Making a Theatre Production HUGE SEMESTERISED BOOKLET

This booklet is designed for students in Year 11 and 12 courses to assist them to develop their own production from scratch. It includes all steps and worksheets from the choosing-text stage, through the licensing and research, to the development of set/costuming/lighting, and developing promotional material based on their understanding of the Visual Elements and Principles of Design.

This booklet has been designed to be able to apply to any set text studied in Upper School. It is recommended it is printed out into a small file to students can add extra resources in between OR printed and bound with a hard back cover to hold it together. This booklet can take up to a semester to complete.

HOW TO MAKE A PRODUCTION FROM SCRATCH BOOKLET:

Includes;

• Overview of Booklet (in alignment with Year 11 and 12 General courses but is still strongly applicable to the ATAR courses).
• Pre-Production Preparation (including licensing and royalties, where to source this info and activities to find it for your chosen set text).
• Script Research and Analysis (including synopsis, themes/issues, form/style, and breakdown of characters in text)
• Conceptualization and Planning (using the info above to develop a mood board)
• Rehearsal Schedule (students develop their own rehearsal schedule)
• Blocking and Rehearsals (students annotate their script and submit alongside the booklet)
• Roles and Responsibilities (production roles, such as lighting designer, costume designer, director.... etc. Students explore the different roles and expected to make plans for each role. For the actual production, I recommend students have a role each to develop and take charge of).
• Budgeting (managing money and how to spend wisely)
• Promotional Material and Ticketing (students design their own poster, program, and ticket design - using the Visual Elements and Principles of Design)
• Visual Elements
• Principles of Design
• Set Design and Construction (includes examples, templates, different types of stages, different symbols used in set design and set building)
• Costume Design and Fittings (includes designing costumes and makeup appropriate for text, era, character etc.)
• Lighting Design (includes light types, symbols and appropraite colour information)
• Sound Design (includes sample cue sheets etc)
• Performance and Front of House (students have an opportunity here to also answer some questions about appropriate practitioners and theorists studied in class and how they have linked to their final performance).
• Performance Debrief (reflective questions)

This booklet is tailored towards the Year 11 and 12 Drama Courses but can be applied to any young adult pursuing directing or directing a production outside of a school context (including community theatre or university level).