Making a success of your theatre production: some ideas for planning your rehearsals

1.  How much rehearsal do you need altogether?

There’s a rule of thumb that each minute in the length of a play requires around an hour of rehearsal, and there’s a well established rule that each page of a script (based on a French’s acting edition) gives about two minutes of stage time.  If the script you’ve chosen is, say eighty pages, this theory suggests you should expect your performance to last around two hours forty, and you’ll need 160 hours of rehearsal.  Professional repertory companies rehearse for three weeks, which gives around 100 hours in total.  Amateur companies typically get sixty to seventy hours of rehearsal over two to three months, and it should be more than enough.  The rule of needing an hour for each minute is probably nonsense; the guideline for two minutes a page is surprisingly accurate. 

2.  Over what period of time should rehearsals be scheduled?

Spreading the work over a long period can result in losing freshness altogether, so it’s probably best to keep rehearsals for an amateur production below twelve weeks, but probably not less than about six.  Aim to achieve about seventy hours, and divide it evenly over the first month or two, building the frequency during the last couple of weeks.  You will also want to consider the amount of learning the actors have to do, and their capacity.  A two hour two-hander is a vast learning challenge, and if you have slightly older performers you may want to factor in a longer period of less frequent rehearsals so that the learning can be properly consolidated.  This can cut both ways; a company of only a couple of actors means that while both your actors will be very busy in each rehearsal, the social exhaustion factor can become an issue; you’ll need to judge it carefully!

3.  How can I keep the actors interested?

Make sure you plan each rehearsal, and let your actors know what they are going to be working on.  If your actors know what they are going to be rehearsing when they arrive, then you will gain their confidence and they will develop respect for your sense of purpose.  While the unexpected can always happen, if an actor becomes unwell and can’t attend, you should establish a normal expectation that both you and your actors know what you’re going to be doing when they are coming to rehearse.  Clarity of expectation frees the actors to turn up and focus swiftly on the work, and sets the scene for positive, successful rehearsal.

4.  How do you know you’re on schedule, creatively speaking?

When you set out your rehearsal schedule make sure that you divide the play into logical chunks; it’s poor practice to have performers sitting around unused for hours on end.  The rehearsal schedule should aim to go through the entire play text twice in detail.  The first cycle might be very slow indeed, and you may only get through eight to ten pages in each rehearsal.  The second cycle is faster, and you might get through fifteen pages in each rehearsal.  You can start interspersing the occasional act 1 or act 2 run, so that the actors get a feel for the rhythm of the whole piece.  You shouldn’t expect perfection; rehearsal is about building up layers or preparation, and it is important that the production doesn’t peak too early.  During the first cycle you can take your time, exploring the dynamics of the text freely.  During the second cycle you will pin the staging down, and begin to look for pacing.  The second cycle should finish a couple of weeks before opening, so that you have a time to really pace it up and touch up theatrical aspects.  Keep in mind that when you tech the production you are likely to lose time. 

5.  When should actors be off the book?

There is nothing wrong at all with actors turning up at the first rehearsal with their lines learned.  This is a frequent expectation in the professional theatre, although it is unlikely to happen in amateur productions. (Why doesn’t it happen?  Only because such attention to preparation is not part of the expectation among untrained performers.)  Aim to get the actors off the book as early in the second cycle as is practical.  Amateur actors’ expectations are frequently based on an assumption that a performance consists solely of its superficially visible elements, and often have limited experience of the processes of discovery that can take place through an extensive exploratory rehearsal with the lines already learned.  Sometimes it really can’t be helped; people do amateur theatre for the love of it, and have many other commitments in their lives; it is not always appropriate to expect professional commitment.  On the other hand, all untrained or amateur actors are invariably capable of giving vastly better performances than a hobby-focused rehearsal pattern tends to produce.  One of the greatest pleasures to be drawn from this interest is to excel self-expectation, and the end result will invariably instil a real sense of the worth of the journey.

6.  Which is more important, the technical aspects of a production or the acting?

As noted above, you will lose time when it comes to technical rehearsal.  If you’re directing an ambitious staging with a large cast and complex set or lighting, there is every likelihood that the critical last couple of weeks may become mired in the integration of the performers’ contributions with complicated and often very slow moving technical processes.  The adage ‘it’ll be all right on the night’ offers comfort, but is not true nearly as often as we might like to believe.  You should make sure that you schedule for transitions, and programme in recovery opportunities for each transition.  Rehearsal processes have a number of transitions.  Completing the first cycle and beginning the second is a transition, as is coming off the book, going into costume, moving onto the stage, moving onto the set, using props.  Keep these factors in mind when you’re planning your rehearsals.  A recovery opportunity doesn’t necessarily mean a full run, it might be a speed run camped up for laughs (a marvellous exercise) or a positive, text-based warm up exercise, or a couple of really focused scenes.  Try to make sure your recovery exercises include the entire cast.  It’s not uncommon in amateur dramatics for the technical contributors to put the human performances at risk; in any amateur theatre you’ll hear stage managers and lighting designers complaining about the actors, and frequently congratulating themselves that their contribution came off all right, and what shame it was about the acting.  These may well be the tell-tale signs that technical processes and performance rehearsals haven’t been properly integrated; all the more reason why you must minimise the risk by ensuring your performers are well served and fully equipped by a properly planned rehearsal process.  In the end it’s the performances that make the production, and everything else, the set, the lighting, the pyrotechnics, the sound effects are all there to serve the performances.  You can, with a well rehearsed cast, produce a stunning a moving performance in a church hall with a few chairs.

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If you're interested in seeing photographs of a recent production I directed of Stephen MacDonald's play Not About Heroes, please follow this link http://www.flickr.com/photos/longbob/sets/72157612003070909/