How to Write a Rehearsal Report that Gets Read

It is 7:10 on the first night of blocking and the room is emptying. The director wants to know what is in the wings during the Scene 1 to Scene 2 transition, because six actors have to get off fast. Sound needs a car door. Props needs a bunch of daisies. Two actors got measured during the break, one arrived late with warning, and Scene 4 never got on its feet. Seven people need to know some of that tonight, and none of them were in the room.

That is the rehearsal report's whole job. It is the shortest document a stage manager writes and the one most of the production actually reads, so let's build one that gets read.

What is in a rehearsal report?

A rehearsal report is the stage manager's written record of one rehearsal, sent to the production team the same night. It records what was called and what actually happened, who was there, anything that went wrong, a note for every department, and the next call.

For most of the team it is the only word from the room. The designers, the technical director, the costumer, and the producer are usually not at rehearsal. The report is how a decision made at 6:40 PM in a black box reaches the person who has to build it, and how a question the director asked out loud gets an owner and a date. Most of the report is short. The part that matters is the department notes, and the discipline is writing one every night whether or not anything happened.

Why does the report matter more than the rehearsal notes?

Because the rehearsal notes stay in the room and the report leaves it. A blocking change lives in the prompt book; a note that the actor playing Gayle now needs a bag big enough for a pile of folded laundry has to reach Props, and Props was at work all day. The report is the handoff.

It is also the record. Halfway through the process, when someone asks when the transition question first came up, the answer is in a dated report with a name next to it. Three things follow from that, and they shape everything below:

Every department gets a line, every night. "Nothing to report" is itself a note. A department row left blank reads as nobody looked, and after a week of blanks the costumer stops opening the email.

Write the problem, not the solution. The director decides an actor needs a jacket. The report says the actor needs a jacket with pockets deep enough to hide a ring box, because that is what the scene needs. It does not say "a blue jacket." The designer chooses the jacket; the report tells them what it has to do. This one rule keeps designers on your side for the whole process.

It is a public document. Everyone on the distribution list reads it, and in a school or community theatre that list can be long. Anything an actor tells you privately, and anything about a personal situation, goes in your own journal and not on this page.

What goes in a rehearsal report?

Eight sections, and they get filled in roughly in the order the night happens: the header before you start, the schedule and company as you go, the notes at the end. Here is each one and what it is for.

1. Header. Production, date, rehearsal number, location, director, stage manager. Then the three times: called (when rehearsal was scheduled to start), released (when you actually let everyone go), and the run time of whatever you ran. Fill this in before the first actor arrives, so the report already exists when the night gets busy.

2. Still open. Anything raised at an earlier rehearsal or meeting that nobody has closed yet, with an owner and where it was first raised. This is the section most templates leave out, and it is the reason a question can be asked at a production meeting, nodded at, and never answered. Carry it forward every night until someone resolves it. Then it comes off.

3. Rehearsal schedule. Two columns: what was called on the left, what actually happened on the right. Blocks of time, not minute-by-minute. The gap between the two columns is the most useful thing on the page. A call that says "4:00 to 4:45, block Scenes 1 and 2" next to an actual of "4:00 to 4:50" tells the director how the schedule is holding up, and after a week of reports it tells the whole team whether the show is behind.

4. Company. Who was present, and who was absent or late, with whether it was arranged in advance. Names, not counts. This line is what the producer reads when a parent calls.

5. Accidents and injuries. What happened, to whom, who it was reported to, and what was done. Write None when nothing happened. A blank line here reads as nobody checked, and this is the one section that gets read a year later. If someone was hurt, this line is the summary; the full write-up goes on a separate accident report, and I will come back to that.

6. Notes to departments. The heart of it. One row per department, with a note, an owner, and a date it is needed by. Nine rows on the template, which is more than most theatre companies think they need until the week Publicity asks for a photo call: General, Stage Management, Sets, Costumes, Sound, Lights, Properties, Publicity, and Front of House. Publicity and Front of House are two rows on purpose; they are two different readers, and the photo call and the lobby display are two different jobs.

7. Next rehearsal, and the next production meeting. Date, call time, location, and what is being worked, with who is called. This is the line most of the company reads first, and the one they will text you about at 11 PM if it is missing. The meeting block underneath carries the date and anything you want on the agenda.

8. Sent to. A checkbox row, and check the boxes as you send. A report that reaches four of the seven people who needed it is the commonest failure with this document, and it is not a writing failure.

Scenes 3 and 4 were called. Scene 3 happened. That is the whole story of the night, in one row.

How do you write a department note that gets acted on?

A good note has four parts, and the template gives each one a column: the department, the note itself, who owns it, and when it is needed. The note is one or two sentences. It says what the scene needs, it names the moment, and it asks a question when there is a question. Here is the shape, using the notes from a first blocking call of Almost, Maine:

A few things to notice. The Sets note is a question, addressed to the director, because it is the director's decision and the report is where the question gets a date. The Sound note says what is needed and where; it does not say which car. The Lights row says "Nothing to report," in words. And the General row carries the one thing the whole team should know about the night: Scene 4 moved.

Two habits that make notes land. Name the moment by scene and page, so a designer can find it in the script without asking. And when a note is for the director, address it to the director; a note that says "we need to decide" has no owner, and a note with no owner is a note nobody does.

What does a finished rehearsal report look like?

Here is the first blocking call of Almost, Maine at the Wilson Black Box, rehearsal #1, called at 4:00 and released at 7:10. The schedule column shows the call running about ten minutes over from the first block onward. Scene 4 was on the schedule and did not happen, which is the kind of thing a director wants to see in writing before it happens twice.

Rehearsal #1. The second page is most of the value.

Two items sit in Still open, both from before the first rehearsal: whether the Scene 1 to 2 transition happens in blackout or in a shift light, owned by the director since the production meeting, and a double-booked rehearsal room later in the schedule, owned by the stage manager. Neither was resolved tonight, so both carry forward. The Sets note above is the transition question coming up again in the room, which is exactly why it is still open.

Company: everyone present except one actor who was late by arrangement. Accidents: none, written as the word. Then the nine department rows, next rehearsal (Thursday, 4:00, Scene 4 first, then a walk-through of everything so far), and the production meeting that follows it. Sent to: seven boxes. The whole thing is two pages, and the second page is most of the value.

When do you send it, and what happens when it comes back?

Before you leave the building. A report written the next morning is a report nobody acts on, and the details you are sure you will remember are the ones that go. The order that works: check in with the director for anything they want added, check with your assistant for anything you missed, break down the room, read the whole thing once for accuracy, and send. If you have an assistant stage manager, have them read it before it goes; a second pair of eyes catches the note that is addressed to the wrong department.

Then it comes back, and this is the part nobody tells you about. Designers reply to reports. The costumer answers the Costumes note with a fitting time; the technical director answers the Sets question with a drawing. Those replies are decisions, and they need to get back into the room, so the next morning's job is reading the replies and moving anything unresolved into tomorrow's Still open. The report is not a broadcast. It is one side of a conversation that runs the length of the process.

One more thing about the accident line. The rehearsal report says an incident happened; it does not say what. If someone is hurt, or nearly is, the full write-up goes on an accident and incident report: the person, the conditions, who saw it, what first aid was given, and what changes so it does not happen again. That form gets stored separately, because it holds information the whole company should not be reading, and in a school theater program it holds information about a minor. Tell the venue manager and the producer first; fill in the form second.

Common questions

Around 11 PM the technical director replies to the Sets question with a photo of the wing space and a pencil line where a masking flat could go. The director answers from bed with one word. By morning the transition has a plan and the question is off the list.

If you would rather start from a page that already has the still-open section, the two schedule columns, and the nine department rows built, the Show Reports Kit is this report, the performance report, and the front of house show report, each blank and filled in, with a black-and-white version of every blank for companies with their own letterhead, and a bonus accident and incident report.

More paperwork for the production: the full Theaterish template library.

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The Show Reports Kit

The rehearsal report, the performance report, and the front of house show report as Google Docs, each blank and filled in, with a black-and-white version of every blank and a bonus accident and incident report.

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• Bonus accident report

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