Nathan Atkinson directs Seth Caskey and Craig Frank

It’s always good to do as much rehearsal as you can. Alas, many times it just can’t be avoided, sometimes you’re moving so fast in pre-production you barely have enough time to write your lines before going out to roll camera. But in preparing for our show, our team was adamant about doing as much rehearsal as possible.

In the one month we had in between casting and production, we scheduled 3 rehearsal sessions a week. Granted we weren’t calling in our entire cast each time, but it’d be 2-3 of the actors per session.

Why rehearse so much? First off it saves you time and money. When you’re on set you have a team of people working around your actors and director. Plus you have location fees, food, and the lot. Why should all those resources be taxed while the director and actors are trying to work out the characters to each other’s likings and comfort? Let’s get that done in rehearsals, and let’s get it done right.

Secondly, it makes the quality of the story better. When I got to sit in on rehearsals, I was able to hear the lines being said as Nathan and co were going through them. Sometimes I’d hear a line which looked great on the page, but just didn’t sound right spoken by the actor. I would then be able to address the line right then and there, or make a note, digest it, and then come back with revisions a day later. The rehearsal process  made it so that the characters became as much as the actors themselves as the characters were mine. In our show each character is multi-layered, and the key to multi-layered characters is rehearsal