Category: drama
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How to respond when an actor asks, “What should I do?”
I get to teach and work with young actors. Some have experience. Others do not. It’s incredibly fun seeing someone take the stage for the first time and try to find their way, try to understand their character, try to understand the relationships between the other characters, and try to, ultimately, figure out what they…
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Is art that doesn’t last worth it?
A sad day. Painting over the temporary artwork which provided the setting for our musical last weekend. The black quickly covered all the wonderful and vivid memories which we had recently created on that stage. With one stroke of a roller, it was gone. It made me think: is art that doesn’t last worth it?…
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Live in the Moment and do not be Stressed
Busy. We are all busy. Some more than others. I tend to get involved in the things that I am passionate about (such as writing, drama, coaching softball), and all three of these things are very time consuming. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with one’s other responsibilities like work, family, and general living. I have…
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The Sistine Chapel Dramatic Sketches
We had three successful days performing our dramatic sketches in the replica Sistine Chapel at penangpac. The four sketches were meant to enhance the viewing of the chapel paintings by telling stories related to the painters or their subjects. “The Heavyweight Fight of the Ages: Almighty God vs. Nothingness” – this one focused on several…
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The Purpose of Dress Rehearsals
I’ve been directing stage plays for seven years now. I’m no professional, and I’ve learned a lot throughout the years. Dress rehearsals are the emotional peak that every director has to scale before a new show. Once it arrives and the actors poke through the clouds and stand on that emotional peak, a director’s job…
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The “Boardwalk Melody” Story through Photos
“Boardwalk Melody” – An Original Musical The Story in Photos: Frederick, the fisherman, has been chasing Minnie, the ice cream lady, for years. I think she secretly has a crush on him, but she’s most definitely playing hard to get. Benedict (blue) works in his aunt Gert’s tourist agency. Gert has hired two girl-crazy teens…
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Stage Painting: Day 1
Well, I got a crazy idea (and now my back is scolding me for it). Let’s paint the stage for our new show “Boardwalk Melody.” After all, it needs to have a boardwalk, right? So today we started painting and designing it. Now I must say, I take no artistic credit for anything we are…
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Review: Sinbad The Musical @ penangpac
I took a whole crew of high schoolers to see Sinbad: The Musical for its second show at penangpac, and we all had a great time! Isn’t that enough of a review right there? The theatre is supposed to be fun, but sometimes we tend to make it all so serious, dark, artistic, cutting-edge, and…
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Slicing and Dicing the Script
The musical I’m directing is three weeks away from opening. Today we had our first mega-rehearsal – 8 hours which included two complete run-throughs from start to finish. I know now that I had been over-optimistic about the musical’s length. I was confident that we could get it done in 2.5 hours which would have…
Author Mark W Sasse 