Counting the Hours

I’ve been thinking about the tricky timing of the rehearsal schedule (because of the Christmas break), and I decided to sit down and plan out a whole production timeline, just for fun. I know it will need to be revised a hundred times, but having it laid out on calendar sheets in front of me helps to visualise the time frame.

Planning a rehearsal schedule is a little like designing the structure of a play. Everything should start low-key, but needs to move fast. The energy rises swiftly until it reaches a major, frantic climax (about 24 hours before opening). Then the tension drops away swiftly—for the director, at least. Once opening night has passed, I get to relax.

Anyway, I used the Walterdale’s generic fifteen-week production schedule as my template. It’s actually more like eleven weeks, because it counts the two before rehearsals start (auditions and call-backs occur here), plus the week of the run, plus a week for clean-up and “post-mortem” meetings.

Eleven weeks is still luxurious by my standards, so I let myself be flexible in scheduling rehearsals. Because the Walterdale is a community theatre, most of its artists have day jobs, so the rehearsals must be in the evenings and weekends. Even so, and accounting for three weeks of Christmas holidays, I found the potential for 169 rehearsal hours between call-backs and preview nights—out of which 93 occur before the break!

There’s no way on Earth I’ll get that much time. I don’t even think I want that much time. Christmas break may creep back into early December, or forward into January; I may have to delay starting rehearsals a bit longer than I figure, especially if call-backs require a lot of time; and I’m sure I’m overlooking other holidays and Walterdale events.

But even so, I no longer think the break will be a problem. Four weeks would be tight (I need at least three weeks to get the play blocked), but five or six give me room to maneuver.