When creative teams earn their stripes . . .

It’s not in the two years prior to the first preview.

It’s in the two weeks prior to the opening night.

When choosing your team, especially your director, make sure you have a set that can deliver within the choking restrictions of that 3-4 week period known as “previews”.

Limited rehearsal hours, stagehand schedules that don’t mesh with actor schedules, prohibitive overtime costs, miniscule lead time to build new scenery or costumes, and immediate audience feedback, are just a few of the things that a creative team has to juggle with when fine or not-so-fine tuning their show before opening night.

It requires a different set of muscles to run this obstacle course as compared to the marathon of pre-performance development.

But your team needs both sets of muscles if your show is going to run.