Group Theatre Report

(5 points)

For this project you will be organized into work groups and assigned an important southern California theatre company to prepare a report on. As soon as you receive your assignment you must communicate with your fellow group members to choose a Leader and a Recorder. This may be done by e-mail or at a test session.

Group Leaders: It is the primary job of the Group Leader to assign work and make sure it is progressing on schedule. All questions and problems will be addressed to the Group Leader who will then communicate with me. Leaders who follow through on their responsibilities will receive 2 points of extra credit.

Recorders: It is the primary job of the Group Recorder to receive segments of the report and compile it into its final form. Recorders who follow through on their responsibilities will receive 2 points of extra credit.

Once the group has chosen its officers, the Leader should divide all the questions and topics fairly between the members and officers. Each topic below should be double-assigned. That is, each topic should be assigned to two members. That way if one drops the class or doesn't come through, the topic is covered. Those assigned to the same topic should maintain contact and share their findings with each other.

Groups work best when the students with the highest grades step up and take the leadership responsibilities. If they don't, what often happens is that struggling students who are desperate for some extra credit are the only ones to volunteer for those roles. The results are often frustrating for the better students who are stuck dealing with the poor performance and work habits of those they allowed to represent them. I assign students to groups based on the grade estimate I gave at the middle of the semester. I balance the groups so that each has roughly the same number of A, B, C, D, and F students. Those with the highest grades should step up and assert themselves--you know who you are. If you don't, I will be very unsympathetic to complaints at the end of the semester about how the poor quality of group leadership pulled your grade down.

Topics & Questions

Research and respond to the following:

1. Describe the founding and historical development of this company.
2. Discuss one of its most important productions--any major awards or honors?
3. How is it organized? What kind of business structure does it have? Who makes decisions?
4. A brief biography of its most important current leader(s).
5. Describe its artistic philosophy or mission.
   1. How is this philosophy reflected in the past three seasons?
   2. Have the plays they have presented met the criteria they established?
6. Interview of one person associated with the company. This can be anyone from an usher to the Artistic Director, but it must be direct contact by phone, e-mail, or in-person. Pick someone to do this topic who is assertive, polite, and not shy.
   1. what do they like most and least about working there?
   2. any juicy gossip?
   3. ask any other questions on this list and pass on answer to whoever was assigned it
7. Visual images related to the company.
   1. its Web site home page
   2. brochures, posters, flyers or other items
   3. take photos of the theatre and have them processed to a floppy or CD
   4. their logo
8. Describe your experience going to this theatre, apart from the performance
   1. what kind of neighborhood is it in? easy to find?
   2. what is the parking situation?
   3. how were you treated as a customer? on the phone and in person.
   4. describe the lobby, is it clean? what about the restrooms?
   5. did they have refreshments? were they good and fairly priced?
9. How are artists (actors, directors, designers) paid? union or non-union? what level contract? You may or may not be able to get this info. Some theatres are not very open, or the person you talk to simply may not know.
10. What kind of auditorium/stage configuration is it? Proscenium, Thrust, Black Box, Round?
11. List ticket price levels and any discount opportunities they may offer.

Research

Information may be found in books, magazines, and newspapers. Look for computer databases of these in the library--online searches make research much easier. Look for the theatre's Web site on the Internet, but don't limit yourself to it alone--use multiple sources. Contact the theatre itself and ask for public relations--some of the bigger ones may offer docent-led tours. List your sources in your report. Remember, you are ultimately responsible to do the research, don't rely of the theatre's staff to do it for you.

I have chosen theatres that have been around for many years. Many good articles have been written about them in local newspapers and magazines. The Internet is a fine research tool, but many of these articles have not been posted to it. To get the good stuff you'll have to do it the old fashioned way--dig through the stacks at a library. The best reports will show evidence of having done this.

The following items are on two-hour reserve at our library, and may be of use to those studying these theatres.

• East West Players, 30th Anniversary booklet, 1996
• The Pasadena Playhouse, ed. O'Sullivan, ca. 1993
• South Coast Repertory Theatre, 30th Anniversay booklet

Before the due date, the Recorder will send a rough of the report by E-mail to the Leader who will confirm that it is complete, accurate, clear, and well-organized. The Leader will edit (review and correct) the report. Either the Leader or Recorder may submit the final report. Be sure that the names of all members who contributed to the report are listed at the top, and the names of those who submitted each answer are listed with the answer.

For the members of each group, their third required Play Review for this class will be of one play from the current season produced by the company covered in this report. Group members do not have to see the same play, nor see it at the same time. As long as it is a play produced by their theatre at some time during the process. It is intended that your seeing this play will contribute to the research you do on your theatre. This play review is a separate individual homework assignment with a separate due date--see the class Calendar for "Play Review #3: Professional Theatre."

Submission

The report may either be composed as e-mail or created as a web page, depending upon the skills of group members. If e-mail, the usual admonishments regarding style apply: left-justify everything, no indenting, tabbing, or centering. No bolding, italics, or quotation marks. The only style element that comes through e-mail unscathed is CAPS, so use them to set-off titles and headings if you want to. If you compose and submit with AOL you can use any style elements, font sizes, or formats you want. If submitted as a web page merely send me the URL. Choosing a Leader and/or Recorder who has AOL or Web design skills may be a wise strategy.

Pictorial images that are a part of the report must be handled differently depending upon the format. If AOL e-mail, they may be placed in the body of the report. If not, send the images as attachments to the e-mail. If submitting a Web page merely include images in the layout.

The only example I have of a previous Theatre Report is for the traditional class. It is only a simple summary since that class gives all the details in an oral report in class. It may at least give you some idea of what such a report looks like, but remember that yours should have all the details in text form that the other class does orally. Click here to see this example. The best of your reports will probably show up here next semester as my new example!

If E-mailed send with the following subject line:

TH 101DE -- YourGroup# -- H-Theatre Report

Grading

You may not be able to find every answer to every question, but do your best detective work to ferret them out. The answers are out there somewhere, and the best grades will go to reports that have gone the extra mile to find them.