A Rare Grumble

I don't complain about rehearsals often. I love rehearsals. For some people they're a chore. For me, it's just another chance to do what I love. (I don't act, sing or dance for audiences; I do it for me. So I love it even when there isn't an audience.)

But rehearsal last night left me in an extremely grumbly mood today. The cast is young, with a lot of teenagers. And most of them spend their time talking and carrying on — and not paying attention. It's annoying enough in itself. But when they forget their blocking or what they're supposed to be doing, we have to stop and go over it again. It's a big waste of time. Then, of course, people (adults, too) forget their lines or their choreography or their lyrics or their notes. And again, we have to go back and redo what has already been done. (Or relearn what has already been taught.) It makes the process frustrating for those of us who have paid attention and written things down and worked hard to know our lines and songs.

Plus, we have this frequently occuring situation where, instead of the director or choreographer coming to rehearsal with prepared blocking or choreography, they stand there and think about it and make it up on the spot. "Hmm... Let me try to figure out what I want you to do here." Granted, it's hard for one person to fully visualize moving 20 people around the stage, so there's naturally going to be some changes and some rearranging if something looks wrong or could work better another way. But at least have some starting point ready when you come to rehearsal (and know the song or scene you're working on)!

Also, our director is in the show. And I think he'll be good in the role ... in general. But it causes the problem you would expect: He can't watch the scenes because he's on stage. And he's not off-book in Act I (even though he presumably set the deadline for being off book in that act).

*grumble* *grumble*

And I'm further grumbly because I'm not scheduled to be at rehearsal on Thursday (dances I'm not in) and will be missing rehearsal on Saturday and (most likely) Sunday — so it will be a week before I have a rehearsal to redeem the last one.