The Art of Acting: Preparing and Presenting a Dramatic Staged Reading

The first 10 sessions were a combination of exercises and rehearsals. The first part of the session was spent doing an exercise given by the teaching artist/director.  Additionally, there was usually a homework assignment, so that was reviewed. This part of rehearsal was usually spent sitting in a circle of chairs. The second half of the session was spent actually rehearsing the play. The rehearsal was mostly spent sitting at the jurors' table, which served as the set. The 11th session was a full dress rehearsal.

The end result was a fully staged play; although scripts were used, there was some action as well.  In one or two cases, some adjustments were made for actors who were not comfortable or fit enough to get up and move around, but otherwise the production followed the script as much as possible.

Several of the possible participants were afraid of acting in front of an audience, so it took time to persuade them to get involved. Once we were in full swing, some of the actors were hyper-focused on their own roles/characters, and continually made suggestions and wanted to make changes to their own character. We had to reel them in a bit to focus on the entire play and everyone as a group. It's natural for people to focus on themselves, but when a project is a true ensemble, the attention has to be spread around and the group is more important than any individual.  

The 12th session was our performance and receiption. The day of the event, we set up the room where the performance took place, as well as for the reception space. We had four staff members on hand for the set-up and clean-up. We had no unexpected challenges.