Getting Organized: Create a Personnel File

It takes a community to create a great production, and theatrical performances would not exist without the time, skills, and talents of dedicated crew members. From costumes and props to sound and lights to front of house and stage management (and everything in between), crew members are the heart and soul of a production. Their creativity, passion, and hard work are invaluable to every show. So where do we find these amazing people, and how can we get them on our team? Let’s brainstorm! Where can you find potential crew members?• Your drama classes! (Make it a requirement that students must volunteer a certain number of hours doing crew work in order to pass.) • Other classes at your school, such as: • Communication technology classes (like recording) for sound designers and operators • Design technology, manufacturing, and carpentry classes for set pieces, props, and furniture • Art, photography, and graphic design classes for designing and painting sets, as well as creating programs and publicity images for social media • Esthetics classes for hair, wigs, and makeup • Fashion and sewing classes for costumes • Business and marketing classes for production and box office duties • Co-op students can take on a variety of roles depending on their area of focus • Talk with fellow teachers to see if projects could be done for class work or extra credit • Siblings, parents, and other family members of the students currently involved in the show • Friends from other schools of the students currently involved in the show (perhaps you can sign off on volunteer hours for them?) • People involved in community theatre in your city • Students from nearby colleges/universities/professional schools looking to gain practical experience ( For example: For a production I worked on that was set in the 1950’s, we had students from a local hairstyling school create time-appropriate hairstyles for the students in the show and teach the students how to do them on their own.) How can you recruit crew members?• First and foremost: Ask! Get out there and ask people to help out. Speak to students in person during class and on breaks. Send an e-blast in your school’s newsletter. Post on your school’s social media accounts. Post flyers on your school’s bulletin boards. • Get students to help recruit crew members. They are your best resource for meeting more great students. Use the recruitment reflection exercise below to get students involved in this process! • Offer extra credit, letters of support/letters of reference, or sign off on volunteer hours to students who work on productions. • Reach out and make connections with drama teachers at other schools and members of community theatre groups. • During auditions, include a crew recruitment note in your audition information sheet to see if students are interested in crew roles. (Make sure not to make students feel like being in the crew is a consolation prize if they are not cast in the show. Emphasize the importance of the crew roles and how essential they are to making the show happen!) • Check your personnel files and reach out to students who have worked on past shows. • Does your city have an online theatre network? If so, create recruitment posts. For example, in London, Ontario, there is a Facebook group called “London Downtown Theatre Online” and a website called “Theatre in London,” both of which are fantastic for advertising local shows as well as recruiting potential volunteers. If there isn’t a similar network in your city, then create one! • Get student actors in your show to assist with crew tasks. Actors can help in a multitude of areas: helping with creating/finding costumes and/or props, scenic painting, and publicity for starters. There’s nothing wrong with student actors taking on double duty. • If students can’t commit to coming to rehearsals but still want to be involved in the production, give them tasks that they could work on at home or during spare periods at school. For example, a student interested in costumes may not be able to help with dressing actors during the entire run of the show, but perhaps they could do a smaller project such as sewing one costume at home, helping with costume laundry, or hot-gluing gemstones on a crown. Or, a student who is interested in marketing could create and pre-schedule a series of Facebook and Twitter posts to advertise the show. Think creatively and delegate jobs to as many students as you can.

Being organized before a performance keeps everyone calm and prevents offstage drama. A great way to stay organized is to create a pre-show checklist — a list of all the tasks each theatrical department must complete before the performance can start. Here’s what you need to do to create your pre-show checklist: Start working on the checklist early.Before you even start auditions, you’ll inevitably go through your script many times, making copious notes about characters, costumes, props, and more. While you’re at it, note moments that appear in the script that will necessitate a task. For example, if there are obvious quick changes in the script, a pre-show task might be to check all quick-change costumes and pre-set them backstage. Or if a character needs to eat something onstage, a pre-show task might be for the props team to get the food prop from the staff room refrigerator and arrange it on a plate. Being aware of those moments early on will help you when you get closer to show week and your brain is full of a million other things. This is also a great job for your stage management team. Have them go through the script and note anything they think should be added to the pre-show checklist that you might have missed. You’ll inevitably add more tasks throughout the rehearsal process and during tech week, but it’s great to get a head start. Don’t forget to include front of house pre-show tasks, such as printing and folding programs, having adequate change in your concession and box office cash boxes, and ensuring bathrooms are clean. Once you’ve produced or directed a few shows, you’ll have a better idea of what tasks will be involved, and you can create a basic template that you can adjust for each new production. Check out our giveaway below for a sample task list. Determine your format.There are many ways to format a pre-show checklist. You may want to create one large master list for every department and keep it in one central location, or you may want to make mini lists of tasks for each department and keep them in relevant areas (such as in the tech booth for the sound and lighting technicians and in the dressing rooms for the costume team). You may want to post the lists on the wall and have students initial tasks when they complete them, have a department leader keep the list on a clipboard and have students check in with them when they complete a task, or use a digital list or app for students to check off on their smartphones. You know your students best and which method would work for you and them. My tried-and-true method is to create a simple three-column table with the headings Task, Department, and Complete (Initials). The first column lists the tasks students must complete, the second column indicates which department is responsible for completing the task, and the third column is for the appropriate person to initial when the task is complete. If you use this method, you can either print one master copy, put each page into a plastic sheet, hang it on the wall, and have students initial with a dry erase marker (then you can erase it after each performance and reuse it on multiple performance days); or you can print multiple copies and use a new copy for each performance. Always leave extra rows on your pre-show checklist, as additional tasks you didn’t think of will inevitably pop up during tech week or the actual run of the show. This way, you can write those extra tasks on the list so you don’t forget them. Determine who is responsible for each task.It’s usually obvious who will be responsible for each task — the costume team maintains the costumes, the props team pre-sets the props, the lighting technicians check the lights, and so on. But some tasks aren’t as clear. Will your stage manager be responsible for sweeping and mopping the stage, or will you delegate that task to someone else, like an assistant stage manager? Can any member of a particular team complete the task, or do you want to assign each task to a specific person? Instead of using a general Department header on your list, you might want to list the name of the specific person who is responsible for each task (“Mikhail” instead of simply “Costume Team”). You also may want to add a fourth column to the table with the header “Approved,” if you’d like a department head or teacher to confirm that each task has been completed to your standards. Again, use whatever method works best for your students. Classroom Exercise: Brainstorm a list of tasks your students think they would need to complete prior to a performance. Give students a scene from a play. Have them read the scene and make a list of at least three tasks specific to that scene they would need to complete pre-show. Additional Resources: • The Running List: What It Is and Why You Need It • So, What Does A Stage Manager Do, Anyway? • So, What Does An Assistant Stage Manager Do, Anyway?

Show programs (also known as playbills) are the easiest way to share important production information with the audience. Programs are a method of acknowledging all the hard work done by the cast and crew to bring the production to life. They also make a nice souvenir for audience members after the show. Programs should be visually appealing, easy to read, and succinct, while including all the necessary personnel information and proper credits. Programs can be as simple as a one-page flyer or as elaborate as a fully illustrated booklet. Programs can also be themed towards the production – for example, a production of Newsies might want to make their program look like a newspaper, while a production of Treasure Island might make their program look like a pirate’s treasure map – or in a completely different medium entirely, such as a display board, or even a digital program that patrons can access on their cell phones. There are online resources for creating and printing programs, such as Playbillder, but teachers and students can also create a simple program themselves by using a computer program such as Word or Publisher. Exercise:In this exercise, students will create a traditional printed program for their actual upcoming production or class performance, or they can create a program for a fictitious production. The program will be printed and submitted on a minimum of one standard sheet of 8.5” x 11” paper, folded in half (front cover, inside left cover, inside right cover, back cover). Additional pages are optional. The cover and any images or photographs should be in colour. Spelling and grammar definitely count! What to include: • Show title and graphic (for the cover) • Show dates and times • Location of performance • Production credits (playwright/book writer, lyricist, composer, and any other important credits that were indicated when you purchased the rights to the show – these credits cannot be omitted!) • Director’s note and/or brief summary of the show • Cast list with actors’ names and role(s) • There are many different ways of crediting the performers! • Alphabetical by actor’s last name • In order of appearance • In order of speaking • In groups (for example: “Kansas,” “Munchkinland,” “Forest,” “Oz” in The Wizard of Oz) • Size of role (I try not to use this ordering method if I can help it, as it encourages a “leads are more important than the ensemble” mindset.) • Whatever order you choose for crediting the performers, be sure to indicate this order underneath the “Cast” title, for ease of understanding. • Crew list, including all artistic staff members (producer, director, musical director, choreographer), stage management team members, assistants, designers, operators, band/orchestra members, and additional crew members • Special thanks to anyone who assisted with the production (such as rental sources, dramaturgical assistance, people or companies who donated items or services, financial sponsors, etc.) Optional (include at least two): • Cast and crew headshots and biographies • Scene and/or song breakdown • Principal’s message • Advertising spaces or “good luck/break a leg” messages from friends and family (can be sold as a fundraiser) • Additional photographs (cast, crew, performance photos) • Blank page for autographs • Advertising for an upcoming production or special event