Picking student tech positions for a production is one of the hardest parts of being an advisor.
Consider a sports team. Try-outs allow new applicants to demonstrate their abilities to scouts and coaches. Once selected as a member of the team the players practice together, learn plays, formations, all the while the coaches further assess the players' capabilities. Eventually the coach will establish a starting lineup, assigning players to primary and backup positions for scrimmages, games, tournaments, etc.
Tech crew isn't a sports team, but it's easy to draw parallels.
Our goal isn't to win games or to be competitive with other schools, but rather to put on the best show we can. We strive for a level of professionalism beyond the typical high school program.
Aptitude is largely subjective, but sometimes there are some objective measures.
We rarely benefit from these sorts of objective qualifications: usually the students distance themselves from positions where they aren't comfortable.
We often don't have time to assess the skills of every student in every position, so soft skills are very important to us.
Physical age isn't a consideration, but rather the number of years the student has remaining in the school.
Say we have two students interested in running a light board, one sophomore and one senior. We'd probably offer the position to the senior, the rationale being that the sophomore has two more years in which to pursue the position whereas it's the last chance for the senior to run a light board.
If a student isn't available to work all the shows, it's a factor.
We cross-train students in numerous areas and do make contingency plans for unexpected substitutions, but we try to maintain consistent staffing throughout the run. Having the same faces in the same spots every night provides a more consistent experience and eases bonding for both our students and the cast. Mid-event substitutions are rare and usually only occur in the event of injury, illness, or family emergency.
Attendance is super important, in a couple different ways.
Consistent attendance throughout the production shows us a student's commitment. It's also good preparation for things to come: if a student can't handle the school course load and 6 hours per week during the build, it's unlikely they'll be able to handle the 6 hours per day throughout the weeks of rehearsals, tech rehearsals, and shows.
Most of our tech skills are learned on the job, so we have to learn a lot about the students during the build process.
Do they show up on time? Do they communicate well with us and others? Both are indicators whether they'll be able to do the same throughout the run. Many of our positions are physically isolated from the advisors; we expect them to be responsible for performing tasks without supervision. The build process allows for lots of observed trials, to see how they work in small groups with various student leads as supervisors.
Is it fair to give a student their desired position if they've missed rehearsals or build days? Certainly not to the other students who've put in their time, but also not to the cast and band who've been putting in their time and deserve a consistent performance from our crew.
How well did the student communicate their absences to us? Reliability and responsiveness are useful qualities onstage and in life. Throughout the build students have been given opportunities to practice and improve their communication skills.
We consider the student's interests. Every year we pass out slips of paper. Students are asked to rank their interest in each department: lights, sound, backstage -- if they have specific interest within that department, we ask them to write that in as well (e.g. spot light operator, sound board operator).
Last year, the vast majority of our students got their first choice and a handful received their second.
We consider the experience of the student as relevant to each position.
Throughout the year we support many non-theatrical events and we encourage students to volunteer to work those events. Not only do they get experience working with professional performers, they get more hands-on time with equipment and procedures. It's also more time that we as advisors get to vet students' abilities.
We tend to discount previous experience outside of the school unless it can be verified by a trusted colleague or we've seen it firsthand. The skills learned at previous schools or theaters may transfer, but every theater program operates a bit differently. Just because you did a specific job at the last school doesn't automatically qualify you here.
Does the student work well with others? Throughout the build process and other events, we observe interactions between students and staff. If a pair of students work well together, maybe they'll be a good fit; if they're a distraction to each other perhaps we'll distance them.
Many positions require interacting with others, particularly with cast and band who might be several years older and have lots of experience in the arts. Is the student capable of being assertive without being rude? Sometimes we might pair a proficient student with an assertive student; between the two of them we'll have all the bases covered plus a degree of redundancy, and a lot of times we see an exchange of technical skills and social skills.
One of the hardest things to factor in is maturity.
Our students are typically 14-17 years old, each maturing socially at their own rate. A student's maturity is reflected by the factors discussed above -- and over four years it's easy to see the arc of their personal growth -- but there's no objective measure.
Some students are wise beyond their years at first meeting and are capable of working on their own, but our youngest students often require more direct guidance. With time and experience they require less and less assistance from staff, advisors, and peers. Some positions lends themselves naturally to having a pair of students, operating a sound board for example; the less redundancy a position has, the more important maturity is.
If a student isn't being challenged they may be prone to goofing off out of sheer boredom. Our student crew is also quite friendly and social with one another, which makes things harder to evaluate. It's really easy to underestimate students and even easier to relegate them to menial tasks, but I've found that's often a mistake. We have the unique opportunity to entrust students with more responsibilities and to see what happens; it's a hard call when deciding whether to do so for the first time during a major production, but I've been continually amazed with the performance of our students when they were given more challenging tasks and responsibilities.
All of these factors are considered.
There's no magic formula, no Excel spreadsheet or scoring system. We start with the more concrete factors like availability and age, then rule some assignments out based on others (e.g. fear of heights). We carefully consider the impact of each student on the production. My co-advisor and I end up putting the assignments together like a jigsaw puzzle, usually with pen and paper. It's not a quick exercise, we take it seriously, and every production is different.
Once we have a first cut we share it with our student leads in confidence. The student lighting director gets to look over those in the lighting assignments, backstage manager for backstage assignments, etc. Occasionally our student leads are aware of interpersonal issues that we as advisors aren't privy to (e.g. Joey cannot be in the same room as Rafael) and we may make adjustments.
Once the list is agreed upon, we notify all the students at once. We do this in person during one of our work nights. We usually allow our student leads to make the announcements for their respective departments.
As much as we want every student to get the assignment they desired, it's not always possible. There are only so many positions and we can't overstaff things without leaving other positions understaffed. We tell our students about the selection process up front and again before the assignments are announced. Every position is important even if it doesn't require complex equipment.
Assignments are final.
Last Modified: 2017-07-27
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