A play is only a couple hours long, but the director prepares the production up to a year in advance, from choosing the script to pulling up the curtain.
Artistic directors of theater companies, such as Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson and Phoenix and Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria, helped explain each step they go through to put together a show and season.
The director has 12 months before the curtain rises.
“I know we’re beginning to secure the rights for a few of next season’s shows, so we’re going to have a couple shows already secured pretty soon,” said April Jackson, the education manager at Arizona Theatre Company. “You really do need to start thinking ahead quite a lot in advance.”
While Arizona Theatre Company has facilities in Tucson, it is one of the Herberger Theater Center’s resident companies and has been using the facility for decades.
“We usually just give the theater our schedule once it’s finalized, and they take care of it from there,” Jackson said. “We’ve been there so long, and we always use the same stage, so there’s a common understanding between us. We pay them, but there’s never much hassle or discussion.”
Greta Haug, the production supervisor at the Herberger Theater, said that because the resident company brings all its own staff and does its own ticketing, the Herberger staff is not very involved with the production process.
“For a dance recital or something of a smaller scale, we’ll design lights for them during a tech rehearsal. But the resident companies bring their own sets and lights and everything. They just use our ushers and custodial workers,” Haug said. “The resident companies set their season the year before and have dibs on whatever days they want.”
In order for the shows to begin in September, artistic directors, directors and creative teams must work backward in order to give designers the necessary months to plan, Jackson said.
First, the artistic director schedules each showing of the season, then secures the script’s rights for each performance. Once the complete season has been scheduled and secured, he or she will contract directors, Jackson said.
“Primarily, the individual director has creative control over the final product,” Jackson said. “If there’s a problem that comes up, a director can turn to the artistic director for guidance … He’s there and he’s certainly supportive as much as he can be, but the creative aspect of the show and the designs are up to the director.”
The director has about six months before the curtain rises.
Jackson said once the director gets the assignments, he or she will begin casting, with auditions in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.
“We go to New York twice per year for auditions for about four days each visit,” said Kiel Klaphake, the executive producer at Arizona Broadway Theatre. “We see and review thousands of actors annually.”
Around the same time, the director will begin scouting for light, costume and set designers for the production’s design team.
“Once we have our season put together, we have a short list of our directors that we use on a regular basis along with designers,” Klaphake said. “Once the season is all finalized, we can get a barrage of news directors and designers together to work for us.”
Jackson said Arizona Theatre Company has resident designers, but they do not work every show, both because it would be impossible and because the director can contract whoever can best produce his vision. The director will often hire out-of-state professionals.
The director only has about four months before the curtain rises.
“Design meetings are the next phase,” Jackson said. “The director will try and meet with the design team as often as possible, usually about once per month. Often because they’re spread all across the country — much of the time, it’s over Skype or over the phone.”
The director holds meetings with his creative team over a span of three to six months, depending on when the show is scheduled in the season. This is done to create general design plans, discuss the designer’s progress and confront any issues, Jackson said.
“We communicate electronically to make sure all the design is coming together,” Klaphake said. “The actors send us fitting sheets once they’re cast into a show so the costume designer has an idea of the person, and we build those costumes based off the measurements ahead of time.”
The director only has about a month before the curtain rises.
The theater companies pay for their actors, designers and directors to fly to Arizona and stay in a hotel for the duration of the rehearsal period and production, Jackson said.
“At this point, it’s the first time we have our directors, our actors and our designers all in residence,” Klaphake said.
Directors have about three weeks in rehearsal with their actors and offstage designers to work on choreography, the actors’ characters and final costume fittings, Jackson said.
“By the time rehearsals start with the directors, everyone has made final ground plans, sets are well underway and almost finished, actors know their lines and final adjustments are being made to costumes,” Jackson said.
The director only has a week before the curtain rises.
“It’s a hectic time, as you can imagine,” Jackson said. “Week four of rehearsal on stage is when we add full costume. The lighting designer is usually there just for the one week … we just have the one week to operate all the backstage stuff in real time.”
While the director had been working with his or her design crew for several months and with actors for the past week, the lighting designers are not physically present until the end, Klaphake said.
“The lighting directors aren’t physically involved until we load into the stage,” Klaphake said. “But their design needs to be completed far in advance … but once we have the final lighting package, then they’re very hands-on.”
After about a year of preparation, the entire cast is ready for the performance. Sets have been drawn and built, costumes fit each character and lines are memorized. Lighting designers have set the mood and the director sits and watches his stage manager coordinate props and costume and set changes. The only thing left is the execution.
The curtain rises.
“There’s something about a room full of people and seeing people on stage,” Jackson said.
“Everything is happening immediately right there in front of you. And it’s different every time; that’s the best thing about live theater. You can rehearse a show over again, and you can try to recreate the same thing every night, but it’s live theater and it’s unpredictable. It’s all storytelling.”
Contact the reporter at Brooke.Stobbe@asu.edu
