As my longtime friend and collaborator Jeremy dePrisco would say: LINAP. It means, “Like I need another project.” But of course I have one!
It’s not an extraneous one, and fits nicely into the mission of creating a new theatre/performance company; I’ll be writing more about that in future blog posts. The new project is a series of videos giving tips about acting and directing.
Frequent readers of my blog will know of my struggle in retirement to stay creative and relevant. The intro to the videos alludes to this:
“Greetings! I’m Dr. Stephen A. Schrum, retired Associate Professor of Theatre—which translates simply as”retired.” But, even though I’m no longer teaching formally, I think I still have some knowledge to impart. So this is part of a video series for young actors and directors, or for community theatre players, who want some extra guidance and information. I hope these videos are also entertaining…”
The videos are a natural outgrowth of my book, 12 Steps to Better Staging: Dr. Schrum’s Practical Handbook for Staging Plays, available on Amazon. The topics are aimed at actors (such as how to use gestures effectively), stage managers (the how-to’s of calling cues), and directors (talking to actors about their characters’ secrets!).
The new company will help with staying active. And these videos will extend what I used to talk about when teaching or directing. In fact, many of the video topics easily suggested themselves, since many of them are based on set topics I used to talk about. As they were well-rehearsed, the scripts have come tumbling out of my brain and onto the digital page. Now the challenge is to make them!
MUSOFYR 