Rehearsal Room

The concept of a rehearsal room as performance space

The idea of using a rehearsal room as performance venue (or using one space for both rehearsal and performance) is quite common, but the idea of specifically naming it in this way is less common, for it is more specific in a way, particularly in experimental theatre - often seeking to indicate the work-in-progress quality of the work done in the space.

South African examples

The Rehearsal Room, Dorkay House, Johannesburg.

A space allocated to the training of black performers in Dorkay House, under the auspices of Union Artists. Also utilized for performances by Union Artists sponsored productions. It was in the Rehearsal Room of Dorkay House that productions like King Kong, The Emperor Jones, King of the Dark Chamber and Sponono were rehearsed.

Run by Athol Fugard in 196*-196*. Its first production was of Athol Fugard’s The Blood Knot in 1961.

Here Athol Fugard found his feet as playwright and director. The name, Rehearsal Room was coined by Athol Fugard for the group of enthusiastic, talented African actors who worked with him at that time. During the period he was resident director in the Rehearsal Room the work of many modern playwrights, from Steinbeck to Pinter were included in the repertoire. A particularly memorable production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot won wide acclaim.

There were also performances of An Ideal Husband, Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof and the two plays presented by the visiting Cambridge University's, Dryden Society's [1] All's Well That Ends Well and Marat/Sade (1969).

Members of the Rehearsal Room group included Cornelius Mabaso.

Sources

Loren Kruger, 1999; Tucker, 1997; Gosher, 1988. [TH, JH]

Robert Mshengu Kavanagh. "The Development of Theatre in South Africa up to 1976 - Anti-Apartheid Literature." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg Lawrence J. Trudeau, Vol. 162. Gale Cengage, 2005.

The Rehearsal Room, Market Theatre, Johannesburg.

A rehearsal room used as performance space. See The Market Theatre.

The Rehearsal Room, Space Theatre, Cape Town

A rehearsal room used as performance space. See The Space Theatre.

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