SCOTT M. BOYLE
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Management
A good deal of a Technical Director's job is managing the people, money and resources available. There is no cut and dried rules about how this gets done and each job presents its own needs. Below are various tools I have used to manage those resources as I needed for various jobs.
Intern Rotation Chart
For 10 seasons at Peninsula Players, I was responsible for assigning our eight production interns their production jobs during our five show season. As they all had their individual strengths and experiences, it was a juggling act to give opportunities to interns so they could grow as artists while also providing experiences which played to their strengths.
The chart to the left shows how I assigned both daytime shop assignments and night-time running crew positions. I would often color code their names so I could easily see if I was giving them a variety of experiences or if they were getting stuck in one area.
I used another chart to track their interests and experiences. This way if I had someone who was experienced with running sound, I could assign them to the musical where they would have a chance to succeed rather than putting in someone with no experience.
Scenic Expense Sheet
Tracking expenses is always paramount to a successful season. I have used Excel spreadsheets to track both individual shows as well as the total season expenses. The example here is a Google Sheets document which I share with Assistant Technical Director, Sean Dumm. As we both buy materials and supplies for the various productions at UMD, this allows us to maintain one worksheet rather than each maintaining a separate sheet or having only one person responsible for making purchases.
As the individual show budget gets split up between materials, paint and props, this allows us to track each area and how the show is doing as a whole.
Line Set Schedule
A Line Set Schedule tracks the use of the overhead battens in a theater. This document becomes very important during the change-overs at Peninsula Players. With the tight turn around of one show being struck and the next show loading in the same night, we need any scenery, masking and/or lighting equipment to move before the load-in can begin.
This document shows which items will be hung from their respective battens, where they're placed on the batten and how many bricks of counter weight will be needed. The notes column on the right shows what is from the show being struck while the "Goods" column shows what is going onto the battens for the incoming show.
Production Overlap Chart
While the Department of Theater was assembling a list of shows for the 2017 season, I created this chart as a means to visualize the overlap of shows. We often have at least three productions in various stages of development or implementation. As we were negotiating the challenges of our calendar, the positioning of the shows within the semester or school year was very important.
