Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
April 20, 2016 7:51 a.m.
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Starlight Express in London. The staging was unique. Ramps led off the stage, around the floor of the theatre, and up around the front of the balcony. These ramps were used by actors on roller skates to portray trains in various races. It was amazing.
Think a minute about the director reading the script and trying to decide how train races could be depicted convincingly on a stage. For that matter, read any play and think about how to put it into actions. As a friend of mine said, “How do you turn words on a page into words on a stage?” Starlight Express is an unusual situation but the issue involves every play.
Using Shakespeare’s Macbeth as an example, it’s easy to see how you might stage the scene with the three witches. However, when you think about the actors in relation to the audience, it’s not quite so easy to find a way to make it real. You might be tempted to have the three witches standing around the cauldron but that would mean one witch would have her back to the audience and would be talking to the scenery. So you have to have all three on one side of the cauldron. In addition, they have to talk to each other but include the audience.
If you have been curious about the art of turning scripts into performance, I have just the answer for you. Next month local director, Ron Kurtz, is going to let us in on how the magic is created. Ron is directing Arsenic and Old Lace at the Amelia Community Theatre starting on June 9. He has agreed to conduct a workshop using this play to show us how to move the words from the page to the stage. The workshop will run for four sessions starting Thursday, May 5. The sessions will be from 3 to 5 pm every Thursday in May.
Participants will be provided with a script of the play and a book on directing. During the four sessions, Ron will go through the process of determining how to stage the play. Following the sessions, participants will be able to purchase tickets for the play at a discount. Attending the opening night production is recommended but not essential. After the participants have seen the play, there will be a fifth session to discuss the production.
For information on the class and/or to register, call the box office at 261-6749 or go to the ACT website – www.ameliacommunitytheatre.org.
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