Originally posted by Playwright I'm probably going to open a can of worms by saying this but why is it that actors are 'forgiven' for having lives and missing rehearsals? We directors put hours of work into a play even before rehearsals begin, we are usually one of the first to arrive and the last to leave and barring being seriously ill we never miss a rehearsal. Maybe somebody can explain this to me.

I don't know how it is there but around here the director sets the rehearsal schedule. Makes it pretty easy for them to be available.

A lot of it has to do with the director. If actors know or sense that an absence will not be tolerated and that they will be replaced, they will rearrange their schedules and be at all rehearsals no matter what just the same way that they rearrange their schedule to be at all performances no matter what. However, if actors realize they will be allowed to miss rehearsals they will start doing so. I've been involved in plays where no one in a lage cast missed one rehearsal and in others where there was not one night when everyone was there, including dress rehearsal. Same community theater, different directors.

I didn't even make the rehearsal schedule until I gave the cast the opportunity to write themselves out of all previously scheduled dates.  Then I could make the schedule and not have any conflicts.  I am willing to bend, mold, rearrange MY OWN schedule to match whatever they say they will do.  So that's why I'm hacked off when somebody doesn't show up because they found something better to do that night.

By the way, the young woman in question came up to me as soon as she saw me today and aplogized in front of another cast member.  I pulled her aside so as not to include any one else in the conversation and told her that I needed to know that I could count on her to be at all of the remaining rehearsals.  I guess we'll see.

I do all that too. State a general idea of rehearsal days at auditions, and then at read thru ask for them to bring their calendars and mark off the days they have conflicts.  Then I can schedule upcoming rehearsals by act and scene, and if someone can't be there, I schedule a scene they are not in the night they have the conflict. If they are not in a scene they don't have to attend. But later on, closer to opening, when we are running the full show, it never fails, people get sick, work schedules gets changed, someone has an wedding anniversary that they don't dare put off until after the show, etc. I think it is important to be flexible, and it is frustrating, but what do you do? Our show opens in two weeks and now, one of my leads has been appointed to a town board that meets on Wednesdays, so we lose him on Wednesdays until dress rehearsal. Now, I don't think his town meeting is that important, I think the show should come first but I can't force him to attend.

I think the smaller CT's are at a major disadvantage here.  Less warm bodies to choose from. We are lucky to have enough people at auditions to cast the show without having to beat the bushes for a cast. So, we have to be flexible.  I am not a "softy" director, but I also can't afford to tick anyone off by insisting they must choose the rehearsal over something else important to them. Often the people who are outgoing enough to be involved in a CT, are also the ones who are on other boards, in other community organizations, all of us burning the candle at both ends and in the middle.  The show still goes on and is fabulous.

 

 

 

 

 

I know many will agree with you, Topper, but I find the whole thing rather annoying.  Parents allow their kids to audition when they must reasonably know what their current schedules will allow.  It doesn't take a genius to look at show dates, hear or read what the director's expectations are, and make an intelligent decision before this whole situation erupts.  As a director, I do not feel it is my job to work out car pools, homework schedules, and so on for people in my cast or their parents.  It seems to me that too many parents just won't say "No" to their kids and expect everyone else to accomodate them, as though the desire to participate is the only obligation necessary on their end.  Frankly, I tend to stay away from kids shows for that reason (I taught for 30 1/2 years and had no choice but to put up with it).  I have been in shows, though, where parents seem oblivious to the notion of being responsible which has meant their kids have been, too.