One of the dreaded tasks for all musical directors is sitting down and creating an efficient musical rehearsal schedule that actually stays on schedule. What good is spending five hours on a schedule if you fall behind it after three days? The first question new musical directors typically ask themselves is...
How many hours does it take to rehearse a musical?
Well, watch this video, and/or read on...
It typically takes 120 - 140 hours to put on a musical depending on experience of the production team and actors. If we put that into a fun math equation of two hours a day after school, times four days a week, you get the grand total of approximately fifteen weeks or almost four months.
If you are like any theatre educator I know, you definitely do not have that amount of time unless you do one show a year. The question then becomes, “How do I shave weeks or months off of that timeframe without doing half a show?” The good news is that there are tips and tricks to do just that.
How to Shave Weeks Off Your Musical Rehearsal Schedule
The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have a musical director and choreographer you trust to work independently and who work fast and come prepared.
Step two is your preparation before musical auditions. When you look at the list of characters in the script you need to cast from the largest principal role to the smallest ensemble part, think about groups. If you’re like me, you are a fan of having maximum participation in musical numbers and scenes and struggle with not calling the entire cast for these rehearsals. However, if you need to maximize rehearsal time and value your sanity you need to divide that ensemble into a couple of groups so you can have three things rehearsing at the same time. Figuring this out before auditions will help you to create an audition process that gives you time to not only cast leads but to divide a cast.
Now let's go back to the blinking cursor at the top of your blank schedule. Looking at the cast list that has appropriately been placed into groups you want to try and rehearse two or three things at once. You should be able to do this for a few weeks at least. Having three rehearsal spaces to do this is vital. An example of this would be having leads work with you on a scene while two students work on a duet with the musical director and a large group learns choreography. Perhaps you all rotate in the second hour and start something else. Looking at it mathematically again, one two hour rehearsal now amounts to six hours.
Every day you can accomplish this rotation eliminates days off of the fifteen week timeline. (PS - we have an awesome resource to help in planning rehearsals like this.)
If you are a small program and don’t have enough students to divide into an ensemble, I have not forgotten you. You can still have two scenes and songs rehearsing at the same time with principals in one room and the ensemble in another. You can also start the tradition of a Dance Weekend. You schedule one weekend a few weeks into rehearsals where you learn the choreography for four numbers in two days. Schedule about three hours per number and pick some hard ones. Not only will it jump start your show, but it is a nice bonding experience for the cast early on. Be sure to learn those songs musically early in the schedule.
Trying to have the students learn material in sequential order of the show is usually not the most efficient for your show. Focus first on what can be rehearsed at the same time. Your students will be more prepared for opening night than they ever have been before and now you can squeeze in that winter production of, On the Town everyone is doing.
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If you haven't yet, be sure to check out our Character Breakdown Spreadsheet. It is a huge help in planning the efficient rehearsals that I mentioned above. Plus, it comes with easy-to-follow instructions (in both video and PDF form) so utilizing this thing is a breeze!
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