About 15 years ago, I was an active director and producer of community theatre plays in Clinton, Ontario. I was also an avid reader and sometime participant on an internet newsgroup (*.theatre?) where I learned a great deal from so many wonderful, helpful people.
For one of the productions, I compiled a list of 29 "briefs". These are brief one- or two-page essays about some aspect of acting. To avoid overload, I distributed a new one at each rehearsal, pre-punched for the binders I distributed at the opening read-through. If we had had time, it would have been valuable to work through the material at the beginning of each rehearsal. At times, now, I wonder if maybe we did have time and could have used rehearsal time more productively that way.
Where I relied heavily on material from others, I cited them, fortunately. The first of these will be posted tomorrow and, with luck, I'll post one every other day or so for the next two months. For those of you who are interested, let me also highly recommend the posts about theatre by Kerry Hishon (with whom I had the pleasure to work in Edward II last February). Interestingly, we cover very little of the same ground. Her postings are excellent; most readers will find them helpful. They make very good complements to the briefs that will be posted here.
While re-reading these briefs to prepare these postings I had one overwhelming reaction: I wish I had re-read these briefs, and paid more attention to these ideas during the past two years. I hope you find them informative and helpful, too.
The fine print:
These briefs may be reproduced all you want at no charge for non-commercial purposes. Just please acknowledge the source (John Palmer) and this blog (www.EclectEcon.net). Also please retain the attributions I have included in the briefs. You may not use these resources for commercial purposes.