How Do You Prepare Students for the First Day of Rehearsal?

The first day of play rehearsal can be nerve-wracking, especially for beginning actors. You may have students who have never been in a play before and don’t know what to expect. Just as with any new experience, preparation is the key to success. Here’s what you can do to help students walk into their first rehearsal with confidence.

Set Expectations

Just because students take drama class or express an interest in being in the school play, doesn’t mean they know what happens at rehearsal. If you have a lot of beginning actors, it never hurts to have a pre-first rehearsal meeting to discuss what you expect from actors. Your expectations should be twofold: 

• What you expect of students before they come to the first rehearsal
• What you expect of students at rehearsals

Rehearsals

If you have returning actors, consider dividing everyone into groups and assigning a returnee to each group to share rehearsal expectations (e.g., bring water, mark blocking in pencil, no phones), and even share what happens at rehearsal from their perspective. 

Is there anything you expect students to bring specifically for the first rehearsal? You may want to remind students to bring their script! Some students will not realize that they’ll need it right away. Another reminder, depending on the show, is to wear loose, comfortable clothing and shoes you can move in. 

Then go over any “respect for time” rehearsal expectations you want to establish. This is a big one as it puts a lot of responsibility on a student’s shoulders. Students need to realize that putting on a play is a group effort and that theatre is not an individual sport. Your beginning actors may not understand how deciding to skip rehearsal because they want to go out with their friends instead will affect the success of that group effort. They may not realize that it’s their responsibility to tell someone if they’re going to miss a rehearsal for an unexpected reason. 

What do you expect from students when they miss rehearsals? (For example, is it their responsibility to catch up on blocking?) What happens if students miss rehearsals that weren’t previously accounted for? Are there consequences? What should students do if they are called for a rehearsal but may need to wait before working on their scene? (For example, bring homework, work on lines in pairs, character profiles.) 

This meeting is a good opportunity to review must-attend rehearsals in the schedule so that no one can say later on “they didn’t know” they needed to be at the dress rehearsal. You may want to consider having students (and parents) sign a contract so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to the expectations and the schedule. 

Highlight to students what you expect of them in terms of their rehearsal approach. For example, you expect them to come to rehearsals with ideas and energy. Or you expect them to come with a character question. Or you expect them to make mistakes. (Rehearsals are a good place to try things and fail, so aim to try something new in every rehearsal.) Or you expect them to come with an open mind, ready to listen to what everyone else has to say about a scene. Or all of the above! 

Click below for a Rehearsal Expectations Poster you can hang in your classroom.

For sharing pre-first rehearsal expectations, it all depends on your script, directing style, and situation. Here are some pre-first rehearsal suggestions to share with students. Decide which ones work for you. 

• Read the play.
  Decide if you want students to read the play on their own before they come to the first rehearsal, or if that’s something you’ll do as a group in your first rehearsal. The goal of a pre-first rehearsal read is for students to read for enjoyment and gather first impressions. Emphasize to students that this first read shouldn’t focus on their character but how the play works as a whole.
• Prepare the script.
  Will students highlight their lines before the first rehearsal? (Note! If you’re doing a musical where you’re required to return the script, make sure students know that they can only use pencil to mark their copies). Another thing students can do is put a small Post-it Note at the beginning of every scene they’re in. This way they can quickly find their place in the script when called to work on a certain scene.
• Character think.
  If your rehearsal period is short on time, you may want students to do some character homework before rehearsals begin. You could have students read the script and then do a character read where they gather information about their character. You could have students come up with five facts (unchangeable details like their age) and five assumptions (things you can assume about your character by how they act, opinions they have, and what others say about them) about their character.
• Look at the rehearsal and show schedule.
  This is something you’re going to have to tell students over and over again. And still you’ll have someone tell you they “didn’t know” they were expected to attend a certain rehearsal or that they were expected to be at all the shows. Hit home with students what dates they are expected to commit to rehearsals and shows, and that they should compare it with their own schedule and share any conflicts immediately.