Community Theatre Directors, Please Stop Calling Actors to Rehearsal Just to Sit There
(Photo: Wikipedia)
by Chris Peterson
Community theatre directors, please stop calling actors to rehearsal if you are not actually sure you are going to need them that night.
I say this with love. I say this with respect. I say this as someone who has absolutely spent an evening sitting in the back of a rehearsal room, script in hand, pretending to be useful while slowly realizing I could have been home.
And I know I am not alone.
Most actors in community theatre are not being paid. They are coming to rehearsal after work, after school, after parenting, after commuting. They are giving you their time, energy, gas money, and emotional availability for free because they care about the show.
So when they are called to rehearsal and then sit there for two and a half hours while you work scenes they are not in, that is not just mildly annoying. It is disrespectful.
Now, I understand that rehearsals shift. Things happen. But there is a difference between the occasional rehearsal plan going sideways and routinely calling everyone “just in case.”
“Just in case” is not a rehearsal schedule. It is a hostage situation with jazz shoes.
And I promise you, actors notice. Good rehearsal planning is part of good directing. It tells your cast that you respect them. It tells them you have thought through the work. It tells them that while this may be community theatre, their time is still valuable.
Call the people you need. Be honest about who may be released early. Send a text if the plan changes. Build schedules that are specific, not fear-based.
Because here is the thing: actors will give you a lot. They will move furniture in the dark. They will pretend a folding cube is a chaise lounge. They will sing through a sinus infection and call it character work.
But please, for the love of Sondheim and everyone’s gas tank, do not make them spend their Tuesday night sitting silently in a rehearsal room when they were never needed in the first place.