Hum, well, at my school there isn't any real teacher TD, we've got a teacher who is in charge of the arts department, and he does a lot of sound work (and is also the band teacher, and also a composer and musician,
etc). However, he is never at any rehearsals, so it always falls to me, because of lack of any one else, to become the TD. Now, first it must be said that my school is extremely tinny. We've got 9 kids in the 10th grade (the grade that im in) around 40 in the entire high school, and 140 or so from Pre-K to 12th grade. I'm in 10th grade, and this is my second year at the school. Last year I was given an over-view of the lighting by a graduating senior who would run the lights. This was great, as my main interest is lights (of corse she showed me how to run the lights for the
first rehearsal, and when it came time for the show she put me in charge of it, I was a little freaked out about it....)
However, there is no one in the high school who can run sounds. For the last show of the year (last year), I was put in charge of sound without anyone really teaching me anything about sound. I knew that you pull the slider up to get the sound, and push it down to kill the sound, but that was really all i knew. As expected, the show sounded HORRIBLE. (after that i was shown basically how the sound board works, ex.
EQing, mixing, and the other basic stuff).
That was my entire
introduction to my schools theater set-up, as there was really no one else who did tech.
OK, back to the
point of this post:
I am really the only person at my school who will go out of his way to work on something tech. I'm the only person who doesn't mind staying 2 hours after rehearsal is over to help put up the set, or run cables, or do whatever else needs to be done. Because of this, I am respected as a techie. Im in 10th grade, and I am the TD/SM/LD, as well as some other things. On my tech crew I've got a senior. And it is that simple, he respects my judgment and that I will do the right thing (hopefully) so he will listen to me. HE is going to end up as my ASM (mainly because I need someone to tell the run crew what to do, and then run crew needs to respect him). On sound I am going to have 2 kids who have worked sound for the past 3 or 4 plays, and they are currently in 8th grade. They completely outrank me in the sound department. On follow-spots i'm going to have a 10th grader and an 8th grader, and at least 90% of my run-crew is going to be 8th graders.
What must be remembered is that there are 8th graders who are better at doing things then some seniors are, and that just because there in 8th grade, or that I'm in 10th grade does not mean that a senior outranks me. I am lucky at my school, as everyone (including the teachers and students) knows that I'm a good techie (I can't count the number of times teachers come up to me during a break and ask me if i can get this movie, or this
image to project on a wall in the next 10 minuets...).
Do not just say that they are not as good as you because there froshes. cause they might be just as good or better, in some areas. Now, from the majority of the post, I can tell that they acutely are completely out of it, and have no idea what they are doing, but if one of them is competent, then give him/her a chance to show it.
I know that this was a really long way of saying it, and has a lot of useless info about me (sorry, I just woke up), but don't just assume that they know nothing because of there age. A month ago I was talking to a 6th grader about an
effect I was trying to do, because she had some experience with dry ice
smoke.
I hope that this made sense, as I said I just woke up....