthful these rehearsals tin can seem long and boring if the sequence or cue being worked on doesn't involve you. If the cue does involve you, y'all may exist asked to repeat the same movement or cue multiple times every bit the coordination is adult. All the efforts of these rehearsals are rewarded when the technical elements and the actions of the actors are seamlessly married into an constructive presentation.
After the initial technical rehearsals, clothes rehearsals incorporating wardrobe and costume changes begin, followed by preview performances, and, finally, opening night followed by the performance run. Upwards to opening dark, the director and the artistic team continue to work toward the best production possible inside the given circumstances and time available. About creative team members move on to their next product once a play opens and their services have been rendered. Fifty-fifty the director'south work is now complete, and the stage manager takes on the responsibility of delivering a consistent bear witness that preserves the director'southward vision throughout the production's run.
For many productions, this entire process takes nigh 8-12 weeks, though it may be longer for a new or circuitous production. Generally the rehearsal process takes about 4-6 weeks of that time, and performance runs take approximately 1-iii weeks. The rest of the time is typically spent in preproduction.
For Further Exploration
Schumacher, Thomas. 2008. How Does the Show Go On: An Introduction to the Theater. New York, N.Y: Disney Editions. Backside the Emerald Mantle:http://www.emeraldcurtain.com/
Source: https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Theater_and_Film/Book%3A_An_Introduction_to_Technical_Theatre_(Sanders)/01%3A_Chapters/1.01%3A_Theatre-_A_Collaborative_Art
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