Speaker 1: Prep week is the stage manager's chance to hit the ground running. Do it right, and you'll be cool, calm, and collected, and an authority on the show. Do it wrong, and you'll be scrambling to catch up from day one of rehearsals until the show opens. My name is Kent, and this is your half-hour call. Attention cast and crew, this is your half-hour call. Half hour to the top of the show. Half hour, please. All righty friends, we are back with another episode of the Almost Complete Guide to Stage Management. Have you ever done a show where you've walked into your first rehearsal and thought, who printed out all these scripts? Where did these cute wallet cards and contact sheets and calendars come from? Are stage managers magical unicorns that deserve my undying love and respect? Then this video is for you. Before rehearsals start, stage managers have contractually guaranteed period of time for pre-production. More commonly known as prep week. It's called this because often the stage managers are brought in exactly one week before the start of rehearsal. But in some contracts, the time could be up to two weeks, or in other contracts, it might be as little as no time. I'm looking at you, 29-hour reading agreement. ASMs are often brought in about halfway through this pre-production period. This time is absolutely crucial for stage managers to be able to run the rehearsal room efficiently and to be an authority on the show. So what do we do during prep week? The amount of tasks that stage managers are expected to accomplish during this prep week can seem really overwhelming, especially if your prep week is actually more like three days. But fortunately, it can be broken down into three essential functions. The first is learning as much as you can about the show, the second is preparing the rehearsal room itself, and third is coordinating the production schedule and the rehearsal schedule with the director and production manager. These can be broken down much, much more into specific lists of tasks, but are your essential priorities during prep week. The first thing you should do, assuming that someone's already had you sign your contract and taken you on a tour of the theater, is to read the script. A lot of stage managers like to read the script ahead of time to prepare themselves, but it's important to note that you are not obligated to do any prep work until you are on the clock and getting piggy. I like to read the script twice right away. The first time is for enjoyment. It's to get a feel for the story, it's to understand the themes, and basically understand what we're going to try and convey to the audience every night. The second time is for analysis, and that's where I'll break down things like sound effects that we'll need in the rehearsal room, or rehearsal props and costume pieces that we'll need, and things like that. The production manager should also take some time to get you up to speed on the design of the show. Design meetings will likely have been happening for weeks, months, or possibly even years before you arrive for the project. Be sure to ask the production manager for access to a digital copy of the ground plan, and to a to-scale printed out copy of the ground plan. These will become really important later. A lot of theaters are moving to a digital cloud platform like Dropbox or Google Drive to contain all of the information and materials for a certain show. This is the time to ask the production manager if that's the case, and for access to the materials. You'll likely go to a production meeting at some point during the week. It'll be at this meeting that you meet the different department heads, and you'll get the 411 on the progress being made on the construction of the set and other elements of the show. You'll also want to schedule a phone call, video conference, or if you're lucky, an in-person chit-chat with the director. During this conversation, you'll want to talk about things like their vision for the show, how they like to be warned about breaks in the rehearsal room, the general plan of attack for rehearsals, and most importantly, to build a sense of trust and rapport with the director. Once you are well acquainted with the theater, staff, and the show itself, it's time to delve into some paperwork. Contact sheets, wallet cards, production calendars, daily call templates, rehearsal report templates, scene breakdowns, blocking slip sheets, and so much more that we will go over at a later time will need to be generated during this pre-production period. You'll also be creating actor packets that contain copies of the script and a few physical copies of the documents that I just mentioned. Preparing the rehearsal space involves setting up tables and chairs for table work, coordinating with the prop master and wardrobe department to get rehearsal props and rehearsal costume pieces, and going through a process called taping out the space. This is where you take colorful tape and mark out where the set will go in the rehearsal room so the actors can get a sense of their spatial relationship to the set. This is also a time for you to go through the theater's stash of supplies, such as office supplies, first aid kits, or hospitality items like coffee or mints, and request replenishment if needed. You'll also want to set up your call board and post any required information from the theater or from Actors' Equity Association. It's also super helpful for the actor and directors if somewhere in the rehearsal room you post copies of the ground plan and color copies of the set and costume renderings. Speaking of the director, you'll want to call them up again and discuss the rehearsal schedule in more detail. Aside from things like the amount and length of breaks or the total number of hours you can work in a day, the director actually has quite a bit of freedom to make the rehearsal schedule fit to the way they like to work. This can include when rehearsal starts, when the day off will be, and in some cases if you're going to do a six-hour day rather than an eight-hour day, but we'll get into all of that at a later time. You'll also want to find out if the director has a specific plan for rehearsals. Some directors like to plan down to the hour about what they'll be doing in the room, and others have a kind of vague assumption that the play might be blocked at some point before tech. And they can exist anywhere in between these two extremes. Once you've nailed down your contact sheet and the details surrounding the first rehearsal, you'll want to send out a welcome email to your cast. This email will contain things like the schedule for the first day of rehearsal, the production calendar, a contact sheet, the script if they don't already have access to it, and any specific information that they need to work at this theater, like access codes or information on where to park. Pro tip, towards the end of your email, ask the actors a question that they need to respond to. This will let you know that not only do you have the correct contact information, but they also read the entirety of your email. My go-to is to ask them what their favorite snack food is. That way I know that they read the email, but I also have a list of things that I can buy if I want to bring in treats, which I usually do a few times during the rehearsal process. If you've got an idea for a question for a welcome letter to ask your actors, leave it for me in the comments down below, and then let your fellow stage managers answer the question. I know this probably seems like an insane amount of work to accomplish in 48 hours worth of paid time, and it is, but that's why you absolutely must follow my three keys to prep week success. Number one, evaluate what your show actually needs. Not every show is going to need every piece of paperwork that I've mentioned, or every single task that we've gone over. It's not about cutting corners. It's about deciding what your show will actually benefit from. Number two, delegate. Use your team and divide tasks up based on their strengths. Number three, be flexible. Not everything needs to happen in the order that you've listed it out, and some things are going to be a long process that takes several days, and other things can happen at the same time. Obviously, you can't send out the production calendar until you've talked with the director, but a lot of these tasks can actually be completed in any order. To give you a jump start, I've included a link in the description below to a checklist for prep week tasks. Feel free to download this list as a guide, but keep in mind that you can change up the order, and not every show will need every task. But most of all, remember that prep week is your time to get ready for the marathon of a production that's about to happen. Take the time to do what you need, and what will make you most confident and most successful when the full company is finally in the same room. A good prep week, more often than not, leads to a good rehearsal period and an even better run. Do you have a favorite prep week memory? If you do, leave it for me in the comments down below, and don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss any more stage management tips. I don't have a Patreon, and I do not plan on making a Patreon. If this fact bums you out, please take the money that you would have given me and give it to one of these awesome organizations instead. The Actors Fund, Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, or my personal favorite option, go buy a ticket to a local equity regional theater and see some live theater. It's the absolutely best way to learn. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you've enjoyed this video. My name is Kent, and this has been your half-hour call. You