Once again, I had a thought provoking conversation last night (the company I keep these days seems to do that).
A mate and I were chatting (me bitching) about rehearsals… We were discussing (I, complaining) about long rehearsal periods of 4-6 months, rehearsing 2 nights per week. This is the standard for most community and non-profit theatre around the place. Having been involved in a few community shows over the past five or so years, this seemed the norm. However, I’m finding it more and more unproductive and disrupting to the rehearsal process of the show.
I think I’m realising that community theatre is not the place for me.
I did a blog hunt to see what other people thought on the topic and found two interesting posts…
What I found most interesting is that they were both extolling the virtues of a longer rehearsal period… Come on, people, hurry up and think like me!
My reasons are as follows:
1. Passion
Having crammed my life full of shows over the last five years (on a sidenote, I need to stop seeing show references in everything I write… back on track, Luke…), I’m finding that with every show I do, the passion is less and less. In fact, the passion only shines through during the last week of rehearsal when we are living and breathing the show and rehearsing every night. This could just be my problem, I’m not sure, but I seem to think that if, for instance, you rehearsed 4 nights a week and 1 day on the weekend for a period of 4 weeks, you would have a cast that, although being fairly exhausted, have been living and breathing the show for four weeks straight. Think of the effect of that on the character, for example, or the fact that they won’t talk about anything else to anyone they meet…
2. Memory
This is one of my main problems at the moment. At the show I’m currently rehearsing, I have already been taught most of the dances and the majority of my vocal lines for the show. However, at an act 1 run through last night, I was quite dismayed to discover that a large portion of those had been forgotten. My own fault entirely, considering I hadn’t revisited them in my own time, but now they have to be relearnt and rerehearsed regardless (a lot of R’s in that sentence).
I doubt this would have been the case if I knew that I only had four weeks to get everything down, learnt and polished, and I had dedicated time during the week to learn that. Once again, I could put aside my own time, but hey, I can be lazy and I quite often want (need) a production team member telling me to ‘do it again, but this time good’. I suppose that comes down to motivation. I lack motivation when I’m only rehearsing something sporadically.
3. Wasting my time
Why rehearse something for 5 months, when you can do it in 1 and then perform it? This is the clincher that makes me think I shouldn’t be in community theatre. I understand that for most people involved in community and non-profit theatre that there is a large social aspect to the rehearsal period. I treat shows like work. I get a long with my workmates and I enjoy socialising with them outside of work hours, but when I’m there, I like to work on the task at hand. If I’m directing a show and I’m worried that there are social barriers in place, I organise something outside for the cast to bond and enjoy together.
I’m finding that I’m erring more when I audition for shows because I know it’s going to take a good third to half of my year to actually get on stage. I wish that I could get my hands dirty, get on stage and enjoy it.
Yet another rant. I don’t really have a problem with the way the rehearsal period is being run with the show I’m doing at the moment. The production team are actually doing an awesome job on a difficult (and huge!) show. I think I’ve just outgrown community theatre a little.
That, and I’m impatient.
I’ve got an excuse. I’m Gen Y.
