Do you feel this is excessive?

[Anonymous 5]

Agree. And my kids were in both HS theater and community theater. Both were run as you mentioned. But I'm sure that not every school/director does it the same way.

Not necessarily. And like another said, unless your DD has a lead role that is pretty much always on stage, there should be down time for her during rehearsals when they are working on scenes that she is not in. That's when she should be sitting back stage working on her homework. If she's spending that time instead gabbing with others, then that's on her. Prime multitasking lesson.

if you have downtime between scenes you aren't in you should be:
1. running lines
2. building sets
3. making props
4. managing costumes
5. setting the light board
6. or watching the scene being rehearsed so you don't make the same mistakes they do

my director would have kicked your ass out if you weren't being productive toward the show during rehearsal time

I guess it depends on the director then. I have experience with community theatre, not so much school theatre.
In our theatre sets, props, costumes, etc are all done at completely different times than rehearsal. Rehearsal time is literally just rehearsal so the only points that would potentially apply are #1 and #6.

[mojogirl]

Granted I graduated 20+ years ago. All of our productions were entirely student produced. Unless you had a lead role, you were expected to participate in at least one area on the technical side. Perfomance rehearsal and technical operations happened simultaneously since we could only work on evenings and weekends. Classwork during those times was a big no-no.

Our HS has crews for those specific areas (2-5) that you mentioned. During rehearsals, the kids knew when they were to be totally focused on a scene and when they were permitted to do classwork.

Not necessarily. And like another said, unless your DD has a lead role that is pretty much always on stage, there should be down time for her during rehearsals when they are working on scenes that she is not in. That's when she should be sitting back stage working on her homework. If she's spending that time instead gabbing with others, then that's on her. Prime multitasking lesson.

if you have downtime between scenes you aren't in you should be:
1. running lines
2. building sets
3. making props
4. managing costumes
5. setting the light board
6. or watching the scene being rehearsed so you don't make the same mistakes they do

my director would have kicked your ass out if you weren't being productive toward the show during rehearsal time

[Anonymous 5]

I graduated 20+ years ago, too. I think a lot has changed since then. At least that's been my experience. The parents (and some kids) build the sets. For the most part, props are donated or bought. (Many are also made.) Costumes...the kids have nothing to do with. Lots of talented moms and some dads sew ours or we rent them. And lighting- that's all done by the kids. So, the kids at our school really do have some free time to work on homework and classwork when they aren't on stage.

Wanted to say...I like how your school expected the students to participate in one area on the tech. side! I think that's so great for the kids.

Granted I graduated 20+ years ago. All of our productions were entirely student produced. Unless you had a lead role, you were expected to participate in at least one area on the technical side. Perfomance rehearsal and technical operations happened simultaneously since we could only work on evenings and weekends. Classwork during those times was a big no-no.

Our HS has crews for those specific areas (2-5) that you mentioned. During rehearsals, the kids knew when they were to be totally focused on a scene and when they were permitted to do classwork.

if you have downtime between scenes you aren't in you should be:
1. running lines
2. building sets
3. making props
4. managing costumes
5. setting the light board
6. or watching the scene being rehearsed so you don't make the same mistakes they do

my director would have kicked your ass out if you weren't being productive toward the show during rehearsal time

[Anonymous 6]

Not really no worse than football my son has football practice Tues, Wed & Thurs. Sat morning walk throughs then Saturday night games so basically all day Sat. games ending close to 10pm.

[Traci_Momof2]

I'm sure each school is different but I just asked my husband who did HS theatre over 20 years ago and homework was permitted when you weren't in the scene as long as you were paying attention enough to know when it was your time to come on again. There are generally crews of students working on props and sets and stuff like exclusively because they have zero interest in actually being on stage but have the artistic talent or something. DS's HS drama club tried to bring him in for sets, etc when they discovered that he liked art and was good at it. They told him he never has to be on stage because they always need backstage crew. That's also what I do with our community theatre is help with a lot of the backstage stuff because I have zero interest in being on stage.
So to my mind during rehearsals, having random acting students popping in and out of the set effort sounds more chaotic than productive. But each school can handle it their own way. But perhaps OP's DD's school would allow the homework during down time.

Granted I graduated 20+ years ago. All of our productions were entirely student produced. Unless you had a lead role, you were expected to participate in at least one area on the technical side. Perfomance rehearsal and technical operations happened simultaneously since we could only work on evenings and weekends. Classwork during those times was a big no-no.

Our HS has crews for those specific areas (2-5) that you mentioned. During rehearsals, the kids knew when they were to be totally focused on a scene and when they were permitted to do classwork.

if you have downtime between scenes you aren't in you should be:
1. running lines
2. building sets
3. making props
4. managing costumes
5. setting the light board
6. or watching the scene being rehearsed so you don't make the same mistakes they do

my director would have kicked your ass out if you weren't being productive toward the show during rehearsal time

[Deleted User 1461]

It’s okay IF the kids are able to get enough sleep-8 to 9 hours on school nights.

[Traci_Momof2]

At our local HS I think they regularly get stuff donated from local businesses, and then the business gets advertising space in the program. Like if certain furniture is needed for the set, a local furniture store will donate stuff for the duration of the show and they get mention in the program. Win, win.

And they have one show a year that is completely, totally, 100% put on by students. No involvement from parents or other adults at all. DH and I recently went and saw this years which was Frankenstein.
But all other productions put on by the HS, yes the students do a great deal, but there is involvement and oversight from staff, parents, etc.

I graduated 20+ years ago, too. I think a lot has changed since then. At least that's been my experience. The parents (and some kids) build the sets. For the most part, props are donated or bought. (Many are also made.) Costumes...the kids have nothing to do with. Lots of talented moms and some dads sew ours or we rent them. And lighting- that's all done by the kids. So, the kids at our school really do have some free time to work on homework and classwork when they aren't on stage.

Wanted to say...I like how your school expected the students to participate in one area on the tech. side! I think that's so great for the kids.

Granted I graduated 20+ years ago. All of our productions were entirely student produced. Unless you had a lead role, you were expected to participate in at least one area on the technical side. Perfomance rehearsal and technical operations happened simultaneously since we could only work on evenings and weekends. Classwork during those times was a big no-no.

Our HS has crews for those specific areas (2-5) that you mentioned. During rehearsals, the kids knew when they were to be totally focused on a scene and when they were permitted to do classwork.