Prepare thoroughly. Kids don’t have a lot of patience. You need to know before a rehearsal where you want everyone to stand and how you want them to say the lines. You can’t be making these decisions on the fly. If the kids feel you aren’t sure about a scene, they won’t bother to remember where you told them to stand, when to enter and such.
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| “The Pied Piper” |
Constantly reinforce basic rules of acting. You will have to tell kids many times to “cheat out,” to stand straight, not to slouch, to use gestures with their lines, to look at and listen to the other actors, to use appropriate emotional expression with their lines, to react to what’s happening on stage and, most importantly, to speak loudly, slowly and clearly. Before every rehearsal I always ask the kids, “How do we say our lines?”, and they know to respond: “Loud and slow.”
Don’t be afraid to say, “Do it this way.” With adult actors, directors generally let the actor make their own “choice” as to how to interpret a character. And sometimes kids can be very ingenious about their character interpretations. The good news is they don’t take it personally if you tell them, “This is how I want you to say this line.” Usually it is necessary to give each actor quite a bit of input as to how their character should be played. For the first couple of rehearsals, I usually let them experiment with their character. After that I start working with each actor to improve their characterizations.
Teach them how to memorize lines. Kids need to be taught how to memorize lines. I tell them to get a parent, sibling or friend to help them and to work on lines every day, even on days when they have a show. First, read over all your lines. Then have your helper read the two or three lines before your line and then you say the line. If you can’t remember it, they should give you the first couple of words. If you still can’t remember the line, they should read the line and you then repeat it.
Teach your actors how to “cover.” It is inevitable that kids will forget lines during a performance. All the actors need to learn how to “cover” for one another by either saying the other actor’s line if that makes sense or by skipping over the missed line and going to their line, assuming the missed line was their cue. Encourage them to cover during rehearsals, but then go back and do the same scene correctly.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
It’s good to give your cast director’s notes after a rehearsal, but make sure that for every critical remark there is also a complimentary remark, even if it’s “You guys were a lot better this week than last week.” Make sure your cast knows you are trying to teach them how to be better actors, and they should see these as helpful hints, not put downs. Also, speak one on one with actors for whom you have a very personal critique, like, “Jamie, you are hitting a lot of wrong notes.” And again, back that up with a compliment.
One thing a director always has to balance is what will make the best show versus the feelings of the actors. For instance, if someone is having a problem with their vocals and they don’t get better even with help, you may need to cut them from that vocal group, or, if it’s a solo song, cut the song. It would be best for the show to do that, but it will be very hard on the young actor. If there’s some way you can make it look like they are being cut from the song for a good purpose (we need you to go around watering the flowers while the others sing about the flowers), that’s the best way to do it. The director has to weigh how damaging to the show the problem actor/vocalist is compared to their hurt feelings.