Ah...scarpping theater. I've done TONS of these as both kids are involved in theater. Generally what I do is take far more photos than I need and yes, you end up with some that look the same. What I do is lay all of the photos out chronologically through the show, stacking the similar ones, and then select the best series that will show the overall show from start to finish.
I also try to include some behind the scenes photos - like dressing room shots, putting on makeup, vocal warm ups for the musicals, set building, whatever.
As for actually laying them out it depends on the show. For Cinderella last year the actual show photos were laid out on pages that were bordered with "curtains" top and botom. I did this by cutting straight strips for the right and left sides and a curved strip for the top. These were out of black cardstock and then I used a white colored pencil to add "drape" lines. The photos were matted with a single layer of cardstock to emphasize the colors in that particular scene.
For other shows I have wallpapered the page to pick up the feel of the show, and then matted. For instance, last fall the drama group did a show called "Night Must Fall" it was a dark murder mystery set in the 1930s Great Britain. I used a variety of the scrappy chic papers in that old fashioned look in beiges, rose, etc and then matted the photos in coordinating card stock. This spring we did a really silly comedy and I simply matted the photos and ran a Sandy Lion border sticker of the back of an audience along the bottom.
The key is that I always run the photos essentially chronologically on the page and journal the story through them.
Have fun with this! BTW-I'm not known for "short" layouts. The Cinderella layout in DS's book ran to 32 pages!
Deb
