Step+4+Staging


 * [[image:director_md_clr.gif align="left"]]From Aaron Shepherds "Staging Tips"**

The “Set”
You don’t //construct// sets for reader’s theater—but you can //suggest// them. The narrator’s descriptions are brought to life by the readers’ movements and mime. If a reader opens a door, we see it. If readers hang ornaments on a Christmas tree, we know right where it is. As in theater, you start designing your “set” by figuring out what locations your script calls for. Then you position those locations on your stage in whatever arrangement works and looks best. Look for ease of reader movement, stage balance, and openness to the audience. Readers can move to different stage areas for different scenes. Or they can stay in the same area and you can “change the set.” Or the set can move to them! For instance, a reader could move from room to room in a house just by walking in place, climbing some stairs, and opening some doors—all without moving an inch. 

Reader Movement
After designing your “set,” decide where your readers will start and where they will go. Don’t forget the narrators. Drawing a series of movement diagrams can help you spot problems, save time during rehearsal, and jog your memory the next time you use the script. In one simple diagram system, circles are low stools, double circles are high stools, crosses are readers, and arrows show movement.
 * [|Sample movement diagrams] (PDF, 1 page)

To go “offstage,” a reader doesn’t need to actually leave the area but can instead go //BTA//—“back to audience.” This indicates to the audience that the reader is out of the picture. If sitting on a stool, the reader can usually just turn around on it. If standing, the reader should also get out of the way by moving toward the back of the stage. Narrators seldom go BTA, even if they’re not reading for a while. In regular theater, the curtain or the lights coming down indicates a “scene change”—a jump in time and/or place. In reader’s theater, this change is shown by some kind of break in movement. For instance, the readers can all “freeze” in place like statues. Or they can turn BTA, freeze, then come back in. Or they can freeze, then cross the stage for the next scene. If one scene in the story flows smoothly into the next, without a jump, you may not need a break at all. 

Mime and Sound Effects
Whatever action is described in the script, readers should try either to do it or else to suggest it through mime. If someone is eating, we should see the fork carried to the mouth. If someone is hanging in the air, we should see the arm pulled tight by the floating balloon. If someone is racing a horse, we should see the galloping hooves. The key word here is “suggest,” because the movements are often far from realistic. For instance, it’s hard to take off a coat realistically when one hand holds a script. Readers quickly learn to sleep sitting up, with their heads bent to the side. And walking in place is a reader’s favorite mode of travel. Part of successful group mime is being aware of the invisible. If a stool is meant to be a chair at a table, make sure no one walks through the table! Even a door that’s invisible shouldn’t shift position as different people pass through it. If two characters look at a picture on the wall, they will hopefully agree where it is! Sounds in the story too should be added where possible—explosions, wind, bees, roosters, whatever. To help the illusion, this is usually handled by readers who are BTA. 

Focus
//Focus// refers to where the readers are looking. Most of the time, it’s simple: Narrators use //audience focus//—they look straight at the audience. Characters use //on-stage focus//—they look at whoever they’re talking to, just as in plays or real life. But sometimes you may want characters to use //off-stage focus.// The readers imagine a screen facing them, as wide as the stage, set up at the front edge of the audience. On this screen they imagine a mirror image of all the readers. Then instead of talking straight to each other, they talk to each other’s image. If you prefer, you can “move” the screen farther from the readers.

The most important use of off-stage focus is to help create illusions of distance or height. Two characters on the same stage but using off-stage focus can shout and wave at each other as if a mile apart. If one looks upward and one looks downward, you have a midget talking to a giant, or a woman in a window talking to a man in the street. Characters can at times also use audience focus, addressing comments directly to the audience. They might also use this focus if the audience is drawn into the story—as might happen, for instance, if the audience suddenly becomes a hill completely covered with cats. 

Beginnings and Endings
One reader should introduce the story with at least the title and the author. Beyond that, something can be said about the story, about the author, or about the performance. Just don’t give away the plot! After the introduction, the readers wait to begin until they’re all in place and frozen and the audience is quiet. At the end, the last words are spoken slowly and with rhythm, so the audience knows the story is over. Everyone recognizes the ending “//hap-//pily //ev-//er //af-//ter.” But the same effect can be achieved with almost any words by reading them in a “slow three.” When the story is finished, the readers freeze for a long moment to break the action. Then they close their scripts, face the audience, and bow all together. You may want to assign one reader to lead this closing sequence. Beginnings and endings should be rehearsed along with the story so they’ll go smoothly.