For a London play, rehearsal time would be four weeks for the entire show. In films, I'd spend six weeks on the big dance numbers to get them perfect before the actual shooting.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Two hours onstage... that's the best part because it makes it all worth it.
Next time I do a play, I want to go out of town. I don't like the idea of opening in New York. I don't have to do theatre, but if you're going to do it, you should do it well. These days, everything has to be up and running in five minutes. As a result, the rehearsal time is missing.
I demanded two weeks of rehearsal because to me as an actor, that's the most important time.
I don't rehearse films as much as opera or theatre. When I began directing films I thought a long rehearsal was a good idea. Experience showed me that the best performance was often left in a rehearsal room.
Filming is quite exciting because every day is different, but it can involve long hours standing around in chilly locations. Theatre is a very different challenge because every night you're striving to keep it fresh, even though you might have been performing the same play for months.
I demand minimal for paid rehearsal and not always six weeks either.
It's very rare to have rehearsal time on a television show: You get scripts, you show up, and you do it.
I've been onstage once for one performance with four days' rehearsal.
It is hard to get good actors who also do television, ads and films. Theatre requires six weeks of rehearsal for a play.
In general, I don't even have the luxury of rehearsal time on most films that I make. It is just a scene-by-scene full cast read through. It's very much just doing the rehearsal sometimes the day before, at the end of the day, but just on the spot as the scene unfolds.