If it’s got to this point, I can’t recommend enough that you start getting your district involved with hiring a Theatre Manager and Technicians – for school, district and outside events. Tell them ‘but my friends are all doing it’ – which is true, it’s becoming more and more common place for high school theatres to (finally) be staffed as much as their sports stadiums.
I’m not surprised you are frustrated (everyone sounds frustrated) – high school theatres these days are essentially road houses. And school district administrators typically jump to the conclusion that their Drama teachers can run the facility, and that outside events that rent the facility can have full reign with a custodian or other district employee to site supervise. But Drama teachers and custodians are not theatre technicians and managers, and theatres are not classrooms.
Highly qualified staff are needed in order to set up the operating systems (for example, to make sure that the space is prepared for each event’s needs, and to make sure that everything is restored to ‘rep’ after each event), create a safety program (I could go on forever about safety!), maximize student learning (technicians act as mentors and students get real life training). In other words you need a High School Theatre Manager and technicians. In Dan’s case, it’s great that there is a theatre supervisor, but the district has to understand that district employees can’t act as technicians in a theatre. It won’t cost them any more to hire theatre technicians, who can work on a overhire basis. Technicians can keep a lighting rep plot intact and a sound board set up and ready to go, and make sure that no one kills anyone with the rigging. Tell your district the things that Ellen did – open their eyes. Use the words “preservation of expensive equipment” and “liability” – those usually work! Another reason to have a Theatre Manager is so that the Drama Teacher doesn’t get stuck in the middle, like Christopher mentioned. People are not endeared to him because they see him as the decision maker. In actual fact, the school play is just another event that comes into the theatre (albeit for weeks, rather than hours or days), which needs to be treated equally. A Theatre Manager will take the brunt of the scheduling juggling, the Drama Teacher shouldn’t.
Typically school events get first dibs – after all, it is a school. In my years as a Theatre Manager, we never released dates to the rest of the district or to the public until each September, once the school calendar was finalized. But, then after that, if an outside group booked the theatre, a school group couldn’t usurp them (outside groups need to know their dates are secure in order to do their own marketing, etc), but could schedule around them. Most school districts have their own calendars, but an at-a-glance publicly accessible calendar just for the theatre is a good idea. It does mean keeping two calendars, but it makes scheduling a lot easier. So do theatre-specific rental forms.
In the case of the school play it’s best if you help the administration to understand that once a set goes in, as in Christina and Elizabeth’s situations, that the theatre is then blocked out to any other events. Sometimes because of other bookings the set can’t be loaded in until last minute right before tech week, but in return the school play should have full uninterrupted usage of the stage for the weeks of tech and performances.
We – who are in the know – need to be really proactive with our school and district administrations. Keep in mind that when they go to see a show, all they see is the polished performance - the magic. “Muggles” don’t have any comprehension of how the magic happens, so we need to educate them. And yes, sometimes it’s like pulling teeth, but we’re all in this together, and I believe we can – eventually – achieve this nationwide.
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Beth Rand
Founder and Executive Director
www.PRESETT.orgWoodinville WA
Original Message:
Sent: 04-13-2016 15:50
From: David Hastings
Subject: Reserving Theaters and Working with Non-Theatre Events
I would be curious to hear how schools handle reservations of their performance spaces. In a large public school, there is always someone using the theaters. This week, we had a Indian Cultural Event on Saturday, Youth Symphony on Sunday, Honors and Awards Ceremony on Monday, National Honor Society on Tuesday, practice for Large Group Music Competition and load in for a ballet on Wednesday, Junior High Music Festival tomorrow, Dry Tech for the ballet on Thursday night, District Inservice on Friday, Tech rehearsal for the ballet on Friday, and two ballet performances on this coming Saturday and Sunday. This is in addition to day time classes and assemblies. Keeping everyone happy is always a challenge, as is preparing the space for each group and cleaning up after they leave.
And thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
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David Tate Hastings
Kansas Thespians
Co-Chapter Director
<maskemail>dhastingsos@...</maskemail>
913-481-1868
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