About Arlene Schulman Expertise As a professional stage director and dramaturg, I have worked extensively with playwrights, lyricists and composeres in new play development. My areas of expertise are in character development, relationships, plot structure and stageability. I`d be happy to answer any questions in these areas, as well as in the process of getting a play from the page to the stage - including the stages along the way, director/playwright collaboration, the playwright`s place in rehearsals and so on.
Experience I am a professional stage director and dramaturg who has worked extensively in collaboration with playwrights, lyricists and composers on new plays and musicals. I have worked closely with them in the developmental process, helping to shape and edit their work - particularly in the areas of character development, relationships, plot structure and stageability - and acted as dramaturg and sounding board. I have brough these new plays to the stage in staged readings, workshops, showcases and full productions.
Organizations Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers - associate member Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of America - associate member Shakespeare Association of America The Shakespeare Institute -MA Candidate, "Shakespeare & Theatre"
I'm working on a few plays and I have a question concerning the order of the characters on the cast page. As a director, what order do you find most convenient? Should the characters be listed in order of appearance, importance, alphabetically...?
Furthermore, how much attention to do you pay to characters' ages as outlined in the script? For instance, is "25" too restrictive? Would it be better to go with "mid-twenties," or "twenty-something," or nothing at all?
Finally, is it advisable to minimize the amount of actors necessary by forcing multiple casting? For example, I have a 20 000-word first draft of a three-act play. There are 15 characters, though 6 are small enough such that a 9-person cast could perform the play. On the cast page, should I indicate "..played by actor playing~" as much as possible to minimize the cast size?
I am asking you this because I would like a director's insight. This gives me a different angle than that of other writers, which is what I am accustomed to.
Thank you very much, and I apologize for the amount of question marks in the above paragraphs,
Azeem
Answer Hi Azeem,
Of course every playwright approaches his/her cast list differently depending what they want to convey to the reader, director or actors. There is no real standard approach. In the play itself many playwrights list the characters in order of importance, but some do it in order of appearance. Most playbills list them in order of appearance (making it easier for the audience to check during the course of the play), but some do it by importance. I have never seen the characters listed alphabetically.
Additionally, each playwright has to make his own choice as to how much information to include in his description of the characters. Some simply list the characters there and put descriptions in the stage directions at their first entrance; others put a full description in the character list at the front of the play. But how much information to give is not really qualified by what the director will do with the information you give; it should be what you want the director (and actors) to know about the charactors in order for them to cast them (and what you want the actors to know in order to play them the way you intend.
Understand that any stage directions - including character descriptions - are open to interpretation by the director (unlike the dialogue which legally cannot be changed without your permission). Such descriptions are a guide to the director and actors, not cast in stone. Nor would you want them to be, or play might never be produced. Certainly you can put a specific age, if it is important to your perception of the character or to some specific plot detail (if the play specifically says a character is 25, it would be foolish to simply put "20's in the cast list). Otherwise an age range is perfectly fine to give the director an idea of the relative ages of the characters. Of course there might be situations where the casting possibilities, or the director's own interpretation, might cause a director to adjust the ages up or down, and that's to be expected. You can also put general physical or "emotional" descriptions of the characters if they would be helpful for a director to understand the essence of the characters as you see them (again understanding that individual directors and productions may interpret these descriptions differently).
One playwright I work with described a character as "their son, 25; compulsive and magnificently immature, with odd predilections for capes, close spaces, and the color black." That's very specific but it really tells me alot about what I need in the actor cast for this role while still leaving me plenty of leeway in actual body type. I may be directing this show soon, and if I do I will likely adjust all the ages of the characters up slightly knowing the casting possiblities available to me in that theatre. As long as the relative ages remain the same, it doesn't really matter if the character is 25 or 28. Many directors do find that some playwrights tend to over-describe their characters - even to describing in detail the clothes they are wearing, down to the color. Of course few costume departments are able to exactly reproduce such descriptions, but, again, a general description which gives the sense of the style of the character in that circumstance can be helpful.
Okay... the question of large casts is one that plagues all playwrights. These days it is very expensive to produce a play and most (not all) professional theatre companies are looking to minimize their casts. So playwrights are forced to consider either eliminating characters or using doubling. I would strongly advise against "forced" doubling. Each director may have different ideas as to which characters might be best doubled. And their casting might not allow for the doubling you have in mind (height, weight, vocal or stylistic idiocyncrasies, or acting abilities might make it impossible). Additionally, by forcing doubling you do not allow for companies who might WANT to use a bigger cast.
My suggestion is to list the full cast (using doubling only when necessary to the play - as when it is important that two characters are played by the same actor to emphasize a plot point). HOWEVER, feel free to include a note at the bottom of the cast list stating that doubling is permitted (or encouraged) when desired, and, perhaps, even including "suggested doubling choice" (Character 1/Character 2) with the note that other choices are certainly possible.
I hope some of these suggestions help. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them for you - from a director's point of view, of course.
