Megan Magden Postle - Director
Beauty and the Beast, Jr. (Summer 2013)
Charlotte Repertory Theatre
Director/Choreographer
Technical: We had a total budget of $600. The venue, lighting and sound took over half of our budget. We had a cast of 22 children ages ranging from 9-17. The program began on a Sunday night with auditions and we casted the show by Monday morning. Choreography, music and blocking were taught on Monday and Tuesday. The show was pieced together and cleaned on Wednesday and Thursday. We did one tech/cue-to-cue on Friday morning and did two performances on Friday afternoon at 3pm and 6pm. Strike was directly after the production wrapped up and we had all props, costumes and sets returned by 45 minutes after the first drape had been taken down.
Our set was minimal and surrounded around three moveable flats and four moveable columns. Costumes were borrowed and built prior to the week beginning.
Theme: The focus of the musical is around the character of Belle however, what makes the story is the town. As a team, we took the opening number and created a town of people. We spent time in rehearsals focusing on the characters and their connections together.
Since the overall message of the tale is about maturity, self-awareness and connection to others, we felt it was important to separate the magical characters from the towns people. Even in rehearsals we spent time keeping these two communities apart.
Beauty and the Beast, Jr (Spring 2017)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director
Technical: With a budget of $7500, the venue, lighting and sound took 65% of the budget. All costumes were built and materials were recycled. We utilized stone flats, steps and boxes from two of our previous performances as well as a raked stage to give some definition and levels to the Beast's castle. We staged the opening number "Belle" using three moveable flats that resembled small french houses.
We have 43 middle school aged students on stage, 6 crew members and 7 painters, prop makers and seamstresses.
Our goal for this production was the carry the theme of enlightenment, strength and family. Our first production of the year had been Legally Blonde and we felt that Beauty and the Beast shared in these themes. We spent meaningful work allowing the children to explore the relationships between the characters and asked them questions. As a director, I feel it is important to ask as many questions as possible to ensure the actors are making meaningful choices.
Crazy for You, YPE (Fall 2015)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director
Technical: Budget of $4300. Half of the budget went to venue, lighting and sound. This was a tough production based on the number of the dances and needs of the dancers. Since our cast members had little to no training in tap dancing, we offered no cost after school tap lessons and tap open houses for our students. By the end of the production, the choreographer and I had kids tapping up and down the hallways. The sets were simple moveable flats and one large cartoon wooden car.
The team wanted to make the show look as though we were in the middle of the Ziegfield Follies. During the rehearsal process, we showed clips from 1930s and 40s glitzy showgirls and Fred Astair dancing with canes. We wanted the cast to understand and learn the historical connections of this story.
Disaster (Summer 2018)
Theatre Charlotte Student Arts Guild
Music Director
Our cast of 38 students ranged in age from 14-21 and came from local high schools and college programs. During the rehearsal process, I focused as a music director to receive the "70s" sound. We worked on the disco style and the Americana Rock style. The harmonies needed to be tight throughout the process. Each part was recorded and placed on a website with parts separated and then placed together.
The director requested the musicians or band, be seated onstage. I directed a small 5 piece combo (2 keys, drums, guitar and bass) and played keyboard 1.
Fiddler on the Roof (Spring 2014)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director
One small house and a cart for a our set. Simple was our word for this production. We wanted the actors to gain the understanding of the prayers and the traditions of a Jewish experience. We brought in a cantor to speak to the actors about the traditions.
Frozen, Jr - Pilot production (Spring 2018)
Northwest School of the Arts/Disney
Music Director
I had the chance to work with the Tony Award in Education, Corey Mitchell on the pilot production for Frozen, Jr. As a music director, my hope was to allow the kids to shape their vocal styles with their characters and their motivations not the Disney version. The score was closely adapted to the stage production not the movie. Since the music from the musical had not been published or released, students had to learn this music by my assistance of recording accompaniments and recordings of harmony tracks. We had six weeks to produce the production.
Our band was above the stage on the cat walk. We had percussion, electric bass, keyboard 1 and keyboard 2.
Frozen, Jr. set.
Guys and Dolls (Spring 2012)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director/Choreographer
We had seven boys and two girls in this dance. The production used a storyboard pull out set where three of us created and had a two students design the painting. As you can see in the dance "Luck Be a Lady", the scene takes place in a sewer. The sewer pipes look like drawings from comic books. We wanted to incorporate the colorfulness comic book nature of Damon Runyon's stories. When developing characters, we did work on strong actions and how to use them with the actor's intentions. Kids were asked to draw pictures of what they felt their characters would look like as comic characters. The choreography reflected the heated nature of the scene. We had 23 middle school aged students (10-14). Our rehearsal period was 9 weeks, meeting twice a week until tech week. In this number, I choreographed
Legally Blonde, Jr. (Fall 2016)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director
Legally Blonde, Jr. was a colorful and energetic show. We had 36 children, 4 crew members and 6 props, painters, builders and costumers. Since students were familiar with the plot and themes of the story, we had truly meaningful rehearsals with ensemble. Each member of the ensemble understood their connections to the lead, Elle. It was probably one of my favorite shows since the ensemble really clicked together.
The Lion King, Jr. (Spring 2016)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director
Our production of the Lion King, Jr was the most innovative productions we had with the students. The theme for the year was based around fathers and their children. The set was minimal: two boxes and a two piece pride rock. We used the children as the shapes that necessitated the scenery and backdrop for the desert. As you can see in the second picture, we used a long piece of muslin fabric and painted wildebeests in shapes. During the stampede, we wrapped the muslin fabric around the characters and used dance to tell the story of when Simba loses his father.
I felt that since my husband had visited Kenya and brought home stories about religious and spiritual experiences home, I wanted to share those same ideas and images in our production.
Additionally, the children created their own masks using clay made from the dirt outside of our building. I wanted to use the earth create and make an experience that was meaningful for the actors.
Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jr. (Fall 2013)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director/Choreographer
Millie was produced and based on the request of the students. We had 25 middle school aged (10-14) students and double casted the Millies. The vocal demands of the role lead us to believe that double casting was healthiest for the students. Since this is a dance heavy book and many of the songs are higher in range and tessitura, we began rehearsing with the dancing first and then added the singing in. It shaped the production better and allowed for kids to feel successful with the process.
We used two moveable, double sided set pieces. One of the set pieces had ledge in the back to reflect the "I turned a corner" scene. We used eight typing desks on casters that allowed us to roll them during the office scenes. It was our first time using LED lighting. We built costumes in the summer. I built both red dresses for Millie and several flapper dresses over the summer. We had 9 weeks to rehearse. Using tracks from MTI's showbox, we set up a website with vocal guides and accompaniments so students could learn and practice the music at home.
The Sound of Music (Summer 2012)
Charlotte Repertory Theatre
Director/Choreographer
Using the same week long musical theatre production model as Beauty and the Beast, Jr summer of 2013, we auditioned actors on a Sunday night and casted the show on a Monday morning. Rehearsed the musical numbers from 9am-5pm on Monday and Tuesday morning. Blocked the show out on Tuesday afternoon, reviewed, cleaned and stumbled through the show on Wednesday. Ran the show twice on Thursday. Sitzprobe with an orchestra on Thursday night. Moved into the theatre on Thursday night. Ran a cue-to-cue on Friday morning as well as a dress rehearsal with a reduced orchestra of 5 members and performed two shows at 3pm and 6pm.
The production was a race but it was an incredible experience for all our cast members. Our main goal was to allow students to practice the process of a musical.
Sound of the Music G2K (Spring 2015)
Trinity Episcopal School
Director
This was a meaningful production in many ways. We produced this musical with a budget of $4000 with outside vendors and large costs with venue, lighting, costumes and sound. We produced the musical in three months. We had 34 middle school aged actors and five performances.
The research portion of the process was important for our team. Our cast members were given readings from Maria von Trapp's and Georg von Trapp's autobiographies. We had discussions about the social justice and freedoms that we are afforded in this country. The powerful message of this story touched all of our actors. We felt this made for better and more meaningful storytelling.
