The process of forming a drama group should not be an overwhelming experience. There is no need to waste hundreds of dollars on props, costumes, technical items just to make things look good. None of these are even required for a drama performance. Only three ingredients are actually needed: a storyteller (the actor) a story, and an audience. In this chapter, we will look at that first ingredient: that special breed of human known as the actor!

Before you attempt setting up a drama program to perform weekly, you must assemble a committed team of performers and establish a weekly rehearsal schedule. Even if all you have to start are two junior highers, they will be enough. Drama is not limited by numbers. I know of several churches where the entire adult drama ministry consists of two actors. Some nights you may only need one. The important thing is to find kids who will commit to the group and the ministry.

When you begin your recruiting process, it is very likely you will find a much larger number of girls participating than boys. My own group has a girl-guy ratio of 4 to 1. This is not a significant problem, but it is a challenge to work with. Make the best use of the talents God brings to you. One obvious way to work with this situation is to use scripts that require mostly female casts. No topic you will ever cover with youth demands you to use all male casts. Even in a dating skit you really only need one male.

You may also find most of the kids join the group for the thrill of acting and not the love of ministry. Again, do not let this discourage you. They're kids! They're still growing and learning. As their director, it will be your job, and I hope your joy, to instill the love for ministry in them.

Nothing will help you build and grow like a regular rehearsal time. Rehearsals should be weekly. They need to take place at the same place in the same location and should last 60 to 90 minutes. Switching times and locations will lead to confusion. It will make your job harder when kids don't get the right information and miss rehearsals.

Rehearsals need to combine a good balance of spiritual training, acting training, and drama rehearsal. You might begin each practice with devotions and prayer, followed by acting exercises and rehearsal. You may want to start with acting exercises, follow with devotions, and end with rehearsal. Or you could start with devotions and then split the group: part of the group rehearses the week's skit, the rest participate in acting exercises.

As time goes on, the group will begin to recruit for itself. Other kids in your church or friends from outside church will see the drama group in action and want to join in. The key for you is to keep the group from growing too big.

For two directors, 15-20 is a good size limit. Twenty-five is the maximum. Any more could result in a chaotic scene. You may only need four kids for a skit, leaving the remaining twenty-one with nothing to do. As I mentioned earlier, the remainder may do acting exercises in a separate room. You also might put them to work on future projects or on writing. You need to find something to keep them from becoming bored. You don't want to be the one caught in a room with twenty kids infected by the theater bug.

One way to keep your group size down is through an audition process. By requiring auditions will cut down on the number of kids who join the group for three weeks then fall off the face of the earth. Those who are really interested will gladly audition.

Our audition process begins with an informational meeting. We explain the purpose of the group, what we do, and what we require from our members. Each prospective member then receives a monologue for their audition. We select six to eight monologues -- some serious, some humorous -- and allow those auditioning to select their own audition piece.

A week later, the applicants perform one at a time for an audience of three: the two drama directors and the student director. There are no score sheets or rankings. We look for good memorization skills, stage presence, vocal projection, energy, body movement, and how well they create a character. We also look at their attitude and their Christian walk. The youth minister is usually a good consultant in this area.

Aside from maintaining a manageable group size, auditions will help you put the best people on stage. You may not feel right cutting someone, but look at the situation from the audience's point of view. The Christians and non-Christians in your audience may not be into acting, but as TV, movie, and theater watchers, they know good acting when they see it. And no matter how good the script may be, if the quality of the acting is not equal to that of the script, you are not giving God your best.

At the same time you want to find the best performers, don't cut the kid with potential. And don't cut the kid who truly wants to minister through drama. Give them a chance to grow and develop in practice. And even if they aren't an actor, they could still be an asset to the group as a sound, light, or stage technician.

One decision you will have to make is whether or not you will allow non-Christians to participate. This is not a black and white area; you will need to discuss it with your youth minister and especially with your Heavenly Father. It is a risk to put someone who has not yet accepted the gospel on stage to preach it. However, in the past four years, more than half a dozen kids have come to know Christ through their involvement with the Dramamaniacs.

I have never regretted any time I have used a non-believer in a ministry performance. In fact, the kids we have had to remove from Dramamaniacs were people brought up in the church, not outsiders who never accepted Christ. That's not to say this will be the case in every group and every church, but as Luke 1:37 says, nothing is impossible with God.

One final note on new members: do not forget to develop their skills! The newcomers will most likely come from the younger grades, and the temptation will be to stick with the veterans. You have to bear in mind those veterans who have carried you for years will not carry you forever. They get driver's licenses, they get jobs, they get boyfriends and girlfriends, they graduate, and they leave for college. Use the veterans while they last, but at the same time, make sure you are developing the next generation of drama ministers to fill their shoes. And encourage those veterans to teach the younger ones and leave them with the same love of ministry they have.

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