HOW TO DO A THEATER WORKSHOP

It is important to study theater in a theater

One of the most notable aspects when comparing the characteristics of traditional education and updated
education is the possibility of working directly with real elements. The student must be in a real field to carry
out his learning in the same situation of the problems he must solve. Despite this purpose, there are
situations in which a direct relationship with reality is impossible for different reasons, such as geographical
location, dangers, previous historical economic impossibility, etc. In these cases, a different level of
experience must be used.
Dewey gives fundamental importance to learning in the real environment and direct experience. He maintains
that a student can be taught out of the water all the movements to swim perfectly, but when he is placed in
the water he will sink and will not be able to swim. This is due to the difference between the means in which
the learning was carried out. No one can be trained in the air environment to act effectively in the liquid
environment. This is the way in which the student should have been taught to swim. The same thing happens
with all learning. How can a person be taught to act appropriately in a group if not by acting in the group itself
and in the same environment, stages or arenas, lights, chairs or seats? Outside the environment you can
reflect and make the first theoretical contacts with learning, but effective learning must be carried out in
direct contact with the reality on which you have to act.
On the other hand, and in another era, the student was limited to reading or listening and trying to remember
to repeat what was read and heard. The best was the one who had the best memory and could repeat more
efficiently what he read or what the teacher had tried to convey to him. The operability of knowledge, that is,
what could be done with it, did not concern anyone. Even asking could be considered a “lack of respect”
towards the teacher or audacity.
But we must also recognize that unfortunately the experience cannot be transmitted, it must be achieved
through the action and development of each person. Attention may be drawn to a certain aspect, but what
has been experienced with respect to it cannot be conveyed. How could we explain to a small child that
something burns if he had not burned himself? No way, because he doesn't know what “burning” is. How
could we explain the feeling of a premiere with a full house, or how we feel with some unforgettable character
that we have played and that we love as if he were our brother. The idea of the experience can be
transferred. With what words, no matter how perfect they were, would we explain what love is to someone
who had never felt it? We would only give a rough explanation, an “as if…”; but we could not say anything
valid about the real feeling, because the experience that cannot be transmitted through words would be
missing. In a theatrical environment we can be closer to the objective but never transmit it as is.

WORKSHOPS IN HISTORY

The word workshop comes from the French “atelier”, and means study, workshop, workshop, office. It also
defines a science school or seminary where students attend. Apparently the first workshop was a carving
workshop.
In one way or another, the Workshop appears, historically, in the Middle Ages. At that time, the artisan guilds
began to take the place of the merchants. This organization of workers continued until the 19th century.
As we see, the Workshop, as a place of work and learning, is not a new fact, and over the years it was
incorporated into different areas. In the theater, the place of meeting and learning is called a workshop, very
dissimilar in operation to what a rehearsal is.
In recent decades, the word “workshop” appears in training, university extension and postgraduate programs
related to Psychology and other sciences related to man.
The dissemination of the Workshop in schools, cultural centers, sports or social clubs is recent in our country.
The workshops are related to work and study actions as is done in theater, art, practical, literary and
expressive activities.

The Workshop, teaching-learning method or technique?

Regarding the relationship between the teacher and the students, between the students themselves and
between everyone and the task, the workshop is part of active methods, with individualized work, in pairs or
small groups and collective work.
The work in the Workshop comes from the establishment of the link and communication to the production, to
the task, both at a concrete and abstract level; while through the group the synthesis of doing, feeling and
thinking, learning, is achieved. The Theater Workshop combines individual and personalized work and
socialized, group and collective work. In this way the evolution of each is compared and seen.
Social psychology and group dynamics, as areas of knowledge, allow us to read group, institutional and
community relationships. This particular reading allows us to understand that the group or individual task
within a group generates therapeutic and educational effects, as it makes it possible to overcome personal
conflicts, facilitates communication and approval of the object of knowledge, transforming and transforming,
the learn to think and learn to learn. On the other hand, history, social psychology, psychotherapeutic
currents and group dynamics offer us various work techniques applicable to workshop work: the operational
group, proposed by Pichón Riviere for school pedagogies, the playful and action techniques developed by the
Gestaltists, Morenian or Freudian-Lacanian psychodrama. It is possible to add plastic, musical expression to
the theatrical.
Many of these techniques from the therapeutic field can be used in the educational task of a theater
workshop, but it is important to point out that a coordinator with serious training is needed, with a deep
knowledge of himself, his possibilities and limitations, who guarantees the psychological safety of the group
and the ethics of their daily work.

THE WORKSHOP AS AN AREA TO LEARN

From the theoretical conceptions analyzed, we think of the Workshop as a time and space for learning; as an
active process, of reciprocal transformation between subject and object; as a path of alternatives, with
balances and imbalances in a progressive approach to the object to be known. The subject of this learning in
Theater Workshop is a protagonist subject, with critical thinking, capable of problematizing, and systematizing
his knowledge but also capable of letting himself be carried away by his soul.
The Workshops are born as a time-space to act, feel internally and externally and think freely, together with
others; as a place of inquiry into reality, questioning and transformation. The workshop enables the search for
new structuring structures.
SOME BASIC POINTS

In every reflection on education and the consequent educational planning, there underlies an idea of man, of
a historical-social and cultural order. This idea or ideology, explicit or not, grounds and determines the
problem of the subject-who-teaches-subject-who-learns relationship.
Man lacks in the contradiction between need and satisfaction: out of necessity he approaches the other and
the external world; finds satisfaction in the interplay with the historical-social context. Man transforms nature,
he is the protagonist of history. From work, however, it is transformed and determined by the relationships
that gratify or frustrate it. Therefore, need appears as the motivational foundation of a subject who is both
producer and produced.
Satisfaction is only accessed in the experience with the other, hence its bonding, social nature. In every
relationship, in every learning, need appears as the motivational foundation of the experience. According to
Pichón Riviere, the subject, emerging and configured from the link, is also an actor, subject of the project, of
the transformative action. It is totality-totalizing. We understand man as an essentially knowing being, and
learning as “instrumental appropriation of reality to transform it, as one transforms.”
Pichón Riviere proposes that the subject “learns to learn”, that is to say: while learning, he configures a
learning attitude, a communication model, his active adaptation to reality.”
It is from this matrix that we organize our experience; that we interpret or permitted and what is not
permitted, complaint and protest, obedience, and transgression.
Continuing with the Pichonian theory, educational task and therapeutic task coincide with the stereotype. This
occurs, as the change in the subject implies destructuring of the previous and new structuring.
The teacher, teacher-coordinator in this project, allows the group and each of its members to approach a new
vision of themselves and the reality that surrounds them.

CONSTRUCTIVIST DIDACTIC

Education based on memorization without research or practice involves denying our students as knowing
subjects. The role of the teacher-coordinator is to help grow based on practice and research, in order to
access knowledge. Constance Kamii, for years, has dedicated herself to studying psychogenetic theory and
reorients her search based on errors that are commonly made to clarify knowledge. Types of knowledge are
proposed in the student
--physical knowledge,
--logical-mathematical knowledge.
--social knowledge
PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE
It is discovered. Columbus discovered America through his travels: but the American continent existed even
before Columbus discovered it. Man in the cave times, even though he did not know how to read, write and
speak, already had his cultural identity, cultural identity has existed since the first man was born.

LOGICAL MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE

It is invented or re-invented. The Italian type stage, light bulb lighting, amplification sound or the glove
puppet were invented. Neither logical-mathematical relations nor invented objects had existence before their
invention.

SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE
It is built from the subject.

LEARNING IS AN ACTIVE PROCESS

Since knowledge is constructed within the subject, actors need:

. know the problem in theory
. to experience....
. test what happens if...
. ask and wonder...
. manipulate elements...
. look for answers for yourselves...
. discuss your own and other people's points of view...
. check the results...
. discover, not just what the coordinator wants them to discover...
Learning in a theater workshop is a personal and also cooperative process
But co-operation also allows us to reflect on the relativity of one's own point of view, favoring decentration.
That is why the constructivist teacher encourages exchange
Intellectual activity requires experimenting
Through acting practice, the student builds theories, which, although erroneous, are more valid for him or her
than all the theoretical information provided to him from the point of view of logic. From this perspective,
learning to think involves approaching the scientist's methodology: starting from a problem or question,
searching for data, manipulating variables, verifying predictions in hypotheses.
In accordance with what was proposed, the teacher or coordinator
--part of what the student can and encourages him.
--works for self-affirmation and empowerment
--offers balance between encouragement and authority.
--permanently diagnoses the emotional state, cognitive level and interests of the student.
--strengthens reasoning and spirituality
--guarantees a continuous challenge.

A LOOK AT THE COORDINATOR

The action in a Workshop occurs, in accordance with what has been said, based on the desire of the
coordinator; in synchrony with desiring subjects, who find a point of rapprochement. Understand coordination
as a special mode of relationship between a subject, whether a teacher or not, and a group. The coordinator is
a facilitator of communication and learning, participating with the group in the production of knowledge. The
coordinator does not capitalize on power or information, he consciously distances himself from the place of
“supposed knowledge.” When the group, accustomed to relationships of dependency or submission, tries to
place the coordinator in the place of knowledge and power”, he does not take charge of the demand and
returns the offer to the members, so that this circulates and makes the exit possible: sign of autonomy,
creation, growth.
The Workshop demands a non-directive coordinator, more observer than informant, more continent than
driver. It takes a teacher who is firm, coherent and open to maintain order, rather than supervise it. We
teachers need a long and deep exercise to be able to “get away” from the place where everything knows and
can or should know and be able.
The coordinator makes a reading of the group emergents: what is said, what is talked about, how what is
done is done, what is not said or done. Try to uncover what they want or hate, what they know and what they
need or expect. The coordinator discriminates the silences and bustle of lack of communication or stagnation
and the silent or bustling moments of reflection and production. His role becomes active when he points out to
the group what is happening, when he explains what the participants cannot see because they are living in
the moment; when by expressing his hypotheses, he directs the group towards new ways of thinking. The
coordinator, whether or not accompanied by an observer, observes, records and reports to the group how
they approach and approach the task, what dynamics they develop, how they resolve contradictions and
problems. He does not judge, he only feeds back the work from his statements and returns. With a single
question, as in maieutics, the coordinator can relaunch the group towards reflection, production and
synthesis.

SOME PREREQUISITES FOR WORKSHOP COORDINATION

Before trying to coordinate a Workshop, you should analyze:

. What knowledge we have regarding the topic or task planned for it. The coordinator is not supposed to know
everything; What's more, in that case I could learn little in the relationship with the participants. The routine
would end up killing the proposal, no matter how exciting it was. It is important to take into account the
physical elements available, the appropriate setting, preferably theatrical, what is known and what can be
discovered, accessible sources of information and whether there is someone with more experience to evaluate
and monitor what is happening. It is necessary to anticipate the risks foreseen by this lack of knowledge and
the possibility of adjustment between our capacity and the explicit demand of the participants.

. What is the degree of personal availability for the task to be undertaken. Availability from the affects, from
the ability to “listen”, from our own desire, from our limits.

. What ability do we have to make decisions, both to overcome practical difficulties, to modify spatial or
temporal relationships, and to contain the group.

. What is our level of commitment; how far to live or the results or final products; how much we care about
others, participants or colleagues.

BASIC FUNCTIONS OF THE COORDINATOR

1 promote and propose activities that facilitate the bond and the task;

2 safeguard freedom of expression, even that of those who circumstantially do not express themselves easily,
since even not expressing easily also implies communication;

3 keep the exchange at a level that everyone understands, is interested in and can participate in;

4 facilitate the exploitation, discovery and creation of new responses;

5 intervene to explain, achieve new links and stimulate the passage from the experiential and affective to the
conceptual and theoretical;

6 respect group time, without ceasing to maintain the established framework;

7 promote permanent evaluation and feedback

THEATER WORKSHOPS AS A WORK STRATEGY

Everyone needs to be willing and able to create. But it is only possible to dare to create, to innovate, when
there is security, when the climate allows inner joy, humor and concentration on the work to be done,
affection; when there is room for spontaneity in a framework of shared ethics.
For this reason, in the Workshop it is advisable to start with simple projects at first, set short or medium-
range goals, try to set a place and time for the meeting that does not suffer alterations; that predictions be
made regarding possible difficulties and how to face them and then gradually graduate their difficulty as time
passes
Agreeing on different points or forms of pedagogical work such as the distribution of tasks, their analysis,
allows the coordinator and the participants to clarify relationships, to avoid overlaps and misunderstandings.
It is appropriate to analyze the minimum and maximum number of participants according to the specialty that
the theater workshop has, or with the type of proposal, the theater space and the available materials.
As part of the framework, it must be established whether the groups will remain open or closed, whether or
not members can attend more than one Workshop, and whether there will be formal requirements:
registration, attendance, promotion, evaluation.

HOW TO PLAN A WORKSHOP

The Workshop tries to achieve the progress of each participant based on themselves.
In this way, the unifying criterion of the experience is made explicit, progress is sought in accordance with
each subject, and uniformity or privileging of one participant over another is avoided. This marks a conception
against rivalry, self-esteem, respect for individuality: each person is promoted to be competent and this based
on their desire, their possibilities.

FIRST MOMENT: PRETASK

The teacher should participate in workshops, for example in an improvisation, he should interact with his
students, in this way he will also acquire personal experience. The teacher who has not experienced the
possibility of choosing, discerning, cooperating, or who has not had the opportunity to play and create with
them, you will find yourself in difficulties due to the limitations of a space with the lack of precise guidelines
on how to deal with each one of them, and what materials, experiences or proposals to offer your students.
Each student enters a workshop for different reasons. The coordinator must know them to discover his
student and so that this knowledge can also be compared time later to see if the student met his
expectations.
1 rediscover an old desire that never materialized?
2 Develop an abandoned skill?
3 Start with something new, never tried?
4 Go deeper into some aspect?
On the other hand, the teacher-coordinator must listen to the needs and interests of the group, so that the
choice is facilitated. You must find points of agreement between what the teacher wants to carry out and the
desire(s) expressed by the students. This can be a moment of confusion, of passionate discussions, of
searching for consensus.
However, one must always analyze what one seeks and apprehends, the fears or anxieties that a topic and
the new situation awaken, the link that is woven between the subjects and between them and the proposals.
As time is given for the exchange and the proposal begins to be outlined, the participants become affiliated,
although the relationship is still superficial in principle.
In the possibility of developing an action plan and, consequently, “removing the starch,” members begin to
express feelings of belonging. They talk about “our workshop”, “us and the others”, “we are going to do”…
and they begin to develop their theatrical learning action

SECOND MOMENT: ACCOMPLISHMENT OR TASK

Every process of human growth and development suffers advances and setbacks, there are moments of
stagnation and progressive change. The group can reach self-regulation, although this is not frequent.
The evaluation carried out spontaneously by the members or promoted by the coordinator through his signals,
allows feedback to the process. Times and proposals are readjusted, new purposes are set.
The coordinator and the participants remain at a level of openness and availability towards change, towards
creation. At this stage, a degree of effort and perseverance is required in the search for achievements. There
is satisfaction. The age or previous experience of the participants does not matter; They begin to cooperate,
to operate with each other. Communication becomes more fluid, obstacles or noises are addressed with or
without the help of the coordinator, the functional interplay of roles makes it possible to ask or give
information, provide or request help.
From the task we operate; modifications appear, both personally and as a group. The emphasis on learning,
by then a collective project, marks the prospective, the trend towards the future. In the interaction between
the subjects and between them and the topic or task that brings them together, conflicts, confusions and
resistances continue to appear. The interventions of the coordinator and even of the participants themselves
promote the explanation of what is happening.
Creating something new, modifying what is known, implies a loss but also means a new starting point. The
teacher-coordinator sustains, contains, ensures, in an exercise of non-authoritarian authority.
 THIRD MOMENT: CONCLUSION AND NEW PROJECTS

In the workshop we prioritize three basic aspects:

n EXPERIENCE, or anchoring in feeling and action.
n REFLECTIVE EXPERIENCE, in the sense of exchange of ideas.
n RESEARCH, based on intellectual work, the resolution of contradictions, the establishment of new
intellectual relationships, modifications or learning that encompass the subject as a whole.

MONITORING

It involves the use of techniques and instruments that allow recording, reviewing and supervising the progress
of the Workshop, both in terms of group dynamics, as well as the style and characteristics, the way of
addressing the topics, the use and exploitation of time, the space

THE EVALUATION

Monitoring and evaluation are inseparable tactics that guarantee the development of the experiment, making
it possible to verify the relationship between predictions and results, between objectives and achievements,
between projects and achievements.

THE GROUP

I propose to use the vectors indicated by E. Riviere Pigeon: belonging, belonging, cooperation, learning,
communication, attitude towards change.

Homework

n addressing the topic and the activity;

n problem solving;
n communication, learning, projects;
n production;
n training in autonomy and self-management;
n uses of elements;
n creative trials and attempts;
n elaboration of anxieties, losses, misunderstandings;

The coordinator

n ways to introduce the topic;

n develop it on stage
n forms of intervention, instructions, feedback, stimuli;
n self-awareness of resonances, attitudes towards the group, the task and the institution;
n intellectual and emotional communication with the group, the task and the institution;
n ability to observe, evaluate and request supervision
PLANNING OF A WORK

This study, carried out to plan a way of working in the preparation of a theatrical work, is not intended to be a
law or a final definition, it should only be taken as a guide where some points that may or may not be
accepted.

CHOICE OF WORK

It is said that when the director makes a production, it is because he has something to say through the same
theatrical work that he is about to perform.
The director has several ways to choose a work.

By the text
Some are trapped by a previously read text, the plot, the poetry, the action of the characters and
even the message that perhaps coincides with what the director wants to express.

The texts are usually chosen

By reading a book whose story captivates you

On someone's recommendation.
For having seen a play
In this case
1-it is generally done because the director believes he or she will improve the play he or
she saw
2-you need to pay tribute to the work or the author

For the need to say something

Others feel the need to make a play but don't know which one, that's why some write their own
plays.

Writing
They express their idea in a text

by improvisation
As an alternative path, or also based on a plot idea, they work with the actors
investigating situations, positions, texts, creating what is called research to obtain a
result.

In some cooperative groups, collective creation occurs where each actor contributes dramaturgy and stage
position and the director arranges the performance seeking a better understanding.

It is also fashionable to make a different adaptation to classic works or those that have been constantly
repeated to give it a touch of originality, as is usually done with works such as Medea or Salome.

The most classic choice is the reading of the text that is prompted by one's own search or by reference from
another person or by having seen the play on a previous occasion.

When choosing the work, it must also be taken into account.

 1-What type of audience is it aimed at (adults, children, women, men, psychologists, etc.)

2-What format are we going to give it (with black camera, with scenery. , with uniformed actors,
period costumes, makeup, marked or moderate lights and sounds, etc...), regardless of the
dramaturgy.

3-What elements do we have for the production of the work

From this position it will be clear later in what type of rooms and times we should give the work.

CAST CHOICE

In independent theater the choice of cast is only limited by the actors available at the CIA.
But there are directors who work like in commercial theater, calling and choosing through casting the actors
that are needed.

There are two ways to choose:

*By physical du roll

The director looks for characteristics in the actor similar to that of the character he must play, where the
aesthetic, vocal and expressive difference is very little or totally non-existent between the actor and the
character.

*By characterization

Through makeup, costumes and training, the director seeks to reach the desired character in the chosen
actor.
This last option is a challenging option, because the director shows his true ability in molding the actor
into a character that differs greatly from his reality.

CHOICE OF ASSISTANTS

In independent theater, the technical choice is made by discard, that is, an actor from the company who does
not act in that production inexorably becomes a technical assistant. This is why the independent actor is a
very ductile person not only because of his acting ability but not also because of its ability to adapt to the
needs of forming a technical setup when not acting.

Perhaps it is also the answer to why in Argentina we have great directors, they come from training that, by
necessity, makes them somewhat specialists in each technical thing that makes up the work. Argentine
directors have a lot of knowledge of light, sound, scenography , dramaturgy, it is not for nothing that our
country has one of the highest theatrical densities in the world.

When the director is lucky enough to have a large group, both acting and technical, a choice of trust usually
predominates, where the director surrounds himself with people who not only know how to handle the
techniques but also know the way the director works. director, without him having to repeat the order twice,

Among them are:

1-the assistant director,

2-the illuminator,
3-sound engineer,
4-set designer,
5-locker room
6-makeup artist.
Given the characteristics of the independent theater, it is possible that the general assistant does a little bit of
everything in terms of choosing music, type of makeup, choosing costumes and, why not, directing in the
event that the director is absent or arrives late.

TIME SCHEDULING

The times that should be used for these tests are highly variable and are related to the number of tests per
week.
Many agree that in independent theater rehearsals should not exceed 3 or 4 months,
It depends on the difficulty of the play and the time of the actors, some rehearse 2 to 3 hours a week 2 to 3
times a week,
The middle point is, rehearse 2 times a week with a minimum of 3 hours per rehearsal, the ideal is 3
rehearsals per week of 3 hours per rehearsal.
It is said that a good independent theater job should be done in an average of 130 total hours.

TEST SCHEDULING

It is necessary, although not decisive, for the director to set a release date from the beginning, in order to
commit to complying with the stipulated times and to accommodate a few more days or a month of
rehearsals, in the case of significant delays.

Rehearsal times can be divided into...

*Game tests

Peter Brook said that there is nothing better to break the ice and the nerves of the first rehearsal than to
play with the actors and, if possible, with themes related to the play in question.
In this way, those who do not know each other will have more camaraderie, as well as get used to
knowing the actions and reactions of their companions.
He considers that 1 to 3 initial trials should be dedicated to playing.

*Character construction essays

The director must mold the actor by giving him different objectives so that the actor builds the character
he must play.

Those goals are physical

1-postures,
2-tics,
3-ways of speaking,
4-retrospective
5-etc)
 And also psychological
1-forms of action behavior
2-forms of reaction behavior.

*Research Essays

Everything that the director has in mind regarding the stage position and the performance must be
investigated with the actors to determine if the actors are capable of doing what the director has in
mind, so that in case that does not happen he should adapt the circumstance to a new position.

Many times a scene does not work because the actor or actress is not aware of the character's situation.
In this case, the director works with hindsight, creating improvisations outside the text about the scene
that is not achieved as such.

Let's take an example:

In a passage from the Work Filomena Marturano, the character (a former prostitute who
has a big secret) recounts the situation she experienced at the age of 16 when her
mother found out about her work. The actress was not aware of the situation in which
she had to enter to give the full feeling of pain of being uprooted from the family and of
the last time the character sees her mother. ,
To do this, the director cuts the rehearsal and refers to a retrospective where the scene
that she tells is improvised, Any assistant or another actress plays the mother, and the
encounter is recreated. The result is illuminating because the character experiences that
moment that ends in almost real crying. Then the character can tell it as a real
experience, transmitting to the audience all the strength of that feeling.

*Essays with text

Many actors and directors agree that this is the most difficult stage of rehearsals, for those groups that
work predominantly with images, constructions, games and research, they agree that they lose a lot of
that when it comes to continuing with the text.
That is why some directors incorporate text intentions in previous essays so that in some cases some
choose to stay with the text intentions or others go deeper until they obtain the text as it was written.

The text is a problem

But there are many options that must be handled by the director

The way to learn the letter

1- Through theatrical games where with improvisations the director manages the
scenes that are performed in a similar way to what the text says. After a long process
of improvising scenes similar to what the text requires, the actors will find that their
representation does not differ much from the text.

2-Other directors work with marking or stage choreography while they throw the lyrics
to their actors so that they relate it to their movements.

3-Others directly require memorizing the text from beginning to end and then shape the
situations. The latter is a very simple way for the director but very difficult for the
actors.
 *Technical Tests

There are also divided positions.

1-There are directors who from the beginning in all rehearsals incorporate light, sound,
scenery and elements, at first they do it as a research along with the performance.

2-Others, when they already have the play ready to perform, begin the search for
technique, light, sound, makeup, costumes and scenery.

The actors and directors consulted opt for the first format because they say it is easier to get into
character with all the technical scene elements that are imposed on them from the beginning.
They also say that for the second case, after having built characters and scenes, the incorporation of the
technique actually modifies the previous structures, which, although it generally improves it, in other
cases it can produce the opposite effect.

*General essay

There are several forms of dress rehearsal.

A general rehearsal is understood to be one that has all the characteristics of a performance with an
audience but without an audience.

Although some directors carry out 1 or even 5 general rehearsals, they usually leave the last one
incorporating family members or friends of the actors as a "pig" audience, even asking for ideas or
suggestions and opinions of what they saw.

The idea is not to listen to criticism from friends or family to correct defects, in fact everything our
friends or family say regarding the work or performance is usually 90% false.
The idea is that the actors adjust to the presence of the spectator. And for the latter it is considered a
valid way.

MISCELLANEOUS: APPLY STYLES, TRENDS OR FASHIONS

Among the characteristics that directors incorporate into their works are styles, trends and fashions that are
generally common to everything at certain times.

The following postures were identified in the positions

*Empty or black space

It is the use of the stage without any scenic element other than the black fabrics that compose it.

*Uniformity of characters,
 All the characters dressed in the same way and made up with identical masks without losing facial
predominance.

*Television

It is the use of pointers and cross-pointers, with white lighting without effects.

*Scenography

Excessive use of scenic elements

*Electronic

Nowadays, the use of video or digital sound systems is incorporated even into very old texts.

*Use of live sound and music

Drums, percussion, guitars live and live without using recorded sounds

*Actors permanently on stage

Actors who exit without leaving the stage space and who sit on the side of the scene as spectators.

*Theater uncovered

Actors who change costumes and put on makeup in public or prepare in front of them before going on
stage.

*Spectator theater

The spectator remains standing in a room without chairs and walks with the actors throughout the entire
space without a stage with fixed or follower lighting.

Of course, this list of fashions, styles and trends is extremely long and is constantly increasing as each
director finds a new path.
It is merely informative to give an idea of the point being questioned.

TECHNICAL PLANNING

It is advisable that the assistants, the set designer, the lighting artist, the sound engineer or musician be
present from the first moment of the rehearsal to capture the essence of the performance, but the director
must also have separate meetings to explain what type of technique he wants.

For example,

In the case of sound,

The director can be decisive by asking the musician for a certain theme, but others give more freedom,
trusting in the personal capacity of the technicians, asking them to present 2 or 3 themes for a certain
climate in the search, then the director opts for the one he likes the most. .

Likewise with lighting

The illuminator can present certain shapes based on the director's request, of which only one will be
chosen.

Nowadays, even independent theater technicians usually record rehearsals and, based
on repetitively watching scenes based on a request granted by the director, carry out
their lighting planning and others set music to the scene with different themes to see
which of them looks best.

In the case of technical assistance

It is advisable to make a work log of each test and then use it to reconsider or discover any failures that
may be caused by little dedication at some point or excessive dedication at another.
If the director is absent from a rehearsal, he must give the assistant a list of intended work so that the
actors can act on consequences temporarily directed by the assistant.
 The assistant should only be limited to the controller's work, the results of which will be written and then
submitted to the director.
You should not modify scenes or actions or times, nor produce changes typical of a director because it
may have negative consequences.
Assistants can suggest only in the presence of the director.

RELEASE PLAN AND FUNCTION

If the work is by an author not related to the cast, you must request the relevant authorization less than 30
days before the premiere.
When it comes to collective creations, or research or directing authorship, there is no such problem.
Once the room and the minimum number of functions have been planned, you must stipulate with the group
the legal and labor conditions of work as well as the economic conditions under which the group will work.

Clear accounts
In independent theater we work by points, the directors have 2 points, the actors one point and technicians
half a point.
It is important to leave them in writing and signed by all components, including technicians, to avoid major
problems.
In a cooperative way it can be divided between technicians, actors and director in equal parts or else opt for
the scoring system according to the importance of the position in the group.

THE LABOR COST OF A GROUP

Some independent theater producers have a cost and expense spreadsheet to determine profits, differences,
and payments.
In reality, it is important that if there is no producer, someone from the group is the secretary in charge of
finances.
Every group has a minimum expense when it holds a function near its places of influence

Our research team has made a minimum basic cost of an independent startup deducted based on another
cost

*Actors

A minimum mobility expense was set for the actor, director and technicians from their home to the group
meeting place and from there to the performance location. It is a cost equivalent to two medium-sized
bus tickets or a minimum of remis or taxi one way and another for the Vuelta.

*Cambalaches

It was set for an expense of 2 hours for the round trip and 2 for the return for the minimum value of
Taxiflet for the transfer of scenery, technique, etc.
In 2003 it is $20 for 2 hours. Total $40

*Technique

Given the high cost of repairing technical elements or changing elements due to breakage, a minimum
equivalent to a current minimum technical repair of $30 was set (it is the minimum amount that a
technician charges to repair, for example, an amplifier)
This cost is fixed whether or not there are breaks or replacements, in order to at some point equate
large expenses such as changing a theatrical halogen lamp that costs $150. or even an amplifier that can
reach up to $90 or $200.
CONTACTS OF ORGANISMS

The "official badge" is important, as an appoggiatura for requesting subsidies, although it is the job of the
producer or the assistant or secretary, the director must ensure transparency as well as the appoggiatura,
because in independent theater he is the one truly responsible for the project .

NOW EVERYTHING BEGINS

When the work is ready to be exhibited, everything does not end there, on the contrary, the theatrical action
begins, and when we talk about theatrical action we talk about actors performing in front of the public and for
that to happen, there is an almost exhausting work process . Production and dissemination are essential
elements to culminate the action with the only thing that an artist seeks, THE APPLAUSE.

It is important that you send us your contributions on this topic to be published on this sheet.