One of my favorite scenes occurs in Act II. The villagers, with the egotistical Gaston in the lead, have just heard that Belle is residing in the Beast's enchanted castle. Gaston, bent on marrying Belle at any cost, stirs the crowd of villagers into an angry mob and they begin their march to the castle.
Now, having been in band for four years of high school, when I discovered that I would be choreographing this number and had a total of twenty-six people I would have to move around on stage, I went straight to marching formations. For this song, we close off half the stage so the castle ensemble can get set up. I've got about a tiny stage and a large cast, and I had to make it look as though there were hundreds of villagers marching towards the castle. The formation I chose: meshing.
Meshing is where you have lines of people marching in opposite directions (thus passing each other). To give you an example, lets say we have 4 lines of people (line a, b, c, d).
a: l l l l l
b: l l l l l
c: l l l l l
d: l l l l l
Lines a and c would march towards the right as lines b and d march towards the left.
a: l l l l l -->
b: <--l l l l l
c: l l l l l -->
d: <--l l l l l
What you get is a quick pass through which appears to double your numbers on stage. It's quite amazing to watch from the audience.
So, I've got my cast, already in character (thanks to their work with characterization) marching across the stage, singing a strong song, and looking as if there's twice as many of them on stage. But I'm not through yet. I like for the audience to feel as if they are a part of the show; so, I take a couple of the cast members off stage and have them do a mesh of their own out in the audience. My hope is that it will make the scene really come alive for the audience members.
Needless to say, it's a pretty spectacular number and the cast has a lot of fun with it. Every time they perform that song I get chill bumps on my arms and a huge smile on my face. That's when I know we've got something good...and trust me, we do!
b: l l l l l
c: l l l l l
d: l l l l l
Lines a and c would march towards the right as lines b and d march towards the left.
a: l l l l l -->
b: <--l l l l l
c: l l l l l -->
d: <--l l l l l
What you get is a quick pass through which appears to double your numbers on stage. It's quite amazing to watch from the audience.
So, I've got my cast, already in character (thanks to their work with characterization) marching across the stage, singing a strong song, and looking as if there's twice as many of them on stage. But I'm not through yet. I like for the audience to feel as if they are a part of the show; so, I take a couple of the cast members off stage and have them do a mesh of their own out in the audience. My hope is that it will make the scene really come alive for the audience members.
Needless to say, it's a pretty spectacular number and the cast has a lot of fun with it. Every time they perform that song I get chill bumps on my arms and a huge smile on my face. That's when I know we've got something good...and trust me, we do!
I can feel the excitement in your posts. Can you sense your growing confidence in what you are doing?
ReplyDeleteI would say I am. I've discovered that if you are going to direct 50+ people you have to be confident in what you are saying. I think that cast members, like dogs, can smell fear; so, no matter what I'm saying, I say it with confidence (even if I'm not all that sure about it).
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe this experience has turned me into a better, more efficient leader.