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  • 1.  Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-11-2015 08:09
    Hello, I am doing a little research on play production and rehearsal time. Over five years ago, I fought to get our rehearsal time moved into a late afternoon sports block at our private high school. We now get around 8-9 hours a week to rehearse our productions as opposed to our original four. The productions are of a very high caliber all around and a great experience for our students. The issue is that recently faculty has been complaining that theatre is causing a downward spiral in a student's academic life because of the amount of time we spend in rehearsing especially in our final tech weekend and week leading up to performance. When I worked in a public high school, students rehearsed 15 or more hours a week. What is your experience at your high schools? Thanks ------------------------------ Jen Jordan ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE:Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-11-2015 11:26
    The longer I teach (I'm in year 10, so certainly not as long as a lot of people here), the less time I spend in rehearsal. When I first started teaching, rehearsals for mainstage shows were about 2 hours a day, 4-5 days a week, for 10-12 weeks. We had 3 tech rehearsals that were 5 hours each. I did this based on my own high school experience. I now have a 3 year old and a 2 year old, and out of necessity, have cut back my rehearsal hours. My fall play rehearses 1 hour a day, 5 days a week for 6 weeks, with an extra hour on Mondays. Tech week is 3 days of 3 hour rehearsals. My spring musical rehearses 1 hour a day, 5 days a week with an extra hour on Mondays for 10 weeks with 4 4 1/2 hour long tech rehearsals. The latest I am ever at rehearsal is 7:15. So, what is the result? More commitment, less nagging on my part and higher quality productions. I was extremely nervous about cutting back the time and I thought my productions would suffer, but the reality is that the kids took it more seriously and came more prepared because there was a stronger sense of urgency. I have also increased the amount of time I spend on character work discussion about the show and acting technique. I realize this May not be a universal truth, but It has worked for me.

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    Heather Brandon
    Bakersfield CA
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  • 3.  RE: Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-12-2015 12:52

    I would be unhappy to cut rehearsal back this far. Although I understand why with young children you need to.

     I have occasionally been forced by circumstance to rehearse a play for just 3 and half weeks. I have to admit that these plays have run very smoothly.

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    Mark A Zimmerman
    Theatre Director
    Akron School for the Arts
    Akron Public Schools
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  • 4.  RE: Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-12-2015 19:04
    My kids have a limited number of rehearsal hours prior to tech week. We only have 1 and 1/2 hours 3 times a week to stage the show. Tech week I keep the kids about 8 hours (1 hour dinner break) to put the show together. The kids know that they are expected to get their homework early and they may use any time in tech rehearsal that is free to work on their homework. The kids love the time spent together during hell week. They get to spend time with other kids who are enjoying the same things they do. I also have tech week before show week. I hold 2 pick up rehearsals during show weeks, but the kids are done by 6 at the latest. This gives them the weekend and the evenings, until the performances, to rest and complete anything they need for school.

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    Shira Schwartz
    Chandler Unified School District
    Chandler AZ
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  • 5.  RE: Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-16-2015 12:31

    This is really helpful!  I have been at my current spot for 4 years and have struggled with the "just right' rehearsal schedule.  It seems each show hits that place where it is ready and if we are in rehearsal much past that we lose some energy.  And the kids get exhausted.  I have considered a shorter run or cut one day a week until closer to show.  Currently I have them in class each day and we do 2 hours after school 4 days a week for about 11 weeks as well as a full 8-10 hour tech day.  The last couple of shows I have felt we were ready about a week or two weeks before show time and we had to work to keep the excitement up.  It is great to hear others tossing this same issue around.

    I should also say that due to our facility, we don't do really high tech special effects or huge shows.  Mostly plays and some smaller musicals.  We did build a rotating floor panel though...that was pretty snazzy. Thanks all!


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    Georgann Lanich
    Lakemont GA
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  • 6.  RE: Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-16-2015 17:24

    The rule of thumb I was taught was 1 hour of rehearsal for every minute on stage, so I tend to go by that when I'm scheduling.  For straight shows, we start rehearsing 8-10 weeks before opening night, depending on the obstacles/challenges I expect we'll face, as well as any scheduling issues that I know of (for instance, I am required to attend a meeting during rehearsal time every other Monday, so I know we can't rehearse then).  Generally speaking we rehearse 3:15-5:15 M-F (school is out at 3:06) and then rehearsals get a little longer the 2 weeks or so prior to show.  We only rehearse past 8 one night, and that's our final dress when the show goes up at normal performance time (7 or 7:30, depending on the show).

     Musical rehearsals are longer and we start earlier because of all the dance and vocal rehearsal needed.  We usually rehearse until 6:30 2-3 nights for musicals and until 5:30 the other 2-3 nights.

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    Laura Steenson
    Theatre Director
    Reynolds High School
    Troutdale OR
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  • 7.  RE: Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-17-2015 08:39

    Eleven weeks of rehearsal is a long time! My students would get bored before performances if we rehearsed that long.

    My simple math tells me that you are rehearsing after school 88 hours per play. Am I reading your post correctly? Your post appears to say that you are rehearsing each day in class in addition to after school?

    At my school, we typically rehearse a total of 50-55 hours per play after school and never in class. Even then it is sometimes too much rehearsal with the performers being ready for an audience before the end of the rehearsal period. Musicals of course take more time in rehearsal.

    That additional 30+ hours you rehearse seems like a large expanse of time. I wonder if you could trim that down somewhat without a big difference in quality.

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    Mark A Zimmerman
    Theatre Director
    Akron School for the Arts
    Akron Public Schools
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  • 8.  RE: Rehearsal Time

    Posted 03-18-2015 08:20

    Thank you all for your comments. I should also clarify that we spend about 7-8 weeks rehearsing for both the musical and play. Three days a week, we rehearse for 1.5 hours to 1.75 hours. I share one long rehearsal (4 hours) during the middle of the week with my music director for the musical. I also choreograph and am finding it increasingly challenging to choreograph numbersand direct scenes--students who are in the ensemble are often in many scenes/numbers, so I never have a full group of students who can "work" a number/scene while I am working on another scene/number even with assigned dance captains. 

    Thanks.

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    Jen Jordan
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