This summer I worked for a company that did 5 productions in 12 weeks (heyyyy summerstock!). In those 10 weeks of rehearsal, we had 5 rehearsal spaces, not including the theatre itself.
- A church fellowship hall
- A ballet academy
- The still-under-construction children's theatre belonging to our company
- A banquet hall
- (my personal favorite) The gym of an abandoned elementary school purchased by an architectural firm.
I had worked at another professional theatre before this summer, but they had a rehearsal hall on-site, and all of my college productions rehearsed either on-stage, in the black-box, or in our dance studio. Needless to say, it was a brand new experience for me carting rehearsal props back and forth and not having keys to all of the rehearsal spaces, etc.
Has anybody ever had any run-ins with non-theatre people in your non-traditional rehearsal spaces? We had a couple of issues this summer rehearsing The Producers next door to/above the offices of a law firm, a florist, etc. They were not fans of 20 people tap dancing overhead, nor the frequent heil Hitler's. Rehearsing "Keep it Gay" in a church fellowship hall was also fun.