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Rules and Regulations
 Welcome
to Outlaws!
From the Ghost of Outlaws Producers
Past, here are some basic guidelines for those who wish to get
involved...
FOR EVERYONE
Treat this experience with a professional's mindset. We do not
see ourselves as a community theatre experience or even necessarily
an amateur theatrical experience. Many of the students in this
school leave for the summer and get paid to act, sing, dance,
direct, and work tech at professional gigs, so the expectation
at Outlaws (because so often the bulk of the student involvement
comes from directly within the school) is professionalism across
the board. We know this is a volunteer endeavor, and we appreciate
your energies and your dedication more than you can realize,
but we feel it is sensible for us to ask this of you. This is,
after all, what most theatre majors are here to learn: how to
bridge the gap from amateur to professional theatre life. Most
of the guidelines in here deal with simply following this basic
tenet of professionalism.
Be on time. Utilize your time.
Simply because of the nature of this rehearsal process, it is
imperitive to be on time ready to work. Every member of the team
is counted on, and wasting another person's time makes for less
rehearsal time and lessens the trust between all people working
on the show. It is not necessary to rehearse late at night before
Wednesday night, if you can find another time to work, that's
great. Just make sure to keep the appointments you make. In the
theatre, on time means fifteen minutes early. So at the very
least be on time by the normal world's watch!
Utilize the Outlaws producers.
Any complaints, needs, technical questions, space issues, faculty
problems, script dilemmas, or problems or questions of ANY KIND
should be directed towards us. We are responsible for helping
you. We are also responsible for making sure Outlaws is a worthwhile
experience for EVERYBODY: playwright, cast, crew, and audience.
Please help us help you help us help you - or words to that effect.
All four producers can be reached in one fell swoop at producers@outlawspsu.com.
Keep positive: about your play,
your director, your role, your cast, your staff, your meager
no-budget set and your thrown together no-budget costumes. If
you have complaining to do, bring it through the proper chains
of command. Cast, if you have a complaint about your director,
bring it to your stage manager or a producer. Stage managers,
if you have a problem with anything, come to your director or
a producer. Tech staff, if you are having a problem, contact
a producer or talk to your SM. Directors, you gotta go to us,
right? People know Outlaws has no budget. They know it rarely
gets much more than a week of rehearsal time. They aren't expecting Ragtime. They're expecting good, raw, lively, energetic
theatre. No frills. So don't sweat it. Do the best you can for
a week, give it all you've got, and be happy with yourself. If
complaints or peculiar challenges come around to us too late
(say, by Thursday night or worse, after the show is over!) and
no one let us in on it then we can only be frustrated like everyone
else was. And that helps nothing and no one. Also, if things
are said and/or done to a playwright's work, director's decisions,
actor's choices or technician's design choices which are deemed
highly unprofessional, we as Outlaws producers reserve the right
to ask individuals to refrain from working with us again.
FOR DIRECTORS and STAGE MANAGERS
1. Have your cast in place by the Sunday night before your show
is to be performed.
2. Have at the very least a read-through of your script scheduled
for that Sunday night.
3. Rehearse the Monday and Tuesday of that week.
4. Have an off-book, full-tech run through of your play ready
by 11:15 pm on the Wednesday night prior to Outlaws. Have the
actors in costumes, have lights and sound as ready as possible.
The producers will be there to watch this run through. The playwright
also has the right to attend this run through.
5. Know this about the Arts Building: IT IS CRUCIAL TO THE CONTINUED
LIFE AND HEALTH OF OUTLAWS AS WE KNOW IT THAT YOU HANDLE YOURSELF
PROPERLY IN TERMS OF THE BUILDING, THE UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL
OF THEATRE GUIDELINES that said:
a. No Smoking in the Building. Only show-appropriate prop cigarettes
or cigars my be smoked for a show, and then only during rehearsal
and at the appropriate scripted moments by the appropriately
cast actor or actress.
b. Space: Room Six, room 118 and room 119 are the rehearsal spaces
of the School of Theatre. Outlaws is not officially under the
umbrella of the School of Theatre. Because they generously support
what we do, they allow us the use of their spaces after 11:00
pm. Before 11:00, we cannot lay claim to any of those spaces.
If no one is occupying the spaces you may use them, however if
they are needed for School of Theatre business (mainstage rehearsal
needs, MFA directing project needs, teacher/student work - including
grad students with Theatre 102 [acting for non-majors] acting
students, or anything else falling into the category of "School
of Theatre Business") you must politely, quickly, and efficiently
vacate the space. The only way, before 11:00 pm, that you may
lay claim to a space and not have it "usurped," as
it were, is for your "usurper" to be an undergraduate
student who does not have the space signed out. To him or her
you may say, "I'm sorry, but we were already here and unless
you have the space signed out I don't think we are ready to leave
it yet." IF YOU WANT TO REHEARSE OUTSIDE OF THE ARTS BUILDING,
GO AHEAD, JUST ABIDE BY THE RULES WHEREVER YOU GO AND NOTIFY
YOUR CONTACT PRODUCER. IF YOU WISH TO PERFORM IN A NON-TRADITIONAL
SPACE, LET US KNOW. WE ARE OPEN TO IDEAS!
c. Weapons: Any and all requests to use weapons in shows MUST
go through the producers, who must obtain permission of the School
of Theatre. You may not even REHEARSE with a prop weapon until
this permission is granted. Weapons include guns, knives, and
anything in between. Any questions as to the "weapons stature"
of an item in your script - direct it towards the producers.
d. Lockouts: If you are locked out of the building, first try
every door. Then try getting into the building through the breezeway
which connects the Arts Building to the Music Building. ALWAYS
be polite to any janitorial staff. They have helped us out on
innumerable occasions. Knock, even. Sometimes that is all ya
need to do. If all else fails, contact your contact producer.
e. Lights and such for School of Theatre projects and shows:
we are not allowed to change light plots for any School of Theatre
show or MFA directing project or student project find out whose
design it is and ask permission to use it, politely, if you must.
f. Props: each room (6, 118 and 119) has props and blocks and
flats which "live" in it do not move these flats, and
if you do, make sure and return them at night when you are done.
g. Post-rehearsal cleanup: Because these rooms are used all day
as acting studios and classrooms, it is ESSENTIAL that the rooms
be swept, tidied, chairs rearranged and the room left in BETTER
condition than when you got there. This has been a real mess
(in more ways than one) for Outlaws in the past there are no
exceptions here - clean up after themselves.
6. Do not hold your cast or crew beyond the hour of 1:30 am unless
everyone agrees to it. (Stage managers, this is one area you
ought to be especially watchful of) .
7. Be wary of asking actors and technical staff to help you who
already have massive commitments. School of Theatre mainstage
productions, Thespians shows, and even some No Refund commitments
and student film commitments can make doing Outlaws very difficult
for some folks. Please don't be the straw that breaks some poor
young actor or designer's back! Look for people who are looking
for work.
ACTORS
1. Be off book by the Tuesday before your show goes up. At the
latest, be off book by Wednesday. Calling for line on Wednesday
night's technical rehearsal is only acceptable if your character
has a rather enormous amount of lines. Just do your best. Nobody
thinks this is easy, learning these lines so quickly! It is wonderful
professional preparation, however, especially for those auditions
where you may get a script one day and ask to be seen off book
with it two days later, or the next day, or that very afternoon
2. Defer to your director.
3. If you have problems with anything pertaining to the show,
feel free to speak with your stage manager, director, or a producer.
4. Help costume yourself! Consult your director, peek through
your wardrobe, make suggestions, and ask friends to borrow stuff
if you're comfortable.
5. Help clean up after rehearsal and after the show on Thursday.
Please!
6. If you just don't have the time, say so when you are offered
the role. Outlaws is a stressful one week workshop experience.
It can be like an actor's "sketchbook," a chance to
shape something quickly and impulsively and test yourself, almost
like a speed trial. If you are burdened with other acting commitments,
it does you and your show no good to be taxing yourself beyond
normal human capabilities. Use your judgment. And if you say
yes, please do not back out in the middle of the week! This causes
massive problems for everybody involved.
TECHNICIANS & DESIGNERS
If you do not have the time, please say so.
If you know that there is equipment
(light plot, sound stuff etc) that is set-up for another show
(monograph, directing project etc) and should not be tampered
with, inform your director immediately and please notify the
producers as well!
Please be ready to do a loose
technical run through by Wednesday evening. If your director
has not contacted you in time to allow this to happen effectively
for you, please inform him/her and the producers.
FINAL NOTE TO ALL
We really hate to sound so darn official, but in order for this
ship to sail smoothly, we gotta lay down some law. Most of these
points go without saying, especially for those of you who know
how operations go in the Arts Building and under the policies
and guidelines of the School of Theatre. So please don't see
these guidelines as an offense to you in any way. Outlaws is
thriving and we are proud to keep this amazing tradition alive.
We are thrilled to have you on board. Have a blast, give it all
you've got and WELCOME TO OUTLAWS!!!
XOXO -
Your Outlaws producers of old-
Ben Gasper - Cheryl Norcross - Tom
Pogue - Mark Schroder
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