I just did "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown." We auditioned before Christmas and then began rehearsals the week the college kids came back (2nd week of January) We opened March 6 - so about 10 weeks of rehearsal but only Tuesday, Thursday from 6-9 and Sunday 12-3.  Sunday was dance rehearsal and all were called but Tuesday and Thursday were called by scene - grouping as many of the same characters together as I could so no one, not even Charlie, had to be there for all rehearsals.   I run this organization twice - first to block it and second to work it and then we run acts and finally we run the show.  I start my calendar with tech week and work backwards so I can make sure I get the number of run throughs I want and then I start at the beginning and schedule to the runthroughs taking into consideration their scheduling conflicts.

 

I could see that this could work well with students varied schedules.

 

Our theater teacher rehearses 2-3 days a week after school until closer to the show.  Kids write in a book when they can't be there and she works around those when she rehearses that day.

 

Our choir teacher rehearses the show during choir class and then 2 nights a week from 7-9 until tech week which is 6-10.

 

You could call whole cast rehearsals a couple of times a week but then have scene or song rehearsals at other times.      

 

As a director in a very bare bones CT - I tend to do all of the roles or more than one or two - I usually produce, direct and often just do the stagemanaging myself and do costumes and design the set (though my husband builds them for me) - I hire in my lighting designer and choreographer and music director if it is a musical.  If my oldest is in town, he lights my shows for me and usually assists in many ways and my middle son is my graphic designer and sound designer and I am going to teach my youngest how to be a stage manager then we have a whole company in our house.  I do my own programs, fund raising and publicity, so I know where you are coming from. 

 

 I have really worked at trying to get other people on my team and it does make it more fun and easier but sometimes I just prefer to do it myself.  I now have a stage manager who has done a couple of shows with me, a music director and a choreographer I can usually count on, and a lighting designer if I remember to reserve her early enough.

 

 

I find it sad that I have to come on here every day and see these kinds of remarks that make it tedious for everyone at having to deal with these self-aggrandizing, self-appointed experts - or seemingly so. I would rather find the edification in what is shared here and for the most part I do. But as I said, there is one in every group (at least). Just keep doing what you're doing.  It sounds to me as though you have a great viewpoint on how you do what you do to have a superb experience with your group.  I think he who "examines his own motives" needs to do a lot more soul-searching to quit protesting too much as he accuses anyone else of doing. The MIRROR is a harsh but revealing thing to accept. As an actor who has also worked with loads of directors as well as being a director myself, I learn from everything and everyone and don't set myself above anyone regardless of what I think in terms of my own confidence or experience. Rather I choose to be a sponge to everything to make what I get to do that much more rich if it's going to be and fun if I can make it that. This is after all community theater and not Broadway or professional theater necessarily. And if I WANT TO WORK and have some fun, I cannot be so closed-minded or feel so superior that I limit my opportunities because I think I know more or am better than some director or it's "beneath" me as this member seems to think.  If some people are so good, they need to be doing it for a living and not criticizing everybody else  to try to make themselves look good. This is why I finally retired from doing it - just too many like this that I couldn't stand it anymore and did NOT want to grow to hate it because of this type of negativity or self-appointed authority and promotion. Seems to me - in my nearly 64 years that people like this I've known are trying to compensate for something else in their own sad existences. Ah well, no accounting for good sense I suppose in those cases. Neither do most of us have time for this kind of junk on this site even occasionally.  We'd do better to ignore it as much as possible and find the good things that we can share and discuss on here and let the rest pass by - as it surely will.

 

Good for you - keep up the great work.  And I like to read about your experiences. Seems you have a good handle on how to work with your group and make the most of everything you do with positive attitudes and outlook. It's a pleasure reading YOUR comments.

 

TonyDi

  Been following this with interest, rehearsal schedule and dealing with--or without--competent assistants is always an interesting subject. Not anything to add really, other than that is seems like rehearsals are getting harder to schedule...kids have too much going on. ANd the senior dancer, good for you for letting her try, even if you ending up doing it all. I have a tought time saying  " OK, you can take over that....." is always scary.

   Keep it up.

The only thing you can do with NDTenor is ignore him.  He has a Must Have the Last Word compulsion and was banned from another theater board for being a fire-starting troll.

 

As for his being an Expert with disdain for directors: a friend of mine saw NDTenor at an audition the other night.  His attitude was blatant - "Why are you wasting my time?  Just give me the part now."  The funny part being that he wasn't a good enough actor to hide this.

 

I have not responded to him directly on this board, nor will I.  And this will be my only post concerning him.  Again - the only way to handle him is to ignore him completely.

 

ABSOLUTELY AGREE! That's the best course. That type rarely gets it though and surely won't take the hint. Too bad.  Ignoring is best - prudent and rather quite easy. But I SO agree with you on this.

 

TonyDi

 

 

"EGO: The fallacy whereby a goose thinks he's a swan."

 

"An egotist is a self-made man who worships his creator."

 

"Every time you start thinking you're the center of the universe, the universe turns around and says with a slightly distracted air, "I'm sorry, what was your name again?" "

 

"The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people."

 

The high school totally believes in yard signs - you can get them online pretty cheaply if you buy at least 50 (don't try making them yourself - i did that with Charlie - got 5 done it was aweful - never again.)  but they do get the word out, I never have money for them in CT but they are worth the investment.  We do posters - our school system has a print shop and we can get colored posters tons cheaper than say a Kinkos so don't know if you have that but if not what I have done cheaply - is  design a flyer or poster and print on colored paper, that works pretty well if people put them out there and don't just leave them in their car.  We have a publicity committee in the choir and theater programs that has locations mapped in groups of 4 or 5 that are given to parents and it is easy to put out 4 or 5 and they are responsible for removing them when the time is over.  I am in charge of the online stuff and I have developed a link list which I use for school as well as CT publicity. I put us on all of the community bulletin boards, send announcements to the local newspapers, get interviews with local radio stations or they will do public service announcements usually for free, sometimes depending on the show we can be featured on a local kids t.v. show, put on previews at our local library, get the school to send out to their parent e-mail list and put it on their homepages, have all of the cast log in addresses of 15-20 friends and family and send out postcards, make a facebook event page and have cast invite friends and offer free ticket questions.

 

Our choir does a huge ad sale fundraising and they publish a magazine with ads and kudos for the whole choir - remember this is a huge choir.  Each student must sell $700 and this money goes to pay for the spring trip the choir takes and then they charge $450 membership fee (this is an audition only choir and highly sought after to be in it) and this is for her accompaniest/choreographer who only makes an aide salary from the school and performance clothing and music plus other expenses.   The choir is run by a parent board who then head committees made up of other parents - each parent is expected to contribute in some fashion and they do. It is actually quite intense but has worked for over 20 years and fully sanctioned by the school district.

 

If you can do music and choreograph as well as direct you have some amazing skills - I have to pay for what I can't do - I don't sing, play an instrument or dance and I am afraid of heights so I don't do lights either though I know what I want it to look like - I pretty much can do all other jobs if need be.

 

The next time I do a show, I am going to take a survey to see how people decided to come see the show and also what publicity they noticed so I know what is affective.  I know that personal invites are very effective and also if the kids can presell tickets that helps a lot too.  I know yard signs work well but I think a lot of the other print stuff is just ignored as we have info overload.

 

What really worked for us in my CT this year was getting an online Media Sponsorship from our local paper.  In exchange for a full page ad, some free tickets to give away, mentioning them at curtain speech, they put in a banner on the online paper that was guaranteed 20,000 sightings in the month as well as they sent out the offer of free tickets with a link to the website to over 9000 e-mails - we have this for every show this year.  We also almost always get a mention in the theater column as well.  I am going to check to see if they would sponsor the high school too (not holding my breath here but hoping).

 

 

 

For musicals we run 10 week schedules but 4 times per week for a minimum of 2.5 hours, especially if there is heavy choreography.  For straight plays 8 weeks, 3-4 times per week 2 hours per night.  Shakespeare and more difficult material may be 4 nights, but only 2 hours.  For us it is typically Monday-Thursday and not everyone is called to every rehearsal, but we have had one director do monday, wed, thursday, saturday to break up the week.

 

The rehearsal schedule is pulished in advance of auditions so that everyone can identify their conflicts.  If an actor cannot meet at least 85% of their characters designated rehearsal times, they WILL NOT be cast in that role.  Additionally, if an actor misses more than 2 undeclared called rehearsals (not including illnesses) they will be removed from the production and replaced. 

 

This may mean that some of your athletes or performers with too many conflicts may not participate, but this is reality not only in theater, but when they become adults and have responsibilities and jobs.

 

Way back when I was in high school it was 7-10pm...but hey those were rougher times and our clock was a sun dial:) 

 

 

I am simply offering an alternative that 1.) provides expectations 2.) treats all actors with respect 3.) does not provide an appearance of unfair practices (and I stress the appearance--I have seen many shows experience EXTREME drama because of perceived unfairness) 4.) and in my experience, has been successful. 

 

It may not fit everyone's situation or style.

 

But as an example, one recent musical production (that I did not direct) had the cast re-doing one scene 8 times because of scheduling conflicts.   We had one performer who was in 4 different shows while working full-time all simultaneously.  That performer did not put his best effort into our production, and I doubt he did in the 3 other shows.  The actors who were available resented having to re-do the scene over and over in order to accommodate so many conflicts. It nearly resulted in a dramatic implosion.

 

Whatever methodology you choose, I humbly suggest you be consistent and change between runs and not while in the production phase. 

 

As a final note, I have recently joined this forum, but love the different experiences and opinions that everyone has.

 

My way is never perfect, but a path.

 

 

 

 

 

In the past, I have had 12-week rehearsal periods--forget the kids, I'm burned out by that time.  Parents usually start pulling kids out by week 8 (when it's really hard to replace them), because by that time their grades are slipping.

 

My suggestion would be doing Seussical Jr or something smaller.  You may even need to skip doing a musical this year if there are not enough talented musical actors available who do not have athletic commitments, etc.  I hate to put this pressure on the kids, and I've only had to do it a few times, but I sometimes have to make them make a choice--athletics or drama:  your grades can't survive both.