College theatre shops hiring students

[skienblack]

At my college, the theatre shop hires between 10 and 15 students a semester to work between 10 and 15 hours a week to work on scenery and electrics. The students they hire are almost always some variety of tech theatre majors. Obviously students still have to complete classes that may involve working in the shop or on shows, but is this practice of hiring students usual practice?

 

[Footer]

Paid I assume?

At the college I attended, every tech major had to work a mandatory 8 hours a week in a given shop. All freshman had to work a semester in the costume shop and a semester in the scene shop (yes I can sew very well because of it). Each shop also had work study positions that you got paid to work. If you could get a work study position, any hours you did over your 8 counted towards that.

I know of a few schools that pay everyone that works in the show. Granted its minimum wage, but its something.

Many grad schools hire their graduate students to work in a shop instead of teaching like other majors require.

 

[skienblack]

Paid I assume?

At the college I attended, every tech major had to work a mandatory 8 hours a week in a given shop. All freshman had to work a semester in the costume shop and a semester in the scene shop (yes I can sew very well because of it). Each shop also had work study positions that you got paid to work. If you could get a work study position, any hours you did over your 8 counted towards that.

I know of a few schools that pay everyone that works in the show. Granted its minimum wage, but its something.

Many grad schools hire their graduate students to work in a shop instead of teaching like other majors require.

Students have to apply to work in the shop, though if any tech student is good enough to call themselves a techie they are more than likely able to get a job in the shop. And yes the positions are paid, starting at like $9 an hour.

 

[Footer]

any tech student is good enough to call themselves a techie they are more than likely able to get a job in the shop.

Rant...

Not in my shop they wouldn't. I don't hire techies. I hire carpenters. I hate that word...

 

[skienblack]

Rant...

Not in my shop they wouldn't. I don't hire techies. I hire carpenters. I hate that word...

In response to your rant another rant;
I used the word techie since the students who are hired are either primarily electricians or technical theatre students(painters or carpenters). So while I agree the word "techie" may understate the profession as a whole, it does serve the purpose of describing the role in a technical theatre environment, such as this.

 

[derekleffew]

Use of the t***ie word should cease immediately upon leaving high school.

Most university theatre department have a budget of work/study funds. How they use the money varies greatly. In addition to scene and electrics shop techs, they also need a dependable work force in costumes and management/box office. The practice is slightly discriminatory, in my opinion, as they don't pay students to be actors, directors, or dramaturgs.

Forcing a directing-major graduate student to build scenery seems at best incongruous, but maybe that's just me.

 

[epimetheus]

The college I attended (Texas A&M, College Station) hired a ton of student workers in the theater/special events department. Student workers were used for everything from ushers to electrics, sound to spot ops. I think I made $6.50 an hour. Most of the student workers at A&M were not theater/tech theater majors. Working as a student worker in the theater was one of the more enjoyable parts of my college experience. Nothing like a load out finishing at 3am followed by a load in call at 5am. Occasionally I could work 40 hours just on Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday.

 

[BrianWolfe]

At my undergraduate university(no grad students) the tech classes and intro to theatre classes required work hours from the students. The school also paid work study money to a group of students who did the large share of building and running the 6 shows a year. We were paid 16 hours max even though we often worked many more during tech weeks (my worst week was 102 hours).

In graduate school many of us got huge work study stipends to pay for our tuition and room in return we built and ran the shows. We usually ran the departments(props, painting, tech. direction, costumes, etc) while we had a few undergrads who were paid for their time under us and tech class students doing required work under them.

I think having a director or acting student doing a stint on a crew was extremely educational for them. After working with us for a show their attitudes about our work and importance to a show really changed.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

I used the word techie since the students who are hired are either primarily electricians or technical theatre students(painters or carpenters).

Then they are either Electricians, Scenic Painters or Carpenters.

 

[photoatdv]

Or general technicians...

 

[soundlight]

The school that I go to hires students for three crews: SSE (Scene, Sound and Electrics), Props and Paints, and Costume Shop. Scene, Sound and Electrics crew is what I do: we build the sets, do the light rigs, and do whatever sound setup is necessary for shows. Run crews are not paid, but get a quarter credit (here each full class is one "credit") for each show they work on. Certain technical theatre classes are required to work hours in the scene shop and/or for light rigs.

There are also "THEA101" credits (same type of credit given for run crew) in the shop, which are quarter credits given for 40 hours in the shop. A lot of people do one or more THEA101s before being employed in the shop. SSE employees work 8 hours a week, or more depending on the week and what needs to get done, but 8 hours is standard.

 

[masterelectrician2112]

What colleges besides A & M are all of you talking about? I would like to major in technical theater, so this is all great information for me.

 

[icewolf08]

I went to Ithaca. They hire some students as shop assistants in all the shops: lighting, scenery, sound and costumes. These students managed the shops, helped with shows, and some even helped with classes (like TAs). I was the sound shop supervisor for two years. I did equipment maintenance, pulled shop orders, helped the sound engineers, etc. It was a great way to make a little money and be more involved in the department.

 

[Footer]

We also had a road house on campus that kept about 6 or 7 SM's on staff (none of which where tech theatre majors) and about 50 other people on staff. It worked like any other road house... some weeks there was a ton of work... some weeks there was none. I worked occasionaly... it was decent money.

I was also the TD of one of our venues on campus that belonged to the theatre dept. For that, I also got paid but there was no more then about 60 hours in any given semester. It was basically working outside events and such.

 

[mrtrudeau23]

My school (UWSP) also hires between 8-10 techs to work in the scene shop (me included). It's get hands on experience and working over practicum students and under our shop manager helps you get an idea of how a shop is supposed to run. Plus it always looks good on the resume!

 

[MarshallPope]

At my university, we have three categories of Theatre (min. wage) workstudy jobs. There are a few students who work in the box office and a few in the Shop (most of the students on both of these are Theatre majors) and there are six of us who work in our PAC - this includes the annual opera and musical as well as numerous concerts and weekly Chapel services, etc. Most of us are not theatre majors, but did theatre in high school or have some other interest in it.

 

[photoatdv]

I'm going to add one about my new college job. I just got off from a shift at our campus road house. Pretty much there's 3-4 students (me included) that work there plus a bunch of freelance guys/gals (a few of which are also experienced students). The hours for this one are nuts because we also cover onsite security during the run of a show... so we have people working (one or more of our people... not the same one) 24/7 for up to a month on some shows. I literally just got off from a load out call (its in the wee hours of the morning) and there are 2 more shifts following me. On the awesome side I did get a cool crew t-shirt from this show for cheap (compared to normal show merch anyways).

Going to bed now .

 

[echnaret]

At my college (Hope College in Michigan), we have a lighting crew (also takes care of sound), a scenic crew, and a costume shop. I'm not sure about the other two, but lighting gets paid by the hour, exact amount is based on how much you experience you have. I believe our stage managers get a stipend. Actors and student designers can get college credit. Anyone with an interest can work on the lighting/scenic/costume crews.

 

[Kenien]

Im currently attending city tech in nyc, and over here you can do some shop work with work study and make at or right above minimum wage, but most of the crew work is done as a class worth one, soon to be two, credits.

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