High School Musicals
One often thinks of a teacher as someone who stands in a classroom and lectures the learners in front of them about the next topic in the textbook. While this is an inaccurate description of a teacher, it is sadly what most people think of when the word is used.
However, having been privileged enough to have spent many years in a Classroom I am happy to say that a great teacher is engaging, excited, passionate and has answered a calling to be there.
In my years in a classroom I also realised that not only are you continually designing curriculums and lessons, you are also constantly managing projects of some sort. These projects vary from simply ensuring that your teaching schedule is delivered throughout the term, to managing sports teams and in my case, plays and musical ensembles.
I directed and produced two full scale musical productions in my time as a teacher, which turned out to be 2 very large year long projects.
In my role as director I managed everything in order to get both Footloose and Fame onto the stage.
Before casting started
I dealt with SAMRO to secure the rights to perform both musicals, negotiated the cost and royalty fees and ensured the play scripts and music scores would arrive before the start of the next year.
All Things Cast
I researched the characters from the play, held auditions for the parts and cast the learners into their relevant roles. Once I had the cast on board the work really got started. Rehearsals ran 5 days a week for 8 months to ensure we were ready for opening night. I directed the characters, worked on choreography of the dance scenes, worked with the band to ensure they were ready and ran vocal rehearsals with the cast.
Managing timelines and Schedules
Creating the timeline for the rehearsal schedule required careful thought and planning. Each evening 's rehearsal needed to be used to the greatest impact meaning the cast that were there needed to be in every scene we were rehearsing, and the main cast could not be there every night.
Costumes and props
Not only did I manage all the aspects of the cast, bands and choreography; I also needed to ensure that the props, stage sets and costumes were ready for the final rehearsals of the play. The props and stage sets I built myself along with a some of ground staff from the school, and the costumes I designed with the learners involved.
Lighting Design
In the final weeks of the rehearsal schedule the lights became paramount to help set the scene. These technical rehearsals are important to ensure that when the mics come in for the final dress rehearsals the show is ready to run. I used the school DMX lighting design software to set the lights per scene so that the student who was the lighting technician for the show was easily able to change them as needed.
Budgeting
I monitored budgets and ticket sales throughout the production of these shows and ensured that they were ready for the stage on opening night and made a profit to be successful fundraising event for the school.