How To Succeed Creatively at The Acorn

INTRODUCTION A handbook to success

POSTERS AND PRINTED MATERIAL

If you are sending posters or printed material ahead of your performance, mail them to:

Becky Thomas
Acorn Theater
107 Generations Drive
Three Oaks, MI 49128

The Acorn Theater is proud to have you here. We have produced shows by unexposed often first time performers, New York Times Best Selling Authors, and current Broadway TONY award winners. While we make an effort to treat all artists with dignity and respect; some enjoy the time here more than others.

This page is an effort to support your success in a busy working Theater. Good luck, we wish you well.

The very FIRST key to success at the Acorn Theater is to frame your expectations to a reasonable, achievable level. If you need help ask us. We encourage you to perform at the top of your ability, please do. We encourage you to look at the time you have and the resources of the Theater. Make an intelligent decision on what to present. Less is often more. We will support your choice.

Our SECOND suggestion is - Stay calm, Keep the Drama on the Stage. The strongest way we can support you is to clarify what is expected of everyone in this environment. Your ability to "play well with others" can translate into career success in the theater. Often a performers talent and future success is tied to smooth backstage life.

THIRDLY, respect the audience. Theater producers may ask to address the audience before a show, and then announce the main act. This is important for several reasons. Only occasionally has a performer crossed the line to abuse audience members. At the Acorn, our audience is our biggest asset. We ask that you value them as well.

FOURTH we suggest you write down any agreement you have with the theater. No matter how simple these items are they often clarify everyone's thinking.

FINALLY realize that we are here to encourage your success. You would not have been invited if the producers did not believe in your abilities. Enjoy yourselves. Here are some thoughts offered by those who came before you.

• Remember we are on the East Coast time zone, so it is one hour later than in Chicago.
• Shows should be limited in time, for musicians a first act is about 45 minutes maximum. Second act is probably shorter. Leave the audience wanting more, not glad it is over.
• Understand the we may ask you to do foolish things, but we won't let you look foolish.
• Avoid Blaming Each Other
• Avoid the word should.
• Ask for what you need.
• Treat the theater like your home, eat what you like, sleep where you want and "leave no trace."
• If you have a problem, address it to the Stage Manager, Kim or Dave.
• It is not a good idea to yell inside the theater, unless you are performing.
• We make every attempt to be prepared, and ask that you do the same.
• Don't say anything behind the scenes that you would not want broadcast. Most likely it will be broadcast.

Terms you need to know:

Staged Reading - A reading of a play with books and sometimes music stands.

Straight Run - A standard play with props and costumes.

Workshop - a developmental cycle of the creative process. Sometimes with Props, or costumes, other times not. This is often the most fluid term used in creating a show. If you are invited or involved in a workshop, realize that the director and writers will ask you to rehearse, work, and rework many parts of a show that are uncommon in other theater experiences. While the process is rewarding, please remember to take nothing for granted, verify everything that you imagine to be true. And most of all; be ready to change quickly. A workshop is hard work.