New Work and New Directions

It is Sunday evening and I am still trying to recover from the delights of this past week. The schedule was filled to the brim with happenings at school. Monday and Tuesday were all day workshops on focusing our desires and goals and the networking needed to achieve them. Our guest lecturer, John Webb, introduced us to some wonderful tools and new ways of thinking about how to make our way through the industry.

Monday and Tuesday evenings brought tech rehearsals for the Writers’ Night showcase of new works by students on Central’s script writing course. New writing has always been a passion of mine so when the opportunity came around to help with the showcase, I was excited to participate. My fellow producer classmate, Trish and I ran the tech elements of sound and lights for the show. Trish also took on the task of stage manager, and with her undergrad degree in the subject, she made a great one.

The Writers’ Night showcase opened Wednesday evening to a sold out crowd and continued on for another full house on Thursday. It was a thrill to see the evenings so well attended and received. Central has some mighty fine new writers and of course, many talented actors and directors.

Thursday, during the day, we had another session with the brilliant Sunita Pandya who took us through the nuts and bolts of the different types of company management matrices, budgets and other producing practicals.

Silvia Mercuriali spoke to us on Friday about her experiences creating directive theatre. Directive theatre is a new style to me and after hearing about it; I hope I get the chance to see a directive production. Directive theatre incorporates the use of a volunteer, usually pre-selected in advance of the show and most often, not a performer. They come on stage unrehearsed and are given a series of directions to follow during the course of the performance. The interest for those watching is to see how the volunteer interprets the directions. This can be done in conjunction with rehearsed actors, other volunteers or solo. I will keep a look out for shows in this genre and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, if you find a directive production, go see it and let me know what you think!

Take care!

-m