There’s no getting around it – producing quality theatre takes time. Hour after hour, season after season of rehearsal.
When selecting your next project, your rehearsal timeframe is probably the first factor to consider. You, the director, have ultimate knowledge of the amount of rehearsal time required for each title you’re considering. Choose wisely to set everyone up for success.
As a general rule, we recommend selecting projects that can be expertly executed well inside your rehearsal timeframe. Of course, every director should at some point have the privilege of producing a piece that challenges and maybe intimidates them a bit. We all have our list of dream roles and titles. We believe that this challenge can and should be extended to some of your students – those who are most likely to build careers in the arts, those who demonstrate tremendous artistic gifting, and those who have a pure passion for theatre.
But for your general cast and crew – especially starting out – we recommend you produce material that requires less rehearsal time.
When we say “less”, we mean in several ways:
Tackle Less Content.
Pay careful attention to the desired runtime of your project. Everyone will thank you. Especially your audience. Generally, script runtime is about one minute per page. And behind every minute of runtime, there are untold minutes of rehearsal time.
With a bit of research, you can find many options for your students' next performance:
Scene into Song
Song with internal Scene
Whatever material you land on, count your pages. Be realistic as you consider. Remember, less is more.
Juggle Fewer Elements Within Your Process.
How difficult is the music? Is it wordy? How many vocal parts need to be taught? Be generous with the time you allot your students for music rehearsal.
Consider all of the staging requirements. How many big production numbers need to be staged/choreographed? These numbers are golden opportunities to fully engage everyone – not just your “theatre geeks”.
Give yourself time to do full ensemble pieces with stunning execution. Maybe you don’t need to do 5 big production numbers. Maybe you need just one.
Limit Excess Challenge For Students Who Are Not Quite Ready.
Every good director has instincts for who is “right” for at least some of the roles. Most often those roles are cast as you envisioned. That said, when casting roles where there is no preconceived notion on who will be “right,” we recommend a “surprise me” attitude at auditions. It promotes a wonderful discovery process for both actors and directors. However you choose to cast the show – the demands of each role should be just outside of the actor’s comfort range, but close enough that they can achieve mastery in your rehearsal timeframe. Finding that balance is the goal.
Keep in mind the raw gifting of your students as well as their responsiveness and teachability. Practice in the (often short) rehearsal period will help a student gain confidence, but it’s unlikely to add half an octave to their range.
We recommend choosing a title that provides your students a steady growth ramp-up – not a mountain slope. Less is more.
Demand Less Time From The Families of Your Students.
Frequency and length of rehearsals can be a make or break factor for some families. Parents are often juggling the commitments and transportation needs of several children. Of course all this is in addition to school work, church, family time, mealtime, and so on. The parent’s schedule, not just the child's, is a key decision factor to keep in mind.
For general ensemble participation, we recommend calling the ensemble only as needed and working them efficiently when they’re called. This requires careful rehearsal planning. Far more work for you upfront, but it will pay off when these families return for future productions. This tactic also helps to limit distractions and disruptions that can result from bored ensemble members. It's hard to block a scene when there’s a game of tag going on in the outskirts of the rehearsal space.
As you prayerfully select your titles for next season, length, elements, difficulty, and your ensemble rehearsal demands are some of the most important factors to consider. A well-executed performance, regardless of the length, is always the ticket.
If you can tackle a full length musical theatre production, with all the bells and whistles, then – by all means – do so. But, in many cases, there is not enough time to produce these with excellence. We suggest you take on less.
Less content. Less challenge. Less rehearsal demands.
Taking on less will leave them wanting more.
More quality. More detail. More attention to training.
All this so you can leave your whole community – students, parents, administration, audience – eager for the next production.