What does it mean to be courageous? Do you have to climb a mountain? Or stand up to a bully? Is it possible that we can find courage in just being ourselves? This season, Encore is exploring the theme of courage through a variety of mainstage shows, from The Lion KingJr to Flip the Script to Footloose and everything in between. All of the characters we will meet this season are courageous in their own way, so you’ll have to come out and see how they show it!
But what about our everyday lives? How can we be courageous at school and at home? In theatre, we use the phrase “yes, and” to express the openness we try to bring to the stage, but that approach takes courage! It means we are available to help those around us, always looking for ways we can support them. Courage is being yourself. When you bring your full self to whatever you are doing (group projects, chores at home, rehearsals), everyone around you benefits. We need each other’s unique perspective in order to be successful in whatever we do.
Here at Encore, we get to find our courage on stage or behind the curtain, and don’t forget about the classroom! We all belong and are needed to be a community of artists inspiring each other to develop creativity, empathy, and confidence.
Welcome to our new series, “Parker’s Performance Playbook” which is all about theatre dramaturgy! If you’ve never seen that word before or you don’t know what it means, read on! I’m here to talk all about it.
So, what is dramaturgy? Dramaturgy is an exploration of the world of the play. It is the study of the context of a show, learning what the world looks like outside of what is directly mentioned in the script, helping the directors and actors understand what is going on around the characters in the play.
If a play is set in the 1920’s, the dramaturgy would include research about the jazz music being created in that time period and the kind of clothes people wore, even what kind of food the characters might have eaten! What could the dramaturgy include for a show set in 2024? Is the main character in the play more likely to have seen Inside Out 2 or Despicable Me 4? Are there trends they might be following, like stylish clothes or TikTok dances?
Sometimes a play is all about a historical event. In that case, the dramaturgy is very important because it helps the cast create as accurate a picture as possible of a real moment in history. Our Flip the Script play, The Day Nothing Happened, is about a real event when Stratford Junior High School desegregated, right here in Arlington. It was important that the people who wrote and performed the play knew the slang and fashion from 1959 so that the characters they portrayed really seemed like they belonged in that moment in history.
Other times, a play is set in a fictional place, but it is the dramaturg’s job to find out what the customs and norms of this fictional land might be. If snowmen talk, does that mean reindeer do, too? Is magic accepted or do people fear it?
In the upcoming weeks, you can look forward to more of Parker’s Performance Playbook as I dive into some interesting details around our upcoming mainstage show, The Lion King! Tickets for the show and pre show experiences are available now.
Encore’s production of Disney’s The Lion King Jr
Presenting November 8-24, 2024 at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre
Greetings everyone, I’m Emma, the Marketing and Development Coordinator at Encore Stage & Studio. I’m happy to begin this series called Emma’s Ensemble Feature, where I’ll be talking about all things ensemble related in theatre. I have several years of ensemble work under my belt, as I have twelve years of choreography experience in musical theatre. Today, we’re going to take a look at the top five things I think make a strong ensemble.
#1 – Energy. The ensemble of a show is the life force. When an ensemble is having fun and is full of energy, it increases the quality of the show. Even with tragic moments, when the ensemble channels the right mood for the scene, the audience will feel it too.
#2 – Health. All performers need to maintain their health. When you’re in the ensemble, you are asked to sing, dance, and act. Make sure you eat before rehearsals and shows, as well was warm up your body and voice properly. If you’re sick, make sure to stay home so you don’t get the rest of the cast sick. If you’re injured, make sure to come to rehearsal and sit out by take notes about any blocking or choreography you will need to know when you are able to go full out again.
#3 – Diversity. Ensembles need to be made up of a diverse cast, make for a strong ensemble. To not only be diverse in skill set (we need good dancers, every voice part, even people who can tumble or ride a unicycle or juggle!), but diverse in race, gender, body type, and age. The ensemble of a cast tells the story of what people not only exist in the play, but in our community outside of the theater. It is very important that the ensemble represents that well.
#4 – Blend. While ensembles are made up of multiple individuals, it is the same unit. While the ensemble literally sings in harmony, and to achieve that they need to have a good vocal blend, a strong ensemble also needs to move as a unit. No one member of the ensemble needs to stand out above the rest. While some ensemble members may get featured parts here and there, the ensemble is a group before anything else
#5 – Consistency. The phrase “practice makes perfect” is very popular, but “practice makes consistent” is much better. No show will ever be perfect, with live theater, people will make mistakes that you can’t edit out as if you were in a movie. Most mistakes that are made in live theatre go unnoticed anyway. The audience will never know the show was well as the cast does. What is realistic to strive for is consistency. Building both confidence and competence in our parts in the show through repetition will enable us to be able to best do the show as close to the same way each night that we can best hope for. Striving for consistency in quality will reach better results than “perfection” will ever will.
If being in an ensemble of a play or musical seems like fun to you, there are many options at Encore Stage & Studio for joining! We have upcoming auditions for Flip the Script: Foodways of Arlington, a Cultural Celebration on October 14 from 5:30-8:30 PM a Arlington Mill or October 15from 5:30-8:30 PM at Cherrydale and The Twelve Dancing Princesses on October 15 from 5:30-8:30 PM at Cherrydale, well as mini-camps where we put on a play in a day on school holidays!
