Repertory vs. project by project theater
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Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3116
Printed Date: 11/22/24 at 10:41pm
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Topic: Repertory vs. project by project theater
Posted By: briancaspe
Subject: Repertory vs. project by project theater
Date Posted: 4/15/08 at 5:53am
Hi there,
I'm about a season into a new community theater. We have several challenges (being an English Language theater in a non-English speaking country...which I'll post about in another thread), but one that I keep turning over in my head is the question of "Repertory" or "project by project" production.
In my market (Prague, Czech Republic but the system is also used in Germany), theaters produce plays in true rep, meaning that at any one time they will have about 10 shows in rep and play a different show every day, each show playing a few times per month. While I can see the benefits of this from an audience point of view - there is more of a chance for you to get full houses as new audience members can see a lot more shows in a shorter period of time, shows can have time to build word of mouth between performances - my american experience rebels against that kind of setup.
I tend to feel like that kind of setup is good when you have actors on a monthly salary and engage them for an entire season, so they're playing every day in different things. On the other hand, I feel like there is a benefit to having a cast play the same show multiple times in a row to get it into their skin. I haven't worked in the rep system here but it seems like the actors would lose a lot of energy getting back up to speed on shows they haven't done in a week or two.
Our approach so far is to play one production at a time (4 or 5 performances), then moving on to the next production. I do feel the pull, however: questions about people who missed the run wanting to see the show...etc. Our actors, however, being mostly expats, aren't going to commit to an entire season of shows. If we COULD run in rep, it would certainly fit better with the way theaters here are set up (renting space in a theater, because the theater itself is running in rep, becomes an exercise in booking a tuesday here, then friday, then a sunday to monday...forget about booking two thursday to sunday runs in a row! and you have to tech before each performance because something else will have played in the space in between shows...)
I don't know. I feel like I'm rambling here, but I wanted to get your impressions of the benefits of running shows in rep versus running one show at a time.
As I said, I'll post later about the challenges of running a small English language theater in the middle of a much much larger Czech speaking market. Not that there aren't exciting opportunities as well...
Thanks,
Brian
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Replies:
Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 4/15/08 at 10:08am
Although personally I've never heard of a community theater doing shows in repertory, that's not saying it can't be done.
Repertory is usually reserved for the domain of professional actors, for the very reasons you put forth: it's an enormous time commitment and drain on the performers and crew.
Since the majority of community theater people are volunteers, getting them to learn ONE show in their spare time and having it ready for opening night becomes a challenge we're all familiar with.
However, as a professional on salary, it becomes your job -- a nine-to-five (and beyond) routine of showing up, rehearsing, learning lines, etc etc etc. And for the crew -- building, painting, lighting, sewing is all part of their daily job description. I can't imagine asking such demands on a part-time volunteer.
Selecting shows and casting them becomes a puzzle-solving problem in and of itself. Shows with large sets can't run in rep because there's usually not enough storage space. Each set must be able to be "broken down" and re-assembled within a limited time-frame. (Usually a day or less!)
Likewise, double-casting actors is a challenge -- in CT we have our stronger and weaker performers (you know who you are!)-- but in a professional setting, the actors are uniformly strong and can typically handle learning more than one role at a time.
Actors with large roles in one show are often given smaller roles in the rep show (and vice-versa) to lessen the burden of lines and blocking, (not to mention energy expended and voice exhaustion) but it is still no simple task.
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"None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 4/15/08 at 3:58pm
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I agree with Topper. I don't see how you could find unpaid volunteers to commit on a long term basis to a show. Maybe it's different in other areas, I'm just going on my little corner of the world.
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Posted By: briancaspe
Date Posted: 4/17/08 at 3:27am
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I would agree with you guys that for to run a full repertory theater you'd need to be paying your people to work full time. I don't think that we'd be running something every day, but rather, to fit in with the system, playing one play over several months, but only a few shows per month. I don't know... just thinking about it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At the same time, we're looking at doing 4 performances of a play now and then seeing if we should reprise it later (say, in June). I guess I just wonder how this would affect season planning: Show X is November 12 - 30...but also in January? Just seems a little random to me..
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 4/17/08 at 7:47am
Originally posted by briancaspe
I don't think that we'd be running something every day, but rather, to fit in with the system, playing one play over several months, but only a few shows per month.
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Well, if that's how you have to do it and you have people that are willing I guess that's the way to go. As an actor you'd have to really keep on top of the script on the days off--at least that's what I'd have to do. Do you have much of a set that you move in and out in one day? Another concern I'd have is getting the audience to show up on the right day, but maybe they're used to a different approach there?
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Posted By: briancaspe
Date Posted: 4/20/08 at 7:46pm
Most of the 40 or so full time theaters in Prague run in this way and have to strike and build a new set every day. It seems like madness (though not all of their sets are really big, big theaters that do opera like the national theater have a flotilla of trucks that move sets back and forth every day from storage to any one of three venues) but it works for them. It's kind of a pain in the rear when you are renting space and have to refocus lights and everything between shows. As far as audience goes, they're pretty used to booking shows on a specific day and because the shows don't play all the time, they book in advance, which is a benefit to the theater I guess.
As far as actors keeping up with text, I've never worked in that fashion (I think you'd have to be on staff for that and my Czech isn't good enough to get a staff acting job...not that I'd really want one anyway) but it seems fairly confusing to me. Some friends of mine work freelance in one or two shows and they have about 3 or 4 shows a month, always on different days. I'll have to ask them what their rehearsal schedules are for those shows before the reprise...I'd imagine they at least have a line through the day of or something. But then again, the Czech theater tradition is very formalistic anyway so once you've memorized the exterior form, you're doing ok. Not really my cup of tea in terms of acting.
brian
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