With 25 years experience adjudicating more than 100 theatre festivals in North America, Europe and Asia, Annette G. Procunier brings a thorough and insightful perspective to the world of adjudication. This book "Do You See What I See?" reveals not just what to watch for, and how to articulate your thoughts to audience and festival participants, but also describes the characteristics that will make you a good Adjudicator. It examines the theory of adjudication and provides examples of how to be effective in presenting your point of view to a skeptical audience. It is filled with tips, ideas and hints on how to criticize the performance without criticizing the performer and how to engage Thespians in conversation about their art. If you want to become and Adjudicator, learn what to expect when being adjudicated,decide who should adjudicate your festival or just learn how to watch plays then you need to read this book. You will know more about the theatre after you do.

Do You See What I See?

How to Adjudicate Theatre FestivalsBy Annette G. Procunier

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Annette G. Procunier
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-6700-7

Chapter One

What Adjudicators Do

Adjudication can add a number of dimensions to a festival which will make it a more rewarding experience for all participants. Most importantly it can teach and encourage theatre artists to reach higher levels of excellence. Besides providing a context for the productions being seen which helps to establish their level of excellence Adjudicators can help the audience and participants to understand more about the types of theatre, playwrights and productions they are viewing.

The best Adjudicators possess a developed skill which emerges out of their love of Drama and Theatre coupled with a demonstrated aptitude for presentation and assessment and a desire to impart knowledge to others about this complex art form.

Often Adjudicators are chosen for their knowledge, their pro le as artists and/ or their willingness to express their opinion. Although each of theses reasons has merit they will not of themselves be enough. Adjudicators must clearly understand the role they play in shaping the mood of the festival and an environment of non confrontational challenge and learning for the participants. Besides being a judge an Adjudicator must be a facilitator and teacher.

Several factors will help to enhance an Adjudicator's skill in imparting knowledge. Some of the most important are strong verbal communication, preparedness, objectivity, organization and credibility.

An Adjudicator must be focused on dealing with the important elements of the production to be evaluated. These include such things as integrity to the script, production values, interpretation, performance quality, degree of challenge and credibility.

It is incumbent upon the Adjudicator to use all these elements in forming an opinion and expounding upon it and in the case of a competitive festival judging the merits of one production versus another.

There are two methods which have been proven particularly effective in framing adjudication. One is the British Drama League System or as it is now called the All England Theatre Festival which assigns a measurable point value for acting, production, presentation and endeavor and is an excellent tool, particularly for novice Adjudicators in a competitive environment. Productions are rated using 40 points for acting, 35 for production, 15 for stage presentation and 10 for endeavor. The system provides a built in organizational framework from which to work but may tend to make you too concerned about fitting your impression into a defined parameter rather than allowing for an evaluation of a work as a whole. Its strength is its structure and its weakness is its structure.

The second system, more widely used in the United States for Community Theatre Festivals is the American Association of Community Theatres Criteria for Consideration which details 10 factors to be evaluated when adjudicating any production. Although there are no point values associated with the ten criteria they do provide an excellent guide for assessing the merits of any production and allow for comparison of work from different genres within a festival. Each of the criteria will be covered in detail later.

In keeping with the more contemporary approach to adjudication which focuses more on education rather than competition one may choose to be more eclectic in form with less emphasis on structure and a more interpretive response providing that all important production elements are covered.

As Adjudicators are often asked to compare productions of unrelated types of theatre such as musicals, drama and comedy it is critical not to lose sight of the value of the production as theatre and its total impact as opposed to judging the success of the separate elements used to create the whole. By doing this you will be able to measure the quality of productions of different genres using the same criteria of acting, directing and design for instance and assessing how they have affected the overall outcome. More about this later.

People want to be adjudicated for all kinds of reasons which often boil down to recognition and reinforcement. It is a truly professional Adjudicator who can achieve the delicate balance of reward with encouragement and meaningful critique.

Festivals are clearly meant as a venue of celebration of achievement and as an opportunity to explore new possibilities among people with a common understanding and objective. Theatre people are surprisingly similar worldwide and their reasons for producing plays are the same. It is a universal art form celebrating culture and the human condition and allows Amateurs and Professionals alike to express their joy in performing.

There is considerable debate everywhere about the role of competition in festivals. There are those who feel it stifles creativity in favor of winning and conversely those who feel it stimulates greater imagination among those striving for excellence. Some feel art should not be judged even though it is a common practice in all performing arts, even professionally. Regardless of the merits of competition most festivals have a competitive element to them and the Adjudicator must be able to balance the role of teacher and judge.

A good Adjudicator is as critical to the success of a festival as is the quality of the productions being presented and learning how to adjudicate well is a complex pursuit combining talent, knowledge, passion for theatre and strong communication skills into a professional approach.

Adjudication can be personally rewarding for the Adjudicator while giving participants the opportunity to learn, excel and commune with their fellow thespians. It is a role which must be taken seriously and requires training and practice to be effective.

To be an Adjudicator requires patience, keen observation, a practiced eye, fairness and a willingness to be exposed to new ideas. It will always be subjective in as much as there is room for interpretation but in the hands of a good Adjudicator adjudication can be a valuable tool for improving the quality of the theatre being produced and the understanding we have of it.

All of this being said we do it because people want feedback about their performance and with a good Adjudicator that feedback can stimulate people to achieve more and to gain confidence and grow in their work.

Drama, Dramaturgy and Theatrics

Everyone who watches a play has an opinion about the quality of the production. No matter how inexperienced we are about the theatre we all watch plays and pass judgment. Often that judgment is instinctive and based on whether we liked the play or not rather than on the production's quality. An Adjudicator is charged with a responsibility far greater than simply passing instinctive judgment. There is an expectation of expertise and understanding that will aid the audience to increase their comprehension of what they have seen and for the participants to help improve what they may do in the future. To do this the Adjudicator must evaluate the quality of the production elements rather than simply passing judgment on how good the play itself is.

In order to establish a strong foundation for any adjudication it is necessary to have an understanding of three separate components of the Theatre. They are Drama, Dramaturgy and Theatrics.

Drama is defined as "A term applicable to any situation in which there is conflict for theatrical purposes, resolution of that conflict with the assumption of character" or "A poem or composition representing a picture of human life and accommodated to action" Essentially Drama refers to the action or conflict and the text in which it has been placed. This could be a play, monologue, opera, musical, pantomime, collective, or improvisation to name a few.

It is not the role of the Adjudicator to place a value judgment on the quality of the script being presented. That is not to say that the script will not have a significant bearing upon the success of the theatrical experience but an Adjudicator must always consider level of attainment of the script's intention above anything else rather than judging the quality of the play. An Adjudicator must be able to distinguish between problems created by the text and the quality of the performance. It can be argued that a poor script makes for a poor production and while it is certainly true that it makes it more dif cult to achieve a good production a poor script can be brilliantly executed while a wonderful script can fall short of the mark due to an inadequate production. That is what the Adjudicator has to evaluate. Are the strengths and weaknesses of the performance due to the inadequacies of the play or the production? In any event there is absolutely no room for subjective evaluation of the production due to personal likes or dislikes of scripts. Understanding the construction of Drama and how it influences the outcome of the play is essential but it must never be confused with assessment of the quality of the production itself.

To achieve an understanding of scripts (Drama) an Adjudicator must understand Dramaturgy defined as "The science which treats of the rules of composing dramas and representing them on the stage". To put it more simply Dramaturgy is the art of creating plays. Drama is the action being portrayed and the use of Dramaturgy is what creates it. It is the craft of playwriting. Without starting with the dramaturgical background of a play the Adjudicator could provide a critique which is focused on the wrong things.

Understanding Dramaturgy allows an Adjudicator to understand plays.

Among the things to look at are scene structure, dialogue, conflict, character development, narrative line, plausibility, use of language and dramatic resolution. These structural elements are necessary in the creation of a "good" play. An Adjudicator should use the knowledge of the play to create the basis for the evaluation of the production and by understanding what problems are inherently in it this will assist the adjudication process.

Besides understanding the literary structure of plays an Adjudicator must also look at the other components of Dramaturgy which involve exploring and understanding context. An example of using Dramaturgical knowledge to help position a play within the lexicon of theatre would be in relating the mid 20th century emergence of the Theatre of the Absurd and how it influenced writers in the 50's 60's and 70's. A R Gurney used some of the basic principles of the Absurd Theatre in his play "The Problem". Approaching that play from the Absurdist point of view helps to make it more accessible to the audience. While reading "The Problem" you can see how Gurney was trying to use the device of taking a normal situation and having people react to it in what appears to be an abnormal way due to their lack of communication. This is common in the Theatre of the Absurd. People say and do things that on the surface appear crazy but if allowed to unfold naturally will in fact make sense. The characters have difficulty communicating within the situation. Absurdist Theatre is based upon the assumption that human beings cannot communicate. Knowing that Gurney wrote the play in the early 1960's when the influence of the Absurd Theatre was at its height puts its writing into context for the time and helps the producers of the play to see it differently from Gurney's later writings which while still often dealing with lack of communication are sometimes more literal in their conventions.

When adjudicating a festival it is advisable for an Adjudicator to read all the scripts and do as much research as possible about the playwrights and works being presented. A thorough knowledge of the work is critical to making a credible judgment of the quality of the production. This is not to be confused with having an artistic opinion about the play but rather establishing a working knowledge of the script and the genre it represents.

This is more dif cult than it sounds. Adjudicators all bring their own area of expertise to the works being evaluated whether they are directors, actors, designers or teachers. It is not the role of the Adjudicator to impose artistic interpretation on the production but rather to judge the merits of the choices made by the group and the degree of success they have achieved with those choices. Did the production work? It is essential to keep an open mind about a production regardless of how many times one may have seen the play.

An Adjudicator needs to be prepared to discuss the play within the context of the Author's other works, the genre it represents i.e. farce, melodrama, morality play etc., and its historical context i.e. Greek Drama, Restoration Comedy, or American Contemporary to name a few.

Adjudicators must be prepared to use some of the contextual information in the public adjudication as it will help to educate the audience about what they have seen and inform them about why certain judgments have been levied. It will also help to demonstrate the Adjudicator's perspective rather than having it appear to be merely opinion.

If a play has been edited it is critical for the Adjudicator to read the entire play. This is the beginning point of the production and if the script has been altered so has the overall impact. Knowing the entire play helps to establish the playwright's intention and will aid in evaluating the success of the production as it is presented. In edited versions it can be dif cult for characters to make believable transitions because the dialogue removed often contributes to character development. Truncated versions of plays generally keep the narrative line but eliminate motivation and character detail which may alter the outcome of the production. This is done to ensure the audience understands what is happening but it becomes hard for them to understand why. If the Adjudicator is not familiar with the entire play unsuccessful elements of the production may in fact be attributed to the play itself rather than the version seen and a wrong assessment can be made. Blame for a problem may be put on the dramaturgical construct of the play rather than the performers' choices or the editing.

It is necessary to establish why a play was cut. The play is too long, censorship, unavailability of actors or to give each performer and equal number of lines have all been cited as reasons to me. Needless to say some reasons are more valid than others. The Adjudicator has the right to use the editing process as part of the evaluation and should be prepared to demonstrate why the choice may not have been successful and if possible provide alternate choices.

This is very different than commenting upon whether it is a good play or one the Adjudicator likes. The Adjudicator's personal preference in plays is of no consequence to the festival and should not be aired at any time during or after as it could lead to the assumption that it helped bias the evaluation made. You never want to hear the phrase "Well the adjudicator didn't like the play" uttered by the audience.

Evaluating the use of the script falls under the dramaturgical and a good Adjudicator needs to have a working knowledge of play structure, historical context, cultural influences and language.

Besides a clear understanding of Drama and Dramaturgy an Adjudicator must have extensive knowledge of Theatrics "the art of staging plays and other stage performances".

This is the essence of what an Adjudicator is charged with evaluating. The other two elements will help to inform the proper approach to the production but it is really the application of Theatrics that is at the core of adjudication. Although it would be impossible to be an expert in all components of Theatrics the Adjudicator must demonstrate competence across all areas as they pertain to the production being evaluated. It is necessary to distinguish between the influence of the director and the work of the actor as well as determining whether the design has hindered or enhanced a production.

By the study of Dramaturgy an Adjudicator knows the playwrights intentions and by the study of Theatrics knows how the actors and production teams brought those intentions to the stage. Theatrics includes acting, direction, design, character development and overall effect to name the most important. Later we will examine, using the AACT 10 criteria one of the best methods for evaluating the use of Theatrics. Each element contributes to the production and the overall impact can be determined by assessing each part.

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