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ShowbizU: What is a Sitzprobe? - Kenny Seymour & Tim Kashani

Name: ShowbizU: What is a Sitzprobe? - Kenny Seymour & Tim Kashani
Uploaded: 2014-02-06T20:43:03+00:00
Duration: 1 min 17 s
Channel: Tim Kashani
Description: In this interview, Kenny Seymour and Tim Kashani explain the theatrical rehearsal milestone known as a sitzprobe. They describe the typical rehearsal…

6 Feb 2014 · 1 min

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1:17

In this interview, Kenny Seymour and Tim Kashani explain the theatrical rehearsal milestone known as a sitzprobe. They describe the typical rehearsal progression, starting with a simple piano or minimal rhythm accompaniment, moving through weeks of rehearsals, and then transitioning to the orchestrator’s work. Once the full orchestration is ready, the cast experiences their first rehearsal with the complete orchestra or band—the sitzprobe—where they hear the full musical texture for the first time and sing along. The speakers highlight how this shift from piano to full instrumentation can surprise actors, requiring them to refocus as horns, drums, and guitars enter. They also discuss the unique experience of having the band onstage, fostering eye contact, a sense of family, and a collaborative, group‑effort atmosphere between musicians and performers.

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For those that don't know what, what the sits probe is, can you— let's define it. Okay, in the rehearsal room, uh, depending on the production, it's usually just a piano. Sometimes they'll have a rhythm accompanist, um, like a drummer or a djembe player that would just give you to keep pulse and keep time.
And that can go on through the entire rehearsal, so you're whatever, 2 weeks to 2 months or however long it is.
Absolutely. And once you get to, you know, where there is some kind of an operational version of the show. I mean, sometimes it happens a little earlier. It gets passed off to the orchestrator and they start their work, and once that's done and more changes are done and it's brought back and forth, you go to the sitzprobe where the cast first hears their orchestra or their band play the show and they sing it down for the first time, and everybody is all excited and they hear the opening number and it's like Yes!
So it's a great time. It's one of my favorites, and what throws a lot of actors for the first time is they're used to Kenny on the piano playing the melody the whole time.
All of a sudden there's horns coming from here, and there's a big drum fill here, and there's a guitar doing— and you're going, wow, refocus.
Yeah, and that's where, as a performer, it's really important for them to be so concrete by the time they get to that point.
And Memphis was unique. Well, unique in a sense that the band was on stage. Yeah. So we had that kind of connection. I mean, there are some times when, you know, we would make eye contact with one of the actors and, you know, playing with them. Yeah. So it's like, it's a group effort, especially when the band is on stage. You become a family.