I had an interesting conversation with my director recently. He has the first draft of act one, and we're meeting to talk dramaturgically next week. Just to give you some background: the show was commissioned by a national youth theatre company. The cast will consist of 36 young people from age 14 to about 19, I think. We'll all be in residence to rehearse it for two solid weeks, culminating in three performances at a regional theatre.
It's very difficult to do an existing full-length show from scratch in two weeks with a cast of 36, but it's almost impossible to do a full, brand new show in that time. It's a funny old mix, putting young amateurs and raw material together. I'm still not sure if it quite works. The last show I had published that was written for young people had actually received a final rewrite after a production with adult professionals, which I swear is the reason that the quality of the published version makes me happier than the quality of shows published after just one production with kids.
But that's about my oft-repeated belief that writing for young people should still be about the writing, not about the kids. There are no 'allowances' to be made in the writing just because kids will perform it. So naturally, I'm going to be in rehearsals with them, working the writing as we go along, just like I would with any show. (And the kids actually love working with me on that.)
Because of all this, we've decided just to do act one for this workshop. The plan is to get it to as high a performance standard as possible, then invite potential investors and see if we can raise the money to do a big production next year, possibly at Edinburgh Festival. Fun, fun, fun!
So he has act one, and he commented that his first and most obvious concern is the part the chorus play in the show. I should explain that my aim for this show was to give as many kids as possible a named part with a line of dialogue, or a little bit of solo singing. The thing most directors ask me about my shows is, "Can we have some extra dialogue? I've got a cast of 184 kids and their parents all want to see their kid feature!" (We do have a way to do that in the published shows, actually. For any cast size. I'm quite proud of figuring out how to make that work!)
I'm also quite proud of the fact that, as it stands, act one has 95 named characters. And not one of them was forced into the story. A lot of them are part of a crowd, and it was an interesting challenge to see if I could make a chorus be individuals-in-one-place rather than a Crowd. In some places, we've absolutely achieved that (and in song, too!). But it's always the case with me that the journey of the main characters makes up the skeleton of the show in the first draft. The second draft then consists of me fleshing out the world, the community, and so on. So I wasn't surprised that my director mentioned that problem.
However, amongst other things, he's focusing on having to keep 36 kids busy all day, every day, for two whole weeks. Which is a very valid problem - and more his problem than mine. I asked if we could focus dramaturgically on the show itself first, and then address that problem. He replied that although he understood what I was asking, we should bear in mind that the show was commissioned for this company, and this is how they work.
It's a good point, and we should absolutely keep that in mind. But the show must have a future beyond this company. No show exists just to serve the first production (even though it must totally serve the first production). Even the huge Miss Saigon was re-worked to fit in smaller, touring venues.
This company is pretty unusual in its method of having a two-week solid rehearsal/show period. Most youth companies will rehearse in evenings, and don't have to call the entire company to every rehearsal. Even if we did a professional, adult production of it, it would still not be necessary to keep the entire cast entertained throughout rehearsals.
I can't imagine how difficult it must be for a director to separate themselves between dramaturgical work and actual directing. Usually, I suppose they don't have to as much as I'm asking mine to do now. But it is very important to me that we don't force the show to be something so inflexible that it can only be done by this company in the future.
Luckily, my director is one of the good guys. It's great to be able to have this conversation with him, and for him to understand it. Hardly surprising, actually, since he spends a lot of time reading and advising on new musicals. We're also very lucky that the company only works with new writing, so they understand the nature of the process and are very happy to allow things like an act-one-only workshop.
We will address the issue of how a large-cast, big-chorus show can make the best use of its large cast and big chorus. We completely need to address that, and it will be very insightful for me since I've never actually sat down and thought about it. Big shows are rare these days. Youth theatre is about the only place you get to do them... well, you have to, for them. So I'll post more about that as I learn more about it.
But I wanted to post about this because, for me, it's a really important distinction to make: the show vs the production. I would imagine it's also true of things like the first cast. I'm sure there are many shows that have had songs added because the Big Star wanted another solo - and I'm sure that the character often benefitted from that, since a part that is worthy of a big star is surely important enough to warrant another big emotional moment. But there is the danger that one might rewrite a character for an actor who is, say, particularly good with physical comedy... thereafter demanding that only good physical comedy actors can play that part.
The same for venue restrictions, and other such things that are unique to a first production. I just think it's worth bearing those things in mind.
