Repertory

For other meanings of repertory, please see repertory (disambiguation).

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Repertory or rep is a term from Western theatre. It is traditionally applied to the practice of a single company putting on a variety of plays successively for short runs, typically from a week to a fortnight. In the form repertory company or rep company it may also apply to a theatre company which takes this approach. These are to be distinguished from a company performing a single play for a long run; and from a number of different companies (and hence different actors) putting on short-lived plays in the same theatre one after the other. The repertory system of theatre flourished in Britain in the twentieth century.

Related Topics:
Theatre - Britain - Twentieth century

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Typically a rep company would aim to perform a wide variety of styles: a comedy, a thriller, a mystery, a play by a recent playwright, a play from fifty years ago, and so on. Whilst performing one, it might well be rehearsing its next.

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Whilst the repertory system in its original form is less common today than it was (in say, for example, in the 1950s), a period "in rep" was and remains an early stage in the careers of many British theatre (and TV/film) actors:

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Jeremy Brett, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Imelda Staunton are a very small sample of a host of actors who began in the repertory system.

Related Topics:
Jeremy Brett - Judi Dench - Ian McKellen - Patrick Stewart - Imelda Staunton

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A form of touring repertory existed which involved transporting the set for about five different plays, which were performed on consecutive nights. This form was called fit-up.

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Note that Birmingham Rep, one of the largest theatres and companies in the UK, defines modern repertory theatre slightly differently: "The Rep presents a season with each play generally having an unbroken run, of between three and six weeks. This is the form of repertory theatre that the majority of theatres like The REP ? which are also called producing theatres ? now follow." () This longer period for each performance is not a new phenomenon: the Newcastle Playhouse in Newcastle upon Tyne ran seasons in which largely the same cast performed a wide variety of plays for four weeks each in the seventies and eighties.

Related Topics:
Birmingham Rep - UK - Newcastle upon Tyne

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However repertory is still produced in the UK on the more traditional time scale: for example the producer Charles Vance still produces weekly rep in Sidmouth (12 plays), Wolverhampton (8 plays), Burslem and Taunton (4 each),

Related Topics:
Charles Vance - Sidmouth - Wolverhampton - Burslem - Taunton

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