I am considering advising our Community Theatre Board to change opening nights for our next season from Fridays to Saturdays.  We are finding our adult cast members (most of whom work during the weekdays) just exhausted by Friday and unable to give out the amount of energy required for a great opening night performance. 

They rebound on Saturdays and for the Sunday matinees (our best performance times energy-wise) but then by the next Friday are lackluster again.  Any other theatres have this problem? 

Yes, in my experience Saturday's are normally the best performances, but it should not be necessary to give up your opening Friday. One of the directors that I work with a lot actually gives the cast off on the day before opening. This might seem scary to some directors, but I can say from experience that it works, a day of rest may actaully do more good then a day of rehersal at that point.

Another downside to shortening your opening weekend is that your reduce the amount of "word of mouth" that gets out about your show. The more people that see a show opening weekend, the more work of mouth that will help drive sales for the rest of the run.

Dan

The theaters I work in typically run Thur, Fri and Sat with a few Sun matin?es thrown in.  When I direct, I NEVER rehearse the night before we open.  This goes back to when I was single and needed the evening to catch up on my laundry so I didn't stink to high heaven on opening night, but I found my casts loved having that night off.  Most of our actors have day jobs and Wed night off is just enough to keep them fresh.  I have heard some actors say they need that Wed rehearsal, but my feeling is no one is going to forget the show in one night and the benefits out-weigh the cost.  I schedule additional rehearsals early on in the process.  If need be you can always call in one or more actors (I always tell them to keep that date open) to run scenes that need additional work, but my feeling is if you ain't ready on Wednesday, no way in hell will you be ready on Thursday.

Well, it would really depend on your personal situation.

Questions to ask....

Is your Friday night your best attended show?.....Is it the worst attended?.....Could you afford to lose your Friday night audiance?.....Is there another possible solution to the problem?.....Could you possible make Friday a "sneak peak" dress rehearsal and charge less?

Another thing you could do is get a piece of paper. Make two columns. Label them "Pro" and "Con". Lists the pros and cons of not having a Friday show. This will make it easier to make a final decision.

Hope I have helped!

Wishbone

We run our dress on Wednesday, then leave it to the director's discretion as to what to do Thursday night... Personally, I hate having a dark night but I also don't want a cast that's wiped for opening night. I like to run a line rehearsal on the Thursday before opening. No blocking, no acting, just lines. It's tough mentally, because you're used to doing the lines while moving (I've had some actors who HAVE to get up and move for certain sections), but rather relaxing otherwise. Most casts try to get through it as fast as possible. It usually takes about an hour. They walk out feeling more secure in their lines, and I am sure that they've gone over them.

With me it depends on which theater I am working in. The theater that has a Thursday opening night has a better opening night attendance then the theater that has a Friday night. I think that has more to do with the ability to advertise effectively. . . That is a whole other subject about the business end of running a theater. When I have cooled off from my last experience I want to post something about it. . .  Anyway, I always run my final week with a final run thru, a dress, a full dress, then I don't schedule anything for the day before we open. That way I have 48 hours to fix anything that needs fixing: lights, costumes whatever. I have used that day for just about everything at one time or another. Once I actually stayed home and caught up on some sleep. I have never had actors on stage the night before we open.  

We open on a Friday and have the Thursday prior to opening off.  Most theatre's I've worked with usually have the night prior to opening off.  As both an actor and director I like having that off day prior to opening to have the rest.

I also don't like having pick-up rehearsals between weekends.   I've never had a pick up, brush up or speed thru between weekends that was even marginally beneficial.  They are a myth and a security blanket for those that haven't done their work during the normal rehearsal process.  If you need more rehearsal after being away from the show for only four or five days then something is fundamentally wrong.   As a director I don't have them and actors are grateful for it.

As an actor, I used to feel the same way... however, as a director, I've seen the difference a brush-up makes. The first performance of the weekend is crisper, the pacing is better and the actors are more confident. That means the show is better and the audience goes away happier.

We also used to do your "unplugged" rehearsal, do the jokes we wanted to do during the regular rehearsal... That was FUN! But the shows suffered for it... our timing was off, our pacing sloppy. I didn't really feel it as an actor, but as a director, I saw it.

So I changed the way I ran a brush-up... first brush is a serious brush. The second one (depending on the quality of the shows and the caliber of the actors) is a little looser. However, if I feel like things are going downhill, I call a stop to the proceedings and we go back over the spot that had problems.

Most of our directors have started taking the same approach. We still have a good time, and the audiences get a great show, no matter what night they come. And for me, that's the bottom line.

The flip side of the argument? When I'm acting, that last brush can still get a little loose... at least until the director tells me to behave.

I also recommend leaving a "dark night" before opening.  Mike's idea of a line-through (speed-through) is also helpful. 

Two reasons:  1) The cast is usually stressed out and could use a night off just to mull things over.  Over-rehearsing can often lead to diminishing returns.

2)  It gives the tech crew a full 24-hours of actor-free space in which to complete last-minute finishing tweaks to the set, costumes, props, lights, etc.

Everybody returns on opening night to a freshly completed set, clean costumes and an upbeat, positive spirit.

Good idea. Mind if I steal it? I think it is the perfect solution to bridging that gap between Saturday and Friday.

Linda

I've done the speed rehearsals. They are fun, but I don't know how much they help. 

The last show I directed we did a "lines-only" rehearsal in a completely dark room. NOT as a prelude to opening night, but during tech week.  You sit in a dark room, with your eyes closed, so you can imagine where you are and what you are doing at that moment to keep concentration on your lines. It was fabulous.  It really makes you think about what (and why) you are saying. It did wonders for some weaker characters.  After the cast quit laughing at the new experience, they all settled in and loved it. Now I will do it everytime I direct.

I love the idea of a "lines-only in a dark room".  I've done the "speed through" when we've first gotten a script and that's been great ... but never try it with a multi-age group of kids (especially those little ones who can't read ... YIKES).

I'm going to "liberate" the lines-only, though, Sue.

We call ours a "double time" rehearsal. I don't always use them, but if a show needs tightened it is almost always a big help. If we are doing a musical everything is double time except the production numbers.