Teaching Theater Hierarchy

[Sue Givens]

Does anyone have links to a good flow chart of the hierarchy of the theater? (ie: producer / artistic director / musical director / Stage manager......)

 

[np18358]

I am actually in the process of creating an extensive one now, and I will post it when I am done. A google search may yield some results. See here.

 

[TheaterEd]

Just finished this lesson with the kiddos a couple weeks ago. I use this EXTREMELY basic PPT to introduce the topic, and then assign them to create their own. If the link doesn't work, let me know.

Please note, I am not the original author of this, and I have no idea who is.

 

[bobgaggle]

I think unless you work for an old, massive theater company, any stock org chart is going to be useless. I worked in a company where the TD was in fact, the TD. He oversaw all technical aspects of the company, not just the scene shop. Then we lost a Props master and a PM, so we hired a PM/Props master combo. Now the PM is above the TD and the TD is above the Props Master, who is also the PM...Thats a confusing org chart, and I've seen situations similar to this all over the place

 

[TheaterEd]

I think unless you work for an old, massive theater company, any stock org chart is going to be useless. I worked in a company where the TD was in fact, the TD. He oversaw all technical aspects of the company, not just the scene shop. Then we lost a Props master and a PM, so we hired a PM/Props master combo. Now the PM is above the TD and the TD is above the Props Master, who is also the PM...Thats a confusing org chart, and I've seen situations similar to this all over the place

I don't think you will find two theater companies that have the same exact same org chart with the exact same job descriptions. I think the idea is to teach the kids the general names though. When I present I always tell them who within our school does each job. The fact that there are only two adults doing the majority of the jobs gets the point across pretty well that each company is different.

My first assignment is for each student to make their own org chart the way they think it should be and come up with their own way to present it.

 

[bdkdesigns]

As others have stated, doing this is darn near impossible as each theatre is different in how they report. Some people handle multiple roles while some roles are broken down even further. IE: Artistic Director/Executive Director. I've seen these titles used interchangeably, in one big long title, or as two completely different positions. Other things like concessions vary dramatically from full blown restaurants/ pubs/ or just simple snacks. Here is the breakdown that I had created for this purpose. Since it is impossible to create this all in one page, I never did get around to breaking down the technical positions on a separate sheet. Maybe this will be the motivation that I need to do so.

 

[JChenault]

Just finished this lesson with the kiddos a couple weeks ago. I use this EXTREMELY basic PPT to introduce the topic, and then assign them to create their own. If the link doesn't work, let me know.

Please note, I am not the original author of this, and I have no idea who is.

Not to throw stones, but I do have trouble with putting the design team ubpnder the technical director.

 

[bdkdesigns]

Oops, I misspelled Aerials and somehow it didn't save the change of duplicating aerials and changing the name of the second one to puppetry. Here is the updated copy of the first one and the second breakdown as well. It was a hard decision as to whether or not to put the costume shop under the TD or not. I ultimately decided to put all shops under the supervision of the TD for the purposes of this breakdown. Let me know if anyone has any other suggestions, I tried thinking about all of the run crew positions that I could think of.
View attachment 11164 View attachment 11164

 

[themuzicman]

You can take hierarchy lists like those posted as a generic guideline. Every organization will be structured differently. In a union house, for instance, the audio crew reports to the head electrician, but the A1 still heads up the audio department. In larger shows there are other positions that exist until the show opens, or a few weeks after. Production Electrician and Production Audio are the two who spring to mind -- they are in charge of load-in, budget, and taking stress off of the Head Electrician/A1 until the show is off the ground. Their duties usually get rolled over onto the show crew once the show opens.

For all intents and purposes you can split theatrical heirarchy down three lines - all ultimately reporting to the Artistic Director - Artistic, Production, and Finance. In a bigger organization you will also have facility operations - those in charge of building maintenance. Finance can fall under Artistic in some areas because of producing. Artistic includes script readers, season planners, company management, the director, all designers, and their assistance. Production includes a head of production, production managers, and all heads of Electrics, Audio, Video, Scenery, and Props. Under them are their assistants and the show crew.

In an organization I do a lot of work for, they hire crews for every show (and can have a few running at once due to multiple venues). The Master Electrician, A1, Props Hand, and Head Carp all report to a house head in charge of being the head on that particular show and they in turn report in to a production manager, however they also in turn report to a house head of the department who is in charge of the budget on a macro level and ultimately managing all vendor relations for the department. The production managers are at the same level of hierarchy as the heads of departments, but once a show is handed a PM is paired up with a member of each department.

 

[bdkdesigns]

That is essentially how I start classes where I presented this, every single position can shift who it reports to or even who does the job depending on the theatre. I've seen some wierd combos out there, like company manager/grants writer. I just tried the most basic breakdown/positions. Heck, there are plenty of positions under the general management side that I didn't even list. Operations is what I was thinking of as being Facilities.

Also, if you want to break down each department even further, it is certainly possible to take each design area and fill up an entire page of positions. I think that I just might make a students head explode with so much info that they likely won't ever encounter. I will admit that I couldn't even accomplish such a task as I don't know the extreme details of every area.

With that being said, General Management seems to be the area that varies the most between theatres in my experience.

One area mine doesn't cover at all is New Play Development.

 

[TheaterEd]

Not to throw stones, but I do have trouble with putting the design team ubpnder the technical director.

I've always been one to encourage stone throwing. Also, I find that people's definition of 'Technical Director' varies, sometimes drastically. What would you define as the job description for a TD?

 

[JChenault]

I've always been one to encourage stone throwing. Also, I find that people's definition of 'Technical Director' varies, sometimes drastically. What would you define as the job description for a TD?

For me the classical definition is the person who is ultimately responsible for the construction, maintence shifting, etc ( but not the design ) of scenery and ( frequently ) props. Additionally responsible for the physical facility. Ie stage, rigging, lifts, etc.

 

[agbobeck]

In my experience, the TD is responsible for taking the scenic design and making it happen. This means creating the technical drawings that tell the master carpenter and his/her team how to build the set. as for a flowchart, I have one that does a great job of explaining it, but I cant find it. I am a student at Syracuse University and we have a very unique setup in that our drama department shares a production, marketing, and artistic staff with a professional company Syracuse Stage. though we produce separate shows, we share a space and the costumes, set, sound, props, lighting, box office, marketing, and patron services are handled by the same people.

 

[gafftaper]

I have to agree with @TheaterEd. There are no two theaters who operate exactly the same. Any flow chart you find will work for the theater it was designed in but won't line up with your theater. When I teach this topic I do it like this:
-Every theater is different.
-However every theater has these jobs to do: followed by teaching all the standard job position titles.
-Depending on how large or small a theater is there may be 1 person for each of these jobs or there may be one person who does ALL of these jobs.
-The question of who is the boss and who reports to who depends on the theater. Some community theaters are extremely democratic while large professional companies are run with a much more strict sense of business order. From there I go through a general flow chart of how the LORT theater here in Seattle is organized. Then I get done and circle all the jobs I do because I work in educational theater and the structure is VERY different.