UIL OAP season in Texas. Schools across the state are packing up their brilliant productions and traveling to tell their stories at other venues. They say “in a well-planned One-Act Play Contest, there are no losers.” And I wholeheartedly believe that is true. But also I think “in a well-planned One-Act Play rehearsal, you set yourself up for success”.
These next few weeks, we will discuss the ins and outs of traveling your UIL One Act Play and preparing for your tech rehearsal. From best practices, to very neat things I’ve seen when hosting, I’m excited to share these anecdotes and tips with you.
But before we can travel the state – we need to start at home.
The number one thing I can recommend to educators is to dedicate time at home to planning their tech rehearsal. Since the rehearsal times can vary – I’ve had as little as 45 minutes and as long as an hour and a half – you need to be ready to hit the ground running the minute the stopwatch starts.
Getting your set built and spiked should be the #1 priority at the beginning of your official tech rehearsal and in order to expedite that process, have a game plan in place for how it is going to happen. When it comes to getting your set translated from at home to your host site, you have a few options:
Tape out the dimensions at home – this allows you and your cast to understand the space you’ll be performing in. Is it wider than your stage at home? Narrower? Having it taped out and performing within those parameters can prevent any hiccups when you get to the space on contest day.
Find a way to map out your set quickly – the tarp system (see sidebar) is a great way to have a literal blueprint of your set but can be really time-consuming. But if you have an elaborate set with a lot of UIL set pieces, the time you will use to create the tarp will save you a lot of headaches the day of. Also, I have found this can be a great team-bonding experience for the company. If you only have a few set pieces, simply measuring out where they are in relation to center stage is a great way to go. I’ve also seen some companies use string with exact measurements in depth/etc which can help expedite the measuring process.
Correlate your light areas to your set - since stages can vary so greatly across our state, I recommend you create your sets in lighting areas. If you are doing All My Sons and need to build a house facade, pull up your house areas 2/7 and create your facade there. That way, when you travel, you can pull up areas 2/7 and lay your tarp or do your measurements and know your actors will be well-lit.
Set Up and Strike Rehearsal - Don’t leave this to chance! Spend an entire rehearsal choreographing your set up and strike with your students. This allows them to take ownership of their seven-minute prep and creates a safe and effective set-up without you running around trying to do everything
Rehearse your tech rehearsal - walk your students through what this truncated q2q will look like and have them practice it. Create a new show file and ask your lighting technician to re-program to practice quickly keying in their cues. Have your company practice setting up from a square storage space, with their travel tubs. What are the key elements they need to rehearse? Make sure you walk through them. And to calm nerves, practice everything from the beginning of the contest manager's introduction speech through the start of your show. I also recommend rehearsing the ending of the show, through the blue lights to get them off stage, so they understand the rules of how they exit the stage.
Sidebar: Tarp System Tape some 3mil or higher tarps together to cover the majority of your stage/set Mark Center Stage With a sharpie- draw an outline of all your spike tape on your home stage Label what all the elements are near the outlined spike Cut the outlines out When you get to your host site, find your center line, double-check your lighting areas, and start taping the spike in the holes you have cut! |
These five steps may seem daunting, but I can assure you that putting the time in now will save you many headaches when you get to contest. Next week, we’ll talk about packing lists and travel systems. Do you have any questions about OAP or traveling shows? Drop us an email at info@vanwinkledesigns.com or leave us a comment on social media.
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