High School Production Schedule

[JHWelch]

So I am a high school technical director and would like to suggest some changes to the production schedule to make it more efficient and serve the students better. We've had some trouble in the past with tech elements not being completed in time, so I'm trying to have things done earlier and separated better. For example builds after school during the week, light hang on saturday.

I have several examples of schedules from college that worked well there, but was wondering if anyone had some tips or example calendars they'd like to share.

Also maybe tips on how to pitch the calendar. There are not firm calendars in place, so I think it shouldn't be too hard, but the more information I come with the better off I'll be.

Thanks.

 

[carproelsofly]

Around here the high schools all seem to have Saturday morning/afternoon "work parties" at which scenery, props, and costumes are built/altered/assembled.

IIRC, those work days usually start the week that rehearsals start, involve the cast, crew, and parents, go from 10am or 11am to 3pm or 4pm, and are "catered" by a rotating cast of parents.

This means scenery and props are available for rehearsal as soon as they are built, and costumes as they are needed.

Lighting, AFAIK, is taken care of in the evenings after rehearsal (by adults), but I would guess that could be worked into the same schedule if you have the right venue and adequate supervision.

HTH,
Jen

 

[josh88]

I have a class that works on shows too, but most of our work is done as an after school activity from 3-4. Cast rehearses and crew does whatever I decide I need them to do. Serves us pretty well for the fall production when the activity runs.


Via tapatalk

 

[TheaterEd]

My crew Builds in the shop from 3-5 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I have a student helper every other day, so he and I usually deal with lighting (I have a pretty solid rep plot). Actors rehearse Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 3-5 for general call, and dance rehearsals for the musical are Tuesday nights. This way the actors can still participate in tech on Tuesdays if they so desire.

 

[Skjermoney]

This may get a little long, sorry in advance. Hope it can be helpful.

We have auditions and start building 8 weeks before the show goes up. We build every day after school till 6 and most Saturdays; working around concerts, assemblies, and such. I'll usually do a morning and an afternoon session on Saturdays so that actors get a chance to help (we require 10 hours from them). 3 weekends before the show we get the stage and start loading in the set. The following week we will do set details and finish anything we didn't get to over the weekend. 2 weekends before the show we have light hang and a dry tech with our stagehands. The director is there and we get a final spike on everything and work through our scene shifts. During the next week I will start cueing and we work the actors into the scene shifts. On Monday we run Act I with stops, running each scene shift a couple times and adding in any actors that need to assist. Tuesday the director will focus on acting fixes for Act I. Wednesday/Thursday is the same for Act II. Friday we will run the whole show with preliminary light cues and costumes, stopping if necessary. The Saturday before the show we do two runs. One in the morning with full lights and costumes and a full dress in the afternoon, adding mics, SFX, and any other special elements. We have full dresses Sunday-Tuesday, have a matinee performance for our middle school Wednesday morning and open to the public on Thursday.

We are very fortunate, however, to have a full time TD, scene shop, and strong support from our administration and district so YMMV. As far as pitching it goes, I was lucky to walk into my situation. All I can tell you is that my predecessor is a world class schmoozer

 

[Chris Chapman]

For a six week build, I run shop after school from 2:45-5:00. Generally we add 2-3 Saturday builds from 10 AM - 5 PM over the course of the build, and we get pizza for the students for the weekend builds. Generally we get completed on time, but occasionally we have run into issues even with that build schedule.

 

[spydan]

At my school, we meet after school on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday every week from the start of the school year until the week of the show (we meet every day the week of the show). The meetings go from the end of school (2:40) to 4:30. This works pretty well for us since we have a fairly large crew. We meet the Saturday before the show for tech day to set all cues (and to run through the entire show once). I hang lights during regular meetings after I already develop my plot at home. During the light hang, I just have everyone work somewhere on the stage that isn't under the bar I'm working on and I can usually finish electric per day.

Hope that info helps, let me know if you would like to know anything else

 

[SHCP]

Our stage crew meets Monday Tuesday and Friday from 2:30 to 6pm. Our Lighting crew meets on Wednesday, and our Costume/Publicity crew meets Thursdays at the same times. I don't have crew build on Saturdays (That is my time to get things done if I need to), and I work with Parent volunteers on Sundays. The Fall crews are responsible for all shows from September to the end of January (Fall play, Winter chorus and orchestra) and the Spring crews (we have signups again in January) work the Musical, Spring Chorus, Spring Orchestra and Dance show. They also will work whatever event or presentation goes on in-between shows, like our Spoken Word event and ASL show.

We have quite a few kids in the program, so one thing I do for Lighting and Sound is train the Freshmen on using the board, and let them start working setting and adjusting cues during the Performers rehearsals, even if it just generals and blackouts. This way they get experience and the rehearsals get basic lights and sound early to help incorporate effects into the shows.