The Festival Design
02/21/12
I think of a name. hmm… how about Wonderland? YES! That’s it, Wonderland. Now… maybe we should make it a play festival… I mean, writers need an outlet for their shows to be produced, right? Seems logical. Yes. The Wonderland Play Festival. Well— wait, we cannot put up full length plays, can we? They last three hours and we want to showcase as much work as possible. Okay, The Wonderland One Act Play Festival. But where will it take place? It should be somewhere special, somewhere the playwrights will feel accomplished. How about 42nd street in NYC? Yes! Theatre Row. Okay. So we have The Wonderland One Act Play Festival at Theatre Row Studios. Now we are cookin… but how many shows do we produce? I want a lot, so many, how about fifty? Okay. fifty. So we need stage managers for each show to run lights and sound. Oh, and a stage hand to help with props, and a set designer to aide with sets, and maybe a costume designer? Who is going to direct the plays? I guess we will have to find a director for each play. I suppose the director will cast each play, so… yea! That works. So we will advertise The Wonderland One Act Play Festival at Theatre Row Studios and hire directors, stage managers, stagehands, ushers, set designers, costume designers, assistants and a liaison to handle all interactions. Phew. That was hard. Now we just need to make sure we run on time. Maybe three plays per showtime? But they need to end at an hour and a half. So we need to schedule ninety minutes every showtime. Some plays are fifteen minutes, others fifty. This will be difficult.
Uff! That was HARD! scheduling ALL those plays! Getting the right stage time for each showtime? Jeez. Now we should introduce ourselves to all the actors and directors so everyone knows who we are, and they know who to ask for support should they need anything.
What’s that? The playwrights want three performances each? Shit. Does that mean some plays get two matinees and others only one? Okay, back to the scheduling… this is going to have to run for months to make this work! That means we need another fifteen thousand dollars for rent! Okay, think think think….
one year later, it was a major success.
Now, imagine bands instead of plays. Multiply all of the above by fifty and place it in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or plumbing. Add in painters, dancers, fire spinners, artists, dining, beverages, stores, custom clothes, DJs, hats, tents, and RVs. Producing even a SMALL festival is a horrendous undertaking. To think about it on a large scale is totally overwhelming… for me that is. The amount of preparation, composure, coordination, synergy, and hard work that goes into a successful large-scale festival is nearly immeasurable. Join TWEED as we dig into more of what makes Wakarusa special; what makes its engine turn; what makes it feasible us to journey into the Ozark Mountains for a few days each summer, and explore a world where anything is possible.
Thank God for Wakarusa!
