5. 9 The Rehearsal Report

Rehearsal reports are important records and must be kept current and distributed to your production team on a daily basis. The report should include all pertinent data on the days activities and may also pose questions on interpretations of the design as it intersects with the rehearsal process or simply 'how does this work'.

Let's take a look at a rehearsal report from a production of Kiss Me Kate done by Penn State in the fall of 2011. Maureen Murtha was the stage manager. This is an active link from Maureen's online callboard page. In the academic side of theatre the callboard is updated nightly. An email is sent out to each member of the team with a link to the callboard page rather than just emailing the notes. This makes it easier to negotiate through the notes and page back and forth between dates for notes.

Note the following:

• Name of Production (remember that many theatres have more than one production running at a time. Create a header for you production so that every communication that comes from the stage managerial staff includes the title of the show.)
• Dates and Times - include the date of the rehearsal, the numerical number of the rehearsal, and the outside hours.
• Today's call and tomorrow's calls - Keep a record of the day's call and schedule and try to include tomorrow's call.
• A general section for notes - I like to keep a general note about each day of rehearsal. Whether it was productive, whether we had challenges, etc. This will help jostle your mind if you need to recall any particular rehearsal for any reason.
• Departmental notes - Generally by departments. I like to follow the title page order.
• Highlighted important notes
• A listing of the actors calls including the call in for rehearsal and when they were released for the day. Keep a record of this so that you can assure actor's equity that no actor was called beyond the span of day or work hours for the week.
• Also include a box for actors who are late to rehearsal and the amount of time they are late.
• Important dates
• etc.

One of the benefits of using an open source such as google pages to create your callboard sites is that when you insert a document or spreadsheet into your website it opens your google docs automatically. Then you can pick and choose which documents you to embed in your web site. For stage managers this has been a great benefit as you don't have to know any coding to create the sight. There is one drawback in that you have to make the documents public. There are ways to make private areas in your web site but that would require too much user training to make it effective for our purposes.

When working for a production company or a producer for the first time it is a good idea to ask if there is a particular form or format they wish to follow. Some companies and producers (Disney, Cirque) will have highly defined rehearsal reporting processes while some might not have any at all. If they have no preference then you should include at least the above cited information and include anything specific to that production or theatre that you may deem necessary.

It is also important to keep in mind who will be reading these forms as well. A Stage Manager cannot make blanket statements that could be misinterpreted later down the line. You should never editorialize in the process of documenting the work on your show. Stick to the facts. Your reports could be a public document and should be treated that way. I know there are stage managers who maintain that the rehearsal report is a private document but I am not counted among them. Never say anything in your reports that is not factual and cannot be backed up. That way, no matter who may read the report, you're covered.

If you so wish you may want to keep a private journal (and I would recommend it) of what is going on daily that could help supplement your rehearsal report. For example, actors may wish to pass on private information to the stage manager that probably should not make a rehearsal report. You might consider journaling that information for not only your protection but for the protection of the actor as well. There are numerous reasons for doing so. Personally, I've been involved with actors suffering from alcohol addiction, drug addiction, personal issues at home with wives, others, children, etc. While I certainly always want to be a sympathetic ear to the artist who needs one my primary responsibility is to the overall health of the production. Journaling is a great way to keep track of that information without including those who aren't in the need to know about what is happening inside your company.

Spreadsheets:

Spreadsheets just make it easier for rehearsal reports. You can embed google spreadsheets almost effortlessly into your web sites. They're tabbed along the bottom so you can keep them all electronically in one place. You can label the tabs for each one, etc. They're just nifty choices for rehearsal reports so I recommend if your company does not have a prescribed method for rehearsal reports that you default to excel, google sheets, etc. They'll be your friend in the long run.