Building a Shared Rehearsal Vocabulary Across Languages

A shared rehearsal vocabulary is the agreed working language of a multilingual rehearsal room: a compact set of terms, short phrases, gestures and visual cues that allows a company to start and stop work, give notes, mark positions, call cues, check consent and hand over decisions. It sits between the play text and the production process. It is not a full translation of the script, and it does not replace an interpreter or translator. Its purpose is narrower and more practical: to make the everyday business of rehearsal predictable enough to be repeated, questioned and documented across languages.

The need usually appears in the first week. A director asks for a pickup; the stage manager calls a break; an actor asks whether a note means a new intention or a smaller adjustment. In a single-language company much of this is absorbed through training and habit. In a multilingual company, the same words may be familiar but carry different assumptions. A workable vocabulary makes those assumptions explicit without pretending that every term has an exact equivalent.

Why a shared vocabulary matters

International and multilingual theatre often brings together artists trained in different rehearsal cultures. One company may treat the stage manager as the keeper of the schedule and the book; another may give that authority to the director or producer. One may use a formal vocabulary of technical cues; another may work through improvised calls and physical signals. These differences are not failures of professionalism. They are part of what has to be negotiated.

Stage terminology is also local. In a proscenium theatre, upstage and downstage describe distance from the audience; in a studio, street or site-specific performance those terms may mislead. Stage left and stage right are conventionally the actor’s left and right, but that convention is not identical in every training tradition or venue. Blocking may mean fixed movement or a broader process of arranging action. A glossary should record the working meaning for this production, not present one country’s stagecraft as a universal standard.

The distinction from play translation matters. A translated script deals with dialogue, register, imagery, form and cultural reference. Surtitles, captions and audio description deal with audience access. A rehearsal vocabulary deals with the production process: how work is organised, how notes are given, how safety is checked and how decisions are recorded. The three can inform one another, but they are not interchangeable.

What belongs in the lexicon

Build the list from actual rehearsal speech rather than from a generic phrasebook. Start with the words that recur in the first days and add terms when a misunderstanding becomes visible. Most lexicons need categories such as:

• Start, stop and repeat: begin, hold, pause, again, from the top, from the mark, continue, repeat, stop for safety.
• Movement and space: enter, exit, cross, mark, hold, open, close, centre, cheat, take a position.
• Technical coordination: cue, standby, go, sound, light, props, scene change, blackout, curtain call.
• Notes and feedback: note, try, adjust, slower, clearer, take a beat, keep, release, question, offer.
• Care and access: check-in, consent, break, stop, access need, interpreter, caption, sign language.
• Scheduling and documentation: call time, run, stagger-through, technical rehearsal, dress rehearsal, preview, understudy, production bible.

The following table is illustrative rather than a universal standard. It shows how a company might record a term with its production meaning and a point to clarify.

Building the vocabulary: a practical sequence

1. Map languages and access needs. Record which languages are active in the room, who interprets, who reads which script version, and what access provisions are required. Do not assume that a bilingual actor wants to work in both languages all the time.
2. Collect real phrases. In the first days, note repeated instructions, questions and warnings. Ask actors, stage crew and technicians what they needed to understand but did not. This produces a more useful list than a pre-written dictionary.
3. Agree a working term and gloss it. For each entry, give a short definition, an example in action, a pronunciation guide where useful and a note on register. Where there is no exact equivalent, say so and agree a paraphrase.
4. Demonstrate and check. Use a say-show-check cycle: say the term, demonstrate the action, then ask the person to perform it or explain it back in their own words. Avoid relying on a yes-or-no check, which can hide uncertainty.
5. Record it in a living document. A shared file with columns for the working term, language variants, meaning, example, pronunciation, owner and date is more useful than a static list. Link it to the script, cue sheets and production bible.
6. Rehearse the vocabulary itself. Five minutes of call-and-response, physical warm-up or a short quiz can keep terms active. Research on second-language vocabulary retention has examined spacing and frequency of rehearsal; it does not prescribe a theatre method, but it supports the principle that repeated, spaced encounters are more useful than a single circulated list (Weimer-Stuckmann).
7. Review at transitions. Revisit the glossary at the end of table work, before the stagger-through, before technical rehearsals and after the first preview. Technical crew often need a different subset of terms from actors.
8. Hand over the lexicon. Include it in the production bible and the revival pack. Note which decisions were provisional, which were fixed and who agreed them.

Design principles for bilingual glossaries

Work on core vocabulary in multilingual lexicography defines core sets through coverage and consensus across many bilingual dictionaries rather than through intuition alone (Wu, Nicolai and Yarowsky). A rehearsal lexicon can borrow that discipline: choose terms because they recur across the actual work, not because they sound official.

• Give every language visible status. Avoid a layout in which one language is always the heading and others are footnotes. Use parallel columns or clearly equal sections.
• Use plain language and short examples. A definition such as ‘a signal to begin’ is more useful than a long abstract explanation.
• Distinguish parts of speech and countability. A note as a noun and to note as a verb may behave differently; the same is true of cue, call and mark.
• Mark false friends and idioms. Literal translation can produce plausible but wrong instructions. Give the intended action as well as the nearest word.
• Add visual anchors. Floor plans, cue sheets, photographs of positions and simple diagrams can carry meaning that words do not.
• Include non-verbal signals. A raised hand, a tap on the floor or a coloured light may be part of the working vocabulary. Record who uses it and what it means.
• Version the document. Give each version a date and a named keeper. A glossary that cannot be updated becomes another source of confusion.
• Plan for access. Large-print, screen-reader-friendly, audio and sign-language versions may be needed. Ask rather than assume.

Roles, interpretation and power

A shared vocabulary is not neutral. The person who decides the canonical term holds power over how the work is described. In practice, the stage manager, dramaturg, translator and director often share that work, but the company should name who maintains the glossary and how disagreements are resolved. Interpreters should be briefed before the first rehearsal, given the glossary in advance and not asked to improvise specialist technical terms without support. A translator may be credited for script translation while an interpreter supports rehearsal communication; those are different roles and should be acknowledged separately.

Consent matters when the company records names, voices, faces or movement for the glossary. Recording can be useful for pronunciation and demonstration, but it should be explained, agreed and stored according to the relevant jurisdiction and organisational policy. Local data-protection rules vary, so a production should verify its own arrangements rather than treating a general workflow as legal advice.

Common pitfalls

• Assuming that English stage terms are internationally understood.
• Letting one language dominate because it is the producer’s or funder’s language.
• Translating idioms literally and hoping the action will explain them.
• Circulating a glossary once and never testing it in the room.
• Leaving technical crew, understudies and front-of-house staff out of the lexicon.
• Treating an interpreter as a walking dictionary rather than a skilled communication professional.
• Recording rehearsals or pronunciation without consent and a stated retention plan.
• Using ‘do you understand?’ as the only comprehension check.

Documentation and handover

A useful rehearsal glossary is short enough to consult in the room and detailed enough to survive a revival. It might include a one-page quick-reference sheet for calls and safety terms, a fuller bilingual document for the production team, and audio or video examples for pronunciation and physical cues. The production bible should record where the glossary lives, who owns it and which version was used in performance. If the production travels, the glossary can also help a new local crew understand the working method without requiring the original company to repeat every explanation.

Finally, keep the glossary open to revision. A multilingual rehearsal is not a problem solved once by a list. It is a continuing negotiation among people who may hear the same word differently. The aim is not perfect equivalence but sufficient clarity to rehearse safely, make good work and leave an accurate record for the next company.

Checklist before the first rehearsal

• List the languages active in the room and the access needs of participants.
• Agree the first ten to twenty high-frequency terms for start, stop, repeat, safety and notes.
• Name the glossary keeper and the document location.
• Brief the interpreter or translator on the production method and the draft glossary.
• Plan a short demonstration and check for each new term.
• Agree how recordings will be consented to, stored and deleted.
• Schedule review points at table-work, stagger-through, technical rehearsal and preview.
• Include the glossary in the production bible and revival pack.