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CHAPTER V

REHEARSALS

The Rehearsal as a Learning Process

Nothing is more important for the success of amateur dramatics than the conduct of the rehearsals; and unfortunately this is the most difficult part of play production. One can learn from a book how to organize for a performance, or how to make scenery, or the important facts about lighting. But the rehearsal process, like the teaching process, is a very subtle thing, depending almost entirely on the influence of personality. A good director, like a good teacher of any other art or craft, must be the product of experience. Nevertheless, there are certain suggestions that may be given; and the most important of these is the fact that rehearsing a play is a learning process for the actor-and for the director, too—and that it contains distinct and recognizable steps, like all other learning processes. The director will be tremendously aided if he will observe these steps, and aid each in its turn. Like the wise teacher, he must know that he cannot teach everything at once. If he is patient and tactful, many faults will correct themselves in the process of rehearsals. He must guide and hasten the process. He cannot twist it

out of its normal course. It is important, too, that the actors understand the process. They should know what is being attempted during each phase of the rehearsals -what is important, and what is, for the time being, unessential. Otherwise, they may be worried by the fact that they are not being aided to say their lines correctly when the director is wisely concentrating his attention on movement, or that the tempo seems too slow during the phase when the director is neglecting the tempo and bending every effort to work out each detail of characterization.

The Four Steps

Four distinct steps, or phases, are recognizable in the process: (1) during the first, the actors should become familiar with the idea of the play; (2) during the second, they work out the movement of the play, the entrances, exits, and changes in position; (3) during the third, all the details of characterization are studied and learned; and (4) during the last, the players work together for finish and unity of performance. These steps are not all equal in duration of time. The third will always require longest, and will probably occupy at least three-quarters of the time available for rehearsal.

Time Elements

It is difficult, if not impossible, to state how much time is needed to prepare a play, for that, too, varies with the experience and ability of the actors and the director. For a one-act play, however, six or eight

rehearsals will often be sufficient. The first one may be used for preliminary study, the second to work out the movement of the play, the next three or four for work on details, and the last one or two to pull the play together and for the dress rehearsal. There is such a thing as working too long on a play, so that the actors grow "stale." For a longer play, much more time is needed, depending upon the number of acts. Perhaps a convenient rough estimate is to allow at least five times as many rehearsals as there are acts; thus, a three-act play would need at least fifteen rehearsals, and a five-act play, at least twenty-five. After the entire play has been read and studied, the first act should be turned to. Two or three rehearsals ought to work out the movement and yield progress in the work on details for the first act. By the fourth or fifth rehearsal, it ought to be possible to work on both the first and second acts, the first for further details, and the second for movement. Then the first act may be gone over only at every second rehearsal, and the second and third acts taken up. Some scheme of this sort is essential. It is never wise to wait until the first act is perfected, before going on to the others. They should all be moving along together. Towards the end of the rehearsals, it is often wise to work on the last act first, and then to review the earlier ones. At the last two or three rehearsals, it ought to be possible to run through the entire play, with the acts in their proper order. The important thing to keep in mind is that each individual act will have to go through all of the four steps.

A. THE FIRST STEP: PRELIMINARY STUDY

Function of First Step

The first step is that during which the actors become familiar with the play. They should learn the idea of the author, master the story or the plot of the play, gain a clear conception of the characters they are to play, and study the interrelations of the characters one on another. This alone should be the purpose of the first step.

Ideas of Directing

Just how these first rehearsals should be conducted depends largely on the director's idea of himself and his functions. There are at least three distinct points of view from which a play may be directed.

I. 1. The Craig Idea.-The first idea is that of Gordon Craig, as expressed in his era-making work, The Art of the Theatre. The director, he says, is the dramatic artist, who expresses himself by the aid of scenery, lights, movement, actors, noises, etc., in the same way that the sculptor expresses himself through clay. These media, therefore, should be as plastic and as unresistant as possible. The greatest actor is the actor with the body and voice that is most completely at the service of the director. The less emotion the actor brings to his interpretation of his part the better. The director will supply the emotion. The actor must be able to move and speak so as to express the director. Hence, the greatest actor would be a superpuppet, with

no individual ideas to interfere with those of the director.

2.

The Laissez Faire Idea.-A second conception is what may be called the "laissez faire" idea. According to this conception, the actor is the dramatic artist, and he should be interfered with as little as possible. The director is merely a supervising artist, who leaves the actor free to work out his individual conception. The fewer suggestions he is obliged to make the better.

3. The Proper Idea.—A third, and probably a more helpful conception, is that of a director who is between these two. He does not absolutely insist on imposing his own conception on the actors, but he does not hesitate to help them where help seems to be desirable. This is certainly the proper idea where dramatics are conceived of as an educational process. Actors must be encouraged to develop their own ideas about the characters they are playing, but the director should be experienced enough to know when his aid is needed. The weakness of the Craig idea is that the superpuppet requires a superdirector. Directors who are not such are glad to have aid and suggestion from all possible sources. Even where the director has a very distinct impression of how a character ought to be played, the actor may aid in clarifying this impression or in changing it for the better, as rehearsals progress. The weakness of the laissez faire system is still more obvious: although producing a play is a democratic art, it is an art, and needs a guiding and unifying force; this the director must be. The true conception of rehearsals is that they are a process of continuous growth under the

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