Producing the Play

The first and most obvious problem posed by the text is that the entire play is in verse. Verse although not impossible to do, makes it harder for the actors to understand and memorize. More importantly, it makes it difficult for the audience to understand and follow the play. Another problem posed by the text is the play within a play concept that the show centers around. This concept requires lots of miscellaneous actors to facilitate scene changes and set the mood for the show. It will be harder to get that many actors organized and know what everyone’s specific roles will be as opposed to a smaller show with only a few actors. Finally, the amount of physical things required by the script such as props and costumes are astronomical given the amount of roles and how long the piece is.

Problems posed by producing J.B. at Sam Houston State include the fact that all of our actors are modern 2009 students and would probably have limited, if any, familiarity with acting in verse. Finding enough actors to fill all of the roles will not be a problem given the sheer size of our department however, to keep so many actors organized is going to require a very organized and somewhat large stage management staff. Also another problem with the large cast is having enough space in the dressing room for all of the actors to get ready and do their costume changes. Having this many costumes also means the costume crew will have to be somewhat large to keep track of all the costumes and facilitate changes quickly and efficiently. Having such a large scale play means that this show will need to be produced on the main stage and that means it will be a larger set which brings about concerns about staying on budget and the man power it will require to build and maintain the set.

Other productions do not have some of the same problems we at Sam Houston have and therefore have not had to solve them. For example, most other theatres I have researched were professional and had a large pool of very experienced actors to choose from so finding actors who were proficient acting in verse was not a problem. Also, professional theatres have a much larger budget than we at Sam Houston would have and therefore do not have the same concerns about having so many props, costumes, and such a large set. It sounds simple but a larger budget would solve most of these problems. One that it might not solve is the dressing room issue, most theatres (ours included) have limited dressing room space and to accommodate so many actors they would have to find other areas that could be converted into a space for the actors. Another one that a higher budget would not solve is the problem of the play within a play concept. I have seen other productions such as the University of Michigan solve this by having a particularly long opening sequence where it is made clear to the audience by the actions of the actors that they are setting up for a performance that is about to happen.

I have not yet seen a poor critical reception to the text. It is the winner of the 1959 Pulitzer prize in Drama and widely accepted as one of the greatest pieces of 20th century dramatic literature. As to the productions themselves, most I found were critiqued positively. People seem to respond very well to the story of J.B. because it is a very human story that is familiar to so many people. I believe because of their love for the script, critics and audience members alike are more willing to forgive minor acting and/or technical problems.