What do you do when a director wants to be in the booth?

[nate]

Ok ya'll. I have three years experience as SM at our high school. I call the cues to the booth and my crew backstage. What you need to do is convince your director that you are trustworthy and that he/she is not needed in the booth. Our director happens to be very knowledgeable about all aspects of theatre, so he goes to the booth to help if he is needed. Otherwise, he is in the house.

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by Eboy87

gafftaper, just a quick question out of curiosity, how would you suggest I (SM) would deal with a director who sits in the house during the show with a headset, get's lost in the script, continues to think she calls the show, and gets my entire crew screwed up because she's undermining the cues I'm calling? I don't mean it to sound like I'm disagreeing with you, but just am intrigued. Also, this person is renting out the theater and we (the techies) are being paid for our work.

As a side note, I tried talking with her to not call the cues from the house, but she dismissed me as a stupid student (i was a junior at the time). We wound up having a yelling match, and neither one was satisfied.

Since I want to do this for a living, how would you suggest handling this situation?

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this... I wasn't paying attention to this forum. I spent several years as a High School Drama teacher. I was the rare one who actually knows something about tech. The majority of Drama teachers are really English teachers who are in way over their head and don't have a clue about how a professional theater is run.

Good High School tech students tend to be very passionate about their work. They take each show very personally. They work long hard hours for nothing but pride in return. They like to push themselves to do the most professional job they can under the often difficult circumstances... does any of this sound familiar?

The problem is that you are still in high school. As professional as you try to work, in the end the theater is a classroom and you are not the person in charge. Even though you know more about the tech than your teacher, the teacher is still the boss of the “classroom”. As I said before, hopefully you can work together, they trust you, listen to you, and give you the respect you deserve. But if they insist on doing it their way... your choice is to live with it or not be on the crew anymore. In the end you have to remember it’s not your booth, it's not your show, it's not your theater.

Then there are the people who don't know anything about tech. However, they assume you are just a dumb kid and can't be trusted to do it right. So the won't listen to you no matter what you say. A lot of people around your high school building enjoy the authority of being a teacher and aren't willing to admit they don't know anything. Sorry... that's just how it is in high school.

This starts to sound really unfair... but here's the really crappy part. The skill of biting your tongue and doing your best to keep someone who doesn't have a clue from failing is necessary in the real world too. If you can't work with a difficult director who has crazy ideas about how you should do your job you are in the wrong field my friend. They are everywhere in the professional world too.

As for the specific problem of what do you do when someone is destroying their own show with their own incompetence... There are only three things you can do. Bite your tongue. Politely suggest another option. Live with what they decide. If your getting paid to do a job and the person doesn't want it done the right way, you have to be able to reach a point you can say "I can only do so much and it's not my problem if they want to fail".

I just had this problem a few months ago with someone renting the theater I work at. They refused to use the house sound system because they had an "expert" bringing in a portable sound system. The "expert" didn't have a clue, and the system was crap. For a jazz concert they wanted to preset all the mic levels and just leave the mixer on stage where no one could adjust it during the show. I tried to get them to use the house system but they didn't want to. So, I held my tongue and proposed the next best solution... we ran the mixer behind the upstage curtain so that I could at least make some adjustments. I ended up standing in the back of the house using clearcom to call changes in the sound mix to a guy sitting up stage center behind a curtain. It was stupid. But I was working for them and in the end it wasn't my show. You’ve got to learn to try your hardest to help and be willing to settle for "I did my very best and if it sucks it isn't my fault". This of course can be a trap because it's easy to not work hard if you think it's just going to be a disaster.

One last thing. I'm not saying that you are like this at all... I don't know you. However, many High School Tech students fall into a trap and get over confident and arrogant about their skills. They think they know everything because they can aim an instrument, record a cue, call a show, play back a sound effect, or build a flat. Those are all important beginning points. But it’s rare for a high school student to even begin to master the basics. Remember that you are a student and this is a learning experience. Every veteran tech around here can tell you a horror story about "this guy who thought he knew everything". Remember Every day is an opportunity to learn something new. Although I've been doing tech for about 20 years, I'm far from what I consider an expert. If you think you know everything about your job in theater, I can tell you with 100% accuracy you don't.

When I read the posts from Ship I always go "wow this guy knows everything". Hey Ship... do you know everything? My guess is he'll say "No, I learn something new every day and with every show". I also bet he can tell you stories about lot's of guys who thought they new everything refused to listen and no longer have a job.

So let me wrap up my lecture… yes I talked too much in the classroom too… by saying this. High school Theater is a wonderful place to start your tech career but it’s only a beginning. You have a lot of things to learn about theater and many of them have nothing to do with pressing the pretty buttons. Often the most important lessons learned in High School are about dealing with people you can’t stand. Feeling unchallenged, go find a community theater to volunteer for… they are always desperate for help. NEVER say, “I know how to do that,” say “What’s your procedure for doing that at this theater?” Get into a college program and learn some theory… it’ll blow your mind how little you know right now. I’m sorry you weren’t on my high school crew. They were all very special people to me and they kicked some serious butt back stage. Which reminds me I promised them a reunion party this spring… I better start planning.

[tenor_singer]

I need to set the stage for my answer, so please be patient.

High Schools that offer any form of drama curriculum are VERY rare (at least in the state of Ohio they are). Curricular drama programs are not required for state certified diplomas (unlike the 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, etc...). With this in mind, they are the first items cut when times become economically tough OR are never really initiated to begin with. This leads to most drama programs being offered as extracurricular activities staffed by teachers, many of whom may not have any knowledge about theater art, but who might have acted in a production or two in college or community theater.

As gafftaper (I really enjoyed your post, by the way) said... since drama programs are mostly offered as an extracurricular program, the experience of your advisor will fluctuate highly depending upon your school circumstances. Some schools in my area are very supportive of their arts programs and have multiple advisorships (for lack of a better word) available... Director, Asst. Director, Music Director, Choreographer, Technical Director, etc. At most schools, though, there is but one... the "drama club advisor".

Because of this, the drama advisor, by necessity, is required to wear many different hats. They not only direct the production, but also produce it, design sets for it, construct sets for it, plot the lighting and sound for it, design costumes for it, market it, fund it (usually by running a seperate fundraiser).......

This means that when the tech crews are finished for the night aiming lights, the advisor is on to another committee meeting or rehearsal. When the stage construction crew is finished, the advisor is going home and working for several hours on the fundraiser (ours us usually selling advertisement space in our program). Long story... long (sorry)... the drama advisor works very long work weeks (my family refers to me as the stranger who invades the house every now and then).

I don't say this so that we can feel sorry for them. That is the complete opposite of what I am trying to point out. What I am saying, though, is that people in positions of authority who work long hours on projects take an ownership of them and are often times loath to turn over control when the time comes for them to actually do so. It is a hard weakness to overcome. My Stage manager is Nate here on the boards. I am very confident in his abilities to manage a show (I was ever since he, as a sophomore fledgeling stage manager, confronted a senior for refering to my wife as a ... B#$%# when I wasn't around to hear). However... I still tend to try to run things during the show. I have to concentrate to give ownership of the production over to the appropriate student positions to run because at heart... I'm a control freak... made doubly worse by the incredibly long hours I worked on the production. This is probably what is happening with your director.

What can you do to stop it. I know that if I am calling a show or running the sound or lights or am sitting in the booth... this means that sometime during the technical rehearsals happened that shook my confidence with the people in the technical positions. You need to be sure that you are completely competent with your job AND demonstrate this competence on a daily basis. I have had years where I have had extremely knowledgeable students running tech, who also had bad habits of leaving the booth to go get a drink or go to the restroom. Whatthis lead to was me sitting in the booth because I wasn't confident enough that they would be there when a cue was called...usually because cues were often missed during tech week.

A second thing that you can try... Sometimes people are doing annoying things and have zero clue that they are doing so. If her calling the show is upsetting to you, don't be afraid to ask... why are you calling the show when it is my responsibility to do so? Have I done something wrong? What can I do to gain your confidence in me? This is a hard thing to do because it will involve you as a student taking in a very mature fashion to an adult in a position of authority. Be very diplomatic. Don't approach your director and say... "listen... I am sick of it when you call cues over my calls". The person will instantly be defensive and nothing will be gained. Instead say "Mr. or Mrs. so and so... I have created a cue book for the show. Will you go over it with me so that I can be sure that all of the cues that I will be calling as your stage manager are in the proper place?" This will let them see that (1) you are organized and that (2) you want to call the show. Maybe they will then give up a tad more of their ownership.

I think I have rambled enough for one day. I hope that this helps. I will post more ideas later.

[gafftaper]

Very well said Tenor Singer... I was a lucky one. I got to teach two History classes, One begining Drama class, one stage craft class, and one advanced drama class. When I was done with my rehearsals I had to drive home 45 minutes, fix dinner, try to spend a few minutes of quality time with my wife and then spend 3 or 4 hours working on lecture notes and grading papers for my history classes.

[saxman0317]

Im in the exacta same boat. As long as they let you do your job thats fine, but you may need to talk to them about it. For Julius Caesar, our director blamed me for everything including lines untill i told him to leave the deck. He got really mad, but the idea of me telling him that i needed to do my job and that if the SM trusted me, he could seemed to get him to understand

[What Rigger?]

Kick 'em the F out, and lock the door. Simple!

[Hughesie]

Eh what the hell let them sit there

it's sometimes funny and you can watch them lose it at other um er

Objects (actors)

[thebikingtechie]

I don't know how to ask a director to leave but I can say that it is really distracting for me when the director stands over me. She has a really comanding personality and our booth is tiny. I think if I asked her to leave I would never touch the board again.

[What Rigger?]

When all else fails: FART! LOUDLY! REPEATEDLY! I swear to ever-lovin' God, this does work.

[jonhirsh]

Its there show in every sense, this includes technical aspects. If they want to sit in the booth then its there right.

JH