High School TD's

[Tex]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

Sorry for the continued hijack...
For those of you who know or have been a full-time TD at a high school, how big are those programs? How many shows per year? Do they offer tech theatre classes? If so, who teaches them? Do those TD's also design?
I handle all the auditorium management and TD all events at our school plus teach a full load of classes. If all I had to do was manage the auditorium and TD events two or three times a week, I would have a lot of free time compared to my current schedule. I'm guessing that those schools with a full time TD do an event or show pretty much every night?

 

[Sony]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

Sorry for the continued hijack...
For those of you who know or have been a full-time TD at a high school, how big are those programs? How many shows per year? Do they offer tech theatre classes? If so, who teaches them? Do those TD's also design?
I handle all the auditorium management and TD all events at our school plus teach a full load of classes. If all I had to do was manage the auditorium and TD events two or three times a week, I would have a lot of free time compared to my current schedule. I'm guessing that those schools with a full time TD do an event or show pretty much every night?

We do 13 shows each school year, about 2 per month, and that's not including the music department and outside events,. The TD does teach ONE class in technical theatre. None of our staff design anything unless we have to, as many of our shows as possible are Student designed and student directed.

We don't do shows every night...but we don't slack off, all of our free time is spent building the set for the next show. We don't do cheapo "high school" sets ether...we build full professional level sets with moving parts and pieces. For Sunday in the Park with George for example we had 6 flown portals that moved in and out and a stage floor that split center and rolled off stage with actors on it. In one scene the entire set became a giant projector screen using our Christie Digital HD10K-M projector we have mounted on the back wall. We have a full compliment of scrollers and other accessories like right arms and gobo rotators.

Yes I would say we are not your typical high school theatre, but I do know of other high schools with full time Technical Directors like ourselves who only do theatre stuff.

 

[Tex]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

We do 13 shows each school year, about 2 per month, and that's not including the music department and outside events,. The TD does teach ONE class in technical theatre. None of our staff design anything unless we have to, as many of our shows as possible are Student designed and student directed.

We don't do shows every night...but we don't slack off, all of our free time is spent building the set for the next show. We don't do cheapo "high school" sets ether...we build full professional level sets with moving parts and pieces. For Sunday in the Park with George for example we had 6 flown portals that moved in and out and a stage floor that split center and rolled off stage with actors on it. In one scene the entire set became a giant projector screen using our Christie Digital HD10K-M projector we have mounted on the back wall. We have a full compliment of scrollers and other accessories like right arms and gobo rotators.

Yes I would say we are not your typical high school theatre, but I do know of other high schools with full time Technical Directors like ourselves who only do theatre stuff.

How is the non-teaching staff paid? In Texas, staff numbers are based on enrollment. You get so many "staff" or "teacher" units per x number of students. After that, booster money or other raised funds may be used for additional staff (private lessons, pianist, etc.)
How many kids are in your program? Are they all students at your school?

 

[Scarrgo]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

The District that I work for has 3 Full time people; Director, TD,ATD/Scenic Designer.

We support 2 high schools, 4 Middle(6-9 grade), 8 elementary schools. Population of around 11 thousand students. We do not teach any classes.
There is a mega church that rents our space every sunday and holidays that we support lighting wise.
There is a staff of about 14 students that are paid to work all events, that we teach how to run our equipment.
Sean...

To the OP, as others have said, keep a written account of what has been said/done by you about safety concerns in your space. And remember, all info must be transparent, to show that every thing is above water, no bashing, just facts, no matter how you feel.
Good Luck, Not a pleasant place to be...

 

[Sony]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

How is the non-teaching staff paid? In Texas, staff numbers are based on enrollment. You get so many "staff" or "teacher" units per x number of students. After that, booster money or other raised funds may be used for additional staff (private lessons, pianist, etc.)
How many kids are in your program? Are they all students at your school?

I have don't really know how our money is received or divided (never liked getting into the politics of that stuff) although we are considered regular staff, not adjunct or aides, we have close to 100 students in our program and they are all students at our school.

 

[Tex]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

I have don't really know how our money is received or divided (never liked getting into the politics of that stuff) although we are considered regular staff, not adjunct or aides, we have close to 100 students in our program and they are all students at our school.

No politics involved. The state decides how much per student and how many teachers/professional staff per x number of students. It's simple math. I was really more interested to see if the salaries for the non-teaching staff are from district payroll or department funds.
I have facilities similar to yours; mine are about 6 years old but still similar. Our class enrollment is about 200 (Texas requires all students to have a fine arts credit to graduate). I have about 50 truly dedicated students. I had 120 cast and crew for the musical. I just can't imagine trying to do that many shows in the course of a school year, but then again I'm pretty much a one-man show. Three directed by me and usually one or two student directs. One other person who really knew what they were doing would allow me to add a couple more productions. Maybe next year...
Thanks for the information. It's always enlightening to see how things are done in other parts of the country.

 

[Sony]

Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)

No problem, we have 3 major faculty/staff in our performing arts department, 2 are full time and then myself who is part time but we have at least 2 other part time staff who come in and help when they are needed. There are also a few other faculty members who like to help out.

The three major staff are myself the Assistant Technical Director, The Technical Director, and then the head of our section is our Executive Producer who teaches all of our acting and directing classes. The TD teaches one technical theatre class as well as stage crew with myself after school. I usually only come in in the afternoon's and work with after school stuff. On top of us 3 we have a musical director that only comes in during the large musicals and another person who comes in and helps with directing and acting classes.

The other thing is our school is a mostly vocational high school, so a lot of our budget goes into vocational tech. That includes us the performing arts center as well as a full auto shop, carpentry shop, engineering, "greengeneering" (they produce biodiesel and design environmentally friendly products,) architecture, television production (we have a full TV studio,) visual arts (pottery, painting...etc) and graphic arts

 

[ruinexplorer]

Since a similar discussion has occurred in another thread, I have moved posts from that thread here so as to keep things on track. So if some of the discussion seems slightly off topic, that's why. At least I kept their title the same so you should know which ones came from the other discussion.

 

[milan]

I wanted to weigh in on the TD in High Schools issue. I am now in my 3rd year after being added to this high school. There is no Performing Arts Department for drama or a way to solve "my way or the highway" issues with picky teachers. (sigh) But, when I arrived, I took on the job of TD for the PAC because no one else knew anything about maintenance short of telling the janitors to vacuum the house.

Ok, I'm stretching the truth a bit. My coworkers are learning.

Anyway, we have a PAC that runs many shows requested from the district, shows brought in by disctrict and district related events, and rentals from various entities. There is only a manager and technical manager(myself) to supervise and run the PAC. So I have the honor to TD and do any design/construction/build for the plays and select other designs.
So that is work on one-act, drama play, musical, show choir concert, lighting one community theatre show, and then enough rentals to ensure I don't have a life outside of the school!

I never had this kind of training in HS and wish I did. But at least I can let my students in on the amazing work that can be created in a theatre.

 

[lwinters630]

The choices for the question do not match the question. There should be an option for yes my high school has a a tech director / auditorium manager who is knowledgeable in Theater. At our school this is not a teacher, nor is it a custodial staff, it is full time auditorium.

 

[DaveySimps]

You do realize you are responding to a poll over 2 1/2 years old right? In this case, it does not further the discussion.

~Dave

 

[MPowers]

Where in Okla? I spent my early High school time at OKC NE. Do you have a situation where an outside comment or note could help?

 

[JonasA]

As an Australian, this is an interesting discussion to watch. Although most larger schools here have a performance space of some description (ranging from a drama room with a little stage to 1,000 seat auditoriums with limited flying capabilities), I know of only two schools in Melbourne which employ a technician/venue manager/TD part or full time. Because we have a lot of community theatres, our school venues are usually smaller and don't have the outside client use, so there's a greatly reduced need for such a role.

Personally, we had a music teacher who was also an semi-professional lighting tech/designer who supervised the student crew, but with 24 dimmers and three working mics she usually just let the students run riot. Nobody ever cared about the quality of our work anyway...

 

[agbobeck]

In Montgomery County, Maryland every high school has a Media Services Technician (MST) who is responsible for the management of the TV Studio, Theater, and all other media related systems in the school. They supervise the rentals of the facility and make sure everything is working correctly. at some schools, the MST also serves as the TD (or Stage Director as they are officially called), however at many schools, including mine, the TD is a part time position responsible for the technical side of the productions. The MST is not involved with the school's shows except to insure everything in the space works.

 

[gafftaper]

I just took a job as a theater manager in a high school PAC. I don't actually start for a couple weeks, so I don't know a lot yet. The job is apparently funded from several sources. It is not a teaching position as hired, although I am certified and that may change in the future. The position supports the Drama program, but not in the way a true TD does as there are other duties. I'll report back in a couple months when I better understand the situation.