Author Topic: REHEARSAL: Have you ever NOT done daily rehearsal reports?  (Read 4962 times)

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MarcieA

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A bit of background:

I'm helping a friend out with a show (an AEA Basic Showcase) with a very low budget and very minimal design team. Actually, there is only a set and lighting designer. It's a unit set, with no scene changes at all. Two of the actors are also producers and because of the structure of the play, they are called to every rehearsal. So far, after 9 rehearsals, the only purpose that the rehearsal report has served is to distribute a recap of the daily schedule to the two members of the distribution who are not in rehearsal (the lighting and set designer). I keep track of actor arrivals/departures/breaks on a separate sheet that stays with my book, and that information is repeated daily in the report. There have been no technical notes whatsoever.

According to the showcase code (Rule 10 B): (B) Assemble and maintain the promptbook, which is defined as the accurate playing text of stage business, together with such cue sheets, plots, and daily records, as are necessary for the actual technical and artistic operation of the production.

...which I do keep. There is no special mention of distributing a rehearsal account or report. I don't want to make a blanket statement and say that me doing rehearsal reports are a waste of my time, but so far I'm just sending blank reports with the actor's arrival info, etc. and that's it.

So I was wondering, has anyone ever been in a situation where distributing a daily report didn't seem like a necessity? Have you ever worked on a production where you did not send a daily report?
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babens

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Re: REHEARSAL: Have you ever NOT done daily rehearsal reports?
« Reply #1 on: Jan 24, 2011, 05:42 pm »
I didn't do any reports for the Fringe show I did back in 2008.  The playwright/composer/producer was in rehearsal every night.  We had no set designer (the director and I basically cobbled something together out of some pieces she located).  We didn't have a lighting designer until more than halfway through the process, and of course, being Fringe, he was working off of the basic rep plot.  Since up the point where he joined us everybody else involved in the production was in rehearsal every day it was much the same situation where a report was really just going to end up being busy-work.  The lighting designer was given the very few notes, which were basically just schedule things, through email, with the director and producer/playwright/composer CCed.

Rhynn

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Re: REHEARSAL: Have you ever NOT done daily rehearsal reports?
« Reply #2 on: Nov 04, 2012, 01:27 am »
Since I am director, PSM, and all the designers, I haven't done a traditional rehearsal report in years--just a DO list. 

This show I'm coordinating with 4 musical different musical directors and a producer, which means I still do all the work I did without them--they just do the music I can't do and I have to keep the producer informed.  So, back to rehearsal reports.

I think it all comes down to "What purpose do they serve?", "Is there really a necessity?", and "Is there a better way?"
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