Hola All

[thommyboy]

Love this site. So much information and experience to draw from. I am the TD at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, IL. We put up 7 productions in a normal season: Fall, Winter IHSA Contest Drama, Group Interp, Spring Musical, Freshman Play, Sr. Directed One Acts.

I teach electricity, electronics, and our pre-engineering course.
Proud grad of the Illinois State University Design and Production program as well as their Theatre Education program.

Member of the Executive Committee for the Largest Non-Competitive High School Theatre festival in country (possibly 2nd to the FL Thespians we are looking into that)

Love my job, love working with the kids, hate administrative BS.

 

[Van]

Welcome Aboard ! I think you'll find several compatriots in the eductional world here. Lots of us have spent time in the trenches attempting to educate the masses. All Hail the Administrative BS ... or else.

 

[gafftaper]

Welcome Thommy... I spent 4 years dealing with H.S. B.S. at a school that was 60% on Welfare... good times! Loved the kids and always felt like I was doing something great for the world. But the constant banging of my head against the wall got old. Now I'm banging my head against the wall at the college level. Nicer theater, larger budget, same headaches.

 

[thorin81]

Welcome Thommy! As a fellow HS teacher - you will find a lot of really useful stuff here as well as a lot of knowledgeable people. I will have to second Van's sentiment: All Hail the Administrative B.S. - or else! Good to see more educators on board!!

 

[Grog12]

Welcome welcome

 

[PadawanGeek]

Hey man welcome to CB

 

[Spikesgirl]

Welcome on board - Thommy! Admins can suck pretty big rocks at time. used to work in education theater and now in the real world - work twice as hard for half as much. it's almost(alomst) enough to make me miss admins!

 

[Chris15]

Welcome to the controlled (mostly) chaos we call Controlbooth.

Good to see more educators on board!!

One could argue that we are all educating each other and hence are all educators... How successfully one could do that is another matter...

 

[thorin81]

One could argue that we are all educating each other and hence are all educators... How successfully one could do that is another matter...

Yes, but if I wanted the whole process to come down to semantics I would not have written at all now, would I?

 

[thommyboy]

So, what are your thoughts on H.S. crews? How do you run your program? What is the breakdown of students like?

I run my program like an benevolent dictator! I am a very large proponent for the balanced technician. My students will have exposure to the largest variety of design styles; boxed unit, representative/minimalist, wing and drop, tracked/wagoned...and that was just this year!
When it comes to production assignments no single student will have the same position twice in one season. Having just finished our spring musical I can give the break down there.
SM - Sr. | ASM SR - JR | ASM LR - Soph
SB Op - Soph/Soph | LB op/programing - Soph/Fr

I was REALLY disturbed when I found out that our sister school in our district hired out a person to mix their musical - and not a single student even shadowed him. Hired out a person to come in and design the plot and cue the show though I think that they did have a shadow on this.

This year's crew was slightly smaller than in the last few years - about 20 or so. Mostly Soph, luckily I am only loosing 3 Seniors this year.