Count back from the curtain

Most show planning goes wrong before it starts.

Not because teachers don't care, or haven't thought about it – but because they start from where they are now and try to work forwards. And when you're working forwards, everything feels urgent at once.

There's a better way:

Start from the end.

Your show date isn't a goal. It's a fact. The venue is booked, the tickets are going out, the children are excited. That date is immovable.

"Your show date isn't a goal. It's a fact."

Everything else – every order, every rehearsal, every letter home – is just a calculation from that fixed point. Work backwards, and the plan builds itself.

The principle in practice

Pick up a piece of paper. Write your show date at the top. Now ask: what has to be in place the week before? The month before? Six weeks before?

That simple question does most of the work.

12 weeks out – get your show on paper

Routines, themes, number of performers, costume direction. Not every detail, but enough of a shape that decisions can start flowing from it.

This is the last comfortable moment to change course. Inside 12 weeks, every adjustment starts to cost you – in time, in money, or in someone else's patience. Getting the outline clear now protects everything that follows.

As early as possible – costumes ordered

If there's one thing to take from this post, it's this: order costumes earlier than you think you need to.

Lead times matter, but availability matters more. During busy periods (and summer show season is our busiest) stock gets booked up months in advance. The costumes you have in mind may simply not be there if you leave it late.

As soon as your routines and numbers are settled, treat costumes as the next immediate task. Not next week. Now.

8 weeks out – parents in the picture

Parents need enough notice to organise their lives. Eight weeks is about right for key information: show dates, performance times, ticket arrangements, any costume requirements that involve them.

Leave it later and you'll spend the run-up managing questions that could have been answered weeks ago.

Rehearsal dates in the diary – and shared

This one is worth saying plainly: surprise rehearsals don't work.

Families have packed lives. Last-minute calls for extra sessions – however understandable – mean some children won't be there. And an unplanned rehearsal with half the cast is rarely worth the stress it causes.

Set your rehearsal schedule as early as you can. Share it clearly and in one go – not drip-fed as the show approaches. The earlier parents have the dates, the fewer conflicts arise, and the more you can rely on full attendance when it counts.

Mark the dress rehearsal first and work backwards from there. Everything else slots around it.

Make the whole timeline visible

Once your plan is on paper, share it. With your teaching team first – and then with parents too.

A timeline that lives in one person's head is a pressure that never quite lifts. Put it somewhere everyone can see it: a shared document, a newsletter, a pinned message. Suddenly the whole team is pulling in the same direction, and parents start to understand just how much goes into making a show happen. That visibility matters more than most teachers expect.

"A timeline that lives in one person's head is a pressure that never quite lifts."

4 weeks out – programme and logistics locked

Running order. Cast lists. Technical requirements. Any quick changes that need planning.

If your venue has a technical team, this is when you confirm the details with them. Don't leave that conversation until the week before.

2 weeks out – stop changing things

Easier said than done. But late changes to costumes, casting, or running order create pressure that runs all the way to performance day.

Two weeks out, the job shifts. You're not planning any more. You're preparing.

The day before is too late

This is the thing that most teachers learn the hard way. Problems that surface in the final week – a quick change that hasn't been practised, a parent who doesn't know where to go – are problems that existed weeks earlier. They just hadn't been found yet.

The plan isn't about being rigid. It's about finding those problems early, when they're still easy to fix.

One more thought

If you're planning a show and you'd find it useful to talk the whole thing through with someone who's spent over 25 years making live events work – not just costumes, but the full picture – that's exactly what our Show Ready Sessions are for. There's no charge, and no agenda beyond helping your show go well.