{"id":5234,"date":"2016-10-21T10:20:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5234"},"modified":"2016-10-25T12:29:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T16:29:59","slug":"off-campus-directing-grows-pool-of-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2016\/10\/21\/off-campus-directing-grows-pool-of-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-campus directing grows pool of experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"swansonS\"<\/a>The creative process for a theater director begins a year before the opening-night curtain goes up. There are lighting and scenery decisions to be made; auditions, callbacks and rehearsals; and, of course, consideration of how those decisions will ultimately affect the emotional response of the audience.<\/p>\n

This past summer, Michael Swanson, Elizabethtown College director of theatre and dance and associate professor of theatre, took on the role of director for David Mamet\u2019s \u201cGlengarry Glen Ross,\u201d performed at Ephrata Performing Arts Center (EPAC). It\u2019s the fourth show he\u2019s directed at EPAC and one of many he\u2019s been involved with off campus, he said. One show at EPAC took BroadwayWorld.com best-of awards for south-central Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

By being involved in productions beyond Elizabethtown, Swanson said he broadens his knowledge base and, therefore, his ability to better teach his students. In addition, community theater gives Swanson an opportunity to take on edgier productions\u2014a play with flagrant use of obscenities, for instance, or those with adult subjects or unique cast configurations. EPAC’s Glengarry Glen Ross, with an all-male cast, is an example.<\/p>\n

… it\u2019s a process of analysis and synthesis. The synthesize is putting it all back together again.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Directing off campus offers the opportunity to work with \u201cactors who are actually older adults\u201d rather than students who must play parts decades beyond their years. \u201cThis broadens my experience of working with actors on varying levels,\u201d the professor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Swanson\u2019s work as a director \u2026 \u00a0gives him the chance to interact with actors with a broad range of experiences,\u201d said James Haines, Fine and Performing Arts department chair. \u201cThe exchange of ideas and points of view in planning and rehearsing a show, particularly shows he may never get to direct on campus, help him to continue to develop as a director.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production of a show typically begins with a full read through, Swanson said. Then, the show is broken down into smaller bits focusing on various actors and various scenes. \u201cIt\u2019s five lines here, a few lines there, listening to make sure the exchange is clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Swanson referred to this process as \u201ca form of murder\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tear it apart in small components,\u201d he said. \u201cThen, it\u2019s a process of analysis and synthesis. The synthesize is putting it all back together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swanson, who directs two shows at the College each academic year<\/a>, explained that taking on these extracurricular opportunities helps him teach others how to more effectively direct. \u201cWhen I\u2019m directing a play, I get to work with everybody,\u201d Swanson said. He gets involved in wardrobe, lighting, scenery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to have a hand in all of that \u2013 standard stuff a theatre student will be learning\u201d at Elizabethtown College Theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The creative process for a theater director begins a year before the opening-night curtain goes up. There are lighting and scenery decisions to be made; auditions, callbacks and rehearsals; and, of course, consideration of how those decisions will ultimately affect the emotional response of the audience. This past summer, Michael Swanson, Elizabethtown College director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,3],"tags":[490,1124,1128,426],"class_list":["post-5234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-real-world-learning","tag-achievements-2","tag-fapa","tag-feature","tag-theatre","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5234"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5244,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234\/revisions\/5244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}