Tuckman's Stages of Development

Being a member of the performing arts community for as long as I can remember, I am able to connect the stages of group development to my various theater and production experiences.

Let me start off with...

FORMING

With theatrical productions of any kind, the members of the cast first have to pass the inevitable and dreaded auditions to be included within the final group. There is always a thick air of tension, anxiety, and fierce competitiveness within the environment on the audition days, and every auditionee has the same jumble of thoughts rushing through their heads as they silently scan all the other auditionees in the room: "How many people are here?.. how many people are they going to accept?.. oh my gosh, only 25 people out of the 300 here? Am I going to make it?... Who's that girl? Ohh man, she's really talented. I hope she doesn't get the part I want.. I would die if I don't get this part." The auditioning process may not be the most pleasant experience, but the feeling of joy and relief after you receive the call that you made it into the final cast is indescribable! 

When the final cast is decided, that is when the real bonding and forming begins within the group of people you will be working with for the next 3 months. At the first rehearsal, a meeting is conducted, where each person stands up and introduces themselves to the rest of the cast. Rules and policies are discussed, and each person is handed a piece of paper with each cast member's contact information on it. Everyone puts on a smile and greets the others with praises of their audition, or how excited they are to work with them. Everyone wants to avoid the notorious drama that has the possibility of developing between several people over a boy in the cast, or even drama that has been dragged into the current production from a past production. For the first month or so, when everyone is finally getting used to each other and really getting to learn what kind of person each person is and their methods of how they work, each person tries their very best to focus on keeping things professional, drama-free, and friendly. 

Which leads us to...

STORMING

After some time of getting to know the cast, true colors start to emerge...

"Storming can be a short process, in which the group comes to a pretty clear direction, or it can be destructive" (219).

THIS....

Or this??

After about the first month of getting to know the other cast members and trying to figure out the most effective way to work with each individual person, the cast starts to focus on what has not worked out so far, and how we can improve this particular problem to make sure that the production will be as spectacular as it can be. This problem can be anything from people backstabbing each other within the cast, or someone trying to "outshine" everyone else in the cast by selfishly trying to stand out the most on stage when another person is supposed to have the spotlight at the time. 

This problem-solving and trust-building process happens usually by the mid point of the rehearsal process, where we have all seen what has been working, and what has not been too effective. During this time in which we all come together and try to find the best direction in which to take our successful and not too successful endeavors within the production, cast members can either take the most helpful option in discussing what we've been having issues with and working together to fix them, or throwing cast members under the bus and blaming issues on specific individuals. This Storming process can either be a quick, effective meeting with the whole cast, with each member promising to do better on their part and help others out when they need the support, or a difficult, collapsing process with an explosion of fights, tears, and yelling. In the many years I have been performing, I have observed that a good storming process results in the cast going down an easier path improving the quality of our production, rather than a destructive storming process that results in the cast taking the rocky path in producing a good show; the cast takes so much more time focusing on fixing all the drama in the cast instead of applying that precious time towards improving the production itself.

NORMING

By about the 2 months point of developing our show, everything slowly begins to fall together. Drama is overlooked or pushed back as a thing of a past, and everyone's focus on getting the show together before the opening night heightens. People begin to make connections within the cast, trying harder to stay on the same page as everyone else in the cast, and working on having one main goal. 

Cooperation, Together-ness.

People begin to be more clear with what direction they want to cast to go towards, and what we need to focus on the most at this point, which is usually a few weeks before the show opens to the public. Cooperation and together-ness is the most important aspect of the cast at this point, and everyone sees to that.

PERFORMING

 Alas! Opening Night has come!!!

A Chorus Line!

The King and I!

Hairspray!

This day is the big test of whether or not all of our methods towards producing a great show was effective or not... And not only do we find this out, a whole audience of relatives, season ticket holders, and theatre critics will be able to tell too. 

For the first week of shows, the whole cast is required to stay behind after the show ends to discuss what worked, what didn't, and what we need to improve on with the director of the production. After that week of our director still motivating us, we are on our own, and we have no more meetings, rehearsals, or pep-talks. It is up to us to motivate ourselves and other members of the cast. Someone down in the dumps? It's up to us to cheer them up. Someone was 2 counts behind in a synchronized dance, and made the whole scene fall apart? It's up to us to bring that up and help fix that problem without causing any drama or making that person feel bad. As we perform, we are constantly norming, storming, and forming. And in the end, after all of our hard work, we become one big family. Reading the critics' reviews from the newspaper aloud together, finding the joy in each opportunity to make our show even better, and drowning in our own tears after the closing performance after 3-4 months of working together is just a few things that make the whole experience so... MAGICAL.

ONE! Singular Sensation...