The 2008 Thespian Festival production of Sweeney Todd, presented by Las Vegas (Nevada) Academy. Directing the chorus It takes more than lead actors to create a successful musical BY JOE DEER Chorus work is a kind of apprentice- ship for larger roles and responsibili- ties within your productions in years to come. For some students, this may be the only way to participate onstage be- cause chorus work teaches the theatre experience to students who can’t carry a principal role. Large-scale produc- tions build cohesiveness and team spir- it within your program. Finally, large cast shows tend to draw big audiences of friends and family members. As beneficial as large cast musicals are, they can also be a fearsome job for the director. Dealing with the mass of bodies, and connecting them inte- grally to the action of the story can be daunting. You’ve probably stood in a big rehearsal and found yourself think- ing (if not actually saying), “Don’t just stand there. Do something!” Rather than building the excitement of the dramatic moment, the thirty students in your production can actually have the effect of draining energy and diluting focus. You can avoid this kind of prob- lem and create a rich experience for your students by following a few sim- ple steps that build ensemble, create textured stage life, train your students as active responders, and largely elimi- nate your staging dilemmas. The director of a musical must de- cide how to incorporate, engage, and take full advantage of the chorus. Al- though you share responsibility for re- hearsal with a musical director and choreographer, understanding how to exploit the dramatic force of the chorus gives the director of a musical the po- R. BRUHN tential to create dynamic theatre. Start by figuring out what they can do for the production. PERFORMING in a large-scale musical can be one of Chorus functions The chorus of a musical specifical- the most enduring and powerful learning experi- ly populates your theatrical world. The many levels of society you want (or need) to represent can be played ences for any theatre student. For most, this means by the same actors in as many roles as your imagination will allow. Many mu- being in the chorus. This is fun for your everyone, sicals require the same players to por- tray opposing levels of a society. In My Fair Lady, the chorus members portray and producing a big musical pays dividends to both the poorest cockney flower sell- ers and the most aristocratic members your theatre program in a variety of ways as well. of British society within minutes of TEACHING THEATRE 5 freedom or to feel the full power of the Holy Spirit as delivered by night- PHOTOFEST club singer/evangelist Sweeney. As the different groups are infected with Reno’s enthusiasm in their own way, the audience is overwhelmed by the sheer vocal and kinetic energy of those moments. This chorus has given Reno and her Angels a sounding board, an obstacle to work against, and, finally, a support system to carry her message forward. The power of the chorus to rein- force dramatic moments is not limited to sharing joy. In one of the most mov- ing scenes in Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade, the Georgia community of Marietta buries the mur- dered child, Mary Phagan, as her would-be boyfriend, Frankie Epps, is transformed from a grieving child to a revenge-seeking racist. The vocal and physical presence of the chorus con- ducting the funeral reinforces the effect Mary’s loss has on Frankie’s world and helps justify his anger. Here again the director has a chance to create particu- lar stories and vignettes within the overall action of the funeral: friends laying flowers on her casket, her moth- er collapsing from grief, a minister of- fering solace and words of comfort, and so forth. All of this serves as a non-verbal backdrop to Frankie’s trans- formation. The chorus pressures principal The 1972 Broadway production of Pippin. characters to take action, reflect on their action, or to consider new op- each other. In many shows the chorus have met dozens of people and have a tions. The chorus not only portrays is defined with a broad group identity: clear and specific sense of the world of different levels of society; they also cowboys, farmers, teenaged girls, sail- this musical. No one has spoken any pressure important characters to move ors, etc. Although some writers have dialogue and the focus of the musical in new directions or provide obstacles begun to define these characters by is still on the character, Clara, as she to those characters’ desires. In Steven assigning to them names, relationships, sings to her baby. But the surrounding Schwartz’s Pippin, the chorus encour- and detailed given circumstances, it’s action, carefully drawn vignettes, and ages Pippin to explore a range of ulti- usually the director’s job to particular- supporting stories unfold in ways that mately dissatisfying roads with his life ize the people onstage. create the world of this musical. until they finally apply their consider- The chorus tells the audience The chorus reinforces important able pressure on him to step into a about the world of the play. Director dramatic and emotional moments. magic box that will burn him to death Trevor Nunn used the chorus in his The chorus can tell the audience what in one final blaze of glory. They so ef- 1993 BBC production of Porgy and to feel. Consider Anything Goes, where fectively marshal their show biz skills Bess to paint a vivid and intricately de- the chorus is made up of sailors, pas- that Pippin nearly commits suicide. Al- tailed portrait of rural southern black sengers, and Reno Sweeney’s chorus though their captain, the Leading Play- culture and the many jobs and relation- girls. The two largest choric moments, er, is a convincing advocate, he alone ships in the close-knit community of “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” and “Anything could not be nearly as successful with- Catfish Row. By the time the opening Goes,” employ the chorus to help the out the chorus as a lever to move Pip- lullaby “Summertime” is finished we principal characters celebrate their pin toward their goal. Pippin ultimately 6 TEACHING THEATRE rejects their choice, but only with great husband’s inauguration, but Evita is the difficulty. And it is in reaction to the center of attention. The same could be Define the chorus as chorus’s powerful influence that he de- said for Harold Hill as he galvanizes an individuals within groups cides with equal urgency to go his entire Iowa town in “Trouble” from As we said earlier, the chorus is often own way and choose a humble life as The Music Man. At first resistant to his only generally defined in most musi- a family man. Without the chorus’ warning, the chorus members end up cals. The farmers and cowhands in pressure, he might never have been as his cheerleaders. There are few sig- Oklahoma! are an amorphous group of forced to make a choice. The chorus nificant moments that can’t be clarified men in boots until you give each of becomes the catalytic force for Pippin. through the use of the chorus as a them an identity. If you fail to decide The chorus can be storytellers. compositional tool. Much more than who these people are—specifically—it This self-consciously theatrical concep- simply creating pretty pictures, you’re will become the costume designer’s job tion of the chorus is certainly part of composing the stage to give focus to establish who lives in the world of Sweeney Todd, where they begin by where it is needed. your musical. Identifying each of these directly inviting the audience to “at- The chorus’ movements and pat- people, their relationships with each tend the tale of Sweeney Todd.” They terns can also visually express a other and the principal characters, their continue to move the story along and change in the attitudes of the society in occupations, social status, and the rules remind the audience that a story is be- your show. In the original production of their behavior will force you to begin ing told, forcing an awareness of the of Cabaret, director Hal Prince showed imagining the world of the musical in theatricality of the event. While some the shifting allegiance of the German details. Out of this preparatory fantasy shows are written with this function in people as friends and neighbors at the comes vividly textured staging and op- mind, it can also be imposed on other wedding party for a mixed-religion portunities for the primary story to be musicals that use the chorus more tra- couple gradually moved from stage illuminated. ditionally. right, where the wedding couple Given circumstances. As with any The chorus can be stagehands. stood, to stage left, where the hand- character in a play or musical, we start Redefining the chorus in a more overt- some Nazi Ernst Ludwig sang a Nazi with the information the writers have ly theatrical role can have far-reaching anthem. The movement of the group given us. In the case of a musical this implications for your production, al- from one side to the other told the sto- includes not only the script and stage lowing them to move scenery in char- ry of Germany’s growing sympathy for directions, but also the lyrics and the acter or as “Poor Theatre” styled me- the Nazis.