Losing interest in tech theater

[andyw3]

Over the past few months, I have had some pretty awful experiences with two directors at my school (one theater and one dance choreographer/director). They're requests were essentially beyond not only my ability but the abilities of the system we have in place (I do lighting). These experiences really got me thinking, where do I want to bring this skill and (former) passion of mine in the future? I've been doing tech for three years now (I'm a junior in High School) and, up until this point, I've been quite passionate about it. Although I plan on studying pharmacy in college, I had always had continuing doing tech as an idea in the back of my head. However, at this point not only do I not want to do tech in college, I really don't want to do tech my Senior year simply because I'll have to deal with the same two nutjobs again. Sadly, though, I feel like I'll have to do it because I will be by far the most experienced techie on the crew next year.
*sigh*
What do you guys think about losing interest in tech? Do you know of anything that might rekindle my desire to be up in the booth?

 

[cpf]

Get new directors? But seriously, if you're working under no-fun people, nothing will make it better. You might just have to stick with it till you graduate and have the luxury of deciding who you do, and do not want to work with.

 

[zmb]

I've done lighting design non-stop since the start of the year at the junior high and high school level and I'm a junior too. As fun, challenging, and frustrating as it can be, I'm glad to be on the last show of the school year and just need a break from tech. And directors asking what's beyond the abilities of your systems and then being unsatsified when you respond why it won't work is a fact of life I've realized.

 

[ruinexplorer]

I did technical theater in HS. I even acted once or twice (though I found that I had more fun on the dark side, so I did that more, not even auditioning). Anyhow, I never saw myself working in theater as a profession, I just had fun doing it. There were times that I enjoyed it less, but I had always put my whole self into making the magic, which is what made it "fun". My senior year, when ironically I was most involved, was the year that I was least interested in production. Part of the spark left with some of my upper classmate friends. Part was due to the lack of challenge. I stepped back a bit, but didn't quit. More than 20 years later, unitentionally, I am still working in the field.

You have a challenge which seems to frustrate you to the point of losing interest. What we do is magic. The directors, stage managers, performers, and audience don't understand what we do and how we do it. They also don't understand the limitations with what we can do. It is our duty to keep it magical and give them something that comes close to what they want. This is where we have to figure it out, no matter how frustrating or seemingly impossible it may seem.

Since I am pretty old school, let me give you an example. Working on a two scene preset console, it was difficult to get fast lighting changes (especially when some of the other theaters had those new fangled computerized consoles). What we ended up doing was, obviously, writing down all of the levels (for every channel) so that we could recreate the look every night. But if we had to make fast changes, it was impossible to read those sheets and set the levels in a short amount of time needed for dance or musicals. So, we would take posterboard, cut it to the length of the console, set the faders to the position we needed, then cut the poster board to fit just below those faders. That way, you would have snapshots of all your cues and you could do the fancy cues normally prohibited by the type of console we had. That wasn't something that was told to us, but a way we figured to use what we had to create what was asked of us.

On a larger level, look at many threads on this forum in the way we figure out how to do what is asked of us when we don't have the budget of Broadway. There are projector dousers made from old computer CD drives. There are tons of set building solutions. It often just takes some imagination and sometimes brainstorming with others to make the magic. Don't be discouraged by not being able to create the same effect seen on GLEE, but accept the challenge on how to make just as cool of an effect with what you do have.

The community will help.

 

[LightTamer]

Been there, done that. Half the people that come into my school's auditorium want some crazy lights or sound that our system just simply can't do. I just calmly explain to them why it can't be done, offer an alternative, if i can think of one, and then move on... Theatre tech is a lot of fun, even if you don't like the show or the people you work with. Many Theatre projects can't run without a tech guy that knows what he's doing. I'd say just explain to them that you don't have the resources to do what they want, and then if the budget allows, maybe offer them the equipment to do what they'd like.

 

[joeyfergie]

I've had a lot of times when people ask me to do something as a LD which is just not possible due to the gear we have. Usually at times like this I tell directors or whoever that it is all possible, followed by roughly how much it would cost to do that. When people see how expensive fancy stuff is, they usually will then tend to lean away from it. Most shows don't need crazy intelligent lighting or special effects, especially in a high school. It has also been my experience with many directors and producers that they know very little to nothing about tech. Although it is drastic, if they keep bugging you, just tell them you aren't going to do it anymore, or get them to do it themselves. After spending an hour trying to turn the lighting board on, they will probably ask for your help again.

 

[josh88]

I've been in a similar spot in the past as well as this year. I'm TD at a high school and I'm pretty constantly getting hit with we want A, B, and C, and with what we have, there's just no way to do it. It's been frustrating, tiring and really drags you down. With bad directors I always just tell myself that sooner or later it will be over, eventually you hit tech and the show ends and then you move on and (hopefully) don't have to deal with that person again. I got out here, started doing this and teaching and the more I did it/the busier I got, the more I wanted to leave and just go renovate old houses or work for a construction company just building things. It also doesn't help that we're on the side of things that generally doesn't get enough recognition. A lot of people think the lights and magic happen all on their own and don't realize the hours we sink in to things. Thankless jobs (even if you love them) can start to wear you down. Sometimes taking a step back and taking a break is what you need and if you really don't want to do it next year tell them no. It sucks for them that you're the only one capable enough, but it's also not your responsibility, it's not your job, being a student is your job, and that's something they'll have to live with.

When it is a gear issue and you can't do it you have to just tell people, buy me more dimmers (or more lights or whatever you need to fix the problem) or it's not something we can do. If it's beyond your skill, I've said it before, just say I don't know how to do that and then see if there's a way you can learn how to do what they want (we're a great source for that) or you'll find some compromise that will work.

 

[avkid]

I got quite burnt out on theatre back in the later part of 2008.
Jumped ship and defected to the rock and roll side of the business.
In addition to owning a new company providing local crew to touring shows I am now a house tech and ATD at a beautiful former Vaudeville house doing both touring rock shows and theatre.

What I suppose I'm saying is do what feels like the right thing for you now.
If you were really meant to be in theatre you'll find your way back eventually.

Philip LaDue
Assistant Technical Director-
Paramount Theater of Asbury Park

President-
Empire State Light and Sound

 

[JTStryker]

The only advice i can give you is to try your best, but keep in mind that in this line of work, you've got to love what your doing, or you'll burn out and never look back.

 

[StNic54]

Do what you love, even when you may not always love what you do. If people are crazy and have crazy expectations, find creative ways to say "no", and back it up (like the cost of rentals to make bad ideas work). Like any field, if you work in production long enough, you'll find people that will spark your interest, challenge you creatively, and give you the reigns to do some pretty cool stuff. I had an awesome HS director, a terrible college director (they exist everywhere), and an awesome grad school staff. Ultimately, if you are a consummate professional, even when those around you are not, you'll get things done, gain respect, and grow. Then you'll move on. Or, you can always move to another field and have a terrible boss, too. So, do what you love and focus on your future and what you want it to be.

 

[LesWilson]

Don't reward bad and arrogant leaders with your talents and time. You are only enabling them to continue being poor leaders. Nicely and politely quit. Let them find someone else to start all over with. After people keep quitting, it might even dawn on them and the administration. Even of they beg you to return, don't. You won't believe how good it feels to not dealing with them anymore. Find another outlet for your passion outside the school ... in the community. Then go to college and start out with a hopefully better bunch of people.

 

[Dovahkiin]

I actually went through something similar this year (coincidentally, I also just finished my junior year. Maybe there's a reason we all hit it at the same time). At the end of the year, I was ASMing our five month long One Act for UIL, designing lights for our spring musical (while also running damage control with our set designer who was getting pretty fed up with the director), running lights for a myriad of other organizations that I didn't trust with our new board, and designing lights for community theaters while trying to line up more jobs. What I found was that the outside organizations and the community theaters actually recognized when what they were asking for was impossible. This is probably because they were well aware that they didn't know anything about lights and the limitations that I have work with. The directors at my school say that they recognize this, but it doesn't seem like they really do. I was pretty close to telling them that I wasn't returning to the department and that I was going to focus on community theater. Part of me still feels like that's the better move for my future career. Eventually, I decided that I do owe it to the department to get them through this next year. The directors gave me my start and I've learned a lot from the department. I also don't want to leave the other, and future, technicians high and dry. My solution is to approach them about the position of tech director. We don't really have anybody in charge that really understands our limitations and we don't have the budget to hire somebody so I'd like to step up as a student TD. That way, I'll try to educate them about what we can and cannot do. Failing that, I'll train somebody who can take over that job when I leave. I guess my point is that you need to teach them what you do. Try to take away all of that mystery that surrounds your work. That's the only way I see to make things better.

Or if you don't want to go through that but still want to work, talk to community theaters. There's usually a lot of them and they tend to be very understanding, very appreciative, and often very surprised at what a teenager can do.

 

[DuckJordan]

Unfortunately even if you are a student td they still ain't understand the limitations.