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March 2003 Table of Contents
Producing Results
What Time Is Rehearsal?
By Keith McClung
Minister of Music & Fine Arts
19th Street Church of God
kmcclung@wirefire.com
Ok, right off the bat I have to be honest with you about something. I have not even put together our rehearsal schedule for our church's upcoming Easter Drama. In fact, I have not even put the Christmas music away from December! So, even though I may be lacking in a few detail areas, our church's 2003 Easter Drama is well placed in the areas of my brain. This Easter Season we will host 4,000 guests over 10 presentations. After 11 solid years of a growing drama, we will find ourselves with a cast, choir, and crew of over 250 people. Through those growth periods, I experienced many "rehearsal" nightmares. With Easter right on our heels, this article will hopefully guide you through paths avoiding some of the unnecessary stress that tends to come with pulling your cast and crew together, whether your entire crew numbers 30 or 300.
I recall our early years of rehearsing. Our church has always had a fairly large choir and we decided to add drama to the presentation. The drama was presented for two evenings and we thought we had every base covered. The rehearsal began at 6:00 pm on a Friday evening and well, we left the auditorium at 11:30 pm. Needless to say, everyone was totally burned out and could not wait for the drama to be over. It's those times of remembrance that cause me to change the way that I conduct rehearsals. My prayer is that the following "rehearsal hints and ideas" will help you survive through the Easter season!
Start Early!
If your cast involves choir members, narrators, separate speaking lines and the many other pieces of the puzzle that create a cast, divide these groups up. Don't make the mistake of everyone coming together for an evening rehearsal and relying on you to tell them what to do. We actually begin rehearsals 2 weeks prior to our drama. Here is a very rough sample schedule:
Monday, 7pm–Narrators only; Tuesday, 7pm–Narrators and Lead Roles; Wednesday, 7pm–Dancers,
Marketplace Characters; Thursday, 7pm–Jesus & Disciples; Friday, 7pm–Jesus, Priests, Guards, Pilate, Herod.
I hope that gives you an idea of how we break up the groups. We then hold additional "dry-run" technical rehearsals. It is at these rehearsals we will have our narrators and all sound, lighting, special effect operators, and backstage workers present. We simply go through the drama and allow the lighting and all effects to take place. This is hammered out before the first rehearsal with the full cast. Once you pull all of these people together, each person knows their part of the program and your rehearsals fall together quickly as a large puzzle with so many different pieces coming together.
Relax!
Ok, you have a different idea of how this "thing" is supposed to come together. Keep in mind that the rest of your cast and crew are not mind readers. When the drama does not fall together as planned, take a deep breath and relax. In the early years, I could be just like a pit bull. (It's pretty bad when you know how "bad" you are!) People would be afraid to ask me a question. It was in those early years that I tried to present the drama with my strength!
At times, I was operating on little prayer and with the lack of a production team. Set up your team and let them help pull the weight. But most of all, RELAX! Spend time in prayer and preparation. Without that added, and much needed strength, you will be operating in the flesh. Allow God to help guide and direct your paths.
Communicate!
I am now convicted! I will sit down, after this article is finished, and lay out my 2003 Rehearsal Schedule. As soon as that piece is done, I will then have that schedule printed each week in our church bulletin. That schedule will include everything from costume distribution to cast meals, and all rehearsals. Each person who becomes part of the drama is handed a letter confirming his or her role in the drama. We also take the master schedule and highlight the dates where their attendance is needed during the rehearsals.
Rehearsals &: Dress Rehearsals
Let's say your drama is 60 minutes long. With a rehearsal for this length of drama, you can be prepared to spend at least 2 to 3 hours in rehearsal. Break the drama up into 2 parts. Let your cast know, "We will be rehearsing through the marketplace scene and then we will go home for the evening." Pick back up the next evening where you left off and let your cast go home. Finally, spend your last evening as a dress rehearsal with a complete, uninterrupted run-through.
Rest Night
It is usually a good rule of thumb to let your cast and crew have the night off before the first presentation. This gives those working with you a night to spend with family and to mentally prepare for the schedule ahead. Then again, last year we had a dismal dress rehearsal on the Thursday evening before the first Saturday presentation. I gave the entire cast and crew the decision of whether or not to return on Friday evening. An overwhelming applause by a tired cast let me know that they knew 4,000 people would be attending and more preparation was needed. How did I smooth this one over? We did have a dress rehearsal, without costumes, on Friday evening, but I invited the entire cast and crew to have dinner before rehearsal! We ordered a boatload of pizzas from 4 different pizza restaurants. The cast appreciated coming straight from work to eating pizza and then rehearsal. Did we go through the entire drama? No. We skipped the areas that were in great shape and worked on our problem areas.
End On A Good Note!
We have a tradition before our first presentation begins. At the very last rehearsal the entire cast and crew clears their hearts and minds as our Senior Pastor leads us through communion. With an Easter presentation, it is so easy to get wrapped up in the problems that are taking place, the lines that are not being remembered and the heavy heart of knowing who you will be reaching with the presentation. Surprise your cast by holding a final communion service. This act of remembrance reminds everyone of the true reason for presenting the drama.
I hope these ideas have helped you in planning your Easter rehearsals. On a lighter note, I have lightened up (tremendously) over the years. So much that at the end of our final rehearsal I was covered from head to toe with silly string. Now imagine that...receiving communion covered with neon silly string!
Keith McClung
mcclung@charter.net
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