I’m not a very organized person, so I tend to let details slide. One of
those details is letting people know about rehearsals. The best way is
to publish a schedule early in the cycle and require people to be there.
In a volunteer program that can be dangerous, because people don’t
always take it very seriously. If you, as director, don’t take it
seriously, then they won’t either. You need to be firm about rehearsals.
On the other hand, what are you going to do to someone who has serial
conflicts with the schedule? My recommendation is to point out that they
obviously don’t have time to do the best job and maybe they should
withdraw. I haven’t done that before, partly because I haven’t had
enough actors. Anyway, do the best you can and shame the actors into
showing up and all rehearsals.