What are "practicable" casting, props and effect

The Arundel Festival Theatre Trail call for practicable casting, props and effects in scripts.
What constitutes 'practicable?' I'd assume it doesn't include a cast of 1,000s, but for all I know, 10 is also too many.

Quote: Nogget @ 15th October 2015, 9:21 AM BST

The Arundel Festival Theatre Trail call for practicable casting, props and effects in scripts.
What constitutes 'practicable?' I'd assume it doesn't include a cast of 1,000s, but for all I know, 10 is also too many.

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It's very much a case of 'horses for courses'.

If you're writing a screenplay for the next James Bond film, there's almost no limit to what might be allowed in terms of casting, props and effects.

However, if your script is for a stage play set in a prison cell, with only one set and a budget of £50, your options are rather more limited.

As ever, you should cut your coat according to your cloth and, as far as the Arundel Festival Theatre Trail competition is concerned, you should be thinking 'very low budget' rather than 'Hollywood blockbuster'.

Would a cast of 10 be impracticable? Not necessarily (in my view). If the script were very good and it needed 10 players, I think you might get away with it but, if your script called for 5 players or fewer, I'm certain that would be no problem at all.

I wrote a sketch requiring 4,000 Vikings but on shooting we managed to compromise a little, make it a bit more "practicable".., and dropped it down to two, well.. then one in the end. In fact I had to cast myself as the Viking and prop myself too. So that's how it goes..

A good trick is to have a rule whereby whoever writes the sketch has to cast it and prop it. It's amazing how many two hander sketches you'll write after that with costume requirements as jeans and T's.

I think they'd only expect 5 or 6 characters although some can play more than one character. Remember it's only 30-40 minutes. Also props should be reasonable - reasonably cheap and easy to handle.

You could also write a one hander for a naked man. As for his prop..