Is there such a thing as "too much rehearsal"?

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 3:18am

I am in three productions right now (because I'm insane).
I have major roles in two of these.

In the third, I have 11 lines, all of which I have had memorized since the first week of rehearsals, back in January.
It is a student-directed show, and our performance isn't until the middle of March.
This month alone, I will have had about 25 hours of rehearsal for this show.
Is it just me, or is that excessive?

For the musical I'm in, I have my first acting rehearsal this week.
The student director of the aformentioned often-rehearsed play is giving me trouble about the fact that I am missing a run-through of her show in which I'm onstage briefly to attend my first rehearsal as a lead in a facutly-directed musical (even though I am called for every rehearsal for her from here on out, and EVERY rehearsal for the next month is a full run-through) and asked me if I could "skip it" or "reschedule".
(Note: I was cast in the musical BEFORE I auditioned for the student show, and that fact was listed on my conflict sheet.)

I fall asleep during every rehearsal.
Tonight, I had a 2-hour rehearsal in which the first 30 minutes were spent on warm-ups, and then I was actually rehearsed for approxiamately 10 or 15 minutes.
Grrr...

I know that this production is a class for her and all, but I think this is a bit nuts.
Am I wrong?
Am I over-reacting?
I don't know...
I just felt the need to vent.

[Jacques_Clouseau]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 9:15am

I have talked to some of my actor buds about this in the past.

The winning opinion is 'yes'. If a piece is over rehearsed it may lose a fair amount of its energy. You need to rehearse until the show comes together. If the director is sapping the will of those involved the performance will suffer.

But you're still overextended

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 9:22am

And if you choose to make the theatre your career, I can promise that you will be bitching about rehearsal schedules to stage managers for the rest of your days!

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 9:59am

I can also say that nothing is more frustrating than a director who schedules entire casts for rehearsals because they're so disorganized that they can't figure out how and when they'll be rehearsing a scene. So, consequently, get ready for a lifetime of 4 hour calls to rehearse 11 lines for 20 minutes. It's typical and they strangely see nothing wrong with wasting your time.

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:02am

Or the director will say "It's good for the actors to know what the rest of the cast is doing."

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:13am

Back in my acting days (which seems like a thousand years ago), I always used to think that there was never enough rehearsal.

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:21am

Sometimes it's hard to let go of that security blanket! That safe place where you're allowed to fail in private.

[ElTico68]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 11:28am

God... I've never had too much rehearsal. It always seems, in the shows I'm in, we barely have enough time.

RE: the conflict, if it was in your conflict sheet and she still cast you, then you are in your own right to miss the rehearsal. I once warned the director at time of casting that I had to miss the entire week before tech due to an already scheduled trip, and they were ok with it. When the time came, they tried to throw me on a guilt trip... yeah, not so much!

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 2:49am

Thanks guys...

Now I have a new problem.
For one of the other plays I'm in (also student-directed) I'm being UNDER rehearsed!
The performance is 5 days after the other student directed play, yet I've only had ONE rehearsal for it so far.
(part of the reason for this, of course, is that student director 1 has scheduled me so much that student director 2 cannot find times to schedule me)
I am supposed to have an intensive rehearsal for it on Friday.
But I found out about 10 minutes ago that student director 1 absolutely HAS to have me during that time, because her advisor cannot make it to any other rehearsal.

How frustrating it is to see both extremes and not have the ability to control either.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 7:22am

When I made my living from acting, I never complained about rehearsal. Performances, yes. Never rehearsal. That's why I eventually became a director. I liked creating, not performing.

[Jacques_Clouseau]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 8:53am

I have faith in you ~ff~.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 9:35am

If you're just going through the motions in a rehearsal and you're not learning anything and everyone's tired and disinterested, it's just a waste of everyone's time. It's bad directing.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 9:40am

The longest rehearsal period I have had for shows has typically been about 4 weeks -but that was usually a blessing. Either they were new shows that were being workshopped, or complicated monsters which needed the extra time - and in those situations, I worked for directors who had the good sense to use their actors in fashion that required very little "sitting around". I guess I was lucky!

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 4:55pm

I would never complain about being overWORKED. I like rehearsals. I can stand long, exhausting rehearsals. I don't mind them because I know that more rehearsal time means that I'll have more time to grow into my role, and hopefully I'll be able to tell the story better.

But sitting around? If anything that's just going to make me sick of the show and slightly apathetic about the final outcome. Especially since it's robbing me of much needed rehearsal from other shows.

Anyway. I just didn't want it to seem like I was being lazy. It's not that I'm complaining about rehearsal as much as I'm complaining about pointless rehearsal. If there were a reason for me to be there... If I were doing the same tiny scene over, and over, and over again, I would prefer that to what I'm doing now. If I came off as a diva, please understand that was not my intention. I'm a team player. I just need to vent about it once in awhile, and obviously I can't vent to the coach (in a matter of speaking).

[Joshua488]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 5:02pm

YES! "Too much rehearsal" does exist. I am currently in a show and we started vocal rehearsals last week. THE SHOW DOESN'T OPEN UNTIL JUNE. I'm going to go nuts.

I prefer shows with three to four weeks of rehearsal. They go nice and quick and three to four weeks is all I need to learn my lines, blocking, music, choreography, etc.

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 5:10pm

For me, if it's longer than two or MAX three weeks, I start feeling like I'm wasting time. I have my lines down by the second rehearsal and know my music before showing up on day one. I've found myslef griping in the past: If you can't learn choreography or blocking in two weeks, what the **** are you doing on a Broadway stage?
But, then I also came into musical theatre from straight acting not singing. I do my character work before rehearsal starts. Sometimes the director likes what I've done, other times they want something different. But most of the time, in musicals, the director is elated when they discover you can actually ACT. Most people who demand (read: NEED) weeks and weeks of rehearsals aren't actors, in my opinion. And frankly, if the show isn't gelling by week two, the show is micast or has the wrong director and changes have to be made. More rehearsal time cannot create chemistry or creativity. But too much of it can stifle and strangle it.

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 5:17pm

Several years ago, I was involved in a dance-heavy musical.
(The poster Paul LW was in it too, actually. He was my dance partner.)

The performances were the first week of May.
We started dance rehearsals in October of the previous year.
That's right.
7 months of rehearsals.
The dance rehearsals started before the auditions, which were (I believe) at the end of February.
If that's not an extreme amount of rehearsal, I don't know what is.
(It was worth it. The dancing was fantastic.)

Somehow that didn't bother me.
I always felt like I was doing something important.

[Joshua488]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 5:24pm

I don't think it's right to say that someone ISN'T an actor just because they take longer than two weeks to get their part down.

Let's hope you never have to work with Jerry Zaks as a director. Coming in with your character already planned out is a big no-no with him.

I prefer not to have my character planned out before rehearsals. The director is there for a reason: to direct. If he wants to direct my character in a certain way, that's his decision. Of course I'll have my own ideas; I'm not a puppet. But the director does have a job to do.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 5:26pm

Dancing is completely different.

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 2/23/05 at 5:31pm

Joshua, a PM is coming your way.
My apologies for saying that someone isn't an actor if they take more time to rehearse. I just don't understand it. It's just such a waste in my eyes. Too many people show up to rehearsal and expect the director to do their work as actors for them. That's crap. And frankly a sad indictment of the state of theatre. But having said that, I'll allow some leeway for the folks who need a little longer to feel like they've "found the character." Everyone has a different process. It just seems like too many musical actors have no process. And that's why they take so long to rehearse. At least it seems that way to me.