BLOCKING REHEARSAL In which you go through the

BLOCKING REHEARSAL In which you go through the scene, script in hand, and the director decides where she/he wants you to move as you say your lines. You do a lot of jotting down where you are on stage and where you’re supposed to move.

WORKING REHEARSAL The scenes are “blocked, ” but now you start running through them top to bottom to get a feel for how it flows. You dig in to what your characters are doing and thinking. Eventually, you put down the script and run it “off -book. ” The stage manager is generally sitting there with the script. If you forget your line you yell “Line” and she/he feeds it to you. Stop and Start with Notes and activities

Line Through/Italian A Line through is when actors sit down and just say their lines straight through as best and fast as they can. Strictly testing their memorization and sometimes working on character vocalizations, etc. An “Italian Run” or speed through, is when actors run a scene or the whole play as fast as they possibly can with blocking and memorization. Characterization is not the priority, knowing blocking and text with confidence is the focus. This pulls out unneccesary pauses and gets the energy of the scenes flowing.

Refresher rehearsals are when actors run through they play using random themes or techniques to keep the work from getting stale. Sometimes these include, Soap Opera, kindergarten, old people, valley girls, etc. This is an important part of rehearsal processes that are extra long, to keep vocal patterns and character choices from getting boring and unengaged. It is also a great way to accidentally discover new choices that work and integrate them into the actual performance!

RUN/POLISHING Rehearsal With everyone off book and things starting to come together, you begin running scenes, acts, and the show from top to bottom. Costumes, props, and set pieces are incorporated. The director begins targeting scenes that need to be polished. Eventually, the director tells you’re “off-book” and if you drop your line you’re on your own.

Tech/Cue to Cue These rehearsals (typically in the later stages of the process) are all about incorporating sound effects and lighting changes. Actors typically do a lot of standing around and running scene changes over and over again as the tech crew get their cues set.

DRESS REHEARSAL With all the elements in place, you begin running the show as you will in performance. The director waits until the end of the night to “give notes” in which she/he will tell you what you need to work on or change before the next rehearsal.