Tips for Choosing Your Show
Make it Sparkle Video with Don Zolidis
Professional Playwright & Educator
4:03 (runtime)
Director’s Notes
Don Zolidis advises selecting a diverse array of shows to expose students to different genres and styles. By doing so, it ensures students get opportunities to shine in different roles.
He highlights the importance of not always casting the same student in the lead role. He suggests that there's great learning value in a star actor taking on supporting roles, as this mirrors the trajectory of a typical professional acting career.
Don emphasizes not getting stuck in a particular time period. He warns against directors who only perform older plays, as this can limit students' exposure to the breadth of the theatrical world.
He believes that students should experience a mix of classics and contemporary pieces to appreciate theatre as a living, evolving art form. Even if they like a certain playwright, exposing students to diverse voices is vital.
Don encourages variety in the types of plays selected, alternating between drama, comedy, musicals, and straight plays. He supports the idea of maintaining a balanced program or season that continually challenges and stretches students.
About Don Zolidis
Don Zolidis is a former high school and middle school theatre teacher, and is the most-produced playwright in American schools. His more than 100 published plays have been produced more than 11,500 times, appearing in every state and 63 countries. He holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College and an M.F.A. in playwriting from the Actor’s Studio Program at the New School University.
Honors include the Princess Grace Award, multiple Edgerton New Play awards, and others. His work has appeared or been developed at the Purple Rose Theatre, the Phoenix Theatre, Victory Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, and many others.
His first novel, The Seven Torments of Amy and Craig, was published by Disney-Hyperion in October 2018.