Monday, December 05, 2011
Rehearsal Time Management
TheatreFace: One of the greatest challenges in theater is planning out rehearsal time. After getting all of the actors' schedules and conflicts, the task of figuring out the time needed to adequately rehearse all the elements of a production becomes a logisitcal game of tetris--trying to match up little blocks of time in the most efficient way. Only in this case, the size of each block is relatively unknown and constantly shifting; just how long will it take to block through every scene? How many weeks of music rehearsals will the actors need to really learn the harmonies? How much time can be dedicated to ensemble building rehearsals or exploratory play before the cast needs to move into solidified blocking?
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These are some very great points to consider. I think the author's strongest point here is the one about the importance of giving fight choreography as much time as it needs. Brushing off fight rehearsals can end up being a dangerous decision. I can imagine that actors need multiple fight rehearsals in order to really get the movement into their bodies. It's great to hear this and the other points from an actor's perspective. It's good to know that ensemble building might be really important to some actors (and, presumably, directors). In a season like CMU's, though, it's hard to imagine having much time for these type of activities simply because of the short turn-around time we have in between productions. In a perfect world we would be able to spend more time together preparing for a production- perhaps even giving the creative team more time together would be useful in coming up with innovative and cohesive designs. Anyways, I found this article informative and will certainly consider these things when planning rehearsal schedules in the future.
I think this article had some valid points. I think one of the most important aspects of rehearsal time management is when everyone has done their homework and so the rehearsal is productive. If things have to be reviewed over and over again, valuable time is wasted when we could have moved on. Being prepared by working on your own is imperative and I think very much appreciated by everyone. We all want to put on the best show possible so if everyone is prepared, we all win. I definitely agree with the fight choreography rehearsal time. It is an art to make your fight look natural and once you have it down it can be a highlight of any show.
It is crucial to the process that rehearsals be well scheduled and planned and that everyone is well prepared. Music, Fight Choreography, and Ensemble work, as the article points out, certainly are make-or-break elements that are critical to any show that involves them. Underprepared music can really ruin a show. Underprepared fight choreography can ruin a show, but it can also be seriously dangerous. Ensemble work is often times undervalued, but has a large impact on any show as a whole. This is a useful article. I would bet though that the list should be a bit longer.
Managing rehearsal time is certainly an art and a priority for any production. I feel more versed in the Director's point of view on this topic than the actors. So, it was really enlightening to get this perspective. I guess I always assumed the actors were always so sociable and friendly that they bonded off the bat. I did not realize that this is part of the process, where due attention needs to be paid. I could never have imagined a scenario where an actor did not know another actor's name come tech week. Although, I've experienced that myself as a designer numerous times.
This is a great list of things that we really don't keep in mind often enough when allocating time. In addition, I think it's also really important to have deadlines in place when it comes to making sure everything gets the attention it needs. For instance, there should, of course, be a deadline to get off-book, but I think there should also be one for when the actors stop being allowed to call line, when the company must transition from table-time to blocking, and, in the case of new plays, when the playwright has to stop changing lines. 'The last one is really gray since having the playwright in rehearsal is such an asset to a new play's development, but it can become very hard to keep track of what the line is in one's head when the scenes keep getting cut and rearranged.
I never would've thought that music was such an important part in performing a play. I mean, it's important, obviously, but I never thought of it as a separate entity that would take more time and a separate attention span. Most articles structured this way often reference obvious time-consuming aspects of a production, but this one better explains the importance of doing redundant things, like a fight call. You never know when someone could potentially get hurt. This article was very informative and I'll keep this information in mind when I start planning rehearsal schedules.
Often in theatre, when I am directing or managing or building there is a common thread. At the beginning of rehearsal the leaderships takes a lot of time easing the cast into the process. Talking about character development and motivation or playing zip-zap-zop. As the rehearsal process goes there are always two or three scenes that eat up 50 percent of the time: a big crowd scene or a fight or a tap number. About a week out, I always regret the amount of ”ensemble” time that was allowed at the beginning of the process. My MO lately is to hit the ground running and go go go go go go. If the show is in great shape and you have three days till tech, then play “freeze”.
Time management is obviously one of the most important and problematic aspects of staging a production. I have limitless respect for managers who are able to coordinate so many conflicting schedules and goal with what appears to be relative ease. It's an impressive feat to say the least. I would say that every one of us could benefit from learning more about the art of managing people and resources. Even for us designers, who sometimes feel like the management classes don't apply to us, will one day need to coordinate our own schedules with the rest of the creative team and our assistants.
As much time as it takes, for some shows, ensemble building is vital to the successfulness of the show. By having a more cohesive ensemble who have all participated in world building and group work together, often blocking and working the scenes go much more quickly than they might otherwise because everyone has a common language. One of the trickiest things on the opera because the cast is so large is getting everyone in the room at the same time. Often we only have one or two days a week that everyone is available for rehearsal. The tricky thing is to figure out how to best use that time and make sure that on days you have everyone, you are actually using everyone. Another tricky thing that the article doesn't mention about managing rehearsals is determining how much the director cares about going off schedule. This can vary from day to day, show to show, and person to person depending on what the priorities are. There may be days where the director wants to spend time on one specific moment instead of working another section and another moment when the team needs to stick to the schedule tightly.
I think that more time needs to be given to elements that are naturally out of an actors' comfort zone. For your "standard" actor the things that Mr. Yichao presents (Music, Fight Choreography, and Ensemble Work) are some of the things that take a longer time. But what he doesn't really explore is the fact that rehearsal time allocations need to be made in specific ratios to the strengths and weaknesses of that cast. In Mad Forest, the music learning did not take as much time as the dialect and Romanian language took. This was because the strength of the cast laid in their music-reading ability more than their language learning. Granted, Mr. Yingchao does give a good set of guidelines for rehearsal allocations, but I'm of the firm belief that it is hard to generalize the distributions, because each cast will have their unique strengths and weaknesses. As well, each show will have allowances within the schedule to give more or less time to specific types of rehearsal, dependent upon conflicts and hour allocations.
I find that the three areas mentioned in this article are difficult for a wide range of Directors, from experienced to just out of school. The author does raise an interesting point about musical vs. non-musical because I would argue most musical directors and choreographers would argue they don't get enough time. As much long-term planning as you try to do, things will likely change the first day of rehearsal when you see how quickly the actors are soaking in what they are learning, and even more so on the second day of rehearsal when you see how much they remembered. When working with a new cast, I often do research with other stage managers to find out which actors have difficulty with certain things so that the Director and I can plan to give them extra support or time ahead of time. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and incorporating those of the specific performers into the schedule from day 1 will eliminate some of the surprises and anxiety later on.
There are some interesting points here. I definitely think that music and fight choreography need a lot of time and are not always given the time that they need. But I also wonder who is ensuring those elements are given enough time. Surely the Stage Manager and the Director discuss what to do each day in rehearsal, so there is some insurance that one of them can make sure there is enough rehearsal time for those elements, but it is also I think the producer's responsibility to ensure that they have a chance to rehearse all the elements adequately.
It's nice to see these rehearsal-time consuming issues being discussed, because it often seems that people simply assume that however long they've blocked out for rehearsing a certain segment is how long it will take. It's nice to hear from somebody else that this is not at all the case. I also enjoyed hearing that the author of this article is terrible at names, because it's always been something that I am also pretty bad at. Learning faces and names has always been a challenge for me, and it seems that, like this author, I will need to make a stronger effort in doing this.
I agree with everyone that these are really good points, but I especially think that giving enough time to ensemble work would be especially important. It's important for actors in a play to feel comfortable with each other and for them to seem like they are in the same world during the play. I don't really know how actors could seem like they are in the same world if they haven't spent ample time getting to know each other. It can be quite obvious when a cast hasn't spent enough time getting to know each other and getting comfortable with each other.
The problem is that managers/directors don't give time to the things that they understand the least; if they're not familiar with a certain element, then they see it's outside only and can't comprehend the work that goes into it. It makes sense that managers are less familiar with music and getting off-book, since the former isn't in the purview so much and the latter is unimaginable.
Design elements get a similar treatment in tech. For instance, where productions are used to giving extra time to the cast and wardrobe department for the first day with costumes, there is seldom enough time budgeted for the actors' first time with microphones or for the sitzprobe.
It's always better to ridiculously overestimate than to underestimate at all, since the former only helps a production and the latter creates a domino effect of problems.
This is an article that pulls my attention to a part of the theatre world and theatre production that I never really have to be responsible for. I have never been on the stage managing or any sort of scheduling side of a show, but I have such immense respect and appreciation for those that do, especially because lighting, which I am involved in, always needs a good chunk of time wherein, at least for some of it, there can be no actors on stage rehearsing. My past managers have always respected my requests for time and gave me as much as possible! Having to play this game of “tetris” would be incredibly difficult, but this article gives interesting and helpful tips on how to prioritize certain things over others for the sake of the show.
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