General Meetings:
Teatrotaller members shall meet every other week for a general meeting. These
meetings will last from 20 to 30 minutes, and they have the following purposes:
discuss issues involving the play and the class with the Romance Studies Advisor;
maintain each other updated with reports from the officers; break into the teams
with their respective heads to discuss problems and concerns as they arise.
The dates of the meetings will be posted at the beginning of the semester by
the secretary; attendance will be taken at each meeting.
In addition to the general meetings, the following officers will have to attend
to a weekly meeting that will last for approximately 20 minutes: director, producer,
publicity head, secretary, and treasurer. These purpose of these meetings will
be to discuss organizational matters and to keep each other updated on decision
making processes as the production progresses. The secretary should take brief
minutes at these meetings.
There will be a final meeting at the end of the semester to evaluate the production
of the play and to elect the in-coming leadership (fall semester). Any other
emergency meetings may take place at any other times during the semester; members
will be notified through the email network and listserv..
I- How to
Select a play?
Some important questions to keep in mind at this stage are:
1-) Which productions has Teatrotaller staged recently?
i.e. If Teatrotaller just performed a play in Spanglish, it wouldnt be
advisable to produce another similar production right away. Alternating between
shows that are in Spanish and in Spanglish is the best solution.
Even among the categories of Latin American, Spanish, and US Latino plays, it
is important to ensure that a variety of cultures, themes, and styles are addressed.
i.e. Avoid presenting plays by authors that Teatrotaller has already presented;
try to pick plays that deal with different themes; explore works by authors
from different countries.
2-) Who is a part of the group at the moment?
If a play requires a specific dialect or an accent, always keep in mind your
pool of actors; i.e. If you dont have any Argentine actors dont
pick a play that starts out Che, vos sos un boludo.
Gender is another issue to keep in mind at this stage. Select a play that goes
in accordance with the ratio of male/ female actors in the group.
3-) What are the technical difficulties that each play presents?
Keep in mind the size of the technical staff and the budget that you will have
for each production. Watch closely for costume, sets, lighting, sound, or any
other technical necessities.
Make sure that the theater provides the necessary facilities for each particular
play. This includes lighting and sound equipment, dressing rooms, backstage
area, space to store the set during the final week of rehearsal, etc.
4-) Can the play be easily broken down into scenes?
It is advisable to break down the play into scenes in such a way that only a
small number of people have to rehearse at a time.
i.e.. A play might have only six characters, but if all six of them have to
be there all the time, rehearsing this play might become extremely difficult
because they might have scheduling conflicts.
Look for plays where possibly two groups could be rehearsing at the same time.
If there is an assistant director, she/he could work with them sometimes while
the director works with another group.
Enclosed is a list of suggested authors and titles. Most of these authors have
more than one work available in the library , so conducting a search by authors
is advisable. I have ranked them from 1-5, where 5 is the most complicated and
1 is the least. For those authors with whose work I am not familiar, I am only
enclosing the information that I know.