The Rehearsal Room: Conversations on Process

Introduction

The rehearsal room is theatre's most private space. It is where the work happens — where text becomes performance, where ideas are tested and discarded, where the production finds its identity. It is also, by tradition and necessity, closed to the public.

We spoke with three directors at different stages of their careers about how they approach the rehearsal process: what they plan, what they discover, and what they wish they'd known earlier.

On First Readings

"I used to do table reads on day one. Everyone sits around, reads the play, discusses it. Very civilized. Very safe. I stopped doing that about ten years ago. Now we start on our feet. Not blocking — just moving. I want the actors to feel the play in their bodies before they intellectualize it. The table read privileges the literary mind. Theatre isn't literature." "I still do table reads, but I've changed what I'm listening for. I used to listen for meaning. Now I listen for rhythm. Where does the play breathe? Where does it hold its breath? The rhythm tells you more about the production than any amount of textual analysis." "My first rehearsal is always a provocation. I bring in an image, a piece of music, a film clip — something that captures the emotional world of the production but has nothing to do with the play itself. We spend the first day talking about that. It creates a shared vocabulary before anyone has said a line."

On Blocking

"I don't pre-block. I know directors who arrive with every move plotted. I can't work that way. The actors' instincts are better than my plans. My job is to create a space where those instincts can emerge and then shape them." "I pre-block everything and then throw most of it away. But having a plan means I know what I'm throwing away. You can't improvise from nothing. You need a structure to deviate from." "Blocking is the last thing I think about. If the emotional logic of a scene is right, the physical logic follows. If the blocking feels wrong, the problem isn't spatial — it's dramaturgical."

On the Middle Weeks

"The middle of rehearsal is where most productions go wrong. You've lost the excitement of discovery but you haven't reached the adrenaline of performance. Everything feels flat. I've learned to expect this and not panic. It's like the middle of a novel — you just have to write through it." "I schedule disruptions in the middle weeks. A field trip. A guest speaker. A day where we work on a completely different scene from the one we've been drilling. The enemy of good rehearsal is habit."

On Technical Rehearsals

"Tech is where the director becomes a project manager. You're integrating twelve departments, each with their own timeline and priorities. The artistic vision has to survive the logistics. Some directors resent tech. I find it exhilarating." "The best advice I ever received about tech rehearsals: the actors don't need you during tech. The designers do. Let the stage manager run the actors. You focus on the lights, the sound, the transitions."

On Opening Night

"After opening, the play belongs to the actors. My job is done. I go home and start worrying about the next one." "I hate opening nights. The audience is wrong — too much industry, too much adrenaline, too many people watching the audience instead of the play. The second week is when you find out what you've actually made." "Opening night is the moment you realize that the thing in your head and the thing on the stage are two different objects. If you're lucky, the thing on the stage is better."