If you teach all day and rehearse all night, you already know the math. There is never enough time, and you end up paying for it in sleep.
When I served as a school principal, I could see staff energy dip almost immediately after winter break—and most teachers had the luxury of heading home not long after dismissal.
Which brings me to you. To us. The director.
For us, the final bell is not the end of the day. It’s intermission.
Act Two includes singing, dancing, staging, set building, costuming and everything in between.
So how do we manage an already impossible schedule when we’re literally burning daylight?
When I was directing, a young teacher friend asked why I had to be at rehearsal every single day. After all, I had three other capable adults working with me and each was fully able to run rehearsal and supervise students. There were songs to learn, blocking to rehearse, sets and props to build, costumes to create, choreography to polish. “Maybe,” my friend suggested, “those things could happen without you one day a week. Maybe you could go home before dark.”
Directors direct.
We guide the vision of our programs in countless visible and invisible ways. It’s hard to imagine progress happening if we’re not there.
As an experiment, I met with my directing team and created a rotating schedule. There were four of us. Each adult rotated off one day per week. Mondays, all four of us were present to set goals and outline priorities. Tuesday through Friday, three of the four leaders ran rehearsal while one person stepped away. On Saturdays, we regrouped to evaluate progress and recalibrate.
For smaller directing teams, flexibility matters even more. If you only have one or two adults leading the program, consider restructuring your rehearsal schedule instead of rotating full absences. Build in a couple of days each week where you rehearse smaller groups such as featured scenes, vocal sections, choreography pods, or tech crews rather than calling the entire cast. A focused rehearsal not only reduces stress and noise, it often increases productivity. On those lighter-call days, an adult may be able to step away a bit early while another supervises, or trade shorter shifts across the week.
Try this Next Week
• Meet with your team to discuss sustainability and shared ownership.
• Create a weekly rotation so each adult has one rehearsal off.
• Keep one all-hands planning day to align on goals and expectations.
• Assign a daily rehearsal lead with clear authority to make decisions.
• Outline weekly objectives in a shared calendar or document.
• Honor the day off — trust your team and step away.
The results were better than I could have imagined.
Adults had margin. They had time to grocery shop, schedule appointments, or simply see daylight. Students deepened their relationships with multiple leaders instead of relying on just one. I was no longer the gatekeeper of the show. Decisions were being made by a team invested in our shared vision.
We weren’t weakening the program. We were building capacity.
“Here’s what I learned. When you let others lead, you do not lose control. You gain a program that can breathe.”
Strong programs take care of their people and that includes you!
If the bell rings and you feel like you’re heading into Act Two already exhausted, consider this your permission to share the stage. Leadership multiplied is not leadership diminished.
Take care of your people.
And make sure you take care of yourself, too.
Want to see how Ludus helps you manage volunteers and coverage so you can actually take a night off? Then link it to your Volunteer Management page in one of these clean ways.
