Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Changed my mind

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   This isn't a question. I just wanted share. I have been hired to direct in a theater that I don't do a lot of work in. In my off season, on occasion, I will do a show for them. I come in, do my job and don't get involved in the running of the place. I have creative control, but I don't have a lot of say in how things are done. When I was told that my lighting crew was going to be made up of three middle school students, the oldest being 13. I took a big deep breath. I don't usually work that way, and this show a lot of tight cues and specials. It is not one I would have chosen for kids to learn on. My regular lighting person is a technical wizard, who has worked with me for years. But it is not my theater and I gave up control. (Yes, that was a very big step for me.) They did work with an adult, but this weekend he wasn't there. The kids were on their own. Moments of panic, but  okay, my stage manager is really good, and it was the second weekend of the run. Then Murphy's Law kicked in. My stage manager had a family emergency, and the stage manager they called in had only seen the show once. Okay . . . just breath. Then the headsets stopped working ten minutes to curtain. No back-ups. There was no communication between the stage manager and the light booth.. . I think I stopped breathing.  Then those three kids changed my mind. They ran a flawless show. One called the cues from the script, one ran the board, the other ran the specials and the house lights. They never skipped a beat. I sat in the light booth just to be sure they were okay. They didn't need me at all. After the first act I forgot all about them. They didn't even think it was a big deal. I've been doing this a long time and it takes a lot to impress me. They impressed me.

Author	Message
Linda Guest	Topic: Changed my mind Posted: 3/22/04 at 10:21am
	This isn't a question. I just wanted share. I have been hired to direct in a theater that I don't do a lot of work in. In my off season, on occasion, I will do a show for them. I come in, do my job and don't get involved in the running of the place. I have creative control, but I don't have a lot of say in how things are done. When I was told that my lighting crew was going to be made up of three middle school students, the oldest being 13. I took a big deep breath. I don't usually work that way, and this show a lot of tight cues and specials. It is not one I would have chosen for kids to learn on. My regular lighting person is a technical wizard, who has worked with me for years. But it is not my theater and I gave up control. (Yes, that was a very big step for me.) They did work with an adult, but this weekend he wasn't there. The kids were on their own. Moments of panic, but okay, my stage manager is really good, and it was the second weekend of the run. Then Murphy's Law kicked in. My stage manager had a family emergency, and the stage manager they called in had only seen the show once. Okay . . . just breath. Then the headsets stopped working ten minutes to curtain. No back-ups. There was no communication between the stage manager and the light booth.. . I think I stopped breathing. Then those three kids changed my mind. They ran a flawless show. One called the cues from the script, one ran the board, the other ran the specials and the house lights. They never skipped a beat. I sat in the light booth just to be sure they were okay. They didn't need me at all. After the first act I forgot all about them. They didn't even think it was a big deal. I've been doing this a long time and it takes a lot to impress me. They impressed me.

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slicksister Celebrity Joined: 3/20/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 105	Posted: 3/22/04 at 8:36pm
	I have worked with kids doing tech workon several occasions and they never cease to amaze me. They are so tech savvy these days and seem to do sooo much better under pressure! Although 13 IS pretty young. I thik I would have been very nervous as well. These are the type of kids you want to write down in your Daytimer and contact them again and again. Community service of this type looks great on a college application and you could write them a great letter of recommendation. I've done that on several occasions.
	The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
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L.T. Guest	Posted: 3/22/04 at 11:25pm
	My community theater group- which is all volunteer, routinely has high school kids running the light/sound boards & helping out as stage managers & crew & they are always terrific. We are doing a show right now with a really tough sound scheme & the 15-year old running it doesn't miss a beat. We couldn't survive without them! And they are the future of our theater group... keep those kids on hand (besides, they can program your cell phone during down time! )
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theassistant Guest	Posted: 7/23/04 at 1:51pm
	I'm the assistant director of my high school's shows. I'm writing the fall play (in my Sophmore year) and again assistant directing. Our lighting guy, Julian, is a pro and helped out for the two shows last year. Since we didn't want to pay for his crew, we became his crew. I learned so much about the design aspect, as well as the technical aspects that now the cast feels like we could be our own lighting crew! One of the more talented at this was a shoe in for the lead last year (in his Junior year) and he's all ready to light up the fall show, considering we cant afford Julian everytime. It really works if you train your cast to do crew work.
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