Getting Yourself Published

You know the adage that goes "it's not what you know, but who you know"? I think that may be more of a truism than an adage (although, frankly, I'm not sure I could tell you the difference between the two.)

I've written a book aimed at the Middle Grade audience (no, not Hobbits...that's Middle Earth). It's a good book, a historical adventure set aboard a sailing ship in 1727. You can find a chapter of it at my website,www.reinharthouse.com.

It turns out, however, that writing the book was the easy part. Getting the thing sold...ah, there's the rub!

The first step in selling your book is to go to the bookstore and see what else on the shelf is similar to yours. You do this for two reasons; to test your commercial viability and to write down the names of the publishers. Chances are you'll see a book remarkably similar to yours; a potential commercial viability problem. If you don't see a kissing cousin to your book on the shelves, jot down the names of the publishers of those that are similar to yours.

Logic would dictate that you then approach the publisher with your book. No so fast! Publishers will all tell you they don't accept submissions from regular folks. Can you imagine how many shlocky manuscripts would come flooding through their doors? Instead, the publishers will tell you they much, much prefer to look at your work when submitted by a literary agent.

Now your task is to find one of those. There are many good online resources. I found three that were extremely helpful:
www.AgentQuery.Com - They have a nifty search engine that lets you find agents by genre, by location, and a variety of other variables. Their site is easy to use, too.
www.QueryTracker.Com - You can set up a listing of the agents you've queried, and track your results. The site runs a little slow, but they have over 1,100 agents in their database.
www.LitMatch.Com - I've only used this site a couple of times, but their information is good. It took me a while to get the joke;you see, they match up literary elements, like writers to agents. The result is a Lit(erary) Match. Hot, huh?

Next, you've got to write your query letter. You'll find a lot of references for that, too. Google "how to query a literary agent". There's a lot of information on the web about what to do and what to avoid.

Finally, get to work. It's not easy to send out a stream of queries. Make sure you look at each one before you send it...I sent out a dozen with an enormous typo in the middle. Remember that each query you send is all the agent will know of you. A big typo in the middle of your query makes you look like an idiot.

You need to send out roughly a gajillion queries. You'll see a bazillion rejections. Don't worry. Every no will eventually lead to a yes. One of them will come back from an agent who is interested in your book. But you won't find that agent if you don't keep focused, and keep sending out queries.

Eventually, you'll find an agent that will work with you. She'll represent you to a publisher, and you'll be on your way. But the publisher looks at your work not because of the work itself, but because the agent is there to represent you.

See? It's not what you know, it's who!

Leave of Absence

I must apologize for the recent dearth of articles relating to drama ministry. As you'll note from my previous post, I've had to deal with a variety of issues in the ministry, the most important of which was the departure of my most valued players.

My mentor on the ministry, the executive pastor of the church, had lunch with me recently to discuss it. We talked of course about the never-ending need for recruitment. But most importantly, we talked about God's time. He explained to me that ministries go through expansions and contractions within churches...people get comfortable in their existing service and want to branch out, people move, all kinds of reasons...so th contraction of my ministry, although heartbreaking, isn't abnormal. He said that this must be the time in which God wishes us to reflect on what to do next.  That made a lot of sense to me. I've been praying, and trying to seek His will on this ministry.

In the nonce I've written a book, called Phineas Caswell! You'll find a chapter of it at my website, www.reinharthouse.com. It's an adventure story set in 1727. Although aimed at the "youth" audience, ages nine to fifteen, I think you'll find it an enjoyable read. 

I'm seeking a literary agent. If you know of one, or are one, I would appreciate hearing from you! I can't help but think that God has driven me to this time-out, and thereby to this book. I pray for guidance there, too!

When the Crew Jumps Ship: The Need to Recruit

I've written a lot about how to build a strong department, how to work with amateurs, how to write for your cast, etc. But I haven't written much about attrition.

If you've had a drama department running for a few years, you know that people come and go. A church, a good one that is growing, is like a growing business. New positions are constantly opening, and talented people are always needed to fill them. If you've done your job correctly, some of the best and brightest talent in the church will be in your department. That means that they will eventually leave your group.

Hearing that a cast member is leaving is hard to take. Sure, they'll be valuable to the church in another capacity. Sure, they'll be serving the Lord more fully. But, why do they have to leave your department? The rejection hurts on two levels; first is that they are abandoning you and your work. Second, and more perplexing, is that question of where your are going to get an actor to fill that person's shoes. (I have no need to remind you to be gracious in that moment, or to remember that this person is a volunteer, and therefore not required to work with you, so be nice!)

I write this from the perspective of having lost nearly all of my talent in the space of a month. One couple, mainstays that have been with me from day one, left to develop a ministry for the hearing impaired. One actress left because she has outside educational pressures. Another couple left to pursue the children's ministry. Another actress left because of job stresses. My remaining mainstay actor just announced last week that he's moving across the country. Ahhh! My department now consists of myself, an actress in the same age group, a 70 year-old gentleman, and four teens, ranging from 12 to 15.

It's hard to know what the Lord is trying to tell you when your cast jumps ship. Obviously, it's a time to reflect. A time to take a good look at goals and objectives. A time to pray and ask God for direction.

It's also time to recruit. In marketing there's a joke that says the two best times to advertise are when business is bad and when business is good. I recognize that I failed to make recruiting a priority for my department, and that this is the price to pay for it. You need to make sure that you are always drafting new talent for your group. It's critical to the survival of your group, to its continued viability, and to the train of succession, when you yourself need to move on. Ultimately, it is the best job you can do for the church itself.

I hate recruiting. I tend to avoid performing at church these days. I don't mind doing monologues and stand-up bits, but it is extremely difficult to both perform in and direct a skit successfully when you're working with amateurs (see Why Don't They Laugh?, my April posting). So, I do everything I can to get out of it.

But, as director and producer, my job, just like yours, is to do your best to bring new members in. In my church, that means putting an announcement in the bulletin, and doing commercials. If I ask nicely, the pastor lets me do a little bit of stand-up at the end of the service, while the collection is taken place. I slick my hair back, put on a white suit and a red ascot and my best Ricardo Montalban impression and invite people to join the ministry. It's hokey, but it works!

At the end of day, when the crew has jumped ship, you have to remember that story about the Chinese symbol for crisis. It's actually two symbols; calamity and opportunity. Once the sting of the calamity has abated, start asking God how to exploit the opportunity you've been given. It might just be the gift you've been waiting for!

Ideas on Building a Strong Drama Ministry

A drama department can be a powerful tool in a church's arsenal for reaching the lost. A good drama can make a congregation feel the point of a message, rather than just hear it. Ultimately, a good drama department can become a powerful outreach tool to help the church fulfill its mission. When I first began my church's drama department many years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Now, eight years later, I've learned a few things that might help you in your struggle to do the Lord's work with your department.

Be Aware of What You're Getting Into

Running a successful drama department is no piece of cake! It takes a lot of hard work on your part, possibly in skill areas you probably haven't pursued. Here's a sampling:

-Producer: Every aspect of every piece is under your control, from writing to casting to staging, to scheduling. That makes you the producer.

-Director: Responsibility for each piece will ultimately lie with you. You will need to cast and direct each piece. You will need to envision the final result, and pass that vision on to your troops.

-Actor: You are going to have to appear in some of your pieces. When I first started out, I was all by myself, and was therefore in everything. Volunteers eventually came along, and now I do everything I can to stay off the stage...it is extremely difficult to direct a piece in which you are playing.

-Writer: You will be called upon to draft pieces for certain messages. Unless you're a Neill Simon already, your first pieces will make you cringe to read. Don't worry. You'll get better.

-Set Designer: Be ready to paint backdrops, and build papier mache rocks. There are those who volunteer to do this, and you will be blessed if you find one.

-Stage Manager: Although there are people who prefer this thankless job, you will most often be the one making sure the props are in place, the cast members are in their places, the stage is set, the light guys are ready...the list goes on and on.

-Coach: You've got to pull the theatrical talent out of people that don't know a key light from a nightlight. You've got to inspire them to do a greater good, and get them to work together as a team.

-Diplomat: There are factions in every church, and you will find representatives in your department. You've got to get them to work together as a team.

-Preacher: At the end of the day, each piece is about the message. You've got to make sure that each cast member understands the message to ensure that they present it correctly to the audience.

-Parent: It's true. You have to mete out discipline and love in good measure to help your people reach their potential. You have to love the art, love the artists, and love the venue. Out of that love will come respect and focus.

-Manager: In truth, all of these things are under the aegis of a good manager. In this job, your people skills are just as important as your theatrical skills.

Define Your Mission: Before you can successfully do what you are going to do, you need to know what you are supposed to do. A good visit with your pastor will help you fully understand his goal for you. Search your heart for what you want to accomplish. In our church, my drama department's mission is to illustrate and support the pastor's messages, provide a tool for the church's outreach program, and to provide a creative outlet in which church members can serve the Lord.

Begin Each Rehearsal with a Prayer: It is important to remember that your department is a ministry. Your job is to help flesh out the pastor's message. Remind your cast and yourself that you need the Lord's help to do His work, and that only comes through prayer. I ask a different member of the group to lead the prayer each week - it helps in team building and in encouraging a walk with God.

Assign a Secretary: I'm an actor and a writer. I'm not an organizer. I have the big ideas, and I can see the details that will bring them to life. But I'm not the guy to make sure everybody knows when the next rehearsal is, or make sure everybody gets a copy of the script, or to keep track of phone numbers. There are people who actually volunteer for this job, and they are a blessing. Find one for your department. They are worth their weight in gold.

Everybody's Idea Deserves Some Air: I look at each of our endeavors as ensemble pieces. I have the entire department read through a script before we even choose it for performance to make sure everyone is comfortable with it. I can tell you that as a writer, you will have some very un-comfortable moments when your ideas are read by others who don't like it. Be patient, be generous. Remember: it's not about you; it's about delivering the Lord's message.

Having the entire group review each piece helps the members function as a team, and insures constant buy-in to the department.

During rehearsal, too, try to be open to ideas from cast members and lookers-on about how things might play. If you don't want to use an idea, be generous in your explanation as to why you're not using it. "Because it's a dumb idea" won't fly, but explaining how the idea telegraphs a joke will.

Write for Your Cast: When you are called upon to write a piece, write roles that will be easy for your actors to play. This doesn't mean that you should dumb-down your language or drain the value of your characters. But, for example, I have one actor who is narcoleptic. He's a terrific actor, and he has a heart of gold. If he has a narcoleptic episode at any time prior to his performance, his memory goes out the window. When I write a piece for him, I always make sure his character has a reason to be sitting at a table, or referring to a newspaper. We print his lines on the table or in the newspaper so that he can keep up. Write your pieces to capitalize on the strengths of your actors, and to mitigate their weaknesses.

Cast Wisely: When you assign your cast members, cast carefully. Rotate your "juicy" roles to make sure that each cast member gets at least one shot at a good dramatic part. Avoid the temptation to throw the best roles to your best actors. Your job (see "Parent", above) is to help your actors grow. The good roles will help them do that. Rotating the good roles, too, keeps actors engaged and interested. That being said, be careful not to torpedo a good message for the sake of training an actor.

Make Friends with the Technical Staff: The adage is that not every member of the audience will like you, but none of them will like you if they can't hear you. Your sound guy is your best friend...well, right there with your lighting guy. And if you are lucky enough to have video in your church, your video guy is also your best friend. Work with them as you stage your pieces prior to rehearsal, and include them whenever you can. They are just as much of the team as your actors. Praise them often, and thank them sincerely.

Replace Yourself: Nurturing actors is a part of your job. Setting up an organization that will survive you is another. CEOs of the big corporations come and go, but their organizations continue anon. Your department should be like that. Your job is to grow another director from within your ranks. This works in your favor for a variety of reasons. One is that you can now produce twice as many pieces as your normally would, because there are two directors. Another is you help an actor grow in his service to the church. And, hey, wouldn't you know it, you now have a replacement should another opportunity befall you!

Have Fun: I've said it so many times it makes my eyes water, but there is no finer business than that of acting. It's freeing, challenging, and so deeply rewarding; it's always a surprise to me that more people aren't acting. So, have fun with your department. Laugh often - we had a moment in a piece where the boss storms angrily off stage, and then returns with the line "oh, and don't forget your bananas!" But the actress often left out the "and". It became a joke. Once she came back on and said "Oh, don't forget your bananas" and one of the other actors said "and". So she said "and". Everybody cracked up. The joke from that point on was to say the line "Oh, don't forget your bananas! And!" The performance was flawless, and we all had a great time

You are the Director: Don't forget that your job is to carry the department's mission forward. Your department can have a democratic flair, but it cannot be a democracy. It can be a benevolent dictatorship, perhaps, but not a democracy. You are responsible for delivering the pastor's message, not for making sure everybody agrees with how to do it. You can solicit input, but always remember that the final decision is yours.

About Fame

When I started acting, I really wanted to be famous. Big city, bright lights, all those flash bulbs, all the awards. It wasn't the money, although that would have been nice. It was the fame. I didn't want to die with no one knowing who I was.

Is this you? Do you want to become famous someday as a world-class actor? Is your church theatrical adventure just a stepping stone to your Hollywood career? Here are some thoughts that might help you in your quest.

Fame Is Where You Find It
I was famous in high school. Not outside the school, mind you, but everyone inside knew who I was, and had seen or knew about my stage work. I was famous. I was famous in college for my radio work. I wasn't a campus icon, but I was famous at the radio station. I was famous in the voice-over crowd in Hollywood for awhile. Have you heard my voice? Then I'm not that famous! I was famous in the community theater circuit here in Ventura County. I'm famous at my church. The point is that fame comes in many shapes and sizes.

You performance should engender applause and recognition. I'm not sure those two things don't qualify as fame.

Fame is Fleeting
I suffered a stroke while performing in community theater. I went from being an oft-requested actor to a liability in the space of just one Saturday morning. My fame changed from being a great romantic comedian to the guy who had the stroke. I'm not in the least bitter...but it's a great example of how quickly fame can drift away!

You Can Be Anything You Want...
I have a relative who is a rather famous actress. She told me once that you can be anything you want, as long as you are willing to forgo being everything else. In your pursuit of fame, make certain to keep your eyes, and your heart, open for the many opportunities life will bring you.

99.99999999 Percent of All the People Who Ever Lived...
...went to their graves unknown. We live in a age where celebrity is worshipped and idolized. But it is only this age. Think of the uncountable billions of people who have lived and died without their name ever having been written down. If you have appeared on stage, you are light years ahead of them already!
This thought, too, took the pressure off me in my pursuit. The number of famous people is so small, so chimerical, that failing to attain it is not a crime. It's a statistic!

Love the Art
Finally, ultimately, don't pursue acting if you are seeking fame. Pursue acting because it makes you feel alive, because it frees your soul, because it teaches you about yourself and the people around you. Pursue acting because it is an art, and, in performing, you are giving back to the audience. Pursue it because you can create a work of art that lasts only as long as the words are spoken, because God has given you this spectacular gift. Pursue acting because, in that moment when you've connected with the house, and your character's problems weigh heavily in the audience's heart, and you could hear a pin drop in your dramatic pause...in that moment, with the bright lights, and the settling dust, and the audience spellbound, you are famous.

Acting 101

Advice for New Actors

Acting is one of the best things you can do with your life. It frees your soul, opens your eyes, and brings you a confidence you would never have thought possible. You’ll learn about yourself and your world, you’ll learn about others, and you’ll teach others a new way of looking at the world. And it’s fun, too.

There are some basic things you should know when you start out, things that, if you don’t know them, make you look like a yokel. Here are some tips:

ACTING IS STORYTELLING- The purpose of drama is to tell a story. Each character has a story to tell, and all of the character stories weave together to complete the story of the play. Your job as an actor is to help your character tell his story. That’s your whole job. That’s it.

ACTING IS BELIEVING- When you sign on as an actor in a scene, you’ve signed up to tell the story through the eyes of your character. You will find your acting career much easier if you believe what the author wrote for your character. Believe that the character has a life, and that the things that happen to him have meaning. Let those events have meaning to you. Perhaps another character calls your character a bigot. How should your character react? How would you react if someone called you a bigot? That’s a start. Now add in your character’s background and temperament, and you’ll have an honest reaction. When you believe in your character, the audience will believe it, too. It’s a golden moment when the audience stops seeing actors and sees only characters.

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU- One of the best parts about working with actors is that you’re all in the same boat. Even though everybody comes from a different background and brings in different experiences, you’re all there for the same goal; to tell that story. Now, there are good actors and bad actors. The bad ones are the actors that are worried about themselves, about how they sound or how they look or how everybody’s thinking about them. Bad actor. Bad. The good actor is focused on what the character is trying to say, what will bring that message out, on feeling what the character feels. In Acting 101 we leave ourselves and our petty woes at the door. Instead of worrying whether or not people are staring at you, worry instead about feeling what the character you’re reading feels. Worry about helping your character tell his story.

IT’S ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE – To be cast in a piece is to join a team. Just as your character fulfills a specific duty in the story of the play, you, too, fulfill a specific purpose in the cast. No member of the team should be there for anything more than telling the story the author has written. When you join the cast, then, do your very best at all times to be helpful, to be focused, and to help the team succeed.

BE GENEROUS – Acting is hard work. What makes it hard is the level to which you expose your feelings. When we talk about acting honestly, it can sometimes be hard to reach down and display your honest feelings for everyone else to see. You open yourself up to potential ridicule, and that’s hard. As a good team member, remember that every other actor in the piece is feeling exactly the same. Be magnanimous towards them and their exposed feelings. Some deep emotions can make actors cry. When their scene is over, have respect for the feelings they shared with you. Be gentle, and be generous.

BE BOLD - If the director tells you to read a line, read it like you mean it. Even though you are just reading, don’t be afraid to mean what you are saying.

BE LOUD - As an actor, not everyone is going to like you. Nobody will like you if they can’t hear you. You might be tall, you might be gorgeous, but if they can’t hear you, you might as well be part of the set.

USE YOUR UPSTAGE HAND - Here are some basic terms. Picture yourself standing in the middle of the stage, looking out at the audience. Your left hand points to stage left, your right hand to stage right. If you walk toward the audience, you cross downstage. If you back away from the audience, you cross upstage. Stuff behind you is upstage of you. Stuff you can see, if you’re facing the audience like I told you, is downstage of you. SO, when you are facing across the stage and must wave to somebody, use the arm that is farthest from the audience, your upstage arm. If you use your downstage arm, you’ll block your face. It seems dopey, but it’s true that audiences don’t react well to an actor who blocks himself. The same is true of your hair. Your emotions play out on your face. If the audience can’t see your face, they miss your emotions. They don’t believe you. You might as well be part of the set. So, pin your lovely tresses back and show your face.

A truism: use of the downstage arm makes you look like a rube.

MOVE WITH PURPOSE- In the real world, most people don’t drift about. They go to the door, they go to the cabinet, they stand up, they sit down. They do it all with purpose. When you are playing your character, make sure you move with purpose. If, for example, your character is supposed to leave but gets called back by another character just at the last moment, don’t be ready to be called back. Be ready to leave the stage…that’s what the character was intending to do, so that’s what you should do. Believe me, the actor will stop you in time. If he doesn’t…hey, that’s why they call it live theater!

REACH INSIDE - As a director, it just floors me when an actor asks me what they should look like when their character is supposed to be mad. What do you look like when you’re mad? What are the attributes of being mad? Your blood pulses, your body tenses, your movements become sharp and definite, and maybe your voice quavers. Why would your character do something different?

LEARN YOUR CUES – You know you need to learn your lines. That’s a “well duh”. But learning your cues is equally important. It’s the only way you’ll know when to say your lines. Learning your cues at the same time as learning your lines will help cement your lines in your heart, because, most often, your cues help you with the intention in your lines.

FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS - You know that acting is not about you. You know to move with purpose and use your upstage hand and be loud. So, what else should you do? Focus on being your character. Focus on being part of the team. And focus on being honest.

Finally, have fun. That's the point, isn't it? Relax, and have a good time. You're going to learn a lot about yourself!

Writing Evangelical Drama

In writing for my church, I’ve been asked to write many, many evangelical pieces. The purpose of Christian drama is to reach the lost, and what better way to reach them than with a theater piece that invites them in? But evangelical drama is a double-edged sword. Unless your piece is truly an outreach piece, it will most likely be performed in front of a congregation that’s already heard the Word. Here are some ways I’ve found that might help you in crafting your next evangelical drama.

TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE – For whom are you writing your piece? The congregation or an outreach program? What message are you trying to deliver? I’m often looking for ways to show the impact of the Christian life on the average person. Even though I’ll have a specific message to deliver, my underlying motive is to never stop trying to reach the lost, to evangelize.

BE REAL – The purpose of your piece will determine the setting. The more realistic your setting, the clearer your message will be. Your goal is help the audience focus on your message. Your challenge is to deliver your message in new and innovative ways. Always make certain that the circumstances of your piece are realistic enough that the audience can take it seriously. This doesn’t mean that you can’t put your characters in exotic locations…just make that they are realistic exotic locations. I’m working on a piece right now that takes place in the cockpit of C-47 during World War II. It’s taken a huge amount of research to get the setting, the language, and the intentions of the characters right, but I know the audience will expect a realistic piece.

Your character’s development must follow a realistic track, too. Most folks don’t receive the Good News and find themselves instantly saved. It takes a while, it takes thought, and it takes growth. Give your characters time to reveal these emotions realistically.

BE SUBTLE – Until I found the Lord, I wouldn’t go into a church to save my soul (literally). On the one hand, churches seemed scary and closed off to me. On the other, the people in the church seemed to belong to some sort of club. I can’t remember how many church people told me I had to believe in the Lord. It took my sister’s simple logic to get me to let down my barriers and open my heart. Remember that this is how the lost might view the church, too. Hitting them over the head with your evangelical message won’t work, because the lost tend to tune out overt evangelism. Your piece, too, will be more effective if you approach the subject indirectly, allowing the audience to complete the evangelistic picture.

Your congregation will reject an overt message, too. I know this because I’ve written many of them, and they have consistently flopped. They already know the evangelical message. Instead, I look for ways that my characters find different circumstances in which to witness to the lost. Even though a church drama may be preaching to the choir, there are still many messages you can give them that will help them in their mission field.

LOOK FOR GROWTH – An alcoholic won’t stop drinking until he’s hit bottom. A drug addict won’t seek help until he’s realized that he’s helpless. A lost soul doesn’t accept the Lord until he realizes his earthly existence is futile. The alcoholic and the drug addict begin to grow when they realize that they’ve hit their bottoms. Your protagonist, too, will be believable when he turns a corner and has an opportunity to grow.

At the same time, non-growth can be very powerful. There’s a sadness about a character that refuses to see the truth that everyone else can see. That sadness can be a powerful dramatic tool you can use to drive a point home. Although your character doesn’t see the point of the piece, his failure to see it can drive the point home poignantly for the audience.

FINALLY, AVOID FAIRY TALE ENDINGS – They simply don’t play out for the audience. The Christian message is one of hope. The audience won’t buy a piece in which the character accepts the Lord and suddenly finds her rent paid, her car fixed, and a new promotion at the office. But a guy who finds all the world against him, who hears the Word, and who realizes that he can brave the storm as long as he’s got the Lord’s word in his heart…THAT the audience will buy. That’s the piece that will deliver the Christian message with honest and realism. And, that’s the piece that will touch the heart of the lost soul sitting in your church.

Touching the hearts of the lost. Isn’t that what evangelism is about in the first place?

Writing for Multigenerational Audiences

If your church is like mine, it has two services; one traditional and one contemporary. At our church, the average age is comfortably above 50 in the traditional service, and comfortably below that in the contemporary. While this works great for the pastor, who can modify his message for each group, and for the choir, which can sing different songs, it makes producing dramas that must be effective for each group extremely difficult.

As a writer, I’ve often found that a piece that hits with the older audience will miss the younger set, and vice versa. Here are some ways that I’ve found to make each piece speak successfully to each group.

Begin with the Message

In Christian drama, each piece is designed to highlight a specific message. Let that message be your mission, your raison d’être. Compare each character against the message – does he fit? Is he telling the story? If not, chop him out or change him. In sketches, there’s no time for loose characters. That’s not a multigenerational thing. It’s just good writing.

The other rule of good writing is always the same, too: resolve a conflict. I recently judged a high school competition where each student wrote and performed his own piece. A stunning little actress played a piece called “The News” about a revolutionary war era bride whose husband had been called to war and was ultimately killed. It was well acted, but booooring. There was no problem to be resolved, which made it stunningly un-engaging. Make sure your characters have a problem to resolve. Their resolution should be your message.

I’ve found that the older generation relates to stories about honor and honesty, community spirit, and “doing the right thing.” The younger group responds better to stories about relationships, societal pressures, and personal responsibility. There is a very wide gap between the two.

Think of how the message affects each generation. Unless you are six years old, chances are pretty high that you are a member of one of them. Couch the message in terms that appeal to you. Then look at it through the eyes of the other generation. Will they get it?

Don’t be afraid to stretch the message to make it fit both groups. Say that the message is “love one another.” You could do a striking piece about a father/son situation, or a punker and an old lady stuck at a bus stop. There is love to be shown in each piece, and your message, although different in circumstance, is the same for each. Your job is to tell the story. You can bend it however you wish!

Mix Your Generations

The surest way to get the attention of each generation is to make sure each is represented in your piece. A piece about two elderly gentlemen may play with the older set, but could go right past the younger. An older gentleman sharing advice with a younger man, however, will more likely affect both groups.

There is a great source of humor in mixing the generations, too. Each group likes to laugh at themselves, and has to put up with the foibles of the other. That’s meaty stuff, there. Old people can never hear, and young people are self-absorbed. Play on those circumstances and you’ll have a sure fire hit!

I often find the message is most effective to both groups when the young and old discover it together. It is important to deliver the message subtly, of course. Nobody in real life says “I get it! We’ve got to love one another!” It just doesn’t happen like that. But when the punker and the old lady find a common truth, you’ll find that the moment will ring true for both audiences.

Don’t Forget the Rule of Threes

Comedy is comedy, whether it’s for octogenarians or teens. Don’t forget your basic rule of comedy – think in threes. Little joke, little joke, BIG joke. Set up, set up, Smack! Watch sitcoms and count the laughs – professional writers write in sets of three. Three is an ancient, mystic number. I’m pretty sure those ancient mystics wrote their skits in sets of three, too!

Find the Truth

My sister-in-law is a famous actress. I was speaking with one of her colleagues the other night, who told me my sister-in-law won’t consider a part ready to play until she’s drilled through to the very truth of the piece. Her performances are always breathtaking because she shows the deep truth inside her characters.

As a writer, your job is to bring truth to your characters. Actors should play their lines from their heart rather than from their minds. Your job is to put that heart into the characters in the first place. Your characters must be in realistic circumstances, and must react reasonably.

The conflict to be resolved, by which your message is delivered, needs to be realistic as well Your characters need to make discoveries along the way, and their reactions need to be realistic.

Once you’ve written your piece, have members of each group read it with you. Listen carefully to their reactions. Then, pester ‘em with questions about the message, about how your characters react, about whether the piece has meaning for them or not. Their reactions will guide you in writing accurately.

Finally, Write with Love

Regardless of the message, people really do love one another. That love can be expressed with friendship, loving gestures, anger, hurting, even hatred. But, deep down, people really do have a genuine regard for one another. It’s why we don’t run over each other.

Your piece needs to reflect that regard, because that is truly how we behave. Even in a piece where the characters hate one another, it is that lack of regard that makes for honesty, and for good drama.

Regardless of the generation, a piece will have meaning if it centers on a realistic conflict, features realistic characters, and, most of all, reflects the love people have for one another.

Why Don't They Laugh?

There is a battle that rages in my head every now and again. It starts when a comedy I've carefully scripted and directed right to the cutting edge of brilliance goes "flop" and the audience misses it. On one side of the battle are the ne'er do wells of failure, ready to point out every possible mistake I could have made in directing the piece, every hackneyed joke, every moment where I might have been too cocky in my ability to pull off another hit. On the other side is the voice of reason, calm and gentle and preaching patience. I think this is God's voice.

When a comedy flops, it's a devastating shot to the gut of everyone involved in it. I would like to say it's never happened to me (and it hasn't as an actor), but directing a flop is one of those things that will happen to you eventually. When it does, do a postmortem to see what went wrong.

Sometimes audiences, especially church audiences, don't laugh out loud. While this usually happens in large houses when there isn't much audience, it can happen in a crowded house, too. Your first rule, after the flopped performance, should be to check with your house manager, your ushers, somebody who was in the house and could accurately gauge reaction. You may not have flopped at all, you may simply not have made them laugh out loud. But there may still be an issue.

A quiet audience in a comedy is a sign that your pacing is too brisk. They're holding their laughter in so that they won't miss anything. Don't forget that laughter comes in waves, and the waves get bigger if you give them time to build. Even though a piece is written joke-joke-joke, don't forget your rule of threes: little laugh, little laugh, BIG laugh, pause, and on to the next bit.
If the jokes are all stacked together you don't give the audience time to enjoy each one.

If your pacing is too slow, your comedy will flop on the other side. An audience may be enjoying the piece, but won't laugh out loud if the jokes are too widely spread. In that situation, the piece is no longer a comedy, but a drama with a couple of humorous moments.

We've found generational problems with some of our pieces. Our church does two services, one for the more traditional set, which tends to be older, and one for the progressive set, which tends to be younger. Pieces that just plain hit the older group flop in front of the youngsters and vice versa. It's a sad statement on the membership of churches, but we've found that pieces about community and teamwork flop in front of the younger set. Go to my website, www.reinharthouse.com, and click on the scripts page and take a look at I Fired My Boss. This piece was a huge hit with the progressives, but the traditionals were put off by it.

My comedies have flopped when my actors work too hard to make a joke. Audiences connect to real stories about real people. An actor that punches a joke too hard risks breaking the third wall and eliminating that sense of reality. The audience doesn't buy it, and doesn't laugh. If you directed your actors to do that, I highly recommend you cease doing that. If the actors did it in rehearsal, you're still at fault...not saying no means yes. If, however, the actor decided to mug his way through the performance on his own, you need to have a chat with him about teamwork.

There's a kind of blindness about what's funny that sets in when you work on a piece. Big time movies like Chicken Little and Shark Tales (you can tell I have a six year old at home) suffer from the same thing. In the case of Shark Tales, the movie is overall lackluster, and I didn't like it the first time through. But, as it is with little kids, I got to see the movie several times. Most of the scenes, when you go back and examine them, are absolutely hysterical. You can see why the producers of the film, who were all intimately involved in these hysterical parts of the film, would think that the overall film itself was great. It had to be...look at all these funny little parts! What gets missed, though, is an overall objective eye that makes sure that each piece makes sense. The movie didn't do very well in the box office...you might even say it flopped. The message for you? Get an objective eye to look at your piece before it plays...you might save yourself some grief!

Finally, unless your guys are booed of the stage, you didn't flop completely. The pieces we do all have a message in them. Regardless of whether we got laughs or not, the question is always the same...did we get the message through? Did the audience understand what we were trying to say?

Really, then, did we flop?

Staging for Small Spaces

My church built an exquisite new sanctuary, with seating for 800 people. We drama minister folks got a beautiful raised stage, with exits on either side and a connecting hallway in back. We were in heaven! But church buildings need to be multi-functional. We share our space with the choir, with a rock band, and with potted flowers. Our acting space, then, is somewhat crowded.

Staging pieces in a small space can be tricky. Here are some of the things I learned.

To define your acting space, mentally draw a line from the lowest seats house left and house right to the upstage center of your stage. (Just a quick brush up: if you're standing on stage facing the audience, your left hand is pointing to stage left. If you're sitting in the audience, facing the stage, your left hand is pointing house left. The end of the stage closest to the audience is downstage, while the end farthest from them is upstage. There. End of lesson). If you view that point at upstage center as the apex of a vee, now you know where your action needs to take place...inside the vee. Everything should take place inside that vee. The edges are your view lines for the audience.

If your acting space is shallow and wide, like ours, your vee will be very wide, and your action will tend to string out in a line. Keeping the action realistic in this configuration is tough, but it can be done. Your actors will need to cheat as much as possible. (Cheat; addressing the audience at 1/4 face. In real life, people face one another to chat. On stage, they turn 1/4 away from each other to let the audience in. Elizabethan actors turned fully to the audience, sometimes taking a step or two down toward them, to deliver their speeches. They broke the fourth wall, and cheated the other actors. Hence the term). You may have to have them cheat more than 1/4 if your stage is very wide - it looks very odd to have actors face each other across twelve feet of empty space!

If your acting space is narrow and deep, you have another set of challenges. Your vee will be narrow but steep, and you'll find your actors bunched up in the center. You will want to work the edges of the vee, rather than the center. You action will need to take place downstage center for the most part...depending upon the number of actors, you'll have view problems if you place the action upstage in a crowd.

Don't forget to consider the angle of the house floor. Most church floors are flat. Your upstage action will be lost if you're working with a flat floor, so plan on moving key characters downstage. An angled floor is a Godsend (if you'll pardon the pun) because you can move upstage, and your performing area automatically grows in depth.

Don't forget to stage for your sound system. Once you've identified the piece you're going to perform, make sure and chat with your sound guy before you stage it! He has a specific number of instruments he can assign to you. If there will be fixed microphones on stage, make sure you determine where they will be placed, and plan on centering your action near them.

Don't forget to stage for your lights. We have minimal control over placement of lights in our church, so we have to be careful as to where we place the action in pieces. Lighting can be an incredibly effective tool in your piece. It can also blow you up if you don't think about it at the outset!

Don't forget to stage for your video. Our church has a video camera system that allows the message to be broadcast throughout the various rooms of the church, and also the message to be recorded on DVD. For us, the camera is at the back of the house, and mounted about 18 feet off the floor. When we do a performance, we try to stage ourselves at the best depth and angle for the camera...not only will it show better for the rest of the church, but, hey, I'm on a DVD!
In our sanctuary, the images from the camera are relayed to large view screens on either side of the stage during the performance. We have the benefit of close-ups. If you have this capability, don't shy away from using it. With a camera, every seat in the house becomes a great seat!

Finally, don't forget to plan your entrances and exits. How will your actors get on and off stage? Does the piece require a black out to end it? If so, how do the actors get offstage? These are little details that will help you succeed in your staging, regardless of the space!

Directing for Empathy

When I write a piece, I hear the voices of my actors in my head. You can pre-cast your pieces when you work with a consistent ensemble of actors, such as a church drama ministry group. I know their capabilities, and tend to cast them in roles that are comfortable for them. But if you change those roles around, you can find new and really powerful areas of opportunity.

Consider this dialog. Veronica is waiting at a café. Archie rushes in with a plant, which he gives to her as a gift. He apologizes for being late and then pours out his heart, ending with this:

Archie: …If you told me to go away, Veronica, although it would be like tearing my very lungs out, I would do it if that were your wish. What I’m saying, Veronica, is… well, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Pause. Long silence.

Archie: So, what do you think?

Veronica: The plant’s dead.

Archie: I’m sorry?

Veronica: The plant you gave me. It’s dead.

Archie: Well, I’m sorry. I picked it up off my porch as I was rushing over here to see you. I guess I was wondering what you thought about what I said. (Long silence). So, what do you think?

Veronica: I was thinking about the plant.

Archie: Look, I understand the plant is dead. I’m sorry about the plant. Next time I’ll double check and make sure I bring you a live plant. What did you think about what I said?

Veronica: I was actually thinking about the plant. What did you say?

Archie: You didn’t hear me?

Veronica: I heard you. Something about an ocean, a lava flow, lungs being torn out, blah, blah, blah. But you left out the plant.

Archie: Well, I just can’t believe you care more about a dried up piece of fauna than you do about me! I can’t believe you put more focus on that stupid weed than you do on me!

When I wrote it, I saw Archie getting indignant about Veronica’s attitude. I saw it escalating into an argument. This would end up being a funny confrontation between the two lovers.

One of my volunteers, however, a seasoned professional actor, suggested that Archie try to be as nice as possible. He suggested the actor play as if he was going to be gentle and forgiving no matter what. If you read it that way, the argument takes a whole different direction.

The actor tried it, and we laughed so hard we fell off our chairs.

Giving the character the added complication of trying to be nice shifted the piece from a commonplace (albeit funny) argument into a sweetly engaging romantic comedy. Where I had planned on a quick and funny bit, changing Archie’s attitude added a level of empathy that elevated the piece from a skit to a sketch.

The point is that you can elevate the pieces you direct by looking for that empathetic edge. In skits, characters are written to establish specific points. Finding different emotional planes for the actor lets you add additional meaning to the skit, moving it from a “little show” to a professional presentation.

Next time you work on a skit, try challenging your ideas of how characters should play their parts. You’ll be amazed at what they discover!

Excerpt from Love's Last Bloom, by John Reinhart, from www.reinharthouse.com/scripts

Moving with Intent

Volunteer actors are working for all of the right reasons: their heart is in their work. You got to love ‘em. But, you most often have to help them with stage movement. Intention is the hardest one for them to get.

Let’s say, for giggle and grins, in real life you are having an argument with your spouse. Let’s say that you are the husband, and your spouse is the wife. She asks you one of those questions that you realize you can’t answer without giving up a large part of your dignity, you so choose classic husband move #304, leave the room without answering. But you wife has seen #304 and counters with “where do you think you’re going?” You say “to the garage” over your shoulder as you storm out.

In real life, you don’t wait for your wife to ask you a question before you storm out. You’re stormin’, Norman, because you want out of that room.

On stage, of course, the actor knows the actress is going to stop him with her question. Newbie actors, and I’ve seen it time and time again, most often pause on their way offstage to receive the question. They head toward the door, and then linger if the question doesn’t come. In rehearsal, we go over the spot.

“What are you waiting for?” “For her to say her line.”

Having used classic husband move #304 many times myself, it would be a blessing if my wife couldn’t get the “where do you think you’re going” response before I got out the door. But, she’s quick. So I push my actors to walk right offstage, even though they know the question is coming.

The actor should be feeling the motivation underneath the movement. The character's mad at his wife. He wants out of there ("Run, Luke, run!"). The volunteers need to forget about themselves and see the moment through the eyes of the character. Once the actor adopts the character's energy and angst, you'll see decisive movements that are realistic.

An actor’s movement is much more powerful to the audience that his voice. If you don’t believe me, try singing the Star Spangled Banner while flapping your arms like a chicken. Just the mental image tells you everything you need to know about the power of movement.

So I direct my actors to hit the bricks. Go through that door like you mean it.

The caveat, of course, it to make sure that the actress whose line follows is on top of her cue, so that the actor doesn’t actually make it out the door. I was in Joe Orton’s Loot many years ago, and was slow on my cue. My character had a question to ask the exiting Inspector, but I was just plain caught up in the wrong moment. I looked up to ask my question, and he was gone. I was all by myself, and there was simply no plausible way for the Inspector to come back on. I ran to the door, swung it open, and yelled my question offstage. A moment later, the Inspector returned. “What did you say?...” and we went on from there. Phew!

Directing MicroMoments

In Playing the Arcs (published in Director’s Line and Associated Content), we learned about giving the character an arc to follow in a scene. He comes in at one level, is taken to a new level by the action in the scene, and comes down from that new level to the end of the scene. Looking at a scene from that perspective can be very helpful.

Within the scene, you’ll find several moments in which the same arc takes place on a smaller scale. Sometimes they can be short. I call them micromoments, like this scene, which comes at the top of a five minute sketch. It takes place in a pretentious restaurant. Harley is well dressed in “business casual” clothing. Dolores is dressed to the nines. The waiter enters.

1 WAITER Would you like a refill of your Coke?

2 HARLEY Don’t say Coke like its poison. Yeah, as long as it’s free.

3 WAITER It’s free, sir.

4 DOLORES Harley, don’t be so rude.

5 HARLEY (to Dolores) Everything on their menu has all these weirdo ingredients, like crushed walnuts pesto and ginger/thyme bruolee. I don’t know if they give free refills or not.

6 WAITER Well, there is a Taco Bell on the corner. They give you free refills.

7 HARLEY Listen here, sunny boy…

8 DOLORES Harley, don’t. You’re embarrassing me!

9 HARLEY …I’ve bought and sold dumps like this a million times over. The only reason I’m sitting here now is because some dimwit asked me to meet him here so that he can plead his case. So don’t go sticking your nose up at me. I’m asking you for a free refill. Do you think you can handle that?

10 WAITER Of course. And would the lady like a free refill as well?

11 DOLORES Yes, please…

12 HARLEY No. She’s had enough.

13 DOLORES Harley, I want to have…

14 HARLEY (Harley fixes eyes with the waiter) She’s had enough Coca Cola for today.

15 WAITER (Pauses) Very good, sir. (exits)

The purpose of this exchange is to show the coarseness of Harley’s character. In line 6 the waiter suggests that the Harley might not be up to the restaurant’s standards. He has the potential of insulting Harley’s wife in line 10. Is the waiter baiting Harley? In line 6, it looks like he is.

The key to playing the waiter is to give him an air of supreme self confidence. If we know that the restaurant is pretentious, we can assume the waiter is as well. He has complete control over Harley’s food, Harley’s dining experience, and even over Harley himself. However, the waiter’s performance should build from the waiter’s assumption that Harley fits in at line 1 to his awareness that Harley is coarse at line 6 to a mocking pretentiousness at line 10. The waiter’s character cements in when he and Harley lock eyes at line 14. “She’s had enough Coca Cola for today, beat beat beat, Very good, sir”

The waiter drags out his response during those three beats, showing the audience that waiter is wresting control from Harley.

In this micromoment, it becomes clear that Harley is a self-made man, as he explains in line 9. We can see in lines 2 and 5 that he feels like a fish out of water. Dolores’ Coke becomes a metaphor for Harley’s struggle for control. And Harley feels that he wins the struggle in line 14, although Dolores pays the price.

Playing Harley in this short moment offers a rich panacea of nuance. He swings from a somewhat self-conscious novice in the culinary world at line 2 to taking control in line 14. He can flare his temper in line 9, but needs to rein it back in by line 14. Although the moment could devolve into a fistfight, Harley’s steely-eyed glare at the waiter locks his power and control over the circumstances in place.

The point of this exercise is to demonstrate how much character and power you can pull out of a 45-second moment. This micromoment, if carefully directed, can set the tone and flavor for the rest of the sketch.

Keep your eyes open for micromoments in every scene. They come in little places, like glance-exchanges between characters. Playing them well makes all the difference between a volunteer show and a professional presentation.

Scene excerpted from Big Spender, available at www.reinharthouse.com/scripts

Writing Killer Comedy Sketches

I use the word "sketch" to describe the pieces I write, although people always ask me "did you come up with that skit?" Whatever you call it, it's easy to describe; a three to five minute dramatic piece involving two or more characters. I call them sketches because to me you're sketching in the characters and circumstances, as opposed to a full blown scene, in which you have time to fill in details.

WHAT'S COMEDY? Philosophers can argue for their entire lives over what makes us laugh, but you already know what's funny. We laugh at things that are unexpected, like a good pratfall. We laugh at embarrassing things, although only when they happen to other people. We laugh at insults, although not when they are aimed at us. Repetition is funny (I almost always include a catch phrase that gets repeated three or four times in a sketch, like "a wet cat."). And we laugh at real life situations, those with which we can identify, that have gone terribly awry. What makes you laugh? If it makes you laugh, chances are good it will make the audience laugh.

THE RULE OF THREES: Watch a classic sitcom, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show or Cheers or Friends or Frazier. Watch the timing. The jokes go boom, Boom, BOOM. Little joke, bigger joke, knee-slapper. Once you start thinking about threes, you'll find that your skit writes itself. In fact, a well written comedy sketch is a three-hit joke. The jokes don't have to follow one another directly. Sometimes the joke is in a situation, like a wet cat shaking itself on a guy's new shirt. He reacts, complains, shoves the cat in the bathroom and closes the door. His girlfriend comes in. They chat, say something funny about going out. She goes to freshen up. We hear the scream when she goes into the bathroom. The cat runs past and out the front door. A friend shows up and says something about the dish they're serving in the restaurant downstairs. "It looked like a wet cat!" Three, see? Si.


RELATE: What makes a comedy sketch funny is that the audience can relate to it. It's hard for us to relate to Zabnar the Cloud King, unless Zabnar keeps getting phone calls that interrupt his plans to take over the planet. We don't have any experience with being the Cloud King, and that won't ring true. But we've all been interrupted by somebody on the phone trying to sell us a newspaper. As long as the gets annoyed by the phone, Zabnar is a guy just like us, and he becomes believable.

PACING: In the movies, in a big drama, the actor says "a wet cat?", and the music goes Ba Ba BAAAAA, and the camera zooms in to catch the tear in his eye. In real life, people seldom take long, slow pauses in their conversations unless there are very deep issues at stake, or unless they aren't paying attention. In writing drama, you use those long deep pauses to help the audience grasp a circumstance and build suspense. In writing comedy, you gotta keep things moving. If the audience gets a chance to think, they'll stop laughing. If you let them think, you've lost them. Once we start laughing, we like to keep laughing. If your piece moves between hilarity and serious drama, the audience will get confused and won't trust it.

WRITE FOR YOUR ACTORS: Unless you're a professional writer composing for professional actors, you are most likely going to be working with amateurs. Amateurs most often don't know how to make a pratfall. Most of them aren't very good at showing emotions. Most of them don't have a clue about timing and pacing. So, you, as the writer, have to take care of that for them. If you write about real emotions, like frustration and disappointment, you give them a solid tool to help them perform with confidence. Everybody's been frustrated, disappointed, even annoyed by a wet cat. Since those emotions are daily occurrences for most of us, it's easy for amateur actors to hit those. Unless you have a skilled actor in the group, do not write spit takes or pratfalls...they will misfire and your piece will fail. Don't write long, drawn out speeches. They can be difficult for an untrained actor to memorize, and you're flirting with disaster.

BE CLEAR: Robert Frost said "people tell me they understand a poem, and then ask 'what were you getting at?'" A sketch is a tiny plot of time, so you have to be clear. Picture your central theme, and then work only from that. Good jokes should only be included if they support what you're trying to say. Characters should only be in the piece if they support the central idea. Quirky characters don't work, unless they are the meaning of the piece itself.

END IT: One of the first things you should think about when writing your piece is how it will end. Monty Python used weird graphics and startling video changes to cut away from their pieces because they most often didn't wrap up well. Don't forget Storytelling 101: Beginning, middle, end. Beginning, middle, end. One, two, three. Don't mess that up, because you're a good writer, and you want your actors to like your work.

See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Now, think about the point you're trying to make. Find what's funny in it. Figure out who's going to play in it. And figure out how you're going to end it. Be aware that it will run about a minute and a half per page, and, boom, you're a comedy writer!

Writer's Note: This pieces was published at eHow.com as How to Write a Killer Comedy Sketch and at AssociatedContent.Com as Writing Comedy Sketches that Kill.

Directing Effective Comedy

You know the saying: the key to comedy is.......timing. That's for the actor. Directing comedy is a whole different can of worms, especially when working with inexperienced actors!

Finding comfort in an awkward circumstance. Right out of the gate, the audience has to feel comfortable with the actors performing the comedy. The actor (again, I'm fighting the gender-correctness tide by using "actor" and "he/his" to mean "actress" and "she/her" as well. I mean no disrespect to actresses or females in general, just trying to keep things moving!) must be self composed and confident. You'll lose the audience if they sense that the actor is struggling. The secret to composure is preparedness, which translates to rehearse rehearse rehearse.

Taking the words to heart. I push my actors really hard on memorizing their lines. To me, getting those lines in the head and the heart is job number one. I set up a six week rehearsal schedule for my church sketches (it sounds long, but we only meet for 1.5 hours a week). My guys have to get their lines memorized by the end of the second rehearsal. Why so tough? By the time we get to the fourth rehearsal, I want those lines to be second nature to them. The lines need to come out without thought. They can't do that until they've memorized them and rehearsed rehearsed rehearsed them without a script in hand. You'll see a good performance from an actor when he absolutely believes what he's saying. He just can't do that with a script still drifting in his mind.

The other reason I push memorization so hard is that I want the actors to take ownership of their words. New actors tend to simply memorize the words and fake the actions. The more they rehearse the scenes, however, the more meaning the words have for them. As the meaning comes in, the acting gets better, and the audience goes home happy.

What is in a word? As an actor, I'm a big believer in paraphrasing. "Let me say this in my own words." As a director, you have to be very careful to manage paraphrasing in comedy. Don't forget that most comedies are word plays. The author sets words and phrases in a specific order to capitalize on a laugh. Watch a good sitcom and you'll see how the lines are set up. Make sure your actors don't personalize the humor out of a moment!

Timing really is everything. Nothing will kill a comedy faster than a slow pace. Nobody pauses between speakers in real life. You say "how ya doin'' and I say "fine, thanks. You?" and you say "I could be better" just that fast. That's how your comedy should be; click-click-click-click. When you get your audience to the point where they want to laugh with you, they don't want to think any more. They just want to laugh. Pauses in the pacing gives them time to think, and they stop laughing. Close those gaps in the dialog. How? Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

That being said, obviously, there will be dramatic pauses that you'll want to play, and that's fine. Don't be afraid to build tension by making the audience wait for something to happen every now and again. Sometimes waiting is the most fun! But...not for an actor to answer his cue!

A comedy is like a good roller coaster ride. There are pauses while you build up to something really big. Then the big moment comes, and it's hit-hit-hit-hit and then you pause for a moment to build to the next one, and it's hit-hit-hit again. A good roller coaster ride leaves you feeling dizzy and out of breath. Your audience should be out of breath from laughing. The roller coaster comes to a stop shortly after the last big hit, so that you're still reeling as you step off the train. That's how your comedy should be, too. You manage all of that through your timing for the actors. Tighten their cues so that they almost step on one another, especially in the funnier moments.

You do have to pause, however, for laughs. If you run over a laugh, you train the audience to stop laughing so that they can hear the next line. "It was so funny I could hardly keep from laughing out loud!" is not something you want to hear!

Here's how it works: a laugh is like a wave. It starts with a kind of murmur, builds up to an out loud laugh, and then murmurs down again. If the audience starts laughing at something an actor says, have him wait until the out loud laugh begins to murmur down, and then have him continue. If he says the next line during the build-up murmur, the audience will miss it because they're laughing out loud, and will NOT laugh out loud next time because they know they'll miss something. If the actor waits until after the let-out murmur subsides, your timing will d-r-a-g and your audience will wonder what's going on and won't laugh so hard next time, either. Laughing is contagious, and you want to keep it rolling.

Don't be afraid to laugh out loud at the funny parts in rehearsal. The actors need to hear it; it helps them know what's funny, and it helps build their confidence.

Don't get jaded. I have to be careful to keep from hitting this wall. When you first read through a piece, it's a scream. But, five weeks later, the jokes are stale. Yeah, yeah, funny. Fight that tendency to punch up jokes to keep them funny. Watch Disney's movie "Chicken Little" to see an example of punched up jokes. The premise is good, but it seems like somewhere somebody decided they couldn't trust the humor in the film, and "spiced up" the production with extra dialog and jokes. Be careful! If it was a scream to you on the first read through, trust that the audience will think so, too.

Be careful, too, that your actors don't telegraph jokes. Sometimes they'll put their hand over here so that when the other guy comes in he can wave and it will be real funny. It's real funny, except that the audience will wonder why his hand is over there, and when the guy comes in the wave will seem unnatural and the joke will flop. That's called telegraphing a joke, and you have to make sure your actors don't fall for it!

Finally, have fun with your comedy. Sure, directing it can be stressful. Sure, it takes diligence on your part to keep it funny. But, hey, you're working with a whole bunch of people with the sole intention of making other people laugh. How cool is that? Relax. It'll be great!

Playing the Arc

I spend a lot of time working with volunteer actors as a director of a church drama ministry. Beyond the standard yada-yada of gee you're doing something good for the church and for the community, I find a lot of fulfillment and fun in it. More than that, there's a lot to learn at it, too.

Newbie actors present a whole new range of challenges, and, trust me, most church volunteers are newbie actors! One of the things newbie actors need to learn is that every scene has an arc to follow.

Every scene starts at one place, but ends up somewhere else. The peak of the arc, it's highest point, comes when the main characters learn something new. It's an "ah ha" moment, and there is one in every scene. At least, there should be one. If you can't find it, grind every word and see if the author buried it in his choice of words in the dialog. If you still can't find it, you have to ask yourself why the scene is in the play in the first place. If it doesn't support the movement of the play, well, there may be a little round can next to your desk...

Within the scene, characters must follow an arc too. They begin the scene in one frame of mind, and exit in another. Obviously, this is true for major characters in a scene but not necessarily for the bit players. It would be really strange for the waiter who has two lines in a scene to have an epiphany while pouring iced tea!

The arc may be revealed in the writing, like someone bursting in and saying "Johnny's the guy who shot Willy!" But most often it is left to the actor to show the moment of revelation. The character grows, in knowledge, in attitude, in something that he needs to move the play forward. The audience needs to see that growth on the actor's face.

In playing the arc, the actor needs to be aware of his levels (I use "his" in the place of "his or her" or "their" because it's just silly to waste all those words. Let's you and I agree that by the word "his" I mean "his or her"...really, this gender-correctness thing is way out of whack!). Their performance needs to have an arc to it, too. In order for the revelation to come in as a high point, it must be preceded and followed by low points. Equally but oppositely, a low point must be bookended by high points. That way, the audience can see that the character has had a change.

My daughter had a middle school teacher who taught her kids to memorize speeches in a specific cadence; Four SCORE and seven Years AGO our forefathers BROUGHT...and whenever the school had a speaking event, you could tell which kids came from that teacher's class. Listen my CHILDREN and YOU shall HEAR of the midnight RIDE of...

Playing the arc needs to be subtle (unless you're doing melodrama, in which nothing is subtle). The low or high needs to follow the end of the previous scene. The lows and highs need to be in the same plane of realism. The revelation shouldn't be accompanied by a sudden gasp or the drop of a platter, unless called for in the script. The change needs to be big enough for the audience to see it, but small enough to pass for reality. You don't want the audience going "duh duh DUH!" in their heads when they're watching your scene.

Finally, you want the moment of revelation to be real for the actor. You want him to feel it, because the audience will feel it with him. We did a piece about a betrayal just a couple of weeks ago. The actress who played the betrayer completely stole the piece when her character had to decide whether to do the right thing or to tell a lie and betray her friend. Her face became ashen, tears rolled down her cheeks, and she paused and paused and paused until I started to think she might be dropping a line, and then she let out the line. The audience, as a unit, sighed in disappointment. They were 100% in the moment with her. I asked her later why she took that long pause. She said it was because she didn't want to betray her friend. You can't fake that reality, my friend.

So, there, my directorial friend, are my thoughts on playing the arc. Once you help your actors see the arcs in the pieces you direct, you'll find a whole new world of performance opens up for them.