A small theater acting production is probably some of the great places art can originate. Usually it’s on a shoestring budget, the talent is top-notch because they’re unknowns, and the whole crew has to make something spectacular with little or no resources. Five years ago, I wrote, produced and directed a feature length play called THE SHOP. In short it was about a young man who falls in love with a girl but is afraid to tell her the truth about his past. The young man’s family is involved in the mafia and the butcher shop that is owned by the young man’s uncle is the front for illegal activities. I wrote four drafts and when the forth draft came out, I wrote one more to compensate for the location I was in. It was a student production, and we had use of a small theater. Small theater acting in my experience is more intmate because the audience is right in your fave. The theater I used, was small and had use of folding chairs for seats, a CD player for a sound system, and a rusty typewriter that was left in the theater that I actually recycled and used as a prop. My budget was very shoestring and in the budget included advertising (flyers and programs), some costumes, music, props, and some equipment. I paid for all of this out of own pocket because this was my vision and my dream. I was fortunate enough to have my show in a theater department; I had access to their lighting equipment and costumes. That helped a great deal. We were on a tight rehearsal schedule too; I had my theater for the performances but not to rehearse. So I begged and pleased with the administration to give me a room and they found an empty classroom on the nights we had to rehearse. The restrictions of the room were awful there was no real way I could properly rehearse and we had to maintain our suspension of disbelief. But limited resources means that the project either flourishes or diminishes. Regardless if I had to rehearse in a boxcar or something, I knew that my direction to every actor had to be there. So I spent equal amount of time with every actor that worked with me. I gave them all the respect in the world especially since they were doing this for me for nothing (no pay). What they were doing it for was to express themselves artistically and their reward was in the end the applause of the audience. Small theater is so worth it on so many levels. The exposure is there, with my show I had so many sold out nights with just word of mouth that made it worth it. The craft, to actually go out on stage with usually unsolicited or fresh new material is exciting to any actor.
And the experience and the bonding with the cast and crew, you work together for months on something that starts as a table-read and works it out to be a complicated larger than life 3D version of what’s on the page, it creates a bonding. Where everybody is working and taking on extra tasks to get the project done and looking the best it can be. Relationships form and long last friendships could prevail, I met my wife on the set of THE SHOP, and I never regret doing that show.
One anecdote that I found amusing about the power of being a “director,” the theater that I had the show in actual doubled for a classroom, and as a show of faith to me the teacher actually had her theater students help me unload folding chairs for my performance. As we were unloading the chairs a young girl came up to me, unbeknownst to her who I was, said we should just pile them up against the wall and who would care anyway. I responded, that I would. She looked puzzled at me and asked who I was. I smiled and said the director and she immediately apologized to me. For that one second it felt good to have that kind of power.
Small stage is not a small world, it’s bigger, better and meatier than any clichéd thing that you could find on your main stage. Small theater acting is all worth it.
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