Re: theatre in the round tips for non theatre person
- From: "Duncan Wood" <nnipnews@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:56:30 +0100
& ideally get somebody who knows slightly less about the subject than you expect the audience to to see if they can follow your presentation.
Then relax, the main plus point of in the round is half the audience will be watching the other half anyway :-)
On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:53:09 +0100, teiresias1635 <teiresias1635NOSPAM@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Excellent pointers! Allow me to add one more item about PPT: Have someone (and English major?) spell check the presentation. I did one show where a high-level executive showed up at the last minute with a presentation. She was polished and confident on stage but had several grammatical and spelling errors that made her look foolish to the audience. I was calling the show from the back of the house and there was noticable muttering from the audience every time an error appeared on screen. It might not have been the cause, but she is no longer with the company.
E. Lee Dickinson wrote:<timber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Stage does not move, but it's staggered seating, theatre in the round.I spent some time doing public speaking tutoring with engineering students, and trained as an actor under a guy who gets paid big bucks to teach acting techniques to businessmen. Finally, I make half of my living as an MC for corporate events. There is one thing I have learned that is important:
cameras... giant screens will project my image and the PPT slides, but
nonetheless, I will still be on the stage...felling very small and
scared ( I'm NOT Celine Dion and WILL be talking about optical
networking relay systems)- HELP!!!
Can anyone give me a top ten list of do's and dont's for such a venue?
REHEARSE.
Actors spend dozens of hours researsing for an audition, then dozens of hours rehearsing in read through, then dozens of hours rehearsing on stage, then dozens of hours rehearsing with the scenery, sound, and lights. Before the first word is uttered to the first audience member, an actor will have rehearsed hundreds of hours.
And that's JUST to entertain people!
We go through all of that for entertainment, but businessmen trying to close deals go in and wing it, every day. They give presentations on which their careers depend, and they wing it. It boggles the mind.
One time I got scammed into buying some speakers (can anyone say White Van Scam?) and I almost didn't mind because the guy was such a good performer.
Some other random thoughts:
You should know your presentation and your subject backwards and forwards. Your slides should SUPPORT what you're talking about, not echo it. The worst presentations I've ever been to have been ones where the presenter simply quoted the content of his slides. I walked out wishing he had just emailed the PPT file instead of taking up half my day. You'll really look like a pro if you present by making references to your slides, instead of reading off of them. You should always know what slide is next, this way it's you driving the presentation, not the presentation driving you.
If you feel like you're talking at a normal speed, chances are, you're talking too fast. You'll realize this five minutes later when you're having trouble catching your breath. Believe me: Once you loose your breath, it's nearly impossible to catch it. Pace yourself.
I mentioned rehearsing. If at all possible, have a rehearsal session in the presentation venu, full tech.
If you're worried about sweating, have your wife/girlfriend/whoever teach you about powder. Be sure you wear antiperspirant, which is different from just deoderant.
At least a third of the corporate speakers I've ever seen have started off with "the lights are really bright, so I can't see you guys." We're there to see you, not the other way around. The lights are for us. You have to live with it. So don't wine. :)
Throw out stupid rules like "open with a joke." If you feel like joking, do it. Certainly some levity goes a long way. But "opening with a joke" more often than not makes you look like a joke.
Ending with a quote is even worse. You're doing an engineering presentation, so you're not as likely to fall into this trap. But I can't count the number of times I've heard speaches that end, "In closing, I'd like to leave you with a quote that neatly summarizes everything I've been talking about." If that's the case, the person should have STARTED with that quote, and let us go home early.
When setting up your PPT presentation, be aware of a few things:
1) Font size. 10pt text won't be readable.
2) Title Safe area. What you see on your screen is not always what will be seen in the venue. Keep your text a little bit away from the top, bottom, and sides of the screen to account for the differences in display technologies.
3) If possible, run the presentation from the computer on which you created it. Macs and PCs have different transitions which are not cross-platform compatible. The most recent versions of PowerPoint, for some inexplicable reason, eliminated the "pack and go" feature, so fonts and images are NOT always included in the .ppt file.
Have your presentation videotaped, so you can learn from your own mistakes for the future.
I am totally impressed that you went out on the 'net in search of advice from theater people. It makes us feel useful. ;-)
E. Lee Dickinson
Entertainment Design and Technology
www.leedickinson.com
.
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- From: timber
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- From: E. Lee Dickinson
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