Getting the Best from Young Actors (The Youth Theatre Director's Handbook Book 10)

If you have had minimal experience directing young actors, your basic concern will be determining the level of acting skill to expect:

How much should you demand of your cast?
What are realistic expectations for artistry or competence in performance?
Should you be satisfied if everyone knows their lines, speaks loudly enough to be heard at the back of the theatre house and gets on and off stage at the appropriate times?

Truthfully, if you are casting from a limited casting pool, you may have a few performers who have to work hard just to accomplish the most fundamental elements of performance, but generally your actors will be capable of a much higher level of performance skills. If you have a large casting pool from which to choose your performers, the majority of your cast will probably have great potential for good performances. If you are experienced directing youth, you will already know that many young actors can surprise and amaze you and the audience with the theatricality and truth of the characters they create.

The Youth Theatre Director’s Handbook is designed to provide a director with information and tools to assist in producing and maintaining a single play, a festival or season of plays in a school, community or professional venue or even a long-term theatrical venture with and for the young. You will, at times, be informed and guided by the irrepressible producer and director of theatre by and for youth, Dot Baldwin. Dot is a fictional character who, nevertheless, provides real-life examples from youth theatre. Imagine her as a cheery-faced woman, prone to gesturing boldly and often. She never walks; she charges through life. Her wildly curly and tangled hair is always stuck full of pencils. Her clothes are a brightly colored afterthought. She cooks meals rarely but bakes great cookies. She sings loudly even on the street and understands and adores young people and their talent. She is a consummate theatre professional and educator. Her methods, stories and advice are based on a combination of twenty-five years of actual successes and mistakes (provided by the authors and by their colleagues and friends) directing and producing theatre for youth. It is hard-won information that is offered to you with the passionate wish that your theatrical quest with young actors will be filled with many victories and wondrous discoveries along the way. This volume is taken from the full version of The Youth Theatre Director’s Handbook.