Here are a few photos of our preliminary costume check for "Parizade's Quest." Making the turbans necessary for all of the male characters has been a job. Making sure they fit the heads has been an added challenge! Now... if we can only get the other 30 characters costumed and ready in time for our show March 27th and 30th!
0 Comments
Over the last few months I have acted out the part of Alice in Wonderland. I know I "give myself very good advice," but like Alice in the song, "I seldom ever follow it." The primary rule for doing children's theater is to have your helpers lined up BEFORE you start the project! But did I follow that rule this go around? NO! So, you can imagine the problems that have compounded as I have tried to manage everything for the play almost single-handedly while also memorizing huge amounts of music for concerts for a major Choral Director's Convention with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir AND prepare for a daughter's wedding all at the same time. No wonder my body gave me signs of stress -- tension in the neck and back, headaches, canker sores and fever blisters, and no sleep! As the director, you try to keep a calm demeanor and try to ignore them, but the body just gives more outward signs! Fortunately, the concerts were completed well and are now out of the way, and the wedding happened to everyone's satisfaction and the happy couple are off on their honeymoon. Now I am left with just one major project to complete in the next week and a half. Too bad there is still so much to do and so little help to get it all done. Along the way, I have had one constant helper, and a few others who came in for strategic strikes, but in this kind of project, you really need at least four dedicated helpers --WITH SPECIFIC JOBS to do! And each needs to be present to help support the other helpers and take care of the "shepherding" chores OR ELSE YOU NEED MORE HELPERS! Director, Stage Manager, Music Director, and Choreographer are the main four helpers to get things started. But it would be well to get help with designing, making and fitting the kids in costumes - Costumer. And if you have pre-recorded music instead of piano accompaniment and a large hall, you need a SOUND SYSTEM and people to set up and take down the sound system and all of the microphones, run the sound board balancing the levels and cues, and have people put the body mics on the young actors. Now, how about LIGHTS and BACK STAGE CREW? Can sixth graders really do those jobs and not goof around without adult supervision? (So, let's count -- at least 3-6 more people to run sound, lights and stage crew.) What about PROPS? HAIR and MAKE-UP? The bigger the cast, the more adult supervision you need, especially if you have a stage with no wings and no real way to get your actors on or of of it except from the risers in front of the curtain, but the kids need to stay in the back of the stage out of sight of the audience and the DIRECTOR. YES! I DEFINITELY NEED MORE HELPERS!!!!!!! I HAVE KNOWN THAT ALL ALONG, BUT I TOOK THE CHANCE THAT HELPERS COULD BE PICKED UP ALONG THE WAY. SADLY, I DID NOT FOLLOW MY OWN ADVICE. NOW I AM PAYING FOR IT -- once again, if you undertake a children's theater project and expect to live through the experience, GET YOUR HELPERS LINED UP AND CONTRACTED BEFORE YOU GET STARTED! IT IS VERY GOOD ADVICE -- SO FOLLOW IT!!!!!!!! No matter how hard an author tries to imagine and plan out the script and songs for a new play, there are inevitable twists and turns as it goes into production. For example: I have always had good luck with getting many boys to come out for the shows at the elementary school level. But this time, the ratio is roughly 4:1 -- girls to boys. Unfortunately, that means that some girls will have to play "Royal Guards" in some of the sequences. Although this is not unusual for Children's Theater, it is a complication and a big let down for the girls who see themselves as lovely "princesses or ballerinas." Fortunately, these girls can be featured as females in other scenes. That should ease the weeping and wailing.
Another twist has been figuring and re-figuring how to do the magical effects. In the story, "Parizade's Quest" is to obtain the three wonderful things: a Fountain of Golden Water, a Singing Tree, and a Speaking Bird. So, just how do you create a fountain of golden bubbling water, a tree with moving branches of shimmering "musical" leaves, and a bird (played by a human) in a glittering cage? So, I think I have figured out how to create the Speaking Bird's cage out of very lightweight tubing from the plumbing department at the hardware store. It is the same kind of plastic tubing that hula hoops are made of. Once spray painted with gold sparkles, it ought to work. The Golden Fountain will just have to be a painted cardboard cut-out, I'm afraid. We cannot afford the space to bring on stage a heavy cement garden fountain and we certainly cannot have real water! Not with elementary kids! I am thinking that the bubbling might be accomplished through some kind of puppetry, though. And as for the Singing Tree... that might be created as a "flat" with bas relief trunk and hanging shimmering leaves with concealed mini wind chimes attached to strings. We might then have a puppeteer pull the strings from behind to work the action of making the branches of leaves shimmer and the chimes tinkle in the wind. Another twist -- a terrific, happy discovery -- has been a young sixth grade student artist who has volunteered to design and paint the back ground scenes. She has already come up with some beautiful designs and is anxious to get to work. Happy happenstances like this make my worries and time all worth the effort! Here's to expecting the Unexpected! Way to go, Ceilidh! Over the past few weeks I have been working on the script and songs for my newest Musical, "Parizade's Quest - A Tale from the Arabian Nights." The story, as it was told in the version I was working from, had a lot of backstory explained at the very beginning. This wallowing through information really slows down the plot. I had to find some way to include the necessary information, but keep the momentum going. I decided to cloak much of the backstory in mystery and only reveal a little at a time. The other problem was to create a satisfying culmination for the finale song. One of my daughters read my first draft and suggested that I use the symbol of the precious pearls as a unifying element. So I went back and tried to include "precious pearls" in the plot at important junctures so that when I used it at the end, the message of "Pearls So Rare" would tie the whole story together. Another problem of creating a piece of theater is to decide which characters need to meet the audience through their own theme music. I decided that the Weeping Queen definitely needed her own beautiful theme song "By Morning's Light" to help the audience become more sympathetic towards her. Nobody likes to be hit with sadness right at the beginning of a supposedly happy musical. Yet, for the plot development, the Queen's sadness plays a pivotal role. It worked out that her musical theme could also be used for the "Sultan's March" music by adding martial drumming. That was appropriate in order to establish that her loss was also the Sultan's loss. What age range is my target cast? That is an important question to keep in mind while writing the script and songs. Fortunately, I am writing for a school cast with about equal ratios of boys to girls. I also know these kids pretty well because I have directed three plays at this particular school already. I have not pre-cast the show, but I have kept the particular skills of these kids in mind as I have developed characters. Besides, I had made a promise to give them a show this spring featuring lead roles for as many girls as possible! So, by writing the show based on this story, I have provided good roles for Parizade the lost princess, Jamileh the Storyteller, Shazelle the Speaking (and tap-dancing) Bird, Kazhira the Weeping Queen, Beheshteh and Chaman Banoo the jealous sisters of the Queen, Mona and Nadia the Gypsy dancers, Rasma the Housekeeper, and assorted Maids and Servants and Dancers. I am hoping that some talented dancers audition for "Parizade's Quest" so that the dance numbers can be mounted close to how I have imagined them. My goal in writing for Children's Theater has been to tell stories that have meaningful messages. Titles include stories about Bravery, Integrity, Sincerity, Cooperation, Work, Honesty, Loyal Pets dealing with Fears and Change and Yearnings, and now the paramount importance of FAMILY. The "Pearls So Rare" as presented in "Parizade's Quest" have to do with precious and loving Family relationships. This Musical is turning out to be a wonderful adventure story filled with memorable characters and singable songs and most of all --- a reminder of the importance of FAMILY! One of the most interesting and consuming parts about writing a new play is creating and naming the new characters. I am currently working on a new play for the upper Elementary Graders, 4th-6th (ages 10-12). The story that has intrigued me is one from The Tales of the Arabian Nights. It is a story that I only recently became aware of. It appealed to me immediately for three important reasons. First, it is NOT a love story. (It is dangerous to have a love story or even anything close to a love story for this age range.) Second, it has plenty of the elements kids get excited about - magic, mystery and adventure. Third, it has the potential for providing meaningful characters for a large cast. Kids love portraying characters that have individual names and some sort of back stories. Who wouldn't? There is nothing very exciting about being Guard #6 or Servant #3 or Dancer #5. It is much more satisfying to portray a character with a name and a reason for being - at least for part of the time. I try very diligently to give each child a named character for their feature role and then have them fill additional Ensemble parts. This plan does not always work, but I continue to try, nonetheless. Why write for a just a generic Troupe of Gypsy entertainers, when you could create Barim who plays the guitar, Mona and Nadia who dance, Jamileh who tells fortunes, Ghalandar who does magic tricks, and Najid who has a trained dancing Bear named Bobak. I will give the children a little information concerning their characters and hope that feeds their interest to go on a fill out more of the BACKSTORY for themselves. Where this story (in the translation I found) follows just a few main characters, a Children's Theater piece needs to be expanded to tell the story through dialogue and action and songs and dances involving many characters. That gives me the opportunity to create and name many new and unique characters. I love stories that come from exotic historical settings. There is such a richness in the cultures and languages of these places. And there is no richer or more colorful setting than that of Ancient Persia. The more I do research into ancient customs and architecture and designs and musical styles, the more exciting it becomes. And, for me, it is just plain fun to go through the lists of Ancient Persian names and their meanings to decide what fits each new character. That's when those characters become real to me. They suddenly get a life force of their own and I get inspired by the energy of their emerging personalities. Naming characters in a new play can be very exciting. You never know exactly how the characters will develop and shape the story or just how they will drive the plot along. Four scenes and three songs into this project and the ride is becoming very interesting! Wish me luck! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Parizade's Quest - a Tale from the Arabian Nights" is now available. |
AuthorMy name is Betsy Bailey. I have sung, written and taught music all of my life. I enjoy writing and directing Children's Theater shows. This blog will be directed to topics on creating the magic of Children's Theater. I would love to hear your comments! Archives
March 2024
|