Shakespeare & Company - Touring Productions of Shakespeare

< Click back to Bringing the Tour into Your Area

Technical Information for A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Scheduling
The Performance Space
Help with load-in and load out
Lighting
Sound
Videotaping & Photography
Question & Answer Period
Meal Breaks
Preparing your students
Discipline

Scheduling

Macbeth will run 90-minutes, and with busy school scheduling, starting on time is often critical. If the school day is scheduled to be over at 2:30, and the play doesn’t begin until 1:05, the performance will still be going on when the students need to be heading out to their buses.

We’ll need one full hour to load in our set, props, costumes, and sound. We’ll need another 90 minutes for warm-ups, fight call and to preset the stage. Sometimes, we will need an additional hour scheduled before the performance to accommodate lunch. This means we’ll need to arrive between two and four hours before our performance. We will need access to the performance space during our entire visit. Someone should be available to meet us upon our arrival, either at the office, or at the prearranged load-in door.

The Performance Space

Every performance space is different, so it can be difficult to quantify our precise needs. Generally, we’d like a performance space that is at least 25 feet wide and 20 feet deep. If your space is smaller than this, it may still be possible for us to perform, but a longer conversation is necessary.

Before our arrival, please, please, please have the entire stage cleared and mopped. If possible, we’d love a small table and a few chairs left backstage. To help the actors prepare for their performance, we ask that our warm-ups not be public, although we certainly understand that there may be a few people that will need access to the performance space.

Help with load-in and load-out

If there are students available and interested, we always appreciate help with our load-in and load-out. We don’t need the help, but we welcome the interaction with the students, and a few extra hands always makes the work easier.

Lighting

There are very few lighting cues built into our performances. We have been getting more ambitious these past years, but only when the auditorium has the equipment and staff to create the simple design. If possible, we’d love to have someone (a student?) available to us to run the lights for the show. That person should arrive when we are loading in our sets & props, so that we can set any cues and be clear with our communication. If someone is especially interested in lighting, we can provide some additional information about the specific looks that we would use in the show.

As always, however, we want as much light as we can get – a general wash of light that covers the stage with special attention taken to the front lip of the stage. Also, because this is Shakespeare, we often need to speak directly to the audience and our actors want to be able to see them. Because of this, the house lights should be left on, or if possible, they should be at half. We understand that this is a little bit unorthodox, but we really crave this interaction with our audiences. Please inform teachers and students of this policy and help them to understand our reasons.

Sound

We bring along our own sound system, including speakers. All that we require is access to several outlets in order to plug it all in. We do not use microphones, except in the rarest of occasions, when the size of the space demands it. If it is possible, we request that all school bells be turned off in the auditorium. Sometimes, in very large spaces, we do try and tap into the auditorium’s sound system.

Important: For several legal considerations, there can be no videotaping of our performance. Also as a courtesy to our actors, please, no flash photography as well.

Question & Answer Period

If you are interested and have the time, the actors are very willing to do a Question & Answer period with your students following the show. It could last up to fifteen minutes, but we especially ask that this be set up in advance, so that the actors can be prepared.

Meal Breaks

Another thing to consider is that our actors will need meal breaks. Someplace in the schedule, we’ll want to set aside an hour for lunch, (the actors’ union requires it). With the tight schedule, we always appreciate any help that the school can provide in this regard.

Preparing your students for the performance

Check out our Guidebook to Macbeth. The first few pages discuss ways to prepare students to see any production of a Shakespeare play, and also give insight into our unique production.

Discipline

Clearly, we appreciate audiences that behave themselves, but we also appreciate students having a good time interacting with our performers. Having teachers sit with their students and watch the performance seems the best way to teach appropriate behavior. We do not, however, recommend that a school administrator stand up before the performance and admonish the students about their behavior. An introduction to the assembly is appropriate, and welcome, but please don’t let someone scold the students into resentment. It’s detrimental to their enjoyment, and makes a hostile audience for the performers.