The Awesome Power of Rehearsal Cubes!

When it comes to building sets for your drama group the most complicated thing you might have is a couple of folding chairs and a table that you pulled from the foyer or narthex. In regular creative worship applications this works wonderfully.  But as your group considers doing special or seasonal events and maybe even touring those things might not always be available to you.  You may not have the money or resources to build big sets and move them from venue to venue. But there is one handy kind of set piece that can be made to fit every situation.

The history of rehearsal cubes, unit blocks, or set boxes is kind of vague but every theatre I’ve been involved with has had at least a set of these stacked up in a corner somewhere. They’re called rehearsal cubes because they’re customarily used in the early rehearsals of a play when the set isn’t completely finished yet. That doesn’t mean that they don’t make their way on stage all the time. Here are just a few points where I can sing their praises…

·         They’re Multi-taskers: There is room for only one multi-tasker in any theatre and those are the smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. Rehearsal cubes can be used in their original form in their many shows. You can stand, sit, and dance on them. If they’re built securely you can even jump up and down and take stage falls on them. You can stack them so that they make columns and walls and lay them all out together to make an impromptu platform. Once you start to discover all of the things that can be done with them then you’ll never be able to stop at a set of just four or five. I love them so much that I brag that if I had a set of thirty rehearsal cubes and a pile of scrap wood I could build just a set to be proud of.

o   But there’s more: These babies aren’t just mulit-taskers on the stage they can be a great help offstage. Put a hinged lid on the top and some handles on the side and then you have prop storage for every touring occasion.

·         They have Strength in Numbers: The best benefit of rehearsal cubes is found when you have sets of four or more. Most theatres have sets of them in two or three sizes: one set of cubes at chair height, as set of long benches, and a set of oblong rectangles that double as barstools. That doesn’t mean that those are the hard and fast rules. Whatever size that your Drama Ministry needs is good for you. If you’re planning on touring then it would be beneficial to make a set that best fits in the vehicles that you’ll be using to get there.

·         They’re Easy to Build: A Google search will show you that no one is really selling rehearsal cubes (or not at prices that you would want to pay). That is because most theater departments find it easier to build themselves. They can be made out of basic lumber and materials that can be found at the local hardware store and a set of four is about an afternoon’s set of work. There many different ways to build them and plans are found on the internet with a little searching. A few links for further information are found below.

Rehearsal cubes are great tools for the Drama Ministry that is beginning to branch out of the sanctuary and into the secular world. They are a kind of “gateway” set piece that can get theatre departments started building the materials and tools to tackle bigger pieces like platforms and flats. These little boxes are worth their weight in gold to any Drama Ministry!