"If We Only Had One More Week"

Get it up, get it in and get it out. No I'm not talking about my last girlfriend; I'm referring to the contemporary state of rehearsal and production. Controlled mostly by available funding and resources, the majority of companies rehearse for three/four weeks and run for two/three weeks. In this condensed timeframe, a tremendous amount of work has to be accomplished, and there is little room for error. You make quick choices and hope they work. The pressure to create a product overtakes the need to explore the process.

I saw two shows this week (one preview and one opening) that had the right ingredients but needed more time to marinate. From my own recent experience back on stage, I knew that we needed more time to fit all the puzzle pieces together. Even though we weren't entirely ready, we had to open. The joke amidst the cast was, "We'll be fantastic by closing."

The insane part of all of this is that, if you're lucky enough to get them to attend in the first place, critics predominantly come during previews. Understandably, companies want press out about their production as soon as possible, and just pray to the theatre gods that the reviews are positive. Of course, the show that the critics are seeing is often not the show the majority of the audience will see once it opens, since that's when the real momentum kicks in. Broadway can afford to do this because they usually have at least two or three weeks of previews, opposed to two or three days.

I know everyone wants an extra week. No matter what place a show is at when performances begin, you always want more time to explore. This is both logical and natural. So here's what I propose. Schedule in an extra week. Hell, schedule in an extra month. Follow the Russian example: take a year to do a play. That would certainly cut down on all the 'Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma’am' productions out there. People would spend more time thinking about what work they really wanted/needed to do. Like paintings in a museum, there are some you brush by and there are others you want to spend the whole day with. Some plays can be mounted in a heart beat. Those are usually the bad ones. The good ones take time and attention.