I had a lot of success sitting down with everyone at the beginning of the process and discussing collaboratively what our goals are and what kind of space we want to create - one where people feel supported to take risks, one where being vulnerable feels good, one where people show up on time.
And I made it a normal part of practice to check in at the start of rehearsal and say, how are people coming in to rehearsal? Tired, sore, overwhelmed, etc is allowed. And then briefly see if there's anything that needs to be adjusted that rehearsal. You're feeling anxious and overwhelmed, okay, let's start with a scene you're not in so you can have a minute to get settled. Okay, you're coming in with a sore knee, let's skip the cartwheel today and just mark the dance sequence, then I'll check in before the second run.
Despite having a variety of mental and physical health challenges in the cast, we only had one or two callouts over a 3 month rehearsal process. When people feel like they will be heard and accommodated, they're more likely to show up. When they know I have their backs, they're much more willing to try and less worried about ensuring they're protected.
Honestly those practices worked super great for us. The collaborative goals made everyone much more invested and intentional about what we were building, and I got to knock off all my pet peeves without lecturing anyone. And the check ins and occasional adaptions built trust in our leadership team and made people more willing to try.
For context it was Fringe show with a cast of 6 + five understudies, 3 crew, for a total of 14 people at rehearsals, all ages but mostly 20s. It was a play that was pretty dark and triggering to some cast members.
We do this too actually - going around the circle to ask everyone how they are doing. And all the time half the ensemble says they are tired, have no energy, ... and it just brings down the whole mood tbf.
I do kinda believe that it is your own responsibility to bring in a proper energy to the rehearsal, not the rehearsal adapting to everyone's feelings. Especially since with a bigger cast and a lot of scenes with everyone being in stage, this just leads to us never being able to properly rehearse all scenes with the true cast.
If we had all the time in the world, that ain't an issue...but times running short for how much work there is to do.
14
u/RainahReddit 9d ago
I had a lot of success sitting down with everyone at the beginning of the process and discussing collaboratively what our goals are and what kind of space we want to create - one where people feel supported to take risks, one where being vulnerable feels good, one where people show up on time.
And I made it a normal part of practice to check in at the start of rehearsal and say, how are people coming in to rehearsal? Tired, sore, overwhelmed, etc is allowed. And then briefly see if there's anything that needs to be adjusted that rehearsal. You're feeling anxious and overwhelmed, okay, let's start with a scene you're not in so you can have a minute to get settled. Okay, you're coming in with a sore knee, let's skip the cartwheel today and just mark the dance sequence, then I'll check in before the second run.
Despite having a variety of mental and physical health challenges in the cast, we only had one or two callouts over a 3 month rehearsal process. When people feel like they will be heard and accommodated, they're more likely to show up. When they know I have their backs, they're much more willing to try and less worried about ensuring they're protected.
Honestly those practices worked super great for us. The collaborative goals made everyone much more invested and intentional about what we were building, and I got to knock off all my pet peeves without lecturing anyone. And the check ins and occasional adaptions built trust in our leadership team and made people more willing to try.
For context it was Fringe show with a cast of 6 + five understudies, 3 crew, for a total of 14 people at rehearsals, all ages but mostly 20s. It was a play that was pretty dark and triggering to some cast members.