Becoming naturally dramatic: Tips and advice for naturalists and park rangers on doing campfire skits and shows

Introduction
Even at the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, ranger-led campfire programs were already well established at public camp grounds and environmental education areas.  Drawing on an age-old tradition of telling stories and gathering with friends around a crackling wood-burning fire, fireside environmental education programs are a well established activity across national, state, and many local parks and preserves.  For example, a recent seasonal position I had as a naturalist for an environmental education summer camp included performing improvised skits in front of youth around a campfire.  The skits would often reflect something on our experiencing in the outdoors, or would have some nature-themed component to them.

Performing skits around a campfire, whether at a summer camp or doing interpretive programs at a national park, can aid in creating a valuable and memorable experience for visitors.  In some ways, it resurrects a long-lost tradition of people gathering over a bonfire cooking food and telling stories of their lives.   In our rushed and noisy lifestyles, conversation and song over an open fire can provide us a calming relief from the increasingly repetitive structure of our working lives.  For many visitors, fireside programs can provide a new (and perhaps frightening) experience for "city-slickers" and those that have yet to become acquainted with and connecting to the forest at night.  Skits often add a sense of comic relief, or the skits themselves can be used to teach people about nature in an entertaining way.

Yet many naturalists that I have encountered have had little to no theatrical experience, and they are often required to or choose to perform skits at an interpretive program.  This blog post will borrow some advice from the world of theater and will offer suggestions as to how environmental interpreters can carry on a top-notch skit routine at their next campfire or other informal outdoor program.

All the Forest's a Stage:  Understanding some basic theatrical techniques
Learning and practicing some of the fundamental techniques of the performing arts could actually improve a person's performance at a fireside program, and could thus provide a more enriching experience for program participants.

In traditional performing arts programming,  actors and actresses are usually on a stage.  They aren't however, just anywhere on the stage  at random.  There are different sections to a stage (see Figure 1) and where the actors are positioned can matter a great deal.  For example, there may be a clump of actors on stage right while another set of actors are positioned at stage left.  This often means that two separate scenes are going on simultaneously, or that there some sort of disconnect between the performers.  If most of the action is taking place at center stage, this usually implies a climatic moment in a drama, or at a time when there is one scene occurring with performers interacting all together.  The audiences perspective is from only one cardinal direction, and all of the events that take place on the stage are occurring facing the audience.  The backdrop provides additional scenery and blocks the backstage area, thus confining the performers to three "walls".

Figure 1:  General layout of a theatrical stage.  

Because the artists are performing in a theater or other closed facility, and because not every audience member has a front row seat, actors and actresses have to exaggerate their facial expressions, voices, and movements so that everyone in the theater can see, hear, and interpret what is going on in the production (figure 2). The bright lighting can also overexpose the actions on stage, and exaggerated movements can help alleviate those affects.   (If you watch old movies from the 1930s, you'll notice that the movie stars "overacted" some of their roles by talking with too much expression or making large grins.  Movies during this era were new, and most of the actors had performed in theatrical settings and were still getting used to being in front of a camera.)

Figure 2:  Illustration of the importance of
exaggerating  facial expressions
when performing in a formal theatrical setting

An additional consideration that actors and actresses must take into account in a live theater performance is to avoid upstaging the audience, or facing the backdrop when your audience actually needs to hear or see you.  This is a frequent mistake among novice performers (and is a nearly perpetual mistake among environmental interpreters who are doing campfire skits, as discussed below).

Becoming a 'natural' at campfire skits:   How some theatrical techniques can help improve performance arts in interpretation programs

Clearly an informal outdoor setting at a campground or a nature center woodland area does not merit all of the intricacies nor the long hours of rehearsal time like that of the performing arts into an interpretive program - but a consideration of some of them could greatly improve your program.  Interpretive skits can encompass a combination of formal theatrical performance techniques but with emphasis on improvisation (Table A).  Improve is an unplanned theatrical performance where the plot and the characters are made up on the spot. A perfect example of improve is the popular show "Whose line is it anyways?" which was hosted by Drew Carry in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  As shown in Table A, theater involves many hours of planning and is usually in a formal setting, and improve involves almost no planning in advance.  Interpretative skits, with their informal setting and their pre-planned programming are in the middle-ground.

Table A:  Three general types of theatrical performances

Skits are not exactly major theatrical shows, and the purpose of most skits in context of a nature education program is to convey some meaning about nature or to provide humor and entertainment at a summer camp. Thus, it can be easy to dismiss using professionally developed theatrical techniques.  However, by following these guidelines "borrowed" from the world of theatre, your skits could become more meaningful and memorable to your visitors:

• Avoid upstaging yourself.  When you turn our back to your audience, people can no longer hear you, nor can they make out your facial expressions.  This can result in visitors not understanding what is going on, or missing the punchline.  Be sure you are ALWAYS facing your audience.  This is especially true when you are outside, as the acoustics are not going to carry your voice as easily. I've seen too many times where naturalists turn the other way and then the adrenaline of the audience dies out.  
• Make big faces.  As mentioned above, folks in the theater are a good distance away from you, and they'll have troubles seeing our face.  This is even more the case when outside near a dimly lit campfire.  Yeah, you'll feel funny and awkward doing it, but if you don't, people will miss out on important moments in your skit (one time the punchline for a humorous campfire skit about two people hiking in the woods looking at animal scat didn't catch on because no one could see the look of disgust on the character's faces when one of the actors pretended to eat some of the droppings).  
• Project your voice.  Perhaps there are some older people sitting in the back of the auditorium who are hard of hearing.  Or perhaps it's a windy evening outside by a roaring bonfire.  People need to hear you.  Shout it out if you have to, even if your scene is one that is supposed to be calm or quite.  
• Plan out your program.  You need only a few minutes to decide on a plot, agree on who plays what role, and stick with the plot that you make up.  Deviating from the routine or going off on your own tangent can ruin the skit because your other actors won't know what you're trying to do.  Stick with the "script."  
• Utilize stage positions.  This can help break up the scene if there are two different events going on at once.  It can also force you to stay in front of your audience, since most outdoor sites don't have the "walls" that a traditional stage would have.  You may need to plan out where stage right or stage left is when planing your program (use Figure 1 as a guide).  Be sure to not perform too far from your audience, and imagine there is an invisible "backdrop".  

Conclusion

As already mentioned, using some of these theatrical techniques in your skits and performances at a nature center or national park campground can not only make your programs more memorable to your visitors, but could perhaps 'drive the message' home about a nature-related topic.  Humor-filled skits can make certain visitors feel more at home in a natural setting, especially for a growing proportion of youth that are raised in urban, electronics-filled environments and are scared or turned-off by spending time in a natural setting.   How much effort you want to put into your acting skills for a skit is up to you, but even non-professional actors can benefit from using some of the theatrical techniques presented in this blog post.  Now go gather some kindling and let the show begin!

A residential environmental education center near Chicago has a campfire circle that serves as a 'natural' stage for songs and skits.