Author Topic: PEOPLE: Directors on Double-Duty  (Read 3609 times)

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VilleSM

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PEOPLE: Directors on Double-Duty
« on: Dec 15, 2014, 07:25 pm »
The show I just signed on to is at a community theatre in a small town with a surprising number of theatres and drama programs. The Director and Musical Director for my show are co-Directors of a drama program at a local high school, where they are simultaneously working on another show together.

"My" show opens in February, the other one in May. But they're going to be doing double-duty in rehearsals. At the high school most days from 3-6, and our rehearsals starting at 7. And it's at least a 20 minute drive from one rehearsal space to the other... on a good day in non-rush hour traffic. The Executive Director at the theatre was apparently unaware of this arrangement when he hired them (which makes me question HIM a smidge, too, but...)

My question is: How should I prepare myself for issues that will, inevitably, arise from this? There are only so many things that I can do to stall, should something happen where they're delayed getting to our rehearsal. I know I should be ready to have them work on lines, or run scenes, or have the choreographer jump in and start working on something (if she's there). But I'm worried about there being other issues (like their working relationship with each other) and how that affects our show and morale among the company.
"The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life." - Oscar Wilde

MatthewShiner

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Re: PEOPLE: Directors on Double-Duty
« Reply #1 on: Dec 15, 2014, 09:22 pm »
This happens all the time - very rarely are people only working on one show at a time . . . actors are shooting commercials, directors are developing three or four shows down the line.

You can't control what people do outside the contracted time.

I am concerned that you are concerned at this point.  They have yet to be late once . . . if there was an hour break between gigs and travel time was 90 minutes, or even 60 minutes, I can see sending up a red flag.

I would assume they are hopefully adults and will figure out how to make it work (maybe one leaves early, if the commute becomes an issue).  And then, if they are late once, be ready to run lines, and then discuss with them how the team would like to handle the time issue.

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workinhard853

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Re: PEOPLE: Directors on Double-Duty
« Reply #2 on: Dec 19, 2014, 08:14 pm »
I agree that this shouldn't turn into too big of a problem, however being prepared isn't a bad thing either in case they are late some days. I've been in the situation where my director was coming straight from another job to the rehearsals. I frequently went over lines with the actors in the time until the director was able to get there, this helped move the process along by getting the actors out of their books sooner. There were also days where the director would send over warm ups that they wanted the cast to try before the scene to get them into the feeling of the scene.

Maggie K

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Re: PEOPLE: Directors on Double-Duty
« Reply #3 on: Dec 21, 2014, 01:46 am »
I second what everyone has said.  One thing I do suggest, if they do run late multiple times, is take note of any patterns.  For instance, if they're always 30 minutes late on Fridays because of weekend traffic you can:

1. See if you can push rehearsals to a 7:30p start time that day.

2. Talk to the directors about scheduling things during that time slot that they don't need to be there for (choreography, line thru, fittings, etc)

But don't worry about it too much until it happens.  As for their work relationship, the best thing for you to do is to make sure the lines of communication remain open.  Good luck!
I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone. -Maggie Smith

 

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