# What Is a Rehearsal Report (and Why Actors Should Read It) > Every night of rehearsal, the stage manager writes up what happened and sends it to the whole production team. Here's what a rehearsal report covers, who writes it and who gets it, how its notes reach you, and how to use it to keep up with script changes and your own line notes. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/what-is-a-rehearsal-report - Published: 2026-10-27 - Last updated: 2026-10-27 Rehearsal ends at ten. You pack up, say goodnight, and head home. Meanwhile the stage manager is still at the table, typing. By the time you wake up, a document with the show's name, a report number, and a long list of department headings has landed in a dozen inboxes, and maybe in yours. It's easy to skim it, if you see it at all. That's a mistake, because buried between the props requests and the lighting questions are the things that change your next rehearsal: a cut speech, a new entrance, tomorrow's call, a note that your costume now needs a pocket. The short version: a rehearsal report is the stage manager's written record of each rehearsal, sent to everyone on the production who wasn't in the room. It lists what was worked on, who was late or absent, notes for every department, any injuries, script changes, and the plan for the next rehearsal. Ask your stage manager whether the cast gets it. If you do, read the script changes and anything with your character's name every time, and update your script the same day. ## What a rehearsal report is for The set designer, the costume shop, the props master, and the producer usually aren't in the rehearsal room, but what happens there changes their work. Christopher R. Boltz's textbook [Technical Theatre Practicum](https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Theater_Film_and_Storytelling/Technical_Theatre_Practicum_(Boltz)/01%3A_Chapters/1.11%3A_Production_Reports) explains that producers, designers, and technicians need to be kept up to date on the rehearsal room, and that the report is how they hear. The [Emerson Stage stage management handbook](https://websites.emerson.edu/emerson-stage-production/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/07/SM-Handbook-2013_final.pdf) agrees. So when the director decides you'll toss a book onto the sofa instead of handing it over, the report is how the props master learns the book needs to survive being thrown. When you start crawling across the floor in Act Two, it's how the costume designer learns your trousers need reinforced knees. The [Indiana University South Bend stage management handbook](https://arts.iusb.edu/academic-departments/theatre-and-dance/general-information/Stage%20Management%20Handbook%202016-2017.pdf) asks for exactly this kind of note: any blocking that affects costumes or the set, such as falling, crawling, splashing, or eating food. On professional shows the report does one more job that matters to you directly. Boltz notes that in professional productions it also serves as the actors' time card, which is why start, end, and break times are recorded so carefully. The IUSB handbook's sample reports list Equity hours for each actor. ## Who writes it, and who gets it The **stage manager** writes it. Boltz's list of required contents starts with a header naming the production, the date, and the stage manager who prepared the report. The team helps: the Emerson handbook says assistant stage managers often handle script changes, line notes, and the callboard. The report goes out fast. The IUSB handbook says reports must be emailed by 8:00am the next morning, and the [Toronto Metropolitan University production handbook](https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/productionhandbook/?p=73) sets 9 am the next day for its daily rehearsal notes. The point is that designers can act on it before the next rehearsal. Who receives it varies more than you might expect. Boltz lists the producers and the entire creative team. The IUSB handbook sends it to stage management, the director, production personnel, and design faculty. Emerson's handbook splits the paperwork: the stage manager emails the **daily call** (who is called, when, and where) to the company, and the rehearsal report to the production team. So don't assume. You may get the full report, or only the daily call while the report goes to designers and staff. If you're not sure which kind of show you're on, ask your stage manager in the first week. Our guide to [working with your stage manager](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-work-with-your-stage-manager) covers the rest of that relationship. ## What goes in a rehearsal report Each production sets its own layout, but the contents are remarkably consistent across handbooks and real reports. Here's what you'll usually find, roughly from top to bottom. - **The header.** Show title, report number, date, location, director, and stage manager. - **Times.** When rehearsal started and ended, and when the breaks were. On professional shows, this is also your time card. - **Attendance.** Who was called, who was late, and who was absent. The [UIL Texas rehearsal report template](https://www.uiltexas.org/files/academics/King_Session408_Rehearsal_Report_Template.pdf) has separate boxes for absent excused, absent unexcused, and late. - **What was worked on.** The schedule for the day, and what actually got done. The UIL template gives each its own box. - **Script changes.** Cuts, rewrites, and corrections, often by page and character. More on this below. - **Notes by department.** Scenery, props, costumes, hair and makeup, lighting, sound, and often fight, music, or dramaturgy. - **Injuries and incidents.** The IUSB handbook says injuries should be documented in the report, on top of a separate incident report. - **The next rehearsal.** Date, time, place, and what will be worked on. Two habits make reports easy to scan. Boltz says a department with nothing to report is still listed, marked "no notes", and the layout stays the same every day, because most people read only their own section. One thing you won't find: private information about you. Boltz says sensitive details about a cast member shouldn't appear on the report at all, and should go by separate email or phone to the people who need them. ## Where script changes show up For an actor, this is the section that matters most, especially on a new play, where the script changes often and the report is one place those changes are written down. One Emerson Stage report from a first rehearsal has a ["Script Changes" box](https://websites.emerson.edu/emerson-stage-production/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2016/09/CCC-Rehearsal-Report-8.29.pdf) right beside the day's schedule, listing each cut and change by page and character with the first words of the line. [Another Emerson report](https://websites.emerson.edu/emerson-stage-production/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/05/WBG-Rehearsal-Report-2.17.pdf) points everyone to a shared "Script" folder for an updated monologue, then repeats the change under Sound, because the music under that monologue changed too. The UIL template simply gives "Script" its own box among the department notes. Here's a made-up example of what an entry might look like, using the opening of Wilde's *The Importance of Being Earnest* as it appears on [Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/844/844-h/844-h.htm). In the CHANGE line, the words in parentheses are the ones being cut. > **SCRIPT CHANGES** > CUT: Act I, ALGERNON, "As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life." > CHANGE: Act I, ALGERNON, "(And, speaking of the science of Life,) have you got the cucumber sandwiches cut for Lady Bracknell?" Read that the way an actor should. If you're Algernon, you've lost a line and the start of your next one, because it no longer has anything to refer back to. If you're Lane, your cue has changed: your "Yes, sir." now comes straight after "but I play with wonderful expression." Nobody wrote a note to Lane, but Lane's part changed. That's why it's worth reading every script change in a scene you're in, not just the ones under your character's name. The report is a record, not the new pages themselves. According to the Emerson handbook, assistant stage managers type, print, and hand out new pages when the script changes, document and file every change, and keep the old version in case the director or playwright goes back to it. Treat the report as your checklist and the pages as the source. ## How notes reach you The report is one of several channels. It helps to know which one carries what. - **The daily call** tells you when and where you're called. Emerson's handbook says it goes to actors after every rehearsal, at least 12 hours before their next call, and is posted on the callboard. - **The director's notes** often come in person, at the end of a run or before the next one. The stage manager may write them down, but the conversation happens in the room. - **Line notes** come on a separate sheet. Emerson's line note form has boxes for a called line, a dropped word, a dropped line, a switched word, or a switched line. Our guide to [how line notes are tracked and given](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-give-line-notes) walks through that sheet from the stage manager's side. - **Department notes that involve you**, like a fitting or a new prop, may appear in the report, but someone usually tells you too. The Toronto Metropolitan handbook requires face-to-face follow-up on notes, and has the stage manager tell actors where props and scenery are, and about any changes to those locations that affect them. ## How to use the report to keep your lines current A short nightly routine saves you from the worst rehearsal feeling there is: confidently saying a line that was cut three days ago. 1. Open the report the night it arrives, or the daily call and any new pages if the cast doesn't get the report. 2. Read the daily call first, so you know tomorrow's time, place, and scenes. 3. Read every script change in a scene you're in, including other characters' lines that feed your cues. 4. Check the department sections for your character's name: props you now handle, costume changes, new blocking. 5. Update your script that night. Write the change in pencil, or swap in the new pages and date them. 6. Say the new version out loud a few times, starting from the cue before it. 7. Put your line notes next to the changes. A changed line is where the old version tends to creep back in, so drill those spots together. Step six is the one that's easiest to skip. Reading the change once feels like learning it, but the old line has had days of practice and the new one has had none. If you rehearse in Offbook, open your scene, edit the dialogue to match the new pages, and run it with realistic voices reading every other part and waiting for your line. Then hide your lines while everyone else's stay visible, or switch to first-letter cues, and say the new version from the cue, which is what the video below shows. Video: [Hide your lines](https://www.offbook.com/learn/hide-your-lines) (1:07) A cut needs the same attention as a rewrite. When a speech disappears, the cue for the next speaker moves, so update the scene in Offbook too: edit the dialogue so the speech before the next cue matches the new pages. Practicing the old cue just trains you to wait for words that aren't coming anymore. For a long rewritten speech, our [free line memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer) turns the new text into first-letter cues, so you can work through it before the next rehearsal. And if your show is a new play where the pages change daily, our guide to [handling script changes in a new play](https://www.offbook.com/blog/script-changes-in-a-new-play) covers unlearning the old version and deciding when to memorize a moving target. ## Reading the report the way a pro does Read it the same night, or first thing in the morning. Reports are written to be acted on before the next rehearsal, so if something surprises you, ask early. Take questions to the stage manager, not to a reply-all. If the report says you're called at 6:00 and you have a conflict you thought was on file, or a change doesn't match the pages you were given, a short private message is the right move. Reports are polite by design: the [Oberlin SM Project's guide to writing reports](https://sites.google.com/oberlin.edu/oberlin-sm-project/procedures/writing-rr), for one, asks writers to phrase notes as polite requests. Answer in the same tone. And keep them. A folder of reports is a day-by-day history of how the show was built. If a question comes up in previews about which version of a line is current, the dated report and the dated pages usually settle it. Our guide to [tech week for actors](https://www.offbook.com/blog/tech-week-for-actors) covers what changes once you move into the theater. ## Questions actors ask ### Is a rehearsal report the same as a daily call? No. The daily call tells the company who is called, when, and where. The rehearsal report records what happened in rehearsal and passes notes to the production team. Some stage managers send both in one email, and some send only the daily call to the cast. ### Do actors always get the rehearsal report? Not always. Distribution lists differ from show to show, and some handbooks, such as Emerson's, send the report to the director, designers, and staff and only the daily call to the cast. Ask your stage manager in the first week. If the cast doesn't get it, make sure you get the daily call and every set of new pages. ### What's the difference between a rehearsal report and a performance report? A rehearsal report covers a rehearsal: what was worked on, notes for each department, and the plan for the next one. Once the show opens, the stage manager writes a performance report instead. The Emerson handbook describes it as very similar, but with the start and end times of each act, the house count, and notes for the designers about that performance. ### Should I learn a script change from the report? Use the report to see what changed, then learn it from the new pages the stage management team hands out. The report often lists only the first words of a line. Mark the change in your script, date it, and say it out loud from the cue before it.