April Hedge

10/15/16
Mr. White
Period. 2
Research Section
When assistant directing a play for children one of the first things the researcher will
need to do is research the steps that need to be taken when directing; what to do from the
beginning of the process extending to the very end. An assistant director should also research for
technical purposes the emotions that certain colors cause children to feel. Within that the
researcher will also need to look into statistics of the percentages of children that feel that way
about the colors, for more accuracy in lighting emotions. For purposes of understanding the
psychological effects of performing arts on actors, the researcher should research what causes
performers to be highly stressed.
The first step to assistant directing a play is giving your input to the director in the
process of script selection; when selecting a script you have to look at it from the viewpoint of
the audience, what you want as a director, and what it would look like from a technical
standpoint (Thumbull). Next you need to look into how to put on auditions and discover what
you want for each of the roles that you need to cast; looking into lighting and sound that is
needed for technical aspects; also looking into props that are needed as well as how to costume
the characters in their show; finally moving into the rehearsal process including just actor
rehearsals and rehearsals with the technical crew; and lastly on to the actual show where
everything amazing about the whole process actually comes to life ( Alexander/Carra).

When looking at colors of lighting to use for emotional responses the researcher first
looked into types of characters were represented by certain colors in findings they discovered
that; reds, oranges, and yellows typically represent tyrants, heroes, and adventures; yellows and
greens representing lovers and poets; blues and violets representing historians and teachers, and
lastly violets, magentas, and reds representing pedants and rulers (Granthaalayah). Children have
also been known to have more positive reactions toward brighter colors,than darker colors on the
color spectrum(Boyatzis, et al). Red can symbolize either love or anger, yellow is a smiley color,
blue is a calming color, black signifies power and authority, green signifies the power of nature,
white is the color of innocence, orange is the happiest color, and lastly purple is a color of
royalty (Granthaalayah). One statistics of feelings that children feel about different colors are in
a group of 60 kids 30 being girls and 30 being boys; is 69 percent of them having a positive
response toward most colors (Boyatzis, et al).
Some of the things that can cause actors to be more stressed are irregular hours that are
being worked by the actors: the late nights and weekends that are worked just to get the desired
outcome, performance anxiety, stage fright, and the demands of these types of jobs (Sabir, et al).

Works Cited.
Granthaalayah. "EMOTIONAL EFFECTS OF COLOURS ON LIFE." Academia.edu.
Dec. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
Dean, Alexander, and Lawrence Carra. Fundamentals of play directing. Waveland Press,
2009.
Boyatzis, Chris J., and Reenu Varghese. "Children's emotional associations with colors."
The Journal of genetic psychology 155.1 (1994): 77-85.
Thumbull, Eric W., Dr. "The Director." Introduction to Theatre Online Course. 04 Jan.
2008. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Giga, Sabir I., Helge Hoel, and Cary L. Cooper. Violence and stress at work in the
performing arts and in journalism. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2003.