General Parameters: Student directors will enroll in at least three credits prior to beginning any work on the production. The number of credits enrolled will be determined by an agreement between the student director and the faculty member supervising the project.
Deadlines and Attendance: Student directors will:
Assignments: The student director will complete the following in the process of presenting the show:
Grading: 40% Quality Factors (artistic/substantive achievement on the following elements) prompt books, staging (directorial elements), performance (characterization elements), inanimate elements (designs, technical production); 15% Attendance Factors (as outlined above); 20% Deadline Factors (as outlined above); 25% Assignment Factors (timeliness and thoroughness of the following) completion of the preliminary prompt book and script analysis, completion of the final prompt book and project summary.
Preliminary Prompt Book: This should include the following:
1. script analysis (see detailed instructions below)
2. script with blocking and floorplan(s)
3. preliminary rehearsal schedule budget (how much is to be spent in each area)
4. research notes/production notes
5. any preliminary forms, handouts, organizational materials
Detailed Instructions for Script Analysis: The analysis should include all the following elements:
1. Identify and define the drama by genre.
2. Provide historical/cultural context of the drama's action and setting.
3. Outline the dramatist's literary and/or theatrical career. (This is not a biography.)
Give particular attention to the elements in this drama you are directing that exist
as thematic or theatrical trends in the dramatist's larger body of works.
4. Discuss your artistic vision for the production. What is the significance or importance
of this drama? What effect or impact do you wish the show to have upon the audience?
5. Discuss each character's dramatic function in the show, including each character's
overall motive/goal/desire and each character's metaphorical/emblematic value.
6. Identify and discuss the conflicts that arise as a result of the collision of the
various characters' motives/goal/desires. (Show how the characters' motives create
conflict.)
7. Anything else you want to discuss.
Final Prompt Book: This should include the following elements:
1. script with final blocking and floorplan(s)
2. rehearsal schedule(s)
3. budget report (how much was actually spent in each area)
4. rehearsal notes
5. all forms, handouts, organizational materials, and daily rehearsal logs
6. summary essay (see detailed instructions below)
7. copies of all promotional materials and program
8. all research notes, rehearsal notes, etc.
Detailed Instructions for Summary Essay: A typewritten essay enclosed within the final prompt book that includes discussion
of:
1. Your work as an artist: audience response--success with your intended vision; character
development--your work with the actors; inanimate element--your work with the designers.
2. Your work as an executive: marketing--your efforts to promote the production; logistics--your
work with the stage manager; technical elements--your work with production staff and
issues.