Most of us are trying to find the full-week-of-work groove after all of those late December days off. Can we really go five straight days without a break?

Don't complain to anyone who works at the Milwaukee Rep about that. While we were partying late and sleeping in, they were in full grind mode, preparing for a stretch of time that would exhaust any theater company on the planet. During an eight-day period that begins Friday, the Rep will open shows in all three of its regular performance spaces.

First up is "Yankee Tavern," a thriller about a Sept. 11 conspiracy theory, which opens Friday on the company's main stage Quadracci Powerhouse Theater. The drama was written by Steven Dietz, a leading regional theater playwright whose work has been frequently produced by the Rep.

Saturday night the company will open the musical revue "Pearl Bailey ... By Request" in its Stackner Cabaret. The show is a tribute to the versatile singer and actress who won Tony and Emmy awards in her long career.

A week from Friday, a frosty bit of romantic froth titled "Almost, Maine" debuts in the Stiemke Theater. Dramatist John Cariani set his fantasy in the remote and snowy mountain region of northern Maine, where the Aurora Borealis strangely influences the love lives of the residents of the fictional town of Almost. The piece is divided into nine stories.

The trio of openings tests the limits of the Rep's resources, which are smaller after an economy-mandated staff downsizing last season.

Financial and calendar factors contributed to the current pile-up of new show openings, associate artistic director Sandy Ernst recently explained. The Rep compressed its season to save money, resulting in less time elapsing between one production closing and the next making its debut. Add to that a reluctance to open a show around Christmas and New Year's, when most people are focused on friends and family, and you get a scheduling crunch like the one the company currently has.

"Those pesky holidays get in there, and they have an impact on us," Ernst said.

The final 10 days to two weeks before an opening gets frenetic for any show, and when they occur in late December, it becomes difficult for the actors in rehearsal and the artisans in the shops to find time for the last minute shopping, partying and family events most of us take for granted. "The holidays come and go without you feeling like you had them," Ernst said.

Carving out rehearsal time for actors who are performing in an already opened production while preparing for another can be challenging. Laura Gordon, who is directing "Almost, Maine," was acting in "The Lady With All the Answers" while two of her key cast members for "Almost" were appearing in "A Christmas Carol." The performance schedules for "Lady" and "Carol" were not the same.

"Some of those rehearsals were at interesting times," Ernst said.

Rep productions usually receive four weeks of rehearsal, but the company solved the "Almost, Maine" scheduling squeeze by spreading the same amount of preparation over five weeks.

"There is a huge pride taken in how well we do this," Ernst said, speaking of accomplishing the multiple openings. "I think we do this better than any company I know of. And our staff isn't as big as some others."

The associate artistic director was speaking not only of the Rep's actors and directors. The company's shops, who are responsible for everything from costumes and props to building and painting sets, are also working in overdrive.

Production manager Melissa Vartanian oversees a production budget of $2.5 million and 52 people who will build and run 14 shows this season. "Most companies at our level do only eight to 10 shows a season," she recently said. "We are used to producing a massive amount of work."

Planning for how the shops would accommodate the early January productions began 11 months ago, Vartanian added. None of the shows requires a big set, and all are performed in modern dress.

That is a huge help to the production department. The costume shop can buy clothes off the rack and tailor them for the actors, rather than build from scratch.

Speaking about the scenery for the Powerhouse and Stiemke shows, Vartanian said, "For ‘Yankee Tavern,' the director did not want the set to be the focus of the show. The action in ‘Almost, Maine' goes a lot of places, but the audience will be taken there by the actors, not the set."

Stackner Cabaret productions don't usually have extensive sets, a norm that is being followed for "Pearl Bailey ... By Request."

The Rep is nationally known for its high production values, a reputation that Vartanian said reflects the great deal of personal pride the company's artisans take in their work. Part of her job is to take good care of her people and maintain morale at healthy levels.

"We ask, how can we keep people loving what they do? How can we be humane at the holidays, when people want and need time off," she said.

Although the Rep is pinching its pennies this season, Vartanian and managing director Dawn Helsing Wolters found a bit of overtime money that allowed those in the shops to take off the day after Christmas, a Saturday. They were walking the walk of "A Christmas Carol," that Rep holiday tradition whose ticket sales are so important to the company's bottom line.