I am current rehearsing for a couple of sets on a small show coming up and was just thinking about something. I heard that Derren Brown and Andy Nyman started writing "Infamous" in january and it opened in march. Just curious when doing a show of that size and going from writing to stage in two months , hows does one rehearse? When this happens with shows like Derrens are they doing the whole show for the first time for people during opening night. I mean it seems crazy to me how one prepares and rehearses so much in two months. Do larger performers like Derren try this stuff out on smaller audiences before touring or at this point does he just write it and jump right into a tour? Just curious. Because I am working my *ss off on this little bit I am doing and will be doing it for real people for the first time during the upcoming show. It is a little nerve racking so I can't image doing that for crowds the size of his.

Some are better connected with the British theatre scene than I am, but I know here in Australia, what you are describing would be impossible. In my city, most theatres put together their schedules year-by-year, and therefore I have needed to book my shows in ten or more months in advance. That doesn't mean the show needs to be ready to perform that far ahead, but I need to be able to "sell" it. I suppose it's not hard for Derren to sell a show, as venues know that he will sell out. Also, there are far more available venues in England. Maybe for someone with his status, it's possible to say "I'd like to do a show in your theatre next year. No idea what it will be, but we'll write it a few weeks before we open and all will be sweet!!"

Theatrical productions that I have worked with have always had a lead rehearsal time of at least four months, usually 6-8, HOWEVER these have been part-time endeavours. If rehearsing and preparing the show was something to which 40+ hours a week could be dedicated, it is certainly possible to pull off a shorter process. Also, being a one-man show helps considerably with shortening the necessary rehearsals.

Your right C.J. I am sure at this point Derren probably doesn't have much trouble selling a show. I was kind of more curious as how He probably rehearsed. Is it just walk through with the director (which is Andy Nyman again) or if they tried pieces out in smaller venues etc. Being here in the states I wouldn't know but I would suspect that they could even have been ads in the local papers looking for a certain number of individuals that would be selected for a small preview of things in order to get real world reactions during rehearsals. It just seems to me that in such a short amount of time as this supposedly was there isn't much time to try things out in front of real people before the tours start. Now I am not a professional at this point and have NO where near the experience he does . So I am sure guys like him need much less rehearsal time than someone like myself in order to feel comfortable with the material.
I don't think I really had any real point to this thread. I am just doing a lot of thinking this past month or two. I have come to a point in my life that it is time to sh*t or get off the pot and I have decided to start putting full time effort into performing and getting my self started actually working. So I have been curious how some of the bigger pros do it. Not that it helps me all that much. But it's like I said , just curious for now I guess.

I don't know what process Derren uses, but for the productions I have created there are a number of rehearsal steps. These are vital as nothing is premiered in a fully polished form. The first step is the proof of concept stage. This is taking an idea and figuring out how to make it work. Once the mechanics of it are conquered, then you need to give it a try on real people. Often what you thought would work doesn't quite work as you have planned and you need further revisions. Once changes are made, you try it again. This tryouts are usually small and under the radar, such as private workshops with invited guests. Or if it is just a new routine, it is put into an act and sandwiched between proven material. This insures that less than stellar results won't kill the entire show.

The next step is to piece the new material into a show. This needs a great deal of rehearsal to make it all fit. These rehearsals make sure all the element work. You have to consider in many factors such the tech side of the pieces, stage management (getting it on and off stage) as well how well the pieces fit together to create a full, fluide show.

Once the show has been created in a rehearsal space, then it is put into a theater space. Oft times this is done in a smaller venue than the ones it will run in, and with an invited audience or for the general public. These previews are done with little fan fare and on the down low, so that the show can be perfected. During this run there will be LOTS of revisions.

Once the show is in good shape, it might be fine tuned even more by touring it before bringing it in to its final home.

I am currently going through this process with my show Play Dead. Even though we did the show for a year in NYC, the LA production has required three weeks of ten hour a day rehearsals for six days a week before we had the first preview. We have done three previews and are working five hours a day before the show ironing out the kinks before the show officially opens on November 20th.

Nothing is premiered in a polished form.

Thanks Todd. That does give me a much more clear idea how a pro works. Some of what you said I wasn't sure of but was what I would have guessed. Thanks for the input.

About 4 or 5 years ago I went to see a preview (pre main tour/practice run) of one of Derrens shows in a slightly smaller theatre than he normally appears. I think he did about a week in this theatre. When I saw the same show a few years later on tv there were some major changes with entire routines being cut and replaced and generally vastly improved.
Therefore I assume he does the same as everyone else, rehearses the cr@p out of a show in front of directors etc then gets out there to see how things go down with the general public, improving and making changes as necessary. It's impossible to know how a routine will go down until it's been tested in front of a paying audience as opposed to family, friends and colleagues.

That is the way I imagine it would have to happen. Where I live there I never hear about big performers doing small trial runs. But yes I knew they had too. It is the only thing that makes sense. But as I said I never see of hear about it where I am . I would find it interesting to see one of these trial runs and then see it a year later. I have only ever gotten to see the finished products.

Also, remember, by now, Derren and Andy are more than a two-man outfit. There's an entire team working on these shows, to make sure they get up on time.

If you backtrack through his tweets in the early part of the year he openly discusses what stage of rehearsals he is at. But in a nutshell, there's a month of writing, then a month of rehearsals (no actual audience at this stage), then a week of previews at a small theatre (I attended one of these) which trials the material to 1000 people. It then goes on a country wide tour in larger venues where changes are still being made every day until the final polished version arrives at the London West End.

Andrew