14 Incite / Insight Member ’ s Corner
Spring 2018
A
few days ago , my student ASM ( assistant stage manager ) started posting rehearsal reports to the department ’ s tech group on social media . Rehearsal reports . Like the kind you see in a real theatre . I was thrilled beyond measure . I had vaguely asked for this for years , and it is awesome , because it means that we are all on the same page . It made me realize how far tech has come at my school . It then occurred to me that at Monday ’ s first listenthrough of our spring musical , my stage managers , rather than I , had opened the meeting and run it .
For many years I didn ’ t teach in my performance space . Like many theatre teachers , I worked out of a classroom and loaded shows in and out in as little as four days up to a maximum of two weeks . One would think that tech might not be attractive to theatre ASM students who didn ’ t have ownership of a theatre space , but I continue to be blessed with a huge and active tech theatre community who run everything for the department , from auditions to strike . Sometimes they begin as technicians as a pathway to performance ; other times they leave acting to become technicians . I credit department practices evolved through trial and error , rather than circumstances , for this happiest of situations . It ’ s really paying off now that we have a new small blackbox theatre space with a scene and costume shop , as well as a prop inventory all run by students .
THINGS MY STUDENT TECHNICIANS DO :
• Create an entire rehearsal schedule from scratch
• Worry about student rehearsal conflicts ( I am informed of absences by stage managers when class begins )
• Design the set
• Single-handedly pull and coordinate costumes for an entire ensemble
• Hire someone to make posters or programs
• Count and track rented scripts for musicals
• Run sound for rehearsal
• Schedule auditions
• Recruit technicians
• Hand-build props
• Design makeup
• Manage ticket sales
• Maintain all backstage discipline with regards to phones off , quiet and respectful behavior , etc .
• Maintain call times , time rehearsals or breaks
• Run fight calls or dance calls
• Handle interpersonal disputes between crew members
• Run strike
• Organize the official cast party Maintain a cleaning and
racking schedule for the costume and prop shop
Not having to do these things leaves me a bit freer to do what directors are supposed to do : create and maintain the artistic vision of a show .
WHAT TO DO TO MAKE IT EVENTUALLY POSSIBLE
1 .
Teach the value of technical theatre . Reflect on anything that ’ s glorifying “ Broadway ” and “ Hollywood ” and sending the message to students that if they ’ re not onstage , they are less-than , and maybe stop doing that . Teach the principles of design in your intro classes . You can build white models with index cards and tape ; you can create costume design projects for any play you want to teach ; you can teach students to create a poster by showing them pictures of professional posters ; you can build puppets from newspaper and paper bags . Google now has a set design program . Allow students in classes to direct or design as part of a project , and give them credit . Insisting that everyone act in everything all the time is not a realistic mirror of the business you are trying to teach .
Tech , Please : Creating a Thriving Technical Theatre Community At Your School
By Arcadia Conrad