How many rehearsals?

Moosh wrote: > Having taken on the role of directing a one act play > which has to be ready for staging in 6 weeks (including > auditions) I am planning to ask the cast to attend > rehearsals at least twice, hopefully three times a week. > Am I asking too much? How long is a piece of string? Rehearsals are a bit like training, if it's good training and you're growing and developing, it's hard to get enough. Provided the company is making measurable progress at each rehearsal, it's hard to have too much rehearsal. In reality, there's a balance to be struck between the commitment you can reasonably require from the company, being "over-rehearsed" and being ready on opening night. I personally believe "over-rehearsed" is a mis-nomer for "lost our way or focus". I've rarely, if ever, opened a show feeling that everything was just as I wanted it. But I've occasionally found it hard to sustain or create the focus required to make every moment in rehearsal count. Don't pack in so many rehearsals that you and your company run out of steam before opening night. Plan what you expect to accomplish in each rehearsal and communicate the plan to the company so that it is clear what is expected. Look for measurable progress against your plan each rehearsal. It's not just the number of hours spent rehearsing or what you plan to get out of them. It's their proximity to each other. Many of us will thrive on short, intense rehearsal periods; working most hours of the day and some of the night over a very few weeks. Others will work better when give time to themselves to go over work done in rehearsal. If you're balancing other commitments, I'd push for at least three rehearsal periods per week. Anything less than this and you may well find that the company will slip backwards between rehearsals and you'll be wasting time going over old ground each rehearsal. If you doubt your capacity to sustain the company's focus three times per week of six weeks, cut the rehearsal period to four weeks but plan a few rehearsals four times per week in the last couple of weeks. Finally, don't let anyone kid you that one act plays take half the time to rehearse that a full length play may. A good one act play will pack in everything that a full length play has into a fraction of the time. You still need the time in rehearsal to unpack this intense, condensed material and realise its potential. Cheers Grant