REPORTS: Director doesn't want rehearsal reports?

[jillandersen]

I'm a stage manager for a community theatre troupe in my hometown. Since it's a small company, most issues and discussions are handled directly, somewhat nullifying my position as a hub of communication. I offered to make up/send out rehearsal reports after each rehearsal, and the director said he didn't think they were very necessary. Without my record of rehearsal reports, I can very easily lose track of a note and miscommunicate. Should I make the reports, but not send them out? It feels redundant to just make them for myself.

[Michelle R. Wood]

I would still make the report, even if it's just for your records. As you say, it can be easy to lose track of things without one. But I'd ask the director if the rest of the production team might like them. I'm a veteran of community theatre as well, and while it might seem everything's handled before you, it's easy for something to be settled between two people and a third person not know what's going on. When I directed a community show I made a weekly report to the board (who were arranging volunteers) to make sure everyone was in the loop, and it proved very useful.

[loebtmc]

Depending on what you want to see for your own longterm goals. you might want to go ahead and start doing rehearsal and performance reports anyway, and send them out to the design team and director anyway. You can justify it to your director as an exercise, training yourself for your next step. But it will also get the team used to getting regular reports and they will start wanting them because they will be getting up-to-date information. You can potentially change the whole environment, if you are patient and willing.

[LexieTaylor]

I do this with performance reports.
Since all of our staff are at performances and chat with me after, they do not want/need performance reports daily. I write up simple reports for archiving purposes, to provide a place for my own notes, and then if there ever is a time that I do need to send out notes, I already have a platform to do so.

It also never hurts to keep your note taking skills sharp.

[BenTheStageMan]

I send out reports no matter what.  I will include notes even if I've given them verbally to designers and/or production staff.  My ASM even sometimes asks me to put a note for her into the report so she remembers to do something before the next show (fix a prop, pin a curtain, etc).  Even if everyone knows their notes at the end of a night, we are all human and we forget and having a report as a reminder is so helpful.

[jillandersen]

Thanks for your advice everyone! I think I am going to send out reports anyway.

[hbelden]

I keep all my handwritten notes from the day's rehearsal as the source document for the rehearsal report. Often I've found that when ambiguity creeps in to my typed notes, a quick reference back to my handwritten notes triggers a more specific memory for me.

In your case, if you get pushback from sending out emails your company isn't used to, you could just keep your handwritten notes and look back to a particular day if need be.

[fallona]

Thanks for your advice everyone! I think I am going to send out reports anyway.

I'm glad you thought of this and made a plan! I made a massive error during my first ASM/SM experience by thinking others would know the minutiae, even if they tell me not to worry about it or they don't expect me to write it down. I figured it out eventually that someone needs to be relied upon to have a record, because it's inevitable that some detail was lost from rehearsal to rehearsal or production meeting to rehearsal. Chances are, your director won't fumble and things will go smoothly, but it's nice to be a quiet safety net just in case. If you think back to how many hours you spend in your job just hearing information being passed along, it's almost a little frightening to imagine some of it being lost forever to the theatre depths.