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The Christian Filmmakers 24 Hour Film Contest begins in less than seven hours. Righteous Insanity will be competing in this exciting and unique event with a film called... well, you'll just have to check this blog Sunday and find out. Link up with other Christian film makers and learn about the contest at www.christianfilmmakers.org/contest/
In the “real world” of theater, most auditions are done with cold reads, meaning the actors are reading from script with zero preparation. Directors cast based on first impressions, right are wrong, which means many times actors are judged not on true potential, but on their skills as a cold reader.
A lot of directors and teachers will use this technique to give their students the real world theater experience. I think it’s doing your kids, yourself, and your audience a disservice not to take some time to get to know the kids and their abilities in different circumstances.
Plan to take time with auditions. If you don’t already know the students, hold an acting or improvisation workshop. Make sure every kid gets a chance to get up and show what they can do in a no-pressure situation. Don’t even call it an audition. Just get them there, run some scenes, and let them do their thing.
For my current play, Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", I gave the kids a chance to prepare a monologue in advance of their choosing. That way they could pick something they are most comfortable with. For those who didn’t have the ability to prepare in advance, I picked two scenes with a male and female character, and had each person read both scenes as cold reads. Once again, the more options you put in front of them, the more chances you give them to succeed, the better your decision making process will become.
Casting “corrections” a messy affair. The first time I did Midsummer, an actor who auditioned well but rehearsed poorly forced me to switch three roles (Theseus, Demetrius, and Bottom) three weeks before we opened. They handled the changes remarkably well for eighth graders, but it could have easily been a disaster. Take the time to get it right the first time. It’s the fairest plan for your kids and your sanity.
The Church Drama Podcast's latest edition (#57) features three Righteous Insanity scripts, including "The Mountain", "The Eunuch", and "The Emotion Skit." Check out the latest edition on their website:
At last, the story can be told - a skit for Easter about the rooster who crowed after Peter's denial.
I, Rooster
By John Cosper
CHARACTERS
Pastor (can be an associate pastor or a lay person)
Rooster
DIRECTOR’S NOTE: This scene is intended for an actor and a puppet. It can be performed with a puppeteer behind a curtain or table; or it can be done as a ventriloquist act; or you can put a man in a chicken suit. If time is a constraint, some of the humorous dialogue at the beginning and end can be trimmed so you can get to the meat (no pun intended) of the story.
Pastor enters.
PASTOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special privilege today. We’re going to hear from one of the key participants in the Easter story. What makes this so special is that, in two thousand years, his story has never really been told. The night Jesus was betrayed, Simon Peter told Jesus he would follow him to the end, even if it meant death. Jesus told Peter, before the rooster crows, he would deny Jesus three times. Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome for the Rooster.
The Rooster enters.
PASTOR: Mr. Rooster, thank you for joining us.
ROOSTER: Please, just call me Rooster.
PASTOR: Rooster, it is an honor to have you here.
ROOSTER: Thank you, Pastor. And may I say that after two thousand years, it’s about time.
PASTOR: What do you mean?
ROOSTER: Oh come on. Easter comes every year. You’ve had what, two thousand Easters?
PASTOR: Somewhere in there.
ROOSTER: Two thousand years, and every year, you pastors and your drama guys and your pageant guys, you’re all looking for a new angle. Tell the story from Jesus’ point of view. Tell it from Peter’s. From Pilate’s. From Judas’. Even Barabbas gets his story told. Is there no love for the rooster?
PASTOR: Well, with all due respect, you were sort of a minor character.
ROOSTER: I beg your pardon! Everybody knows my part in the story. Jesus didn’t say “Before the morning comes,” or “Before the cow moos,” or “Before the dog barks.” He said, “Before the ROOSTER crows.” The rooster!
PASTOR: That’s you.
ROOSTER: That’s right. You know most Easter pageants, I don’t even get a credit? If they do my part at all, it’s off stage. Or worse, they use a sound effect. You put the donkey on stage, right? Sheep, goats, pigs, camels. Camels, pastor!
PASTOR: I hear you.
ROOSTER: This isn’t even their holiday. Camels are Christmas. But everybody loves them, so let’s bring them back out.
PASTOR: Now, Rooster…
ROOSTER: There were chickens in the stable too, you know.
PASTOR: Rooster, I think the first question we all want to hear is the story from your point of view.
ROOSTER: From my point of view? Well, I went to bed around nine. My alarm went off at 4:30. I had my coffee, read the paper, and then I crowed just before 5 AM.
PASTOR: That’s it?
ROOSTER: What do you want, angels?
PASTOR: Just the truth.
ROOSTER: Because they don’t send angels to chickens.
PASTOR: I see.
ROOSTER: We tend to spook.
PASTOR: So it was just another morning for you then?
ROOSTER: It was just another morning for all of us.
PASTOR: And you had no clue there was something different happening that day?
ROOSTER: No, I uh, I didn’t get the memo there, pastor. Come on, it wasn’t Good Friday to us. It was just Friday. You think Pilate knew what was coming that day? The guy ran on a platform of lower taxes and campaign finance reform, not anti-Jesus legislation, the poor guy.
PASTOR: Sounds like he got your vote.
ROOSTER: Whatever, man, I’m a Libertarian.
PASTOR: But you did eventually learn about what happened.
ROOSTER: I did. This kid Mark came and interviewed me.
PASTOR: Mark the gospel writer?
ROOSTER: That’s the one. Kid spent three hours getting my whole life story, all he gives me is two sentences.
PASTOR: I’m sorry to hear that.
ROOSTER: Ruined any chance of me getting a bigger mention in any of the other books.
PASTOR: So I guess Mark told you the rest of the story?
ROOSTER: Yes, he did, Paul Harvey.
PASTOR: Let me ask you, what did you think when you heard it?
ROOSTER: Well, I was glad to be me and not Peter.
PASTOR: I bet.
ROOSTER: And to be totally honest… I thought Jesus was a little crazy.
PASTOR: Why is that?
ROOSTER: Because he knew Peter would deny him! He knew this guy who followed him everywhere for three years would turn on him in an instant. And yet, he still died for him and all the other sorry, no good, ingrates. I didn’t get it.
PASTOR: Well, I think Peter’s story is symbolic of all of us. Jesus died for everyone, even those who don’t know him and refuse to accept him.
ROOSTER: That doesn’t sound crazy to you?
PASTOR: From a human point of view, yes.
ROOSTER: It’s not just a human thing. It doesn’t make sense to us chickens either.
PASTOR: But it shows that Jesus was more than a man, and that his love can forgive the sins of everyone, right?
ROOSTER: Well…
PASTOR: You don’t think Jesus forgiving Peter speaks loudly?
ROOSTER: Not as loudly as Jesus forgiving S. Truett Cathey.
PASTOR: I’m sorry, who?
ROOSTER: S. Truett Cathey. The founder of Chik-Fil-A.
PASTOR: Oh.
ROOSTER: You know, “We didn’t invent the chicken; just the chicken sandwich.”
PASTOR: I know the slogan.
ROOSTER: What a thing to be known for. Slicing us off the bone, lightly breading us, frying us up, and and serving us on a toasted, buttered bun with a pickle.
PASTOR: Yeah.
ROOSTER: And then turning the cows against us with their “Eat More Chicken” campaign. You see that?
PASTOR: I have.
ROOSTER: Learn how to spell, Bossie!
PASTOR: So what does the founder of Chik-Fil-A have to do with the grace of God?
ROOSTER: Well, when I heard about Peter, I was impressed. It takes a lot of love to forgive a friend who betrays you. But forgiving the guy who invented the chicken sandwich? That, my friend, is a miraculous kind of love.
PASTOR: Well, we certainly thank you for your insights and your wisdom.
ROOSTER: Thank you, Pastor. It’s been a great pleasure. I just hope it’s not another two thousand years before I can speak again.
PASTOR: Maybe you should write a book.
ROOSTER: Pssh, nobody reads any more Pastor. This is the 21st century. I’m writing a screenplay.
PASTOR: Well good luck, Rooster.
ROOSTER: If anyone knows Johnny Depp, I want him to play me.
PASTOR: The Rooster, everyone.
ROOSTER: Goodbye, you lovely people.
For more traditional Easter skits - and some more non-traditional - visit Righteous Insanity's website.
You probably never heard of it. It’s by the B-52’s, one of my all-time favorite bands. Yes, I love the B-52’s. I can sing along with “Mesopotamia”, “Rock Lobster”, “Love Shack”, “Devil in my Car”, “Quiche Lorraine”, “Channel Z”, “Private Idaho”, “Is That You, Mo Deen?”, “Roam”, and many more. I am so excited they have a new album out soon.
You probably had no idea they were together. That’s okay. I am sure you have your secret favorite artist too. Remember New Kids on the Block?
The point is not the bad music on our CD rack or MP3 player. When I hear Mesopotamia, I sing along. I don’t need a lyric sheet; never have. Because “there’s one thing I do know… there’s a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia.”
When your favorite song comes on the radio, I bet it’s the same story. You don’t pull out the lyric sheet to sing along with Britney to “Toxic”, do you? You just sing along. You’ve heard it enough times to know it.
Same goes for that favorite movie of yours. Whether it’s Monty Python, Caddyshack, Romy and Michelle… we all have one or two (or sometimes dozens) of movies we can quote by heart.
No we don’t get all the words right. Yes, we drop lines here and there. But we have the confidence to sing and play along.
Memorization is not about ability. It’s about confidence. You start building it with one simple step: after running through the script a few times, you turn it over. The more you do it, the more you’ll see how good you are – the more confidence you’ll have.
It's not hard to hear someone tell me a script is too long; I can edit.
It's not hard when they say it's too short; I can add characters of subplots.
It's not even hard when they say, "That's not what I wanted to say." Sometimes that's the best critique because it leads to them telling me, "What I wanted was..." Then I can write the script they wanted in the first place.
So what's the worst thing a writer can hear?
"It's not funny enough."
There's just something about being a comedy writer and hearing that that destroys you. But it happens some times. Everyone has their own sense of what's funny, and the hardest thing, sometimes, is gauging what makes people laugh. If I don't get your humor or vice versa, I could end up doing a lot of rewrites.
Any other comedy writers with me on this?
I love the numbers improv. It's my favorite game to watch and to teach. The explanation goes thus: I pick two actors and bring them on stage. I give them characters and a scenario to act out. Then I give them the catch: they cannot speak words. Only numbers. Instead of relying on words, they will have to use their voices and bodies to communicate with each other and tell a story.
Actors inevitably freak out when I give them the "no words" rule, but most seem to take to the game quite easily. When you let yourself go, some amazing things happen. You can almost hear the words the two actors are trying to say. During one workshop "56" became a code word for a bad word. Another time "23" became code for cat fight. My favorite, however, was a girlfriend boyfriend scene when the girl rattled off a series of angry numbers, prompting the guy to respond, "I did not!!"
The numbers game also leads to one of my favorite illustrations that I use in workshops. I set up a scene where two Christian friends are hanging out. One of the two Christians leads a double life, partying with the wild crowd, and the two Christians run into one of the party friends while they are out and about. The actor is then put in a position where she has to keep the Christian and non-Christian friend from discovering her hypocrisy.
As actors in drama ministry, people are watching us all the time. They hear what we have to say on stage, but more than that, they hear what our lives say. If we give the performance of a lifetime Sunday morning, then deny God completely with our lifestyle, what speaks louder? Will someone in crisis turn to God because of what they heard on Sunday? Or will they look someplace else because that's what we do in real life?
No matter how you serve, it's your day to day life that says the most about your faith. What would people say about your faith?
Chuck Colson has a wonderful Breakpoint essay that addresses a subject I blogged about recently: knowing your audience. Those of us who have grown up in the church have a distinctly Christian worldview, and we struggle to reach a lost world that sees itself - and us - in a completely different light. If we are to have any hope of shedding light in the dark, we need to understand how the world view us - and why - in order to best communicate with them.
Read the Breakpoint essay "A Fresh Look at Elmer Gantry" here.
If you are a writer, I strongly urge you to subscribe to Breakpoint. Breakpoint has inspired more than a few skits and stories of mine. I appreciate Colson because he makes me aware of the world around us, and addresses how and where we should be working to make a difference. He inspires me to act, and to write stories that will make others want to act. And you have nothing to lose by trying it out because it's totally free.
Never cast a method actor in the role of God.
Call me crazy, but I think that might be a bad thing, especially for the guy's family.
I don't know the origin of this skit. I saw someone else do it, and I am sure they got it from some other place, but it's been a valuable tool and a great performance piece for years.
The Emotion Skit works like this: actors read it through straight the first time - no inflection, no emotion. Then you start choosing different emotions, archetypes, quirks, etc. to use in the scene. Whatever emotion is chosen, the actors exaggerate it as much as possible. If you pick happy, everyone is over the top with happiness and joy. If you choose sadness, there should be wailing and tears. If it's anger... well, there's a whole range of different kinds of anger. You can be specific on a certain kind of anger, or just let the actors explore. Either way it's a great exercise in studying how to play emotions.
Our brains are split between the logical side (the side we use when acting) and the instinctive side (the side that governs real emotions). As actors, we have to teach our logical side to behave in the way our instinctive side already knows. Exercises like this allow us to explore emotions, reactions, and feelings, to break them down into components so that we can reproduce them. How does my voice sound when happy? How do my eyes look? What about my posture, my walk, my face? The more we study these emotions, the easier it becomes to recreate them in our acting performances.
What spiritual applications do you see in this exercise? What does the Bible teach us about emotions, and how can an exercise like this help us to obey God in regards to them?
