Rehearsal Times
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Directing
Forum Discription: For questions about handling shows, actors, crew, board members, children ...or do we repeat ourselves?
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5132
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 12:38pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Rehearsal Times
Posted By: Legacy Theater
Subject: Rehearsal Times
Date Posted: 7/19/11 at 9:51am
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Question for all of you directors . . . When producing a show, how many times a week do you rehearse?
We are a new community theater and our next show is A Christmas Carol. I am rehearsing twice a week from 7-9. Does that seem like enough, too much, etc? We have aprox 17 rehearsals to put the show together. ------------- Erika Hose President Legacy Theater Company |
Replies:
Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 7/19/11 at 11:14am
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We usually have 5-6 weeks between auditions and opening night. Most of out rehearsals run Sunday through Thursday. This gives us 20-24 rehearsals before opening. We may give a musical a few extra weeks. ------------- Patrick L. Davis Fort Findlay Playhouse |
Posted By: Majicwrench
Date Posted: 7/19/11 at 11:50am
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Most of my typical small shows (like xmas Carol) we rehearse for 6wks. Twice a week for the first four weeks, then 3-4 times a week the last two.
Two hour rehearsals are about right. Keep 'em hopping, don't let em get bored.
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Posted By: Jake
Date Posted: 7/19/11 at 7:15pm
| We average 17-20 rehearsals for plays, another week for musicals. Ours are 3X wk. for 3 hours. It's nice if you can make a schedule that doesn't require everyone to be there all of the time. Keeps people from sitting around when not on stage and actors appreciate it. |
Posted By: Legacy Theater
Date Posted: 7/19/11 at 10:10pm
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Great Feedback everyone! Thank you so much for your advice. We are doing once or twice a week but are rehearsing for more months than you guys do. I wish we can rehearse more times a week for less months, but I don't think that will work with our group. ------------- Erika Hose President Legacy Theater Company |
Posted By: Majicwrench
Date Posted: 7/19/11 at 11:44pm
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IMHO once a week is not enough to get it done, everybody sort of loses focus after a week and you end up going over and over and over the same stuff.
LT, very much enjoy hearing bout your new adventure. Keep up the good work.
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Posted By: Legacy Theater
Date Posted: 7/20/11 at 3:50am
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I agree once a week isn't enough. Perhaps my next show, I will be able to do more. I am renting a facility right now and we don't have the opportunity to do more than once or twice a week. It totally stinks, but we are blessed to have the location. Hopefully we will be able to have our own place and I can do what I wish LOL!!! ------------- Erika Hose President Legacy Theater Company |
Posted By: Majicwrench
Date Posted: 7/20/11 at 11:28am
| For something like Xmas Carol, almost anywhere could be a rehearsal space. I have a coffee shop I use when they are closed. A local Christian School in the evening. A city park with a covered area. It all works, and can be a wonderful growing experience for the actors (and directors). Look around, there are spaces to use. Be creative. |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 7/25/11 at 7:59am
I've been having the same experience this summer even with three days a week. |
Posted By: PaulyWally
Date Posted: 7/25/11 at 1:56pm
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I've done twice a week for the last two one-acts I've directed. It worked out really well because things stayed fresh enough, and no one got burnt out. But I can't imagine that I'd be able to keep the momentum going rehearsing twice a week for a full-length. Especially if the cast was larger than 4 or 5. |
Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 7/27/11 at 12:06pm
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Typically 5 - 6 weeks. M- F. Generally 7:00 - 10:00. Tech the Sunday before we open with just tech people and artistic staff from 10:00 am to 4:00pm, and everyone including actors for a cue-to-cue starting at 6:00pm. Then dress rehearsals starting at least 3 days before opening with a 6:00 call and going until finished. ------------- KEB |
Posted By: Legacy Theater
Date Posted: 7/28/11 at 10:40am
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Thank you all for your responses. I have no choice but to do twice a week right now so I will just have to make the best of it.
On a side note, for all of you folks who rehearse 4 to 5 times a week or more, are your actors volunteers or do they get paid? Again, I have been in community theatre productions, but it's my first go with my own theater. It seems like a lot of time for people to volunteer so I was just wondering if folks to it willingly. ------------- Erika Hose President Legacy Theater Company |
Posted By: PaulyWally
Date Posted: 7/28/11 at 10:52am
I work in a professional theatre as well, and when I see my paycheck I think sometimes I'm volunteering for them also.  Seriously though, in my opinion it really depends on the situation. I have come across many actors that are perfectly fine with rehearsing 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, for no pay. However, that seems to be the case more often when it is a popular show, and the director is well-respected and provides a great experience for everyone. If it's a lesser known show, or the director is incompetent, I think actors would be less likely to want to work that much. |
Posted By: Scott B
Date Posted: 7/28/11 at 3:42pm
| Very small community theatre here ... yes we rehearse for 7 1/2 weeks and run Thurs through Sunday and then the following Thurs - Sun. We rehearse 4 times a week from 6:30 to 9:00. In all it takes up 9 weeks of our summer. (Musical) Director, music director and accompanist receive a stipend, which basically covers gas. |
Posted By: Majicwrench
Date Posted: 7/28/11 at 5:13pm
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Another very very small theatre group, we do shows generally 6wk rehearsal either 2 or 3 times a week (till the week of) rehearsals are almost never longer than 2hrs, and none of the actors, tech people are paid.
For community theatre, I can't imagine why you would need to rehearse 4 times a week for over 2 hours, although being a musical certainly requires a bit more.
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Posted By: MusicManD
Date Posted: 7/30/11 at 1:21am
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When my high school does musicals, we rehearse 3 days a week for 90 to 120 minutes each time. We do that for... wait for it... 10-11 weeks. Partly that's because I get impatient and want to start rehearsals as soon as school starts. Partly that's because I have some kids who would be getting into trouble if not in rehearsals instead. ANNNND partly that's because we do have a lot of conflicts... Monday has conflicts from weekly JV football games. Tuesday and Thursday are volleyball. Friday is totally out because of football games (band, cheerleaders, football players... plus the kids want to be there). Wednesday is still the unofficial "church night" here in the Bible Belt. Thus, we rehearse longer because my lead might be missing every single Monday rehearsal (as happened last year) or half my female leads might show up halfway through when their VB game is over. We're doing Seussical next year, and we'll definitely need all that time to learn music. The downside is that between the play and the musical, I'm in rehearsal for a show 20 out of 36 weeks of school. Anyway, the last CT show I was in, the musical All Shook Up, was unique. We kept asking for longer rehearsal times so we could work more. We did three days a week for five weeks, but due to the amount of music and choreography, we regularly ended up doing four or five hour rehearsals. We'd come in early and stay late... is it any wonder we had audiences saying it was the best show they'd seen in that CT? |
Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 8/02/11 at 1:14pm
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4-5 nights a week is not uncommon for community theatre. Now, all actors are generally not caled all nights, so it's generally not such a bad deal. All my professional productions have been 6 nights per week, which is a real buzzkill since these are non-equity roles, I'm doing it for the money, and taking up pretty much ALL my personal time is worth more than they're paying me. But I love doing it, so... me. |
Posted By: ctguerin
Date Posted: 8/07/11 at 11:39pm
| Very interesting discussion. We generally run 3 nights a week, 2-3 hours a night. 6 weeks for non-musical, 8 or 9 for musicals. Rarely on the weekends - that is usually when we build the set. We are in the middle of a run of The Producers. This is the biggest show we have ever done, we had two weeks of tech rehearsal (Sunday - Thursday) with a night off each week to give the cast a break. The show is being very well received! Good Luck! |
Posted By: avcastner
Date Posted: 11/12/12 at 8:15pm
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For me it depends on a number of things: size of the play, type of play (musicals & classics require a lot more time), quality of the performers: Generally, I work in 2-hour rehearsal slots for the first few weeks, as the actors need time away from the rehearsal hall to study lines and work on character: 3-5 rehearsals for blocking 3-5 reherasls for working (mostly OFF BOOK before getting to this point) 2 ACT RUN rehearsals for each act (usually a 2-Act--DEFINITELY OFF BOOK) 3 RUN-THROUGH rehearsals (now 3-hours each) 1 DRESS REHEARSAL (3 hours with limited tech) TECH REHEARSALS: 4 hours PAPER TECH (crew and designers only) 4 hours Q-2-Q with actors 3-4 rehearsals: 4 hours TECH/DRESS RUNS ------------- |