Long before any play is produced there should be made a sketch or plan showing the stage settings. If it is in color it will suggest the appearance of the actual stage. One important point is to be noted. Your sketch or model is merely a miniature of the real thing. If you have a splotch of glaring color only an inch long it will appear in the full-size setting about two feet long. A seemingly flat surface three by five inches in the design will come out six by ten feet behind the footlights.
Casting the Play. When the play is selected, the rôles must be cast. To select the performers, one of many different methods may be followed. The instructor of the class or the director of the production may assign parts to individuals. When this person knows the requirements of the rôles and the abilities of the members, this method always saves time and effort. By placing all the responsibility upon one person it emphasizes care in choosing to secure best results. At times a committee may do the casting. Such a method prevents personal prejudice and immature judgments from operating. It splits responsibility and requires more time than the first method. It is an excellent method for seconding the opinions of a director who does not know very well the applicants for parts. The third method is by "try-outs." In this the applicants show their ability. This may be done by speaking or reciting before an audience, a committee, or the director. It may consist of acting some rôle. It may be the delivery of lines from the play to be acted. It may be in a "cast reading" in which persons stand about the stage or room and read the lines of characters in the play. If there are three or four applicants for one part, each is given a chance to act some scene. In this manner all the rôles are filled.
There are two drawbacks to this scheme which is the fairest which can be devised. It consumes a great deal of time. Some member of the class or organization best fitted to play a rôle may not feel disposed to try for it. Manifestly he should be the one selected. But it appears unfair to disregard the three boys who have made the effort while he has done nothing. Yet every rôle should be acted in the very best manner. For the play's sake, the best actor should be assigned the part. A pupil may try for a part for which he is not at all suited, while he could fill another rôle better than any one who strives to get it.
In a class which has been trained in public speaking or dramatics as this book suggests, it should be no difficult task to cast any play, whether full-length or one act. Performers must always be chosen because of the possible development of their latent abilities rather than for assured attainments.
These qualities must be sought for in performers of roles—obedience, dependableness, mobility, patience, endurance.
Rehearsing. A worthy play which is well cast is an assured success before its first rehearsal.
The entire group should first study the whole play under the director's comment. It is best to have each actor read his own part. The behavior of a minor character in the second act may depend upon a speech in the first. The person playing that rôle must seize upon that hint for his own interpretation.
It might be a good thing to have every person "letter perfect," that is, know all his speeches, at the first rehearsal. Practically, this never occurs. Reading from the book or the manuscript, a performer "walks through" his part, getting at the same time an idea of where he is to stand, how to move, how to speak, what to do, where to enter, when to cross the stage. All such directions he should jot down upon his part. Then memorizing the lines will fix these stage directions in his mind. He will be assimilating at the same time lines and "business." "Business" on the stage is everything done by a character except speaking lines.
At all rehearsals the director is in absolute charge. His word is final law. This does not mean that members of the cast may not discuss things with him, and suggest details and additions. They must be careful to choose a proper time to do such things. They should never argue, but follow directions. Time outside rehearsals may be devoted to clearing up points. Of course an actor should never lose his temper. Neither should the director. Both of these bits of advice are frequently almost beyond observation of living human beings. Yet they are the rules.