Tech and Dress Rehearsals
It’s amazing how the timing of things works out. As I sit writing this, we’ve just completed a weekend of tech rehearsals and two weekday dress rehearsals. One dress rehearsal remains before the show opens and closes.
Technical rehearsals are the long hours where every light and sound cue are worked into the performance.
That’s oversimplifying it a bit.
It’s also the time where the scenic elements are finished and fully functional, set changes are perfected within their time limitations, all performance props are added, and special effects such as haze, fog, or dry ice are executed.
Before a director sets foot in a tech rehearsal, she or he will meet with the designers and the stage manager to go over every page of the script, meticulously marking each cue that will be called over the headsets during the run of the show. This is appropriately called “paper tech.” A show with minimal technical elements could probably schedule paper tech over lunch. However, a spectacle-laden show could need as many as six hours of paper tech to make sure every cue is laid into the stage manager’s script with accuracy. Much discussion is had about the order of the calls, some of which will be simultaneous.
Armed with the cues, the involved parties move to tech rehearsal with all the board operators, run crew, and actors. Often they will opt to do a cue-to-cue rehearsal. The stage manager practices calling cues in order, but skips large chunks of dialogue where there are no changes in lights, setting, or sound. A cue or a series of cues may be repeated until perfection is achieved. The stage manager will call “HOLD!” and everyone knows to freeze until the problem is rectified, actors are reset, and the sequence is started again. Problems could range from sound levels that need adjusting to incorrectly recorded light cues, from set changes gone afoul to a missed call on the part of the stage manager.
I should take a moment to explain the role and importance of the stage manager and assistant stage managers. Any director knows how vital it is to have an organized, dependable, and detailed-oriented stage manager. They are the center of operations and communication from day one of rehearsal. They record the blocking as it is set in rehearsal, they take notes every night to type up and disseminate later in the rehearsal report, they stay on script to provide lines during the weeks of memorization, and ultimately they call the show in performance. Stage managers must take initiative, problem solve, and be authoritative. In professional theatre, their role expands even further to include actor contracts and working in swings, understudies, or replacements after the director has moved on to her or his next project.
Stage manager Isabelle Kortegast calls William Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, directed by John Dement.
Back to the tech rehearsal…
True technical rehearsals begin once a cue-to-cue is complete. The object is to run the show without stopping, mastering every specialized element added to the performance. It takes a while to get there. Also, the director and stage manager may choose to layer in certain difficult aspects only after another is mastered. It always takes time to adjust to the additions. For example, actors must find their light, project over sound cues, and consume the edible props that were previously absent from the rehearsal process.
At our university, we typically schedule three days of tech rehearsals, lasting 5-12 hours each, depending on the complexity of the show. Some shows may have as few as fifteen light cues and three sound cues. Other shows may have upwards of 200 light cues and 75 sound cues. It just depends on the show we produce. After those three days, then it’s time to add the costumes.
By the time we hit dress rehearsal, quick changes have been practiced a few times by the wardrobe crew and actors involved. Actors know where to go once offstage to meet the crew who will help pull off one costume and exchange it for the next, sometimes in as little as a few seconds. Hair and makeup are also fully rendered during dress rehearsals. Jewelry is added as well as accents such as hats, gloves, scarves, etc. Actors will usually have staggered call times for arrival at the theatre so that the makeup, hair, and wardrobe crews can easily manage the preparation of the entire ensemble. If our shows begin at 7:30 pm, actors may arrive as early as 4:00 pm to start getting ready for the evening’s performance.
I truly believe that actors both gain and lose a lot in a dress rehearsal. First, they take about twelve steps backwards as they adjust to shoes, hems, period clothing restrictions, and hats. You name it, the details of their wardrobe become obstacles until they learn how to make the costume an extension of the character. This is why rehearsal shoes, capes, and skirts are vital during the weeks before; they help ease the transition to the final product.
Once actors master all those elements—finding their light, projecting over the sound, handling their props, adjusting to their costumes—then the transformation is complete.
Magic begins to happen.
And you have everything you need for your show—except for the final component.
The audience.
-Traci Ledford