Block a Musical
Directing musical theater is fun, exciting and quite challenging. If you have never directed a musical before it can seem quite overwhelming, but once you research your particular production and learn the basics of blocking, the rest is your creative vision.
Instructions
1. Learn the basics of stage blocking if you have never directed a musical or play before or worked in theatre in any capacity. Musicals101.com is the best website to learn about it.
2. Look at the blocking that was used in the script you're using. While copying the exact direction of the original production is a bad idea, some of the blocking will be necessary to make for some of the bigger musical numbers.
3. Plan your basic approach to the musical before rehearsals. Have ideas of how you want the musical to look and make notes of these ideas in the margins of your script.
4. Obtain the floor plan of the theatre's stage from the set designer and use that to get an idea of the space you are working with.
5. Shrink the floor plan down and sketch out the basic ideas you have for blocking on the miniature floor plan.
6. Use different arrangements of actors throughout the musical. Audiences are easily bored, and if the actors are always placed in the same arrangement the audience will lose interest.
7. Utilize blocking structures that make sense. Blocking is used so the audience can make sense of the action of the play, so keep that in mind when blocking complicated scenes.
