Similar to how a poem is meant to be recited out loud, a play is meant to be staged and performed. Despite staging an amateur play, there are still processes to it that you must follow for your play to be successful. In the end, the audience will be the one to evaluate you and tell you if they truly like what you have prepared for them. Here are the steps that you can follow in staging an amateur play.
1. Find a play.
Go through your library, old-school books, or even the Internet to look for a play that you may like to stage. For an amateur play, you may stage one-act plays that will be easy to manage and execute. If you are lost for a play you want to stage, you may want to try Rene 0. Villanueva’s short one-act plays such as Kurnbersasyon, Tatlo-Tatlo, and his wildly famous May Isang Sundalo. These are simple one-act plays that have only one setting: it may be a classroom, a living room, or a bedroom.
2. Find a group who you want to work with.
Find a group of at least 10 of your classmates who are willing to work with you. Make sure that they have their own expertise that they can bring to help you stage your play: acting, lighting, preparing, and making props, taking charge of the sound system, and directing.
3. Assign specific tasks to each of your group mates.
Make sure to not overassign or underassign tasks; assign them to those you think are the best in that particular task. As for you, you may be the director if you wish or the leader who will oversee all the proceedings of the production.
4. Make a timeline of what you want to accomplish.
If your teacher gives you one month to stage a play, then draw or write a time line of what you want to accomplish every week. For example, for the first week, you want to hold auditions for the final cast. For the second week, you have your round-table reading of the final script and the props people start making the props. For the third week, you have daily practices, and the sounds or lights people start assembling their equipment for the play. The fourth week is the final and/or dress rehearsals before the performance day.
5. Stick to your plan.
If in case something goes wrong with your plan, always have a backup plan or a plan B. The key to a successful presentation is to always be ready for anything that may happen.
6. Finally, enjoy the presentation!
It is also recommended that you give your audience an evaluation sheet, so that you know what you can improve on for the next presentation. You may research an example of an evaluation sheet on the Internet. After your presentation, discuss the comments in the evaluation sheets with the rest of your team as a post-evaluation step of the presentation.