Week 3: Scheduling and Company Rules and Getting Acquainted with Your Theater

Hello again! The third week of my blog is upon us and I have some more chapters from my stage management reading for you, as well as a report of this week's activities in the tech practicum.

This week, I read chapters 4 & 5 in Stern & O'Grady, which were "Scheduling and Company Rules" and "Getting Acquainted with Your Theater". Chapter 4 was mostly about how keeping a schedule (or multiple schedules) is important to keeping everyone in the company on-task so that progress towards opening night is being made at an adequate rate. Scheduling mix-ups can cause days of work to be lost, which will always result in a lower-quality end product. Fortunately, I do not have to create the rehearsal schedule for the fall play, as our director Kim Harris will be doing that himself. However, I do think it would be a great idea for me to create and keep a master calendar of all rehearsals, deadlines, work days, etc. Also included in chapter 4 was a section on the callboard, which is an area where I can post useful information for the cast and crew.

Chapter 5 was about understanding the organizational structure of your theater. It is important to know who is responsible for what so that communication can be effective. You will also want to know as much as possible about the physical structure of your theater: stage dimensions, location of circuit breakers, locations of light instruments, etc.

This week in the tech practicum, I finished reading the script for A Man for All Seasons. I also participated in tool certification for all the new student workers.

Tomorrow we have our first read-through with the cast of A Man for All Seasons (which is also on my birthday!). See you next week with more on the show!