Flyman's a difficult one, because you can't put anyone on there, but can you move your
desk op onto flys? They may crack the sads about not getting to do
desk, but when it comes down to the
line, there's a lot more danger with flys than the
desk and you need the most responsible person on it. I had a similar problem to you in that several of our senior techs have recently graduated and with me leaving this year I needed to make sure there's going to be someone to replace me. The solution?
Young performers. Juniors/Year 7's or 8's are too young to be in
orchestra/symphonic band/musical cast at my school, but they desperately want to be, so I drag them into the crew. They're delighted because they get to be a part of the show in some way and you
pick up kids who are very dedicated.
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On a side note, this raises a problem we often
face as high school techs: Succession planning, or lack thereof. It seems that in a lot of schools without a formal
theatre tech class or something similar, often you get a lone or small group of techs who become proficient and take up a lot of responsibility, but then graduate and leave behind a vacuum which is hard to fill. What's everyone doing to ensure this doesn't happen?
I personally have picked the two students who have said they want to replace me, and while I'm always trying to up-skill everyone on the crew, I'm particularly mentoring these two and making sure they know all the ins-and-outs they need to so they can successfully keep shows on the
stage well after I'm gone, and hopefully later do the same for another kid. It's a
bit of a challenge for me, but they love it. People are welcome to argue that this is favoritism, but I know that many of my techs have no desire (or ability!) to lead our crew, and I'm not going to make them step up to that job if it's not the right move for them.