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• Light on the Subject Makes a Case for
Glamorous Paperwork
• Making Choices on Sound for Jerry Springer
at Carnegie Hall
• How To Study Up for the First Interview
www.stage-directions.com
APRIL 2008
Companies Choosing
to Champion
the Playwright
new
avenues
for new plays
SD examines the stages a play hits before
it hits the stage
Dramaturges Devoted to
Developing New Work
Directors Talk About How
Their Venues Choose Plays

Table Of Contents
April 2008
Features
18 A Cradle of Creation
The University of Iowa has one of the oldest theatre programs
in the country, but it’s dedicated to creating new work.
By Amy Schoon
22 Ganging Up on Art
The Actors’ Gang Theatre in L.A. brings the audience in on
their performances through fierce honesty and a commitment
to storytelling. By Wayne Rawley
24 Interview Tips for Interning
It may be your first interview out of school, all the more
reason to study up for it. By Evan Henerson
Special Section: Literary Rights,
Licensing and Management
26 Licensing at Different Levels
Artistic Directors talk about the different demands to choosing
and licensing plays at different levels of theatre.
By Kevin M. Mitchell
30 Circumventing Development Hell
Believe it or not, there are ways to avoid having your play
stuck behind the music stand. By Jonathan Shipley
33 A Day in the Life
We spend a day with three different dramaturges, to uncover
their process and influence on the creation of new works.
By Lisa Mulcahy
33
COURTESY OF CFPTS

Departments
9 Letters
The stage manager is now in complete command.
10 In the Greenroom
Statewide smoking bans take its aim at theatre,
subsidiary rights cause a clash at Roundabout, and
Lillenas Publishing celebrates 25 years of Christian
drama.
13 Tools of the Trade
The new gear for your shop.
14 Light on the Subject
Paperwork may not be glamorous, but it still needs
to be as put together as your leading lady. By Steven
L. Shelley
16 Sound Design
Opera in Carnegie Hall is not unusual. An opera about
Jerry Springer’s descent into hell? That’s unusual.
By Bryan Reesman
44 Answer Box
The drinks are oversize, colorful and defy gravity. How
one prop shop did the impossible. By L. Jean Burch
18
Columns
7 Ed Note
Is anything unstageable anymore?
By Jacob Coakley
26
38 Show Biz
The Dramatists Guild has a few pointers for theatres
working with writers to create new plays. By Tim
Cusack
39 TD Talk
Safety isn’t something that should be taken lightly
— so why do we, all too often, let it be? By Dave
McGinnis
40 Off the Shelf
Theatre classics get the on-screen treatment in this
review of new theatre collections available on DVD.
By Stephen Peithman
41 The Play’s the Thing
Got a little time? Got a lot? We’ve got the play for you.
By Stephen Peithman
ON OUR COVER: Lisa Rosenhagen in Eric Coble’s play For Better presented by
the Curious Theatre Company
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Michael Ensminger

Editor’s Note
What Is
Unstageable?
Dan Hernandez
No one demands that playwrights
confine themselves to Aristotle’s
Unities anymore. They can be taken
on as an organizing principle, a challenge
of form, but they are not the only organizing
principle. And with advances in staging
technology, playwrights have access
to write whatever epic scenic moments
they want, comfortable in the knowledge
that they can be staged literally — as long as you have the
cash to do so. Helicopters, barricades and sheer ice cliffs don’t
come cheap.
Yet lack of money hasn’t stopped creative troupes from
getting their hands dirty with broad cinematic tales, they just
rely on different theatrical techniques — puppetry, integrated
video or creative staging. And there are practically whole MFA
playwriting programs given over to the idea of metaphorical
writing, where characters’ inner thoughts aren’t explained in
soliloquies, or even dialogue with a foil, but in interactions with
fantastic characters from the protagonist’s deep subconscious
brought to life — fully realized fugue states.
And in different terms of unstageable, don’t forget Ionesco
or Albee. Albee’s works contain parenthetical line readings for
the actors to interpret as best they can, and Ionesco was absolutely
dedicated to absurdist stage directions, full of remarks
that characters do something — unless they don’t.
Of course, there are movements that are acting as a counterweight
to the trends of staging fantasy, playwrights who
do adhere to the unities and companies that don’t even pretend
to pretend — they write pieces from their POV, not a
character’s, and perform as themselves, in the space they are
in, acknowledging the complicity of the audience. And then
there’s documentary theatre, performances culled from interviews
and observation of communities.
So is there anything you just can’t put on the stage? Besides
smoking? (Joking, joking. Maybe.) Has playwriting become just
like writing for film and television? If so, then what is the difference
between theatre and film? What can theatre offer that
film or TV can’t? And it can’t only be about the immediacy of
the people around you and the uniqueness of the experience. I
can get that from a concert, Disneyland or even a bus ride.
For now, I think the uniqueness in theatre is about a
recognition — acknowledged or not — of mutual makebelieve.
Theatre cannot — ever — be an invisible medium.
Film can make claims to documentary truth, a “you are there”
verisimilitude that theatre, by its nature, is incapable of supporting.
Truth can never be disintermediated in theatre, yet it
seems to exist there all the same. Theatre, to me, seems to be
the perfect place to practice Virginia Woolf’s dictum: “Tell all
the Truth but tell it slant.”
Jacob Coakley
Editor
Stage Directions
jcoakley@stage-directions.com

Publisher Terry Lowe
tlowe@stage-directions.com
Editor Jacob Coakley
jcoakley@stage-directions.com
Audio Editor Jason Pritchard
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Lighting & Staging Editor Richard Cadena
rcadena@plsn.com
New York Editor Bryan Reesman
bryan@stage-directions.com
Managing Editor Breanne George
bg@stage-directions.com
Contributing Writers L. Jean Burch, Tim Cusack,
Evan Henerson, Dave McGinnis,
Kevin M. Mitchell, Lisa Mulcahy,
Wayne Rawley, Bryan Reesman,
Amy Schoon, Jonathan Shipley
Consulting Editor Stephen Peithman
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Community Theatre
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Lighting Designer
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Letters
Clues
on Cues
Got theatre questions? Looking for some
info from people with more experience?
Roll on over to the Stage Directions forums:
http://stage-directions.com/forum to tap into
readers with help on technical solutions, stagecraft
and best practices in the theatre. One recent
discussion found a poster asking a question
about workflow backstage.
Just wondering if anyone knows who is meant to
call followspot cues in a theatre production?
Terry Sullivan from Hayward, Calif., chimed in
with this reply:
It’s the stage manager’s responsibility. A really
good SM will have written in his/her prompt
book (and be able to verbalize in time) the location
of the actor pickup (SL, SR, USC, etc.), the
color in the boomerang, the style of the shot
(head to waist, full body, etc.) and when to go
out. Nowadays, it’s also possible to program
into the light cue the actual fade up/fade out
rates, so it’s getting more foolproof. Depending
on how complex the show is, that may be more
information than the SM will have the chance to
say because they need to be cueing sound, lights,
flies and set changes, among other things.
Over the run of a show, a spot operator will
begin to learn by heart what his or her cues
are. But the general rule of theatre is: Don’t do
anything until you are given a “Go” command
by your stage manager. It may take some time
to get the cueing tight so that everything flows
in order as one big effect, but that’s what dress
rehearsals are for. From the point of running the
first technical rehearsal through the end of the
run of the show, the stage manager is in charge
of the production.
Hope this helps.
Terry Sullivan
Technical Director/ Master Electrician
Douglas Morrisson Theatre
Hayward, CA

In the Greenroom
theatre buzz
Arkansas Tech Cancels, Reinstates Student Production of Assassins
By Breanne George
In the wake of school shootings at Northern Illinois University, Arkansas Tech University administration canceled a
student production of Assassins, but later reinstated the production after outcry from students, faculty and even the show’s
creators, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman.
Arkansas Tech University President Robert C. Brown had originally canceled the production, fearing that passerbys would
mistake the blank bullets fired by actors and corresponding sound effects for real gunfire. Students and faculty members
involved in the project were infuriated by the decision, believing administration unfairly targeted theatre.
Reports of gunshots and a shooting injury did take place at recent student parties, but the students were reportedly football
players, not actors. What’s more, administration also permitted a screening of the violent film American Gangster on campus.
Brown’s decision caused a bevy of debate about whether he had overreacted, and in the process, thwarted artistic
expression. A student to play a leading role in the production sent an e-mail to Sondheim, who responded quickly with
support, stressing that Assasssins is not meant to condone violence and urging that the show go on. He also implied that he
would contact Music Theatre International’s legal representatives (the company that holds the musical’s rights).
The play was rescheduled with extra security measures, including seating by reservation, additional security personnel
and bag checks. Actors were permitted to use prop guns and sound effects as intended.
Subsidiary Rights Cause Clash at Roundabout
The Roundabout Theatre Company’s upcoming season won’t include the off-Broadway production of A Prayer for My Enemy
after a clash regarding subsidiary rights.
Playwright Craig Lucas removed his play from the roster when the theatre company sought 40 percent subsidiary rights in
exchange for a production at the Laura Pels off-Broadway space.
A theatre’s subsidiary rights percentage reflects the amount a producer asks for from future licensings of the play; it’s their
recompense for the value they add to the play by taking a risk and mounting the original production. Subsidiary rights are generally
higher for a commercial (e.g., Broadway) run of a show. Roundabout’s 40 percent share is the highest for a non-profit in New
York, on par with the percentage demanded by commercial producers, according to Variety. Percentages vary among New York
nonprofit theatres, though Lincoln Center Theatre makes no subsidiary requests, reportedly due to its large endowment.
Theatre Fights Smoking Ban
By Breanne George
It is in the hands of the Colorado Court of Appeals if
smoking during a theatre performance is an exception to
the state’s blanket indoor smoking ban enacted in 2006.
The Denver Post reports that the Curious Theatre of
Denver, Colo., took the issue to court after seeking permission
to use smoking during an upcoming performance of the play
TempOdyssey, which focuses around a chain smoker.
The theatre lost its battle in the Denver District Court in
Oct. 2006, and recently stated its case to the appeals court on
Feb. 5. The court’s decision is expected in the coming weeks.
While Colorado theatres are fighting for a right to smoke
during performance, Minnesota’s bars have found a loophole
in their statewide smoking ban through the theatrical
performance exception.
Many bars are staging “theatre nights,” in which they
print out fake playbills and encourage guests to dress in
costume. One bar even put up black stage curtains and
signs that read “Stage Entrance” and “Props Dept.” And, of
course, cigarettes and ashtrays are props.
“Theatre night” at other bars, however, gives little
resemblance of a theatrical production. The State Health
Department is cracking down on the shams, but about 30 bars
in Minneapolis have taken advantage of the faux productions.
Lillenas Publishing
Celebrates 25 years
of Christian Drama
Lillenas Publishing, one of the pioneers of Christian
Drama, celebrates 25 years of providing drama during
worship services. Paul Miller, who led the drama efforts
at Lillenas, based in Kansas City, Mo., for many years says,
“In the mid ‘80s, the leadership at Lillenas saw a need to
put some resources behind a drama effort, and that was
a big part of the initial ‘Christian drama movement.’”
Miller points out that a big part of Lillenas Drama’s
success was the talented writers who were tapped early
on to develop material. Martha Bolton was a member
of Bob Hope’s writing team when he asked her to do
work for Lillenas. “Today’s church leaders realize the
power of using drama to bring home the messages they
are preaching,” she says. “Over the years, incorporating
drama into worship has helped to open people’s hearts
and minds.”
Lillenas will hold its “Drama Arts Conference” April
24–26 at the Indian Creek Church in Olathe, Kan. For
information, go to www.lillenasconference.com.
10 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

industry news
Arcola Theatre Now Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered
London’s Arcola Theatre, one of the UK’s
leading independent venues, has installed
a hydrogen fuel cell to power selected
main house shows. The fuel cell operates
almost silently, producing nothing but
electricity and clean water. The 5 kW fuel
cell system is showcased in the foyer of the
theatre accompanied by displays describing
the benefits and challenges posed by
this groundbreaking technology.
The first show to be powered by the
fuel cell, Simple8’s The Living Unknown Soldier, produced by
Strawberry Vale, may well be London’s ecologically sustainable
show — the environmental impact of all aspects of the production
have been minimized, including set construction, marketing,
company travel and show lighting. The production’s environmental
footprint will be evaluated by leading sustainability advisers’
Global Action Plan and the lessons learned published for the
benefit of other practitioners.
A scene from The Living Unknown Soldier
Lighting for the show has a peak power
consumption of 4.5 kW, up to 60 percent
less than comparable lighting installations.
This is made possible though extensive
use of LED lighting, provided by leading
lighting supplier White Light, and careful
use of high efficiency tungsten lamps provided
by ETC, maker of the energy-saving
Source Four luminaire.
This project is part of Arcola Theatre’s
sustainability-related activities — under
the banner of Arcola Energy — spearheaded by Dr. Ben Todd,
the theatre’s executive director, who also works as a consultant in
the fuel cell industry. He said: “The arts have a crucial role to play
in elucidating and motivating the changes in lifestyle necessary
to deliver an equitable future for all human kind. Through Arcola
Energy, Arcola Theatre is demonstrating that bold changes can be
made and that making them offers exciting opportunities for new
creative partnerships.”
ETC Announces LDI 2008 Student Sponsorships
For the ninth year, Electronic Theatre Controls Inc. (ETC) will award six college students all-expense-paid trips to the 2008 LDI tradeshow
in Las Vegas, Oct. 17-19, 2008.
Undergraduate seniors and graduate students in lighting design, theatre technology or closely related fields are encouraged to
apply. The sponsorship includes roundtrip airfare to the tradeshow, hotel accommodations, all meals, a full conference pass, an exclusive
student reception and ETC swag. Recipients will check out the latest in entertainment technology, rub elbows with veteran luminaries
of the industry, meet peers and go behind-the-LDI-scenes with ETC. The sponsorship application deadline is April 30. Students can
download an application from ETC’s Web site at www.etcconnect.com.
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 11

Electrosonic Systems Inc. was contracted by The
Metropolitan Opera to install compact AV systems in
five New York City schools, one in each borough, to
enable them to participate in the “Metropolitan Opera:
Live in High Definition” series of performances.
The educational institutions involved in the project
are Susan E. Wagner High School in Staten Island; The
High School for Enterprise, Business & Technology’s
Grand Street Educational Campus in Brooklyn; Long
Island City High School in Queens; Washington Irving
Electrosonic Helps Schools See Opera
High School in Manhattan; and The Lovinger Theater
at Lehman College/City University of New York in the
Bronx.
“What makes this project so wonderful is that it
brings opera to kids and communities who wouldn’t
normally have exposure to it,” says Molly McBride of
Sathya Production Services, who coordinated the event.
“All of the schools became so excited about it that they
changed their curriculums in all of their departments so
they could contextualize the music for the kids.”
changing roles
Intiman Theatre Artistic Director
Extends Contract
Intiman Theatre Artistic Director Bartlett Sher has
extended his contract through the end of the 2009
production season. Sher is currently in New York
directing the first Broadway revival of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s South Pacific, which opens on April
3 at Lincoln Center Theater. He will direct the world
premiere of Namaste Man, a play written and performed
by Andrew Weems, at Intiman this spring.
“Bart is an extraordinary artist,” said Intiman Board
President Susan J. Leavitt. “His productions here and
in New York confirm that he is one of the most vibrant,
inventive and rigorous talents working anywhere
in the country. The
entire Intiman board
is thrilled to extend
his contract, and to
be working so closely
with him to set a
course for the future
that encompasses both
the best opportunities
for him and Intiman’s
continued growth and
stability.”
Bartlett Sher
12 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Tools of the Trade
Clear-Com’s V-Series Desktop
Clear-Com Communication
Systems V-Series Desktop
unit is a compact desktop
control unit that comes with
a low-profile loudspeaker
and gooseneck microphone.
Each of its 12 talk-down/
listen-up keys, including one
for Answer-reply, has individual
audio level control. A
graphical display shows 10
international characters. The
shift button gives access to eight switch pages, and
the menu button provides access to assignment and
setup menus. Digital signaling processing gives the
operator increased control over their panel’s audio,
including routing, EQ, mic limiting, headset sidetone,
as well as intelligent dimming and local IFBs. Panel
keys offer individual mix level control, allowing users
to set personal audio levels to suit individual workflows.
www.clearcom.com
Coemar’s CycLite LED
C o e m a r ’ s
C y c L i t e L E D i s a
digital cyclorama
for theatres. It is
a new optical system
( a n e x c l u s i v e
C o e m a r p a t e n t )
that features powerful LEDs and a color-mixing system
(RGB+white source). Three unbound rotating bars
(motorized in the two-cell version) allow symmetric
and/or asymmetric light output, with linear adjustment
of incidence angle via DMX. It is equipped with
96 (48 in the compact, single-cell version CycLite LED
SC) high-output two-watt LEDs. The white+RGB LED
interaction provides bright colors and is designed to
deliver the same full white you could previously only
get from a conventional light source. CycLite Led is
an energy-saving and multifunctional device: dimmer,
color changer, light source projector, strobe effect and
optics with precision adjustment. Long-life LEDs come
with mechanical frame and solid, modular clamping.
CycLite LED is also available in an outdoor IP65 weatherproof
version. www.coemar.com
Dynacord’s Variline VL62
Dynacord’s Variline VL62 speaker
is designed for permanent install
and mobile applications. The VL
62 full-range cabinet (150W RMS
& 122 dB max SPL) features a neodymium
6.5-inch woofer and a oneinch
compression driver mounted
to a CAD-optimized 90x40 rotateable
horn for high SPL applications
where minimal footprint is a
concern. VL 62’s 16-Ohm operation
allows up to eight cabinets to be connected in parallel
to any Dynacord amplifier. Coupled with Dynacord
Power-H remote control DSP amplifiers, FIR presets are
designed to optimize performance, resulting in linearphase
and equal magnitude response over the operating
bandwidth of 90 Hz-20 kHz. www.dynacord.com
Le Maitre’s G3000
Le Maitre Special Effects, Inc.’s new G3000 Fog
Effects Generator is powered
by a 2,000-watt Dual
Core Heating Block for continuous
output. Features
include low-fluid detection,
LSG compatibility, DMX,
RDM ready and a detachable
digital remote. Built with a
stainless-steel body and a
one-gallon jug holder, it is designed for a multitude of
environments. www.lemaitrefx.com
Lightronics’ Ellipsoidals
L i g h t r o n i c s i s n o w
hipping ellipsoidals, which
are available in 10°, 19°, 26°,
36° and 50° beam spreads.
They are equipped with
a high-quality optical system
with variable focus.
The ellipsoidals’ housing
is made from die-cast
aluminum and the handles are insulated. Gel frames and
gobo holders are also included. All ellipsoidals are
available in a black or white finish and are covered by
a two-year warranty. www.lightronics.com
Martin Audio’s Omniline
Martin Audio’s Omniline
micro-line array system is
designed to use anywhere
between four and 32 modules
to create an array for
any environment. Visually,
the array is slim and unobtrusive,
with soft lines that
minimize its visual presence.
The actual array configuration
for a specific
venue is determined by
patent-pending optimization
software, which makes
judgements about the viability
of the arrays’ SPL distribution
when measured
against objective target functions. The horizontal coverage
angle of the array is 100° at the -6 dB points. The
constant-directivity characteristics are not confined to
the HF section, but are maintained down through the
mid-band by the close physical spacing of the low/mid
drivers. www.martin-audio.com
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 13

Light on the Subject
By Steven L. Shelley
A Brief Practical Guide to
Lighting Paperwork, Part 1
Paperwork is an integral part of
theatre. Aside from speech, it’s
the primary device to communicate
or recall overall and specific elements
of any production. For a simple
show, paperwork may be limited to a
few sheets of paper detailing the “recipes”
used to create the lighting, hang
the soft goods or tally the costume
pieces. Archiving a complex production,
on the other hand, can quickly produce
enough paper to fill numerous threering
binders.
Theatre lighting is usually not a
static design form. Many things can
visually change what’s seen in a show,
So keeping track of, modifying or
recording information about a lighting
design requires many documents for
the different visual components of the
design: focus charts, light cues, followspots,
preset sheets, sidelight colors in
dance, deck sheets and so on.
While the equipment and systems involved in a show impact
the amount and types of lighting paperwork needed for that production,
there’s also basic differences between the paperwork
used to create a show from scratch and replicating a production
on tour. Touring paperwork isn’t discussed that often, and it
offers many lessons that can be applied to a variety of lighting
situations. This series of articles will examine some examples of
touring paperwork. Before doing so, though, it’s worth reviewing
paperwork categories, classes, axioms and goals.
Paperwork Categories and Classes
Lighting paperwork usually falls into three categories. The
first category is graphic diagrams, which includes the light
plot, the section or the magic sheet. The second category is
information presented as sorted lists. This ranges from the
instrument schedule and the channel hookup, to the shop
order, the color-cutting list or the lineset schedule. The third
category consists of forms that, when filled out, provide a
record of actions taken. These include light cue sheets, followspot
cue sheets or board operator sheets.
Lighting paperwork can also be sorted into three classes:
public, private and infrastructure. Public documents are
constructed in such a fashion that, not only do they contain
information, but any explanation required to understand the
information is included in the same document. A light plot
is a public document; it’s designed to be distributed, viewed
and understood by others without someone being present
to explain it. Keys, legends and notes provide hints for comprehension.
Private documents, on the other hand, often use
personal shorthand and shortcuts, and without explanation
Figure 1
may be confusing. These documents usually provide details
that don’t need to be shared, so they’re rarely distributed to
anyone other than associates. These documents have few
keys, legends or notes; their purpose is to jiggle personal
memory banks. Infrastructure documents include lists and
inventories that are rarely referred to, but when they’re
needed, invaluable to have on hand.
Paperwork Axioms
Brilliantly designed paperwork is useless if the people who
use it can’t understand it. While the lighting designer may
initially construct the layout, he or she may rarely refer to that
document again. If the document is used or referred to by others,
they should be consulted as to the layout and content. And
the document should be tailored to their preferences.
Out-of-date, or non-matching paperwork, is not a tool,
it’s a hindrance. Granted, the task of updating paperwork
quickly becomes a time-consuming PITA chore (it becomes
an assigned task for assistants on big shows). But it’s an
absolute necessity and a part of the technical process. If the
paperwork isn’t maintained, and if everyone doesn’t have the
same matching information, expect to waste time and effort
on the resulting miscommunications and errant decisions
based on inaccurate information.
In the “heat of battle,” making sure that all the paperwork
is updated and matches doesn’t always translate into freshly
printed out documents. If you run around to all four published
copies of the channel hookup, scratch out “37” and
write “38” next to it in red ink, then so be it. It’s updated and
all copies of the channel hookup match.
14 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Paperwork Consolidation
While the primary goal of lighting paperwork (or any
paperwork for that matter) is to legibly store or retrieve information,
a secondary quest is to present that information in
the most compact format to the broadest audience requiring
the fewest documents.
Deciding which documents are necessary for any production
is a judgment made on a show-by-show basis. Although
it’s important to present the proper information in the simplest
format, the question “who needs to see this?” may help
reduce the overall number of documents required.
One less document constructed is one less document that
will require alteration when the updating process occurs.
Every time a document is updated, the possibility of human
error can occur. Therefore, the fewer documents to update,
the better. Or from another viewpoint, the fewer times the
same information is repeated on different documents, the
fewer documents that then need to be updated. The fewer
the documents, the faster the updating process and the
lighter the paperwork load.
Document Distribution Chart
As a lighting design evolves, the identity, purpose and number
of documents required to communicate and expedite that
design can be monitored by creating and updating a document
distribution chart. Whether a one-off, sit-down or a tour, this
basic document usually changes (and often expands) during the
life of a production. The examples of paperwork shown here are
all from the 2004 Patti LuPone “Matters of the Heart” tour.
The document should be laid out in a spreadsheet format,
with the rows divided into the three main class “packets”:
public, private and infrastructure. The columns show members
of the staff (lighting supervisor, lighting designer, production
manager, stage manager), along with each city.
Public Lighting Paperwork Packet
The Public Packet was e-mailed to each stop long before the
company’s arrival. It contained the PDF files illustrating elements
detailed in the company’s Tech Rider, and provided the information
necessary to pre-hang the masking and light plot prior to
the company’s arrival (Well, you can always hope). While most of
the Public Packet was generic, the lineset schedule was specific
for each theatre. So in place of a number, the date was used to
indicate when that city’s lineset schedule is finalized.
The Public Packet included the following:
• A cover letter reviewing the contents of the packet, the
company’s schedule and contact information, and a “we
can adapt since we didn’t advance” note.
• A reduced-scale PDF groundplan, showing a generic
lineset schedule, notes about soft good placement, talent
traffic patterns, and a review of who provides what.
• A reduced-scale section, showing an ideal sightline, a
reiteration of the generic lineset schedule, the relative
position of the soft goods and electrics, and their respective
trims to the equipment on the stage deck.
• A reduced-scale PDF version of the Light Plot that fits onto
a letter-sized piece of paper. As shown in Figure 1, the red
circle (1) shows the title block, which is also a contact sheet.
(2) is a quick review of what the theatre and company are
each providing for the show. (3) is a spreadsheet showing
Patti LuPone Matters of the Heart 2005 Date: 12 April 2005
Lineset Schedule
Event Name: Patti LuPone
NEW IMPROVED
Fox Theatre, Atlanta Event Date: 10 May thru 15 May 2005
Line Footage Goods Trim Line Footage Goods Trim
- 1' 1" Plasterline obstruction
- 0' 7" Smoke Pocket 33 15' 1"
0' 0" Fire Curtain 34 15' 6" 3 Electric 25'-8"
1 1' 6" House Teaser 20'-6" 35 15' 10"
2 1' 11" 36 16' 2"
3 2' 8" House Curtain (42' open?) 37 16' 6"
4 3' 2" 38 16' 10" 4 Electric 27'-0"
5 3' 8" 39 17' 3"
6 4' 2" 1 Electric 24'-9" 40 17' 8" 3 Blk Border 25'-3"
7 4' 8" 41 18' 1" Show White Scrim 26'-2"
8 5' 2" 42 18' 6" 3 Blk Legs (40' opening)
sprinkler 43 19' 0"
9 5' 6" sprinkler
10 5' 11" 44 19' 6"
11 6' 4" 45 20' 0"
12 6' 9" Picture Sheet 46 20' 6"
13 Dead 47 21' 0"
14 7' 2" 1 Blk Border 21'-3" 48 21' 6"
15 7' 7" 1 Blk Legs (40' opening) 49 22' 0"
16 8' 0" 50 22' 6"
17 8' 5" 51 23' 0"
18 8' 10" 52 23' 6" 4 Blk Border 23'-3"
19 9' 3" sprinkler
20 9' 8" 53 24' 0" 4 Blk Legs (40' opening)
21 10' 1" 54 24' 6" Show Black Scrim 30'-0"
22 10' 6" 2 Electric 25'-9" 55 25' 0" Show Plastic 30'-0"
23 10' 11" 56 25' 6"
24 11' 3" 57 27' 1"
25 11' 8" 58 28' 1"
26 12' 1" 59 29' 1" 5 Electric 28'-0"
27 12' 6" 2 Blk Border 21'-9" 60 30' 1"
28 12' 11" 2 Blk Legs (40' opening) 61 31' 1"
29 13' 4" 62 32' 1"
30 13' 9" 63 33' 1"
31 14' 2" sprinkler
32 14' 7" 64 34' 0"
Figure 2
the distribution of each fixture type, in each lighting position.
(4) The Symbol Key not only identifies each fixture type,
it also states the total number of each fixture type required.
This makes it easier for the local electrician to compare the
needs of the show to the house stock. (5) While the lineset
schedule is generic, it shows the general distribution of
electrics and soft goods, and reiterates the trim heights from
the section and the lineset schedule. (6) Scale bars indicating
hanging location of overhead fixtures relative to Centerline.
• A PDF of the Lightwright channel hookup and instrument
schedule. If the theatre didn’t possess Lightwright, these
PDF files were the fallback; they could be printed “as is”,
and be used to keep track of the plot installation. A column
in both documents reiterated the hanging location
for the overhead fixtures.
• The Lightwright file (and the layout file) used to create the
above PDFs. If the theatre possessed Lightwight, this soft
copy could be tailored or updated to their satisfaction.
• A PDF of the Lineset Schedule specific to that theatre.
Figure 2 is designed to mimic the appearance of the lineset
schedule found on the Fox Theatre web site (www.
foxtheatre.org/tech_package.htm). By mirroring the theatre’s
layout, the local stagehands can focus on analyzing
the information, rather than wasting time trying to understand
a foreign paperwork layout.
This lineset schedule is pretty typical. It includes the
name and date of the engagement, the lineset number and
distance from the zero (in this case the Fire Curtain). It then
identifies the goods (electric, border, legs, etc.), as well as the
trim height, the distance from center, and any notes.
Next time, we’ll take a look at what paperwork is included
in the Private Packet.
Steven L. Shelley is a lighting designer and production manager.
He designs the plastic Field Templates and VectorWorks® toolkit
SoftSymbols, both available at www.fieldtemplate.com. He’s
also the author of A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting.
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 15

Sound Design
By Bryan Reesman
Jerry Springer Gets Wired
Bruce Glikas
Brian Ronan wrestles with Carnegie Hall for
Jerry Springer: The Opera’s
American premiere.
How do you know Mike Farfalla?
Mike has been an associate of mine for a few years. He has
assisted me on All Shook Up, 12 Angry Men, Curtains and now
on Dancing in the Dark. He has been my production sound
man for Grey Gardens and Spring Awakening. He has been
production man and engineer for Pajama Game and Grease,
where he continues to mix.
David Bedella, as the Devil, sings to Jerry Springer, played by Harvey Keitel.
There’s nothing like usurping tradition. When Carnegie
Hall allowed the three-act Jerry Springer: The Opera to
invade its space for two days this past January, they
greenlighted an over-the-top, crass, operatic ode to the
king of trash TV that starred Harvey Keitel.
“Nothing can muck up the sound in
Carnegie Hall like monitor wedges
all around.” — Brian Ronan
Sound Designer Brian Ronan, who has worked on shows
as diverse as Curtains, Spring Awakening and 12 Angry Men,
got to tackle the two performances of Springer, which
was a challenge given that he and Director Jason Moore
(Avenue Q) were putting on a modern theatrical production
in a space known for more conventional performances
without heavy sound reinforcement. During a break in his
hectic schedule, Ronan spoke to Stage Directions about the
event, which followed a successful UK run of Springer and
may set up a Broadway opening.
Stage Directions: What were the challenges of
designing sound for just two performances of Jerry
Springer: The Opera as opposed to designing for a
longer running show?
Brian Ronan: As is sometimes the case on short-term
events, we had to rely on the venue’s system. Carnegie
Hall has a Yamaha PM1D as a house board, so we rented
one for the offsite rehearsals and preprogrammed before
our arrival. In terms of operation, we obviously had a very
short tech time, so I had to hire an operator who can learn
and execute fast. I asked Mike Farfalla to come along, and
he made all the difference.
What challenges did you face in putting on the show at
Carnegie Hall, a venue known for more traditional music
concerts?
It’s true that Carnegie Hall is at its best when doing a
performance that requires little to no amplification. Part of
choosing Carnegie Hall for Jerry Springer was the irony of
staging this intentionally crass show set in a sublime setting.
It was up to us to make this rock-charged opera work.
Carnegie — yes, we’re on a first name basis — has very
strict regulations, which dictate how many input channels
and output channels can be used. Once you know that, you
have to approach the show accordingly. This involves the
stage direction and choices in music direction. We had to
choose who’d be wearing a mic and who wouldn’t, and our
director, Jason Moore, had to work out choreography that
would let this happen.
The two synthesizers carried a large part of the show’s
orchestration. They were incorporated into the mix. We then
had to choose only the instruments that needed help popping
through. We chose the French horn and the acoustic
guitar. The rest relied on the Hall’s acoustics.
The other large consideration was monitoring. Nothing
can muck up the sound in Carnegie Hall like monitor wedges
all around. To fix this, I used headphone monitoring for the
Jerry Springer: The Opera at Carnegie Hall was a mix of high concept and low comedy.
16 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Considering this show is billed as an opera, how does it
vary from a typical Broadway show?
Choral singing is the biggest difference. Most Broadway
shows do their storytelling with fewer characters singing
vital lyrics with the chorus filing out refrains that audiences
have heard before. The writers of Springer are true
to the operatic form and used that for both comic and
musical impact. There are some acerbic and cunning lyrics
sung in full voice by a large group of well-trained singers.
It’s a beautiful sound, but can be hard to understand.
I think that’s true for much of opera, but unforgivable in
musical theatre.
A madcap moment from Jerry Springer: The Opera
band and very subtle monitoring for the singers. They really
had to listen to the room, and it is to their credit that they
pulled it off.
Another challenge was working with the Hall’s four-second
reverb time, which makes for difficult intelligibility.
How many inputs and outputs were you limited to
in Carnegie? How did the limitations make your job
difficult?
It depends how deep your pockets are. We bought the
least expensive package, which allowed for 24 inputs and six
outputs, not including their P.A. system. If money were not
an issue, I’d have had a mic on the whole cast, so about 35
channels there and about 15 more for the band. Filling out
with some utility channels — a total of about 65. The hardest
part of the limitations we faced was that some of the choral
parts had to be neglected.
Had you worked in Carnegie before?
Yes, I did a Kristen Chenoweth’s Let Yourself Go a few
years ago, and last year I did Rufus
Wainwrights’ recreation of Judy
Garland’s 1961 concert.
How did the audience respond to all the cursing in the
show?
I can only describe my own reactions the first time
I heard it, which was utter amusement. To hear these
trained voices spewing their character’s bile was just too
funny. It seemed the audience had a similar response.
What is up next for you?
I just opened a great off-Broadway show called Next to
Normal — it was a great experience. Currently, I’m in San
Diego’s Old Globe Theatre working on a production called
Dancing in the Dark. It’s an old-fashioned musical with a
large cast and some wonderful old songs. Then back to
NYC and a musical version of the movie Saved.
What do you think about The Tonys finally offering an
award for sound design this year?
Naturally, I’m happy that the industry has decided
to include us as sanctioned members of the creative
process, but I will miss our place flying under the radar.
To me, really good sound fits so well into the look and
feel of a show that it goes unnoticed. I’m not sure how
to award that.
Last year you told me the PM1D
is your “go to” console. What do
you like most about the board?
I like the availability of instant
processing on all inputs/outputs.
Like all digital boards, I like the small
space they take up. Yamaha is currently
winning the race of digital
boards, so it is easy to find people
familiar with its operation, and rental
shops don’t mind buying them
because they’re easy to rent out.
Which mics and processors did
you use for the show?
I used DPA 4066 boom mics on
Sennheiser transmitters for the actors
and a combination of Neumann and
AKG mics on the band. No external
processing was used, just the onboard
PM1D EQ and compression.
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 17

School Spotlight
By Amy Schoon
A Cradle for
New Work
This production of 14 was written and directed by John Cameron, the head of acting at UI.
Theatre Arts at Iowa stays committed to creation.
Don’t mess with tradition — that might be an unofficial
motto of the Theatre Arts Department at the
University of Iowa in Iowa City. Its theatre-training
program, the third oldest in the country, has been committed
to the same basic focus since it was founded in
1920: dedication to the creation of new work for the stage.
Students, faculty and distinguished guests are all encouraged
to develop new plays, and each year graduate and
undergraduate students produce at least 15 new works and
present another 25 as readings.
Hundreds of writers who have made a name for themselves
had their start at Iowa, including: Pulitzer Prizewinner
and playwriting legend Tennessee Williams; Tonyand
Pulitzer-nominee Lee Blessing (A Walk in the Woods);
acclaimed playwright, screenwriter and poet Naomi Wallace
(One Flea Spare); and Rebecca Gilman, who received the
Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for
New American Plays for her work, Spinning into Butter.
“For years, our productions have gone from here to regional
theatre, big cities and even Broadway,” says Alan MacVey,
professor and chair of the Theatre Arts Department,and
director of the UI Division of Performing Arts. “Being involved
in the creation of something, from the ground up, producing
it for the first time, can be frustrating. But it’s also very
rewarding and a special learning environment.”
That spirit of creation may have been borne from an overall
emphasis on and tradition of writing at The University of
Iowa. In fact, the learning community has become known
as “The Writing University” because of its world-renowned
Iowa Writers Workshop, International Writing Program, various
creative writing summer programs and the Iowa Playwrights
Workshop — also known as the UI MFA program in playwriting.
The intensive, three-year program, officially founded in
1971, is dedicated to educating playwrights for professional
theatre.
Each spring, the Iowa New Play Festival showcases new
work written by undergraduate and MFA playwrights. During
the week-long festival, five full productions and seven staged
readings are presented to an audience that includes six visiting
professional writers, dramaturges, directors and producers.
The department also brings together a team of respected
experimental writers and directors to create a new work that
is presented during the UI Mainstage season. The program,
called Partnership in the Arts, brings artists to work inresidence
for six to eight weeks, working with students on
an ambitious project. Among artists who have led projects
are Anne Bogart, Rinde Eckart, Karen Coonrod, The Gertrude
Stein Repertory Theatre and David Schweitzer.
Iowa’s undergraduate theatre arts degree is a bachelor of
arts, and those who pursue it receive a well-rounded theatre
education experience, taking classes in acting, directing,
design, stagecraft and playwriting. Those are complemented
by studies in dramatic literature, history and criticism.
Students also have opportunities to focus on performing
arts entrepreneurship and theatre management. The
department offers Master of Fine Arts programs in acting,
design, directing, dramaturgy, playwriting and stage management.
All faculty members work with both undergraduate
and graduate students and serve as advisers on student
productions, readings and workshops.
The Theatre Arts department produces about 25 productions
a year, five of which are fully supported Mainstage
shows — including new works, contemporary favorites, and
18 March 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Shakepeare’s Love’s Labours Lost, as directed by Carol MacVey
classics — with elaborate scenic, costume
and lighting design. Others are presented
in second stage, gallery and workshop
settings, and during the Iowa New Play
Festival.
The department also has a social outreach
component, Darwin Turner Action
Theatre, which presents dynamic, thoughtprovoking
interactive folk tales, 10-minute
and one-act plays, and developmental
scenes for social and cultural awareness.
And the student organization No Shame
Theatre presents multiple new works, five
minutes or less in length, every Friday
night at 11 p.m. in an effort to encourage
new writing for a live audience.
From Page to Stage
Productions utilize three separate
performance spaces. The 477-seat proscenium
Mabie Theatre was built in the
early 1930s as a state-of-the-art Broadway
house and has been regularly updated
with new lighting, sound and fly systems,
including a Congo lighting console and
Vari-Lite fixtures.
Thayer Theatre, a 60-foot-by-60-foot,
flexible Black Box theatre with high ceilings
and seating for between 144 and 250,
has been dubbed “a director’s dream” by
faculty members. It has seating units that
roll to accommodate all designs, catwalks
on three levels and computerized lighting
with 400 dimmers and 250 fixtures.
Theatre B offers fixed seating of 144,
movable black curtains and a standard
light plot. Easy to move into and easy to
use, it is home to a production — mostly
new plays — nearly every week of the
year.
“Whether you want to perform, direct,
write or work behind the curtain,” MacVey
says there’s a place for every student from
the moment they set foot on campus. “We
believe that the way you learn is through
getting the chance to put something on
the stage.”
Cara Clonch performed her very first
role on the Iowa stage at age 18 during
her freshman year. And that role was part
of a new work, a character no one else had
ever portrayed. The senior from West Des
Moines is still amazed by the experience
and believes it has prepared her well for
her career.
“It’s been incredible. Putting on a new
play is like creating a family. The play is
our baby. It’s brand new, has all this possibility,
it can essentially go anywhere,”
says Clonch. “It’s up to us to collaborate
as actors, directors, designers, writers, to
guide it. You can’t base your performance,
your production, off anything else you’ve
seen. Sometimes it’s even being written
and put together as we’re rehearsing.
What a way to learn.”
Creating an Ensemble
Bryon Winn, Iowa’s director of theatre
and associate professor of design, believes
part of the magic of Iowa theatre comes
from what Cara mentioned — collaboration.
“Working together is at the core of
Iowa’s theatre arts efforts,” says Winn. As
students pursue a well-rounded exploration
of the theatre, they learn each other’s
roles on and off stage. They have a greater
understanding for what their fellow theatre
students are doing and, Winn says, it
can make everyone’s work stronger.
Winn recalls a time when he, as a
designer for a production, brought ideas
about specific lighting design to a playwright,
which then prompted the writer
to rework a scene to incorporate Winn’s
suggestions.
In fact, theatre arts students and faculty
tend to avoid labeling anyone “actor” or
“designer.” Everyone involved in a produc-
20 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

School Spotlight
tion can become intimately connected
with all aspects of the work.
It’s also important for students to know,
Winn says, that when they come here as
an undergraduate, they will get valuable,
real-world work experience and “won’t
just be a grunt for a grad student.”
It is not uncommon for Winn or other
faculty members to hire students as assistants
for projects they are involved in
outside Iowa. He trains them to be electricians,
lighting programmers, “whatever is
needed, because the industry’s evolving
every day,” and wants them to have the
necessary skills not only to get a degree,
but to put it to use after college.
“I’m training them for the entertainment
industry, but there are many different
paths they can take, and I want
to make sure they have an idea of all
the opportunities that await them out
there, from opera to dance to corporate
events — whether car shows or campaign
kickoffs — to architectural lighting,” Winn
says. “I want to make sure students know
how to feed themselves when they graduate.”
Working together and taking care of
each other are themes not always found
in theatre-training programs, with fierce
competition and tender egos taking center
stage. But the sense of community
and feeling of family are palpable in the
halls of the UI Theatre Building, says John
Cameron, the department’s head of acting.
“I’ve taught at several different universities,
and theatre programs can be
fairly contentious places. Here, people
are very generous, very supportive of
each other. It makes Iowa an extremely
positive place and a healthy working
environment. It’s very unique.”
A moment from Versailles, conceived
and directed by David Schweizer
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 21

Theatre Spotlight
By Wayne Rawley
The Actors’ Gang Theatre
L.A. Theatre has something to say.
Each and every season since 1982, The Actors’ Gang Theatre has been
producing theatre. No small feat for an independent, innovative company
anywhere; but even more impressive perhaps in Los Angeles,
where the competition is fierce, the rent is high, and the rep is that live theatre
is just a way to fill the time between film and TV work. The Actors’ Gang
would beg to differ. Now in their third season at their new home in Culver
City, The Gang makes theatre their way or the highway. We sat down with
V.J. Foster, associate artistic director of The Actors’ Gang.
The Gangs’ Mission:
“To create bold, original works for the stage and daring reinterpretations
of the classics. Our work is raw, immediate, socially minded and
crafted with the highest artistic standards.”
How much of a new season is generated by the company?
Actually, very little is generated from outside. The exception would
be if we are interested in working with a specific artist, we would want
to know what they were interested in working on, like when director/
choreographer Simon Abkarian came to The Gang with Love’s Labor’s
Lost. Another exception is 1984. Writer Michael Gene Sullivan sent his
adaptation to us at the outbreak of the current Iraq war, and upon
reading it and considering the times we are living in, it seemed like the
perfect project to do.
What do you look for in a new project?
What does this play have to say? Why this play at this time and why The
Actors’ Gang? The project needs to have social and political relevance. And it
needs to fit in with our particular style of work, our performance style.
What is your style?
We call it “sharing with the audience.” We are not denying the reality
that we are sharing this moment in time with you. We acknowledge that
we are in a room with 100 other people. The audience isn’t observing the
action; they’re in on it with us.
How do you achieve this?
Through the acting… Our style of performance comes from the
Commedia tradition: high energy and high emotion grounded in complete
sincerity. We work to communicate that sincerity through the eyes.
We are always revealing our eyes to the audience. The eyes don’t lie; the
eyes are the windows to the soul where the emotions are painted from.
We try work in a way where we are sharing with the audience directly; we
are looking directly at the audience so that they can understand clearly
what the actors are experiencing. It can be an unconventional style of
work, but we have found it to be very effective.
Who is The Actors’ Gang’s audience?
We want everyone. We are constantly asking ourselves “How do we
get young people to live theatre?” We have one “pay what you can” night
every week, and we hold special student matinees to get young people in.
Students from local primary and secondary schools are invited to take part
in our Education Initiative year-long residencies where we brings students
into our theatre and show them what we do.
Best thing about doing theatre in LA?
The audience. This is an industry town, a city of storytellers, people here
are interested in well-told stories.
V.J. Foster
Left to right: V.J. Foster, Lindsely Allen, Scott Harris and Donna Jo Thorndale in the 2008 revival
of Carnage: A Comedy
Yolanda Snowball and Ken Elliott in Exonerated
Ray Mickshaw Ray Mickshaw
Jean-Louis Darville
A Commedia-based Tartuffe from The Actors’ Gang
22 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Feature
By Evan Henerson
Taking the Next Step
How to impress at the internship interview
Don Ipock Photography
Between School and Career
Many of the major regional houses have a steady pipeline
of potential interns via a tie-in with a major university.
The internship won’t pay, but it will earn the student
class credit.
But even a non-student can find ways to make himself all
but indispensable. And, guaranteed placement or no, interns
are well advised to approach the interview and the job as a
potential gateway to future employment, if not at this theatre,
then potentially somewhere else via a strong referral.
KC Rep’s production of August Wilson’s Jitney utilized technical interns.
Enthusiasm’s good. Don’t try to fake what you don’t
know. There’s nothing wrong with making coffee
or sweeping floors, and when the people who have
brought you in are done with their questions, it’s not out
of line to offer some queries of your own.
In other words, the process of interviewing for an internship
at a regional theatre or opera company shouldn’t
be that dissimilar to interviewing for a paying job at
that same company, according to the people conducting
the interviewing.
OK, maybe the coffee thing wouldn’t be asked or
expected if you were going out for a corner office job at a
Fortune 500 company. In the theatre, however, when time
is pressing and available manpower may be at a premium,
you may well be asked to step in with that fresh pot of
water or to stuff a bunch of envelopes with season brochures
in the marketing department.
The successful intern — the one who will get the position
— is ready for any such eventuality and turns up his
nose at no task no matter how seemingly menial.
“I’ve always been one to say that I could train you in a
task or a skill. I just can’t train general demeanor or personality
to come into a project,” says Timothy O’Connell,
production manager at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
“A lot of people are coming out of a college type situation
with an attitude of ‘I’m entitled to this. I’m the best at
this.’ It’s that overconfidence that almost comes off as
arrogance.”
“I try to avoid that,” O’Connell adds. “I’m looking for someone
who is open-minded and eager to learn.”
The Center Theatre Group’s production of The School for Scandal
“We’re always looking for new people to add to our lists
of stage managers and assistant designers,” says Dan Ionazzi,
production manager at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
“If someone calls, whether it’s for something here or they’ve
got a job at Disney for an assistant to help draft a show, if I’m
going to direct somebody somewhere, I want to be confident
that that person represents my decision well.”
As the director of production for the School of Theater
at UCLA, Ionazzi employs several students from his school
as interns. A student’s ability to schedule her classwork to
coincide with the rigors of a theatrical schedule will work in
her favor.
Mass availability, then, is a plus, particularly when a company
is putting in 12 to 16 hours a day during tech week. Even
the most professional and dedicated intern probably isn’t
going to reap extensive benefits — or make a lasting impression
— if he’s only available some six hours per week.
“The questions you ask are important: What does a typical day
look like for me? During production and tech week, what would my
assignments be?” — Jerry Genachio
Craig Schwartz
24 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Michael Lamont
“I’m looking for someone who is open-minded and eager to learn.”
— Timothy O’Connell
“Sadly, to get the full effect, you sort of need to be here all
the time,” Ionazzi says. “Otherwise, you’re relegated to simple
chores: Fetch this, fetch that. If you’re really here, you become
a member of the team and really get to participate in some
reasonable task.”
Mark Feuerstein and Jaime Ray Newman in the Geffen Playhouse West Coast
premiere production of Some Girl(s) by Neil LaBute
The interview itself is often the place for an intern to showcase
both his ability and his hunger to do the work. For the
former, common sense comes generously into play. If you’re
showing a design book, make sure the displays are clean and
flattering; your best work.
“For the technicians, it’s harder,” says Ionazzi. “We want to
see a resumé that says ‘not only did I do my schoolwork, but
the university has a presentation program that books in acts
all the time, and I’ve worked those crew calls.’ We see how
deep they are into this and if they can really talk like they’ve
done the work and understand the work.”
Enthusiasm and gusto are invaluable traits, but it is possible
to go overboard. Candidates who present themselves as
being obsessed with theatre have been known to raise a red
flag with O’Connell who gravitates toward hiring interns with
more well-rounded backgrounds.
“If people say, ’I’m there 24/7, I’ve got nothing else to do,’
while I get excited for their energy, sometimes it can become
a negative force on them that they have no other drive in
their life besides the theatre,” O’Connell says. “We’re not here
to fulfill your entire life.”
O’Connell recalls interviewing a recent internship candidate
whose background was anything but theatre 24/7. She
had worked for a newspaper and was returning to school
to learn more about the theatre and get a master’s degree.
During the interview, she also revealed an interest in learning
Spanish and had moved to Brazil to study the language
intensely, doing some freelance writing while she studied.
Even without a theatre-heavy resumé, the candidate was
a keeper.
“That made me excited that she found that outlet for herself
and found a way to achieve what she wanted. Instead of making
it a hurdle, she made it work for herself.” O’Connell said. “The
creative solution stuff made me excited for her. You have to be
comfortable with who you are to make a choice like that.”
Study Up
When he applied for the internship program at Seattle
Repertory Theatre some five years ago, Jesse Aasheim was
going through a career transition as well. A double major
in college, he had worked at Microsoft and as a software
consultant specializing in geographic information services
before shifting his focus to production management.
The Rep’s highly structured Professional Arts Training
Program came with a $5,000 stipend, which Anaheim —
now an associate production manager at L.A.’s Center
Theatre Group — saw as a more attractive alternative to
returning to school.
“It wasn’t necessarily that intense,” recalls Aasheim. “but
it was very much like a real world job interview.”
Jerry Genochio, O’Connell’s predecessor at Alabama
Shakespeare and now associate director for production
at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, says he doesn’t expect
interns to come armed with every available bit of knowledge
about the profession. (“That’s why they’re applying
for internships,” he says). But applicants who have done
their homework and come to an interview armed with
questions of their own tend to make good impressions.
Jayne Brook, Matt Czuchry and Christina Lahti in the Geffen Playhouse
production of Wendy Wasserstein’s Third.
“It’s a way for applicants to say they’re interested without
having to say, ’I’m interested,’” says Genochio, who
travels to universities in Missouri, instructing students on
interviewing and preparation for that first job. “The questions
you ask are important: What does a typical day look
like for me? During production and tech week, what would
my assignments be? Will I have real experience working in
an area I want to develop more expertise in?”
“There is a line between ‘Gee, I’ll do anything’ vs. ’I really
want experience in my area,’ but the reality of professional
theatre is that you’re going to have a lot of cross departmentalization,”
he adds. “You may be in the prop shop one
day and painting scenery the next.”
You may do a lot during your internship, but a good one
can offer a lot for you, too — that, of course, is why you take
them. So prepare for that interview, and then go ace it.
Michael Lamont
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 25

Special Section: Literary Rights, Licensing & Mgmt.
The Never-Ending Quest
Artistic directors discuss the art and science of choosing plays.
The Wizard of Oz at the Valley Youth Theater
By Kevin M. Mitchell
“
I
don’t think you ever stop planning a season,” says
Ethan McSweeny, co-artistic director at the Chautauqua
Theater Company. “You always keep an eye out for
something that might fit into your programming.”
With that in mind, we took a look at three very different
companies and sussed out their process of choosing a
season and what factors into their decisions.
Bobb Cooper
Valley Youth Theatre
Phoenix, Ariz.
Bobb Cooper just celebrated his 12th year working
for one of the most respected high school theatres in
the country. Cooper himself is a veteran of off-Broadway
shows and national tours, so he brings to the position a
wide breadth of experience.
But he knows his audience.
“I keep my ear open for what’s happening out there, but
honestly, we’re in Phoenix,” he says. “So, we give our audience
what they want to see as opposed to forcing things
on them. We’re aware that we often bring in an audience
not accustomed to going to the theatre, and hopefully we
send them out wanting to come back.”
Cooper keeps up with popular culture and says he looks
for properties that have broad audience appeal and are
family-oriented. Some Disney titles will bring an audience
in just by the title, but even when they do something like
Sleeping Beauty, which they did a few years ago, they “twist”
it in someway (in that case, they added a ballad to it).
Valley Youth is influenced by what is hot. “Like when Lord
of the Rings was big in the theatre, we did The Hobbit, and we
sold out.” When Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was on the
big screen, they did Willy Wonka; same with Charlotte’s Web.
Unusual for a high school, they have an enviable budget
— but only because they built a reputation to be worthy of it.
“Twelve years ago, our budget was barely $100,000, but this
year it’s $5 million.” But royalties can eat up quite a bit of budget.
“Depending on the show, the royalties can hit you hard.
Any Disney production royalties are incredibly high. Beauty
and the Beast was 15 percent of the gross and that is huge.”
Does it affect what he chooses?
“It depends,” he says. “We work with all the major publishers,
Rogers & Hammerstein, MCI, Dramatic Publishing.
With some, we have a professional relationship and don’t
pay a flat fee but a percentage, which we appreciate.
When we do well, they do well. But some publishers, who
will remain nameless, have nonnegotiable deals. We can’t
avoid working with those companies because, unfortunately,
they have very important properties. So you do the
ones you know you can recoup.”
Financial matters do figure in: If he wants to do something
that is expensive from a royalty standpoint, something
else that’s good but requires less cost could be
figured into the season.
26 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Warner Miller, Carl Cofield, Chuck Patterson and Glenn Turner in the IRT production of The Piano Lesson
Janet Allen
Indiana Repertory Theatre
Indianapolis, Ind.
It is also Janet Allen’s 12th season
as artistic director — and “20 something”
with the organization — so she
brings a lot of experience to the table.
Indiana Rep has two theatres (620 and
308 seats) and a cabaret that is used
as well.
“We throw a bunch of scripts down
the stairs and whatever lands on top
of the pile are the ones we do,” she
jokes. It is, of course, a bit more complex
than that: “Because I’m not principally
a director, I work closely with
the managing director, Steven Stolen.
Also, the associate artistic director,
Priscilla Lindsay, is heavily involved,
among others.” They always know
what to do with one slot: James Still
has been their playwright-in-residence
for 10 years, and they typically do at
least one of his plays every season.
“We are very close collaborators,”
Allen says of Still. “And he is one of my
most prized commentators. So generally
it begins with things that were
commissioned from him, and if he has
something ready to come out on the
stage, that is often the first deciding
factor in a season.”
After that, she looks to fill many
needs. “There isn’t a black repertory theatre
here, very sad to say, and we have
a large African-American population.”
(Indianapolis has an African-American
population of 24 percent.) Also, they
are the only fully professional nonprofit
theatre in the state, so they must bring
in those beyond their urban borders.
Finally, 40 percent of their audience is
under 18. “We serve 50,000 kids a year.”
Two roadhouses in town do a lot
of big Broadway touring shows, principally
musicals. “Between the roadhouses
and a fine active civic center,
they all have the musical market cov-
Lauren Lovett in the IRT production of Bad Dates
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 27

Special Section: Literary Rights, Licensing & Mgmt.
The set of The Cherry Orchard at Chautauqua
ered and frankly that’s fine with me.”
As far as what a show costs to lease
from the publisher: “I ignore it,” she
declares. “The difference between paying
11 percent royalty and a 9 percent
royalty is not big enough to be an
influential factor,” she says. For Doubt,
for example, she is paying a 10 percent
royalty, and for Tuesday’s with Morrie
she’s paying 11 percent; Other older
plays, like Inherit the Wind are 8 percent
or 7 percent; then there are the royaltyfree
works like Shakespeare, and older
19th century works by the likes of
Shaw and Wilde, and they figure into
a season. … but bottom line is she
would rather put a play like Doubt on
her boards quickly than wait to see if
the royalty goes down.
The financial factor that does factor
in is how many actors a play takes — a
big cast can put the biggest dent in a
budget. But first and foremost: “My eye
is how we can serve this audience.”
The Chautauqua Theater Company
Chautauqua, New York
Vivienne Benesch and Ethan
McSweeny, Artistic Directors
Founded in 1983, the Chautauqua
Theater is a resident professional summer
theatre with a popular summer
program of plays that challenge and
delight a theatre-savvy population.
With a conservatory of artists, a combination
of students and professional
actors, Chautauqua has an atypical
audience, though the current coartistic
directors are trying to expand
beyond that.
“The institution itself has 10,000 squarefeet
on five square miles of campus, so
our primary audience is on the grounds,”
says Ethan McSweeny. “But we’ve been
working to extend that to other communities
in western New York.”
As far as sculpting a season, they
have a couple of particular needs to
meet. “Part of every arts organization
features a training component and we
have a conservatory with top actors,”
McSweeny explains. “Every year 500
people audition, with only 14 making
it.” Since younger actors are part of
the program, they lean toward choosing
productions that have good roles
for actors in their 20s. For their first
season, the two chose All My Sons by
Arthur Miller, for example.
Unusual for this theatre is that
they get to purposely look for plays
that have a big cast, Benesch points
out. With the resources they have in
the conservatory plus their ability to
attract top professional talent, “we
need to pick big plays.”
Otherwise, they approach a specific
season by identifying certain ideas. “We
try to offer our audience a full range,”
McSweeny says. “We try to do one classic
American play, a 20th century classic,
and also something more contemporary,
which usually ends up being a comedy.”
“And we always end our season
with a Shakespeare production,”
Benesch adds. “And recently we did
The Cherry Orchard, which we chose
specifically for a couple of artists we
wanted to bring back who we had
worked with previously — and used
that as an anchor for the season.”
“It’s always important in a summer
festival season that one show can
become the anchor,” McSweeny says.
However you anchor your season, the
quest for the perfect one goes on.
28 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Special Section: Literary Rights, Licensing & Mgmt.
Think
Outside
the Bard
Michael Ensminger
Endless readings of new plays
doesn’t have to be the norm.
By Jonathan Shipley
A
culture war being waged in American theatre is this:
play development versus production.
“New plays are at risk,” says Polly Carl, producing
artistic director of Minneapolis’s The Playwrights’ Center,
“and getting theatres to dive into the risk, to experiment
with audiences and to develop the tastes of audiences, is
the greatest challenge of the American theatre.”
A play is written. It’s a good play. It needs some tweaking,
though. A theatre says to the playwright, “Let’s have a
reading!” A reading is done and so, in essence, is the play.
“I have endless stories of great plays not getting produced
— endless,” says Carl.
There are, however, organizations across the country
that are trying to eliminate this “development hell,” helping
writers get their work fully produced. Here are two that
tackle the problem from different perspectives.
Lucky for Playwrights
The spark for 13P came in a conversation between
Playwrights Madeleine George and Rob Handel at the
Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Handel floated
the idea to George about starting a company based solely
around the philosophy of putting playwrights in charge of
a guaranteed production of their own new work. When they
returned to New York the two recruited others, and they
ended up with 13 playwrights — the 13P — instigating a
new producing culture, one in which there is no substitute
for a fully-realized production of a new play. Their 2008-09
season includes a play by Whiting Award-winner Sheila
Callaghan and another by Lucy Thurber.
Not only does 13P allow playwrights to showcase their
new works as fully-produced plays, but they, the writers, act
as artistic directors of their own plays.
“It’s a little bit like the company gets remade every time
there’s a new show because the entire group is totally different,
and each playwright wants to run it differently,”
says George. In order to give the playwrights the maximum
chance to succeed, they developed a few procedural guidelines.
First off, while the playwrights would act as artistic
directors, and have such decision-making powers as how
Lisa Rosenhagen in Eric Coble’s For Better at the Curious Theatre Company
to apportion their budget, they would not be in charge of
producing the play.
“Writers are just abominable at that stuff,” says George,
only half joking. “It was very important that we notice early
on with appropriate humility that we were going to screw it
up if we did it ourselves, that we needed to bring in young,
enthusiastic, nascent producers to produce us.”
It’s also important to be sure that the producer is in-line
with the philosophy of a playwright-driven production,
and won’t try to impose their aesthetic upon the process
— while the playwright understands that the budget and
the practical limits of what can happen (as pointed out by
the producer) will obviously dictate some aspects about the
production.
“We’ve been tremendously lucky in our association
with our Executive Producer Maria Goyanes, who we got
involved with when she was sort of fresh out of undergraduate
and just starting to be a producer,” says George.
“But it’s because when she joined up with us we were at our
fiercest in terms of articulating our mission. So, although
she has a lot of opinions and a lot of experience that she
wants the playwrights to benefit from when they come in,
she has never, ever tried to impose anything aesthetic on
anyone.”
The second key decision George attributes to 13P’s success?
“Don’t run it like a collective.”
George believes that a “chore-wheel”-type mentality
where each person is responsible for different tasks on a
recurring basis will quickly lead to the dissolution of the
group. 13P does not demand their members or staff participate
in anything, they only ask that each member participate
in whatever fashion they can at any given moment.
“If everybody is forced to contribute something, regardless
of their will and their desire, you lose people,” says
George. “It is sort of counterintuitive. The typical ‘Hey, let’s
put on a show’ thing is more about egalitarianism, it’s more
like everybody pitch in — I’ll make the costumes you do the
lights — but I think that the success of 13P is largely due to
the fact that we didn’t take that route.”
Don’t misinterpret — the playwrights are still involved in
30 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

the process, whether it’s getting together for mailings, making
curtain speeches or helping at the box office.
“People help with other kinds of stuff — but it’s very
much on an as-needed basis and there is no official designation.”
When it comes to getting people involved it also helps
that 13P is a social — and finite — experience. Once the 13
plays have been produced, they’ll no longer exist.
“It’s such a social experience being in 13P, it involves so
much fun — going to parties, and doing mailings and different
stuff like that, but then when it’s your turn, it’s your
ups,” says George. “It’s all about figuring out where your
priorities are.”
And the deliberate expiration date?
“There’s sort of the point of 13P as a life responsive organization
that’s being made and remade according to the
needs to individuals, and it really runs counter to what happens
to a lot of theaters when they institutionalize,” says
George. “It’s invigorating to us to feel like this is the thing
that’s happening in the present moment, and it’s happening
for a reason, and it serves each one of us as we need it
to serve us, and then, you know, poof, it’s gone.”
Jim Baldassare
Do Your Networking
Getting a new play produced is not the only obstacle,
though.
“Many theatres are doing premieres,” says Dramaturge
Matthew Maher and Frank Deal in the 13P production of Have
You Seen Steve Steven by Ann Marie Healy
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 31

Special Section: Literary Rights, Licensing & Mgmt.
Michael Ensminger
Rhonda Brown in Eric Coble’s For Better at the Curious Theatre Company
Liz Engelman, now serving as board chair for the Literary
Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas association.
“The hard part is actually getting these plays to be done a
second and third time.”
Enter the National New Play Network and its Continued
Life of New Plays Fund.
The National New Play Network is a means to facilitate
communication between theatres that are the “new play
hubs” in their region, spread across America. These are generally
larger theatres, with budgets between $500,000–$4
million a year, according to General Manager David Golston’s
estimates.
It works like this: The literary departments of the member
theatres read scripts that are submitted to them. If they like a
script, they “pitch” it at one of the monthly online meetings,
or at the face-to-face meetings that happen twice a year. If
other theatres are interested in the play, they pass the script
between them and start a conversation between themselves
as to whether or not they’d like to produce the script. If three
or more artistic directors find a play worthy to produce, NNPN
invests in that particular play. This investment comes in the
form of a $5,000 donation to each of the theatres producing
the play.
“That money can go to pretty much anything the theatre
needs it to,” says Golston. “Although we do put an emphasis
on the collaboration aspect of the development of the play.”
These theatres all agree to individually produce the same
script — these aren’t co-productions, where the same production
of a play travels to different theatres, and those theatres
spread the costs between them. Recently, David Rambo’s
The Ice Breaker found success in San Francisco, Indianapolis
and Boston. Zina Camblin’s And Her Hair Went With Her
showed in Indianapolis, Long Branch, New Jersey and Los
Angeles. Eric Coble’s For Better opened in Denver, Miami and
New Orleans.
Coble has been delighted at the successes he’s had as
part of the NNPN program. “It’s been great. I loved getting
to know theatres I’ve never worked with before,” he says,
“to meet their audiences and see what they think about
the issues of the play. We now have a relationship to build
from.” He enjoyed the production process the whole way
through, having three sets of director’s eyes watching over
rewrites. “I knew they already loved the piece and were
committed to it.”
While the NNPN facilitates communication between
theatres and funds new play production, it doesn’t promote
any individual scripts itself.
“We encourage the playwrights to have a relationship
with the member theatres,” says Golston. “We want to get
away from the ‘New York down’ model, and our alternative
is not the ‘NNPN down’ model either. What we’re really
talking about is sort of a grassroots effort coming from
the regional theatres up, sending a play up that might not
have otherwise gotten attention if it was never produced
in New York.”
Wherever they’re produced, it’s good to know that
theatres like 13P and those involved with NNPN are there
supporting writers.
32 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

Special Section: Literary Rights, Licensing & Mgmt.
The Diversity of Dramaturgy
Three dramaturges, three different career tracks
By Lisa Mulcahy
When you think about the typical career of a dramaturge,
what comes to mind? The traditional perception
is that you toil away in anonymity at a regional
theatre, buried up to your neck in obscure historical research,
churning out notes that the playwright may or may not use.
But today dramaturges are taking complete control of their
careers, applying their unique personal talents and interests
to a variety of theatrical genres and having a major impact on
the development of fresh, thrilling stagework. Here’s an inside
look at three dramaturges who ply their trade in three very
disparate ways — but are each making a major mark.
“That was great — I was young and working with the best.
It really built up my faith in my own ability — I had some things
to say, and those things were listened to,” he says.
Cerniglia next got a PhD from the University of Washington,
taught for a time and got a taste of creative corporate work at
Microsoft Cofounder Paul Allen’s company Vulcan. While
attending the annual Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of
the Americas conference in Chicago in 2003 (www.lmda.org),
Cerniglia caught up with Greg Gunter, the literary manager
he’d known at La Jolla Playhouse.
“Greg had since gone to work for Disney in their New York
office and was developing shows for Broadway,” Cerniglia
recalls. “Disney seemed like a good, successful mix of art and
commerce. They offered me a job, I took it, and in the fall of
2003, hit the ground running.”
“Our writing teams are genius,
and I’m their sounding board —
I try to know where we need to
arrive ultimately, although I may
not know how we’re going to get
there.” — Ken Cerniglia
Ken Cerniglia at his desk
T h e P e r f e c t o r o f
Pop Culture
It’s 11 a.m., and Ken
Cerniglia, dramaturge
for Disney Theatrical
Productions, arrives
at the company’s New
“Breaking Free” in Disney’s High School Musical National
Tour.
York City office. He starts the day of with a round of meetings,
consulting the marketing, legal and production departments,
plus company management.
Next, he works with a number of Disney writers, such as
the translator in Mexico who’s doing subtitles for an international
production of The Lion King. He evaluates a script
treatment, attends a table read, gives notes on a licensed
adaptation and edits the liner notes for a Broadway show
CD, before rushing off in the evening to scout material at a
play reading. His day ends around 11 p.m. — and he’s loved
every minute of it.
Cerniglia trained as an actor and dancer during his undergrad
years at U.C. San Diego, which is affiliated with La Jolla
Playhouse. Cerniglia then went on to receive an MA from
Catholic University in theatre history and criticism. While there,
he interned with the literary department at Arena Stage.
The touchstone of Cerniglia’s work process? “Get the right
team for the right project! For High School Musical’s stage
adaptation, it was about, ‘These are pop songs — how do
we make them musical theatre songs?’ Our writing teams are
genius, and I’m their sounding board — I try to know where
we need to arrive ultimately, although I may not know how
we’re going to get there. I float ideas past writers, try to nurture
their process.”
Pushing the envelope in a positive direction is what
Cerniglia thrives on. “Our new frontier is to diversify what
people expect from Disney Theatrical Productions — we can
put on small shows as well as big shows. We put stuff out
there that is often people’s first experience in the theatre,” he
explains. “I’m very proud of our adaptation Aladdin, Jr. — we
went down to a high school in Texas to work on a dual language
version and integrated a language barrier into the story,
which is a real social/generational problem in that area. Local
students were in the show’s cast, and the community could
celebrate both English and Spanish living side by side.”
A Beautiful Mind
Carolyn Balducci’s journey to a dramatic literature career
began via a very unique route: by studying art. “I was a bookworm
and an artist as well, so it was a tossup between majoring
in English or majoring in studio art,” she recalls, explaining
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 33

Special Section: Literary Rights, Licensing & Mgmt.
Melissa Berman
Carolyn Balducci
her undergrad choices
at Manhattanville
College. While she
went with art, she
stayed attached to the
written word. “As electives,
I took a couple of
creative writing courses.
My best marks were
in The History of the
English Language —
go figure!”
Post-graduation, Balducci was invited to teach creative
writing at the University of Michigan. She grew interested in
expanding her work into a theatrical medium while she taught
there, and began translating dramatic works, plus writing and
producing original plays for university productions. After a
number of years in academia, though, Balducci felt the desire
to spend more time in her home community, Montauk, N. Y.,
and became program director for the Montauk Library. There,
Balducci began to really immerse in theatre. “I became sort of a
literary manager, coordinating staged readings with a group of
actors who perform in a collective,” she recalls. “Together with
Dramatist Peter Zablotsky, I wore the hat of ‘dramaturge’ —
sorting out which plays were most likely
to work with the community, and also
capitalizing on the strengths of the acting
company. This was not a simple task, but
the results seem to make a lot of people
happy.” Among the fruits of her labor: In
Times of War by David Alan Moore, which
was produced at Stage Left in Chicago.
Balducci has her dramaturgy technique
as smartly planned out as the rest
of her life. Her precise routine fluctuates
depending on the play or musical she’s
working on, but she applies these strategies
during every workday:
Think technically — and emotionally:
“The model I use for working with other
writers is an editorial process — lots of
marginalia and revisions — combined
with positive feedback. And I suspect
quite a bit of ESP and gut reaction goes
into this, something I must have by
nature. I also apply what I know from
my own writing process: revisions are
necessary.”
Foresee what the reader will see:
“My draft of Asylum looked professionally
formatted, and I’d taken out a lot
of awkward stage directions, or rewritten
them to be more readily visualized.
Visualization is critical to evaluating a
screenplay or theatrical script.”
Respect the writer’s vision above
all: “I take the author’s intent seriously,
and push toward making the author
reach their artistic goal — while trying to
restrain my impulse to rewrite their work
for them.”
The Independent Spirit
Anne Hamilton jettisoned a public
relations career at age 28 to study dramaturgy,
and has since become one of
the field’s trailblazers, working with luminaries
such as Andrei Serban, Michael
Mayer and James Lipton. The principal of
Hamilton Dramaturgy, a nationwide con-
34 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

sulting business based in Pennsylvania,
she publishes the industry newsletter
ScriptForward!, consults with playwriting
and directing clients on both material
and career concerns and continues
to work on many acclaimed New York
productions.
Hamilton credits a choice made during
her time at Columbia University
as a major career boost. “I fell in love
with dramaturgy — in class, it was
about developing new plays, working
with the playwright and director to
make whatever he or she had better,
according to his or her terms. There was
collaborative enjoyment involved, and
you got to put up a show!”
Hamilton also showed major professional
initiative while she was still in
school. “At Columbia, we had a connection
with the Shubert Organization,
and I asked if I could have a position on
Passion, which was rehearsing at the
time. I was sent to see James Lapine, who
said no, but offered to send my resumé
around the city. Fabulous! I interviewed
at the Public Theater, and was referred
to the Classic Stage Company. I became
production dramaturge on The Triumph
Of Love, directed by Michael Mayer. It
was a brilliant translation — bright,
bubbly, smart, clever. And Michael is a
brilliant and generous man, so kind, so
good at what he does.”
A typical workday for Hamilton
involves serving each of her clients
quite specifically. “When I wake up
every morning, I think about each of my
writers — who needs what from me?
Generally, I have a script to review; I’ll
sit and write comments. Another thing
I always do is think about opportunities
for the playwrights and directors I
work with, so I read through newsletters
and lists for submission opportunities,
I read Variety, I read Backstage. If I see
something of interest, I pass it on. I go to
meetings for networking purposes.”
She also works on background information
— judiciously. “One-hundred
percent of the time, a writer or director
knows what they need from you. Writers
need to be supported and told the truth.
I don’t shy away from delivering hard
facts, if something’s not working. How
can writers trust you if you don’t express
the good and the bad?”
Dan Z. Johnson
Anne Hamilton
(left) and
Playwright Alex
Beech
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 35

PLAYS & MUSICALS
2007-2008 Theatre Resource Directory
Americanplaywrights,
Inc.
P.O. Box 577676
Chicago, Illinois 60657
P: 773-404-8016
W: www.american
playwrights.com
Anchorage Press Plays
617 Baxter Ave.
Louisville, Kentucky
40204
P: 502-583-2288
W: www.applays.com
Aran Press
1036 S 5th St.
Louisville, Kentucky
40203
P: 502-568-6622
W: www.aye.
net/~aranpres
Artage Publicationssenior
Theatre
Resource Center
P.O. Box 19955
Portland, Oregon 97280
P: 503-246-3000
W: www.seniortheatre.
com
Baker’s Plays
45 W. 25th St.
New York, New York
10010
P: (212) 255-8085
W: www.bakersplays.com
Broadway Onstage
Live Theatre
21517 Kelly Rd.
Eastpointe, Michigan
48021
P: 586-771-6333
W: www.broadway
onstage.com
Broadway Play
Publishing Inc
56 E 81st St.
New York, New York
10028
P: 212-772-8334
W: www.broadway
playpubl.com
Brooklyn Publishers
1841 Cord St.
Odessa, Texas 79762
P: 888-473-8521
W: www.brookpub.com
Centerstage Press
P.O. Box 36688
Phoenix, Arizona 85067
P: 602-242-1123
W: www.cstage.com
Centerstage
Productions
21 Hunt St.
Norwalk,
Connecticut 06853
P: 203-899-0319
W: www.centerstagemusicals.com
Classics On Stage!
P.O. Box 25365
Chicago, Illinois 60625
P: 773-989-0532
W: www.classicson
stage.com
Crystal Theatre
Publishing
12 June Ave.
Norwalk, Connecticut
06850
P: 203-847-4850
W: www.crystalthe
atrepublishing.com
Dramashare Christian
Drama Resources
82 St.. Lawrence
Crescent
Saskatoon, Saskatoon
S7K 1G5
P: 877-363-7262
W: www.dramashare.
org
Dramatic Publishing
311 Washington St.
Woodstock, Illinois
60098
P: 800-448-7469
W: www.dramatic
publishing.com
Dramatists Play
Service, Inc.
440 Park Ave. S
New York, New York
10016
P: 212-683-8960
W: www.dramatists.
com
Eldridge Publishing
P.O. Box 14367
Tallahassee, Florida
32317
P: 850-385-2463
W: www.histage.com
Encore Performance
Publishing
P.O. Box 95567
South Jordan, Utah
84095
P: 801-282-8159
W: www.encoreplay.
com
Hank Beebe Music
Library
4 Shep Rd.
Springfield, Maine
04487
P: (207) 738-2143
W: www.hankbeebe.
com
Hatful-Breindel Productions
78790 W Harland Dr.
La Quinta, California
92253
P: 760-345-2573
W: http://hometown.
aol.com/hatfulsnow
Heinemann
P. O. Box 6926
Portsmouth, New
Hampshire 03802-6926
P: 800.225.5800
W: www.heinemann.
com
Heuer Publishing LLC
P.O. Box 248
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
52406
P: 800-950-7529
W: www.hitplays.com
I.E. Clark Publications
P.O. Box 246
Schulenburg, Texas
78956
P: 979-743-3232
W: www.ieclark.com
Josef Weinberger, Ltd.
12-14 Mortimer St.
London, UK
W1T 3JJ
P: 44-20-7580-2827
W: www.josef-wein
berger.com
KMR Scripts
P.O. Box 220
Valley Center, Kansas
67147-0220
P: 316-425-2556
W: www.kmrscripts.
com
Lillenas Christian
Drama Resources
P.O. Box 419527
Kansas City, Missouri
64141
P: 816-931-1900
W: www.lillenas drama.
com
Maverick Musicals
89 Bergann Rd.
Maleny, Queensland
4552
P: [61] 61-7-5494-4007
W: www.mavmuse.com
MC2 Entertainment
3004 French St.
Erie, Pennsylvania
16504
P: 814-459-7098
W: www.mc2entertainment.com
Meriwether
Publishing —
Contemporary Drama
Service
P.O. Box 7710
Colorado Springs,
Colorado 80933-7710
P: 800-937-5297
W: www.contempo
rarydrama.com
Music Theatre
International
421 West 54th St.
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36 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

PLAYS & MUSICALS
New York, New York
10019
P: 212-541-4684
W: www.mtishows.com
Mysteries By
Moushey, Inc
P.O. Box 3593
Kent, Ohio 44240
P: 330-678-3893
W: www.mysteries
bymoushey.com
New Plays, Inc
P.O. Box 5074
Charlottesville, Virginia
22905
P: 434-823-7555
W: www.new
playsforchildren.com
Onstage Publishing
190 Lime Quarry Rd.
Ste. 106J
Madison, Alabama
35758
P: 256.461.0661
W: www.onstage
books.com
Pioneer Drama
Service, Inc.
P.O. Box 4267
Englewood, Colorado
80155
P: 800-333-7262
W: www.pioneer
drama.com
Plays And Musicals
Lantern House
Horsham, West
Sussex RH12 4JB
P: [44]
44-700-593-8842
W: www.playsand
musicals.co.uk
Plays Magazine
P.O. Box 600160
Newton,
Massachusetts 2460
P: 800-630-5755
W: www.playsmag.com
Playscripts, Inc
325 W 38th St.,
Ste. 305
New York, New York
10018
P: 866-639-7529
W: www.playscripts.com
Playwrights Canada
Press
215 Spadina Ave.
Toronto, Ontario M5T
2C7
P: 416-703-0013
W: www.playwright
scanada.com
Playwrights Guild Of
Canada
54 Wolseley St., 2nd Fl.
Toronto, Ontario M5T
1A5
P: 416-703-0201
W: www.playwrights
guild.ca
Popular Play Service
P.O. Box 3365
Bluffton,
South Carolina 29910
P: 843-705-7981
W: www.popplays.com
R&H Theatricals
229 W 28th St.
New York, New York
10001
P: 800-400-8160
W: www.rnhtheatri
cals.com
Readers Theatre
Script Service
P.O. Box 421262
San Diego, California
92142
P: (858) 277-4274
W: www.readersthe
atreinstitute.com
Samuel French, Inc
45 W 25th St.
New York, New York
10010
P: 212-206-8990
W: www.samuel
french.com
Scirocco Drama/
J. Gordon Shillingford
Publishing
Box 86
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3M 3S3
P: 204-779-6967
W: www.jgshilling ford.
com
Select Entertainment
Productions, LLC
23 Sugar Maple Ln.
Tinton Falls,
New Jersey 7724
P: 732-741-8832
W: www.select- shows.
com
Sewanee Writer’s
Conference
119 Gailor Hall
Sewanee, Tennessee
37383
P: 931-598-1141
W: www.sewanee
writers.org
Smith And Kraus
Publishers, Inc.
400 Bedford St.,
Ste. 322
Manchester,
New Hampshire 3101
P: 603.669.7032
W: www.smithand
kraus.com
Summerwind
Productions
P.O. Box 430
Windsor, Colorado
80550-0430
P: 970-377-2079
W: www.summerwind
productions.com
Tams-Witmark Music
Library, Inc
560 Lexington Ave.
New York, New York
10022
P: 212-688-9191
W: www.tamswitmark.
com
The Drama Book
Shop, Inc
250 W 40th St.
New York, New York
10018
P: 212-944-0595
W: www.dramabook
shop.com
The Freelance Press
670 Centre St.,
Ste. 8
Jamaica Plain,
Massachusetts 2130
P: 617-524-7045
W: www.freelance
players.org
Theatre Maximus
1650 Broadway,
Ste. 601
New York, New York
10019
P: 212-765-5913
W: www.godspell- themusical.com
Theatrefolk
P.O. Box 1064
Toronto, Ontario L0S
1B0
P: 866-245-9138
W: www.theatrefolk.
com
Theatrical Rights
Worldwide
1359 Broadway
Ste. 914
New York, New York
10018
P: 866-378-9758
F: 212-643-1322
W: www.theatrical
rights.com
Watson-Guptill
Publications
770 Broadway
New York, New York
10003
P: 800-278-8477
W: www.watsongup
till.com
2007-2008 Theatre Resource Directory
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 37

Show Biz
By Tim Cusack
Putting the Prenup On Paper
The Dramatists Guild has a few pointers for protecting both the writer and the theatre.
In highly competitive arts markets, in order for a company
to differentiate itself to funders and audiences it must premier
original pieces. And whatever path it takes to acquiring
new work — accepting submissions, commissioning
playwrights whose work the company admires, or generating
material in rehearsals that is later shaped into a performance
— it will need to negotiate a contract in order to ensure all
the parties involved are fairly compensated.
The organization that is tasked with reviewing all contracts
for working playwrights is the Dramatists Guild of
America. Unlike the acting unions, where one must be
hired for a professional job before being allowed to join,
any writer, upon submitting a completed play script and
paying a relatively modest fee, can become an associate
member of the Guild. Unlike the Writers Guild of America,
which is an actual union and negotiates contracts on
behalf of its membership, the Dramatists Guild is a trade
association and can only act in an advisory capacity. But
while playwrights or their agents must negotiate individually
with producers, the Guild is a co-signatory on all
contracts, which members are required to file with the
organization’s Business Affairs department. As such, it has
a big say in what those contracts ultimately contain.
To find out more about the process of negotiating a contract,
I spoke with David Faux, the Guild’s director of Business Affairs.
Faux is a lawyer by training, and he repeatedly stressed the
importance of not leaving anything to a verbal understanding.
“People think when I tell them to get it in writing that I’m just
being a lawyer,” says Faux. “But no one gets a prenup on their
first marriage.”
In other words, the love everyone’s feeling for each other at
the start of a project often clouds better business judgment, so
it’s in everyone’s best interests to have a clear understanding
from the very beginning of who owes what to whom, when, for
how much and for how long.
The Guild offers its members access to model forms that
they can then use as templates during their negotiations with
producers. At my company, we’ve used these models and found
them to be a workable solution when producing at the off-off-
Broadway level. Regardless of whether you take an existing
contract as your model or draw up an agreement from scratch,
there are a few elements you should keep in mind.
First, the playwright should receive a standard royalty between
5 and 10 percent of the gross. If that seems like too big a bite out
of your budget, Faux has a rejoinder: “I’ve had producers try to
negotiate a royalty payment as low as three percent. My response
is ‘If 95 percent of your gross can’t pay for the
show, then you can’t afford that script.’”
And keep in mind when managing cash
flow that it’s standard practice to offer playwrights
an advance on anticipated royalties,
with the balance to be paid once the final
B.O. tally has been calculated.
Secondly, every contract should include
an indemnification clause (language that
protects one or both parties if a signatory
to the contract knowingly promises
something that turns out to be false). Faux
points out that producers sometimes forget
that this language needs to be reciprocal
— that is, they include language that
protects the playwright, but neglect to
protect themselves if, say, the writer has
plagiarized portions of the play.
And finally, theatres that commission a
new play from a writer often mistakenly
assume that they own part or all of the copyright.
This is not the case, and the Guild will
require any language conferring copyright
on the producer to be struck.
For Faux, it all boils down to keeping it
simple. Don’t try to include complicated language
concerning subsidiary rights to future
productions, but do include language that
gives you the option to negotiate later for
those potentially lucrative payments if the
show moves to a bigger venue. Like in any
marriage, clear, honest communication will
leave all parties feeling taken care of.
38 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

TD Talk
By Dave McGinnis
Do It Right, Or Do It Elsewhere
Safety should never be a priority — it should be THE priority.
Part of my job incorporates teaching future techs about
theatre safety while on the job. Of course, we set out to
get the job done to the best of our abilities, but I notice
more and more how willing techs are to put life and limb at
risk in order to give the appearance of daring and skill. Over
the years, though, I’ve noticed some behaviors, which will
often precede such risks, and the safety of your techs can be
sustained by watching for these signs.
1. Competitions
How many of us have taken part in some form of pseudoathletic
competition that included feats of speed and accuracy,
ranging from racing one another up a ladder to re-focusing an
ellipsoidal? I confess it — I have. At the time — and in younger
days by no coincidence — I knew for a fact that I could get
these things done in blazing time. But looking back, much of
what I did was caused by an acceptance to unnecessary danger.
I would go to height without safety equipment because
1) I wanted to save time and 2) I had enough success in these
tech competitions to believe myself invincible.
This is not to say that tech competitions don’t have their
place, but as TDs, it falls on us to monitor them and make sure
that everything gets done right, even in fun. It only takes one
accident to end a life.
given predicament. Under those circumstances, accidents
can, and do, happen. I’ve personally worked on crews where
techs who had worked for too long without break or sleep
suffered injuries from drops or electrocution.
Unions mandate working conditions for a reason, and I
find it wise to implement these rules whether you’re a union
house or not. In my youth, I prided myself on my ability to
work all-nighters and still function the next day, but now I
realize that I placed myself in harm’s way.
As my body refused to heal from accidents based on stupidity,
I grew wiser. In later years, I worked a freelance gig
and one day noticed that a lot of the gear was missing safety
cables, and this particular house had lighting over both the
stage and the house. Any piece that would have fallen would
have surely hit someone. I took it upon myself to go through
every beam, attaching safeties to any fixtures lacking them.
One of the older techs caught me doing this and pulled me
aside to tell me, “You’re doing God’s work. Don’t ever stop.”
I soon noticed that two other techs had been dispatched
elsewhere to do the same thing.
See? If safety becomes a habit in your theatre, it becomes
contagious very quickly. To this day, I smile more to see a tech
don goggles and gloves than to see them cut a perfect 47
1
/16-inch two-by-four.
2. Attitudes
This one is tough to spot, and sometimes
it’s already too late by the time you
notice. I once knew a lighting tech who
absorbed at least 110 volts at 15 amps on
more than one occasion, and that was only
in my presence. I can’t speak to how many
times he had done it elsewhere. (Luckily, I
was just another tech at the time, not the
head honcho.) These incidents stemmed
from a strong desire to prove himself, but
in trying to prove he could do the job he
would forget minutia… like pulling dimmers
before pulling circuits.
Because of this, I make sure to always let
my techs know that I would much rather
fall behind on a show in an atmosphere of
safety and support than get done with time
to spare and two techs in the ER. I can jump
in and help with a lighting rig — I can’t say
the same about a human body.
3. Overworking
This is the biggie. Good techs will go to
great lengths to get their jobs done, and
we should extend our gratitude to them
every chance we get, but overworking
leads to catastrophic errors. As we get
tired, our minds and bodies slow, disabling
our ability to react quickly to emergency
situations or to predict the results of a
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 39

Off the Shelf
By Stephen Peithman
TheBig Picture
Theatre classics on DVD
Thanks mostly to the BBC, there is an embarrassment
of theatrical riches among recent DVD releases, with
multi-disc sets offering Shaw, Shakespeare, Wilde,
Chekhov and Ibsen — plus a modern classic about the business
of nonprofit theatre.
The Shaw Collection includes six acclaimed adaptations
of George Bernard Shaw's classic plays, including Arms and
the Man, with Helena Bonham Carter; The Devil's Disciple, with
Patrick Stewart and Ian Richardson; Mrs. Warren's Profession,
with Coral Browne; Pygmalion, with Lynn Redgrave;
Heartbreak House, with John Gielgud; and The Millionairess,
with Maggie Smith. Three "bonus plays" are also included
(You Never Can Tell, Androcles and the Lion and The Man of
Destiny), plus two short documentaries, (The Wit and World
of George Bernard Shaw and the shorter George Bernard Shaw
Lived Here) and audio of Shaw on the radio. [BBC Video,
$59.98. In addition, Arms and the Man, The Devil's Disciple, Mrs.
Warren's Profession, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House and The
Millionairess are available individually.]
The Henrik Ibsen Collection features 10 BBC productions
in one six-disc box set. Considered the father of modern
realistic drama, Ibsen attacked the values of the Victorian
society in which he lived, and yet many of his themes are
thoroughly modern today. The collection features stellar
casts in Ibsen's best-known (and some lesser-known) works,
including Ingrid Bergman and Michael Redgrave in Hedda
Gabler; Judi Dench and Michael Gambon in Ghosts; Anthony
Hopkins and Diana Rigg in Little Eyolf; Denholm Elliot in The
Wild Duck; and Sir Donald Wolfitt and Leo McKern, respectively,
in two different productions of The Master Builder.
Other plays in the set include Brand, A Doll's House, An Enemy
of the People and The Lady from the Sea, plus radio versions
of Peer Gynt, The Pretenders, Emperor and Galilean, The Pillars
of Society, Rosmersholm, John Gabriel Borkman and When We
Dead Awaken. As a bonus, the set adds A Meeting in Rome, a
play by Michael Meyer about a fictional meeting between
Ibsen and August Strindberg. [BBC Video, $59.98]
The Anton Chekhov Collection includes The Seagull with
Michael Gambon; The Three Sisters with Anthony Hopkins,
Eileen Atkins and Janet Suzman; two productions of Uncle
Vanya (one with Anthony Hopkins and another with Ian
Holm); and two productions of The Cherry Orchard (one with
Judi Dench and Bill Paterson, the other with John Gielgud
and Peggy Ashcroft, Ian Holm and a much younger Dench).
Bonus features include audio productions of an additional
four plays and A Visit from Vanya, a feature on Oleg Efremov,
director of the Moscow Arts Theatre. The set totals more than
18 hours of programming on six discs, including several productions
available for the first time in North America. [BBC
Video, $59.98]
The Oscar Wilde Collection presents four plays, digitally
remastered, including The Importance of Being Earnest (with
Joan Plowright as Lady Bracknell), An Ideal Husband (with
Susan Hampshire and Jeremy Brett) and Lady Windermere's
Fan (with Helena Little, Tim Woodward, Stephanie Turner
and Sara Kestelman), as well as a dramatized version of The
Picture of Dorian Gray (with Peter Firth, Sir John Gielgud and
Jeremy Brett). Like the other BBC releases, all plays are divided
into chapters, so you can search out particular scenes.
[BBC Video, $39.98]
Shakespeare Retold is a two-disc collection with four
cutting-edge productions that emphasize the parallels
between Shakespeare's day and the modern world. Here,
Macbeth is the chef in a three-star restaurant, slicing apart his
celebrity boss, Duncan. Much Ado About Nothing's Beatrice
and Benedick (Sarah Parrish and Damian Lewis) are rival
co-anchors on a nightly newscast. In A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Titania and Bottom romp through a tacky theme
park. And in The Taming of the Shrew, the eccentric aristocrat
Petruchio (Rufus Sewell) sets out to tame Kate (Shirley
Henderson), who is played here as a conservative member
of Parliament. Particularly notable is the chemistry between
the various leads, and the occasional modernization of
Shakespeare's language. [BBC Video $34.98]
Slings and Arrows is a smartly written, smartly acted
Canadian television series (seen in the U.S. on the Sundance
Channel) that is funny because it speaks so precisely to
the world of nonprofit regional theatre. Paul Gross (Due
South) stars as Geoffrey Tennant, the passionate but
unstable artistic director of the New Burbage Theatre
Festival. Haunted by the ghost of his predecessor (Stephen
Ouimette), he struggles to realize his creative vision while
handling touchy actors, a jittery general manager (Mark
McKinney), a pretentious guest director (Don McKellar)
and his issue-laden romance with the festival's leading
lady (Martha Burns). The backstage bedlam mirrors the
onstage angst as Geoffrey directs three of Shakespeare's
masterpieces — Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear — one in
each season. This is arguably the best fictional account
of life in the theatre, and Slings & Arrows: The Complete
Collection includes cast interviews, bloopers, deleted and
extended scenes, plus a new disc with the A Look Behind
the Scenes documentary, cast and crew interviews, and onset
footage. [Acorn Media , $59.99]
40 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

The Play’s the Thing
By Stephen Peithman
The Long & Short
Plays from 10-minute to full-length
Theatre is not a one-size-fits-all proposition —
whether in terms of subject matter or the amount
of time required to cover it — as evidenced by this
month's roundup of recently published plays that range
from 10-minute plays to full-length productions.
Manifesto Series V.1 is an anthology from Rain City
Projects, Seattle's 16-year-old playwright service organization.
Works chosen by Editor Erik Ehn include Great Men
of Science, No. 21 & 22 by Glen Berger; Back of the Throat
by Yussef El Guindi; Tornado & Avalanche by Bret Fetzer
& Juliet Waller-Pruzan; Cleveland Raining by Sung Rno;
Stray by Heidi Schreck; and Two Birds and a Stone by Amy
Wheeler. This is an edgy collection with an often apocalyptic
spin on everything from politics to science, from war to
natural disasters. These plays of varying lengths aren't for
everyone, but all strive to help us see the world around us
in a very different way. [Rain City Projects, $19.95]
Don Nigro's My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon
takes on the story of Evelyn Nesbit, the beautiful chorus
girl at the center of an explosive and deadly love triangle
involving architect Stanford White (her married lover) and
Harry K. Thaw, her wealthy and demented husband, who
eventually shot White at Madison Square Garden in 1906.
The affair plays a part in the musical Ragtime, but here it's
a bit more like Chicago — a darkly comic play (for three
women, two men) chronicling the events leading up to
the murder and Nesbit's subsequent wild ride through the
American tabloid press. While most accounts have pushed
the sensational aspects of the story, Nigro lets the facts
speak for themselves. The result is a quirky, ironic account
that expertly combines real-life situations with nonrealistic
theatricality. [Samuel French]
Another history play is Bill W. and Dr. Bob, by Stephen
Bergman and Janet Surrey. It's the story of the two men
who founded Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives,
who pioneered Al-Anon. Richly textured with the ragtime
and jazz of the era, the play comes across as an unusual
American success story. The message is nicely handled
through well written, often humorous scenes that include
a number of significant supporting characters — most
notably the two wives — including two actors who play
the various men and women helped by the team of Bob
and Bill. What's particularly fascinating is AA's successful
launch, despite the profound differences in the personalities
and backgrounds of those two titans of temperance.
This is a real audience-pleaser, as proven by the 118-
minute DVD of the original off-Broadway production,
which also includes a 25-minute question-and-answer
session after the show. Both script and DVD are available
from Samuel French.
Brett Neveu's The Last Barbecue is a quietly dark comedy
about Ted and Jan's barbecue held during a 10-year
reunion of their son's high school graduation, and the
one-year anniversary of the death of their next-door
neighbor. In the first act, the parents attempt to get ready
for the barbecue, oppressed by regret and the heat. Their
son, Barry, and his wife join the barbecue. Barry, a bit of a
bully (like his father), makes fun of the situation and looks
forward to going to his high school graduation that night
to show everyone how much he's changed. (He hasn't,
really.) His wife tries to rein him in as he pushes his father's
buttons, revealing how much both have in common, and
how much both wish they weren't who they have ended
up becoming. The second act takes place late the same
night, when Barry shows up again, looking for beer and
a chance to have it out with his father. There's no real
change for anyone at the end of this beautifully written
slice-of-life drama, with the four characters remain locked
in a continuous cycle of clichés and crushed dreams.
[Broadway Play Publishing]
The 10-minute play as an accepted dramatic form is a
fairly recent development. Some would say its popularity
stems from our diminished attention span, and there may
be some truth in that. On the other hand, it's been taken
up by theatre companies across the country as a way to
help emerging playwrights, or established playwrights to
experiment with new forms. And, in fact, the "best" plays
in the new volumes, 2006: The Best Ten-Minute Plays
for 3 or More Actors, are the ones that depart most from
conventional drama. The new collection includes 13 plays
for three actors, nine plays for four actors, and three for six
or more actors. Some of the playwrights may be familiar
(Don Nigro, Craig Pospisil), but most are from talented,
but relatively unknown writers who strut some very good
stuff, indeed. The same can be said for 2006: The Best Ten-
Minute Plays for 2 Actors, which includes 16 plays for one
man and one woman, four plays for two women, and five
plays for two men. [Smith & Kraus, $19.95 each]
www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 41

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42 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com

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Control Systems for Live
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www.stage-directions.com • April 2008 43

Answer Box
By L. Jean Burch
Magic Tricks for the Stage
Custom-making realistic prop drinks
All photography by L. Jean Burch
The Light Opera Oklahoma production of HMS Pinafore
Milk, slush powder and food coloring combined to make a
solid tropical “drink.”
Replicating food onstage almost always presents an
interesting challenge. For a production of HMS Pinafore
at Light Opera Oklahoma, the director was looking for
a series of colorful tropical martini-style drinks in increasingly
larger glasses. The drinks needed to look very realistic. Also,
the raked deck and movement of the actress required that
the drinks be completely spill proof. This was particularly an
issue with the largest drink, which was contained in a very
oversized martini glass.
Our options pointed toward a solid material filling the glass.
It needed to adhere to the glass; however, adhesive tended to
make the drinks appear unrealistic. We considered purchasing
the drinks, but the director was interested in specific color
schemes for each scene and size of glass. Additionally, the
largest size was unavailable for purchase. After investigating
several different alternatives, we decided to use a substance
used in magic tricks called slush powder, which is also sold
under the names Lightening Gel or Water Gel.
After much experimentation, we determined that milk
was the best choice for the liquid. It took the coloring well,
and the consistency was nice when the prop was finished
(it had a texture and appearance very similar to a frozen
Different colored layers were
prepared in the glass.
The “drinks” were actor safe, staying in the glass even
when upside-down.
drink). We mixed cold milk, food coloring and grenadine
to the desired coloring. We found that it was easiest to mix
the largest drink by combining small amounts of liquid with
the powder in the prop glass working in layers. It should be
noted that we did mix a higher ratio of powder to liquid than
the instructions indicated; in general, we added the powder
to the liquid until we reached the desired consistency. The
top layer was styled with a spoon so that the finished edge
was level and clean. Accessories such as umbrellas and fruit
slices were then added to make the drink more inviting.
The finished props did need to be kept refrigerated
(because we used a milk base). They were taken out during
the pre-show, setup, and returned after the show to the
refrigerator. The run lasted several months, and we remade
the drinks every three to four weeks. The slush powder was
inexpensive, and was available in local magic shops, craft
shops and in a variety of places online. The drinks looked very
realistic, and stayed securely in the glass even when turned
upside down.
L. Jean Burch is a project manager at Chicago Scenic Studios.
Her blog can be seen at: tdtidbits.blogspot.com.
44 April 2008 • www.stage-directions.com
Answer Box Needs You!
Every production has its challenges. We’d like to hear how you solved them!
Send your Answer Box story and pics to answerbox@stage-directions.com.