Ask Kevin
Production/Performance Questions Answered by Kevin M Reese
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Kevin M Reese, the fellow who wrote Beneath the Upper Room, has been working in professional theatre for over 30 years. First as an actor, then as a director, producer, playwright-- just about the only job he doesn't have on his resume is choreographer (oh, the stories he could tell!). We posed some of the production questions we've recieved to him and post his responses here.
Q: You provide a video in the Production Packet. We want to play it for the cast, but it isn't very good resolution. Can we get it on a DVD that looks better on a big screen TV?
A: No. It's in low resolution for a very good reason. We don't want the video being played for the public. We provide the video only for the eyes of the director and his/her staff so they can see how the elements of the show come together. They can see the path of actors entering/exiting the stage, the appearance of a particular prop, etc. It's an example of how the story can be told-- it's not the story itself. The .wmv file is the only version of the video that is available.
As far as having your cast watch the video-- while it is perfectly acceptible, I would suggest that you don't do that. Instead, use the time to allow your actors to discover their own "Beneath the Upper Room." It's very difficult for beginning actors to watch a video and NOT immitate what they saw. There is nothing worse for a director than giving a direction then having an actor say: "but that's not how they did it in the video."
© 2010, Kevin M Reese. All Rights Reserved.