SCHEDULING: Scheduling Rep

[WestCoastSM]

The company I work for is diving into the world of Repertory Theatre.  This is their first year and are planning to repeat the layout next year.  The way the schedule was done up needs to be improved and I'm wondering if anyone out there may have any comments, suggestions or even examples to share of scheduling rehearsals and shows together on the same calendar? Their main source for scheduling is done through Outlook but you can only display so much info in each day's box, which makes printing the final calendar useless.   Any suggestions?

[prizm]

well we have been doing rep for 20 years now and it is always a dance. The bigest issue is DDR's and rehersals on show days ect. We use outlook and have no issues getting the necessay info out there. We have a diffrent rehearsal schedule than most though. We rehearse in the evening, 1-5 7-11 so that if there is a show we have the 1- slot with the proper break then show, so the day is not too long. Generaly we rehearse 1 show in morning 2nd in evening 3rd next morning 4th next evening ect. once we hit tech very rarely do we rehearse anything else doing only the one show through prieviews then back to rehearsal with show in performance till its all open. The olny exception is when we have chours musicals then we through a few rehearsals in during tech.

[BalletPSM]

If you are going to be primarily emailing this out with few printed paper copies for everyone, use a different color for each show.  this will help you differentiate -- although it won't do any good if you have to black-and-white-copy everything.

Or just do calendars by week; creates more paper but also gives you more room for each date and if it helps keep everyone oranized and on track.