# High School TD's



## nd925a (Jan 9, 2011)

I was reading through the post gadgets under the lighting forum and I saw several students posting on how their theatre's did/didn't have actual Technical Theatre instruction courses and/or a TD hired by the district. I figured it would make for good discussion and i haven't seen anything else like it.

I'm a senior in High School and my computer teacher took unofficial control of the theatre because no one else was. I've also learned a thing or two from him in helping set stuff up and take it down again.


----------



## Edrick (Jan 9, 2011)

Depending on how you look at it, it could be called different things. In our case the SM would be someone who is specific to a show and strictly manages what goes on, on stage. But not the actual venue space. The High School I had gone to has no one that officially manages the space. They have a Drama Instructor then a faculty advisor to the students who doesn't use the gear.


----------



## derekleffew (Jan 9, 2011)

See also the threads http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...re-quesiton-re-hs-tech-theatre-directors.html , http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/education-career-development/14697-thinking-becoming-teacher.html .


----------



## Sony (Jan 9, 2011)

If by SM (Stage Manager) you mean TD (Technical Director) than YES! I think you are confusing the two terms, Stage Manager is usually hired on for each show individually and usually is the one who calls the cues for each show while a Technical Director usually oversees the actual use of the space, scheduling of crews and is a full-time position which does not change for each show.

At NNHS the SM's are usually students, while the TD and the ATD are Faculty/Staff, I am currently ATD at NNHS.


----------



## nd925a (Jan 9, 2011)

Yes thank you Sony I did confuse the terms I meant TD


----------



## nd925a (Jan 9, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> See also the threads http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...re-quesiton-re-hs-tech-theatre-directors.html , http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/education-career-development/14697-thinking-becoming-teacher.html .



I was more looking to see how many HS students have TD guidance as it seems there is not much of it from reading other posts. The posts you gave are indeed about TD's but they are more from the TD/Future TD view. I was looking more for a number or percent than a description of how to become/what a TD is.


----------



## LXPlot (Jan 9, 2011)

We have a TD of sorts. He is an actor, but he has a decent amount of technical knowledge, enough to be able to build and design our sets. He also has some experience doing sound, but for the most part, sound and lights are done by students. However, he does not teach our technical theatre classes, and in the classes we pretty much do the work as opposed to learning about it, having almost no instruction. That's why most of my knowledge is self taught and I don't know a lot of terms.


----------



## Les (Jan 9, 2011)

Not very many high schools have a permanent TD on staff. It's a budget thing. Now, you may find a lot of self-proclaimed school-aged TD's, but generally the theatre teacher will play a dual role of theatre teacher and technical director. Many high school programs have two directors, and one may gravitate a little more toward the technical side.

Most districts will have a Director of Fine Arts, but they will most likely be at the central office and have little (if anything) to do with the students. They are more the teachers' boss.


----------



## acoppsa (Jan 9, 2011)

At our high school we have a Facilities Manager who looks after the use of our auditorium but he is mainly there for organisation and not the actual design or operation of shows/events. He doesn't know much about tech (he admits so himself), and leaves that up to the students/teachers.
The thing I like about this arrangement is that he is willing to learn some things about tech and is keen to help us out when he can.


----------



## Pie4Weebl (Jan 9, 2011)

My Highshool theatre doubled as a local PAC, so we had a full time staff TD split between the school district and PAC. He is now just the school's TD.


----------



## dvsDave (Jan 10, 2011)

Just fixed the poll and the thread title.


----------



## ArthurRiot (Jan 10, 2011)

Les said:


> Not very many high schools have a permanent TD on staff. It's a budget thing. Now, you may find a lot of self-proclaimed school-aged TD's, but generally the theatre teacher will play a dual role of theatre teacher and technical director. Many high school programs have two directors, and one may gravitate a little more toward the technical side.
> 
> Most districts will have a Director of Fine Arts, but they will most likely be at the central office and have little (if anything) to do with the students. They are more the teachers' boss.


 
Got to agree here. I am the only TD on staff in my county's education system, and the only reason I exist is there was a partnership with the county government and the school district to 'share' the county playhouse with a select school by attaching it to a HS. 

Were it not for the fact that the theatre has a responsibility to clients to provide tech, I probably would not have this job. Another theatre in Cape May County NJ runs (or at least ran 10 years ago) pretty much the same way.


----------



## MNicolai (Jan 11, 2011)

Where's the poll option for, "Yes, (s)he's a dedicated technical director."?


----------



## Tex (Jan 11, 2011)

I'm confused...
I teach three tech classes and two acting classes per day. Does teaching acting classes keep me from being the TD? I am, in fact the TD, but I'm also the lead teacher, director, producer, etc. While TD is not my only job, it's certainly one of them.
I would guess that very few high schools have a full time tech director with no other responsibilities. While we have quite a few events come into our space, it's not enough to warrant a full time TD. I can do what is needed as a part of my other duties, for which I receive a stipend.


----------



## Chris Chapman (Jan 11, 2011)

ArthurRiot said:


> Got to agree here. I am the only TD on staff in my county's education system, and the only reason I exist is there was a partnership with the county government and the school district to 'share' the county playhouse with a select school by attaching it to a HS.
> 
> Were it not for the fact that the theatre has a responsibility to clients to provide tech, I probably would not have this job. Another theatre in Cape May County NJ runs (or at least ran 10 years ago) pretty much the same way.


 
I think this may be more based on the types of facilities out there. Here in Western Michigan, almost of the schools that have a large Performing Arts Center (which is many) have a dedicated TD/Auditorium Manager on staff. All of these venues are set up for school support, and then do a lot of work with facility rental. 

I'm a member of a group here, that consists of roughly 15 -20 members who are the Technical Staff of their venues, who may have one or two classes, but primarily are the TD's for the facilities they work in.

This also may be a regional issue about differences in how public education facilities are run in different states/districts.


----------



## misterm (Jan 11, 2011)

agreement with Chris here. depends on the school, size (and quality) of the facilities, how much the administration has control over the space, how big the program is, or any combination of the above. here, small program, little crappy auditorium that i have a bit of control of....so just me.


----------



## KevinJohnston (Jan 12, 2011)

Ummmm, OTHER.

(s)he's a non-teaching staff member and knows lots about tech and likes/talks to the students daily.

That's me.


----------



## zmb (Jan 12, 2011)

The drama teacher and director at my junior high was knowledgeable enough to build flats and platforms, make extension cables, run basic sound and lights.

The high school I help out at this years has a TD who teaches auto shop during the day who can build stuff and do some rigging.


----------



## HSSBO94 (Jan 25, 2011)

We have our stage manager manage our stage (currently he is a Junior, but has essentially SM'ed anything big since being a Freshman) He has 1 ASM for our smaller things, and 2 or 3 for our larger winter musical.

We have a TD who works with the Director (both teachers who know about theatre) and they work with us, the students who are SM, various designers (first year this actually happened, a few years ago there were minimal student designers and more just student ops.) and deck crew.


----------



## venuetech (Jan 26, 2011)

How about a 
Yes, (s)he's not a member of the teaching staff, but he works directly with teachers, students and community user groups.


----------



## nuggety (Jan 26, 2011)

venuetech said:


> How about a
> Yes, (s)he's not a member of the teaching staff, but he works directly with teachers, students and community user groups.


 
Our school has a TD; me! So student TD.


----------



## calwalker1 (Jan 26, 2011)

"yes (s)he is a member of teaching staff however knows nothing of tech" I am the head tech dude and I am a student. to put it simply

I fill out oder forms and work out what we are getting he signs the form.
He signs for delivery. I unpack and set up and use the thing


----------



## natebish (Jan 26, 2011)

at my school we have a faculty "tech advisor" who all he is good for is watching out and making sure that we don't do something stupid/dangerous he isn't much good for design issues. then for every show our drama board interveiws and selects a student TD. however, i have been the TD for the last two shows and for the one that we are working on. so i would count that as student TD.


----------



## museav (Jan 27, 2011)

Combining the poll results with the comments of some who apparently did not vote it seems like there are quite a few student TDs and/or faculty and staff TDs with limited relevant background. I think it's important to try to get out of this how to most effectively potentially assist people in those positions, so knowing the processes and resources those in such situations use could help with that. 

So for the student TDs, how do y'all learn? Do students pass what they know on to new students? Do you teach yourself and if so, how? Do you get experience and information from sources such as productions or classes outside school? Is there any 'quality control' on what is 'taught' or passed down?

Sort of the same questions for faculty or staff TDs with limited relevant background or education, how do you try to gain relevant knowledge and experience? Do you use and try to learn from more experienced volunteers? Does the school support efforts to increase your knowledge outside the school?


----------



## bradleywolak (Jan 29, 2011)

So I feel like my high school is pretty lucky, we have been very lucky in having our past 3 TDs come from the industry and who actually know what they are doing. I have been working on Crew since 8th Grade and I love it, and I believe the reason for staying with it is the experience of our TDs throughout the years.


----------



## nuggety (Jan 30, 2011)

museav said:


> Combining the poll results with the comments of some who apparently did not vote it seems like there are quite a few student TDs and/or faculty and staff TDs with limited relevant background. I think it's important to try to get out of this how to most effectively potentially assist people in those positions, so knowing the processes and resources those in such situations use could help with that.
> 
> So for the student TDs, how do y'all learn? Do students pass what they know on to new students? Do you teach yourself and if so, how? Do you get experience and information from sources such as productions or classes outside school? Is there any 'quality control' on what is 'taught' or passed down?
> 
> Sort of the same questions for faculty or staff TDs with limited relevant background or education, how do you try to gain relevant knowledge and experience? Do you use and try to learn from more experienced volunteers? Does the school support efforts to increase your knowledge outside the school?


 
How do I learn? Well I have no life and sit on the computer up to 12 hours a day, googling, reading manuals, reading forums, watching videos.

At school I experiment, and liase with EVERY theatre technician who comes in to repair, quote or install. I try and get to talk with the technicians at other complexes.


----------



## LXPlot (Jan 30, 2011)

museav said:


> So for the student TDs, how do y'all learn? Do students pass what they know on to new students? Do you teach yourself and if so, how? Do you get experience and information from sources such as productions or classes outside school? Is there any 'quality control' on what is 'taught' or passed down?


 
Well, as I said earlier, we do have a guy who is a TD of sorts, but he's more of a Venue Manager I guess and has limited technical knowledge of things out side of set building.

We also have a year-long position as the Student TD of the program; however, our student TD does much of what a venue TD might do, (s)he handles ordering or documenting purchases, trains younger students, and makes sure all tech jobs are filled. 

In order for me to learn things, I need to tail or harass (sounds bad, but it's important because I'm the most experienced tech not graduating) older students to learn things. That said, a lot of these things are self taught and concepts/ terminology are far between.


----------



## madeye (Feb 2, 2011)

2 years ago when i was a freshmen we had a TD, then he quit and we haven't had one since. We also have never had hired out Stage Managers for single events besides our biggest one at the end of the year. The TD/Stage Manager at my school is the two Co-Presidents


----------



## Benjod82 (Feb 4, 2011)

I am the TD/Theatre Manager at a high school. (My BFA and MFA are in Technical Direction) I am neither a custodial/maintenance staff, nor am I a teacher. We have a very close relationship with the technology department, however we are a district that relies on high school student labor to do much of the computer maintenance on yearly basis as well as to work meetings, events and concerts at the school.

I didn't fit into any of the survey options .



madeye said:


> 2 years ago when i was a freshmen we had a TD, then he quit and we haven't had one since. We also have never had hired out Stage Managers for single events besides our biggest one at the end of the year. The TD/Stage Manager at my school is the two Co-Presidents


----------



## Ngregory (Feb 5, 2011)

I am the TD at my school, i'm 18 and still a student. I'm 5th gen of student TD's we train our replacement for like 2 years before we leave. my option is not on the poll.


----------



## CrisCole (Feb 15, 2011)

The HS I'm nearest usually hires me out as a TD. They have a very odd chain of command.

Producer-> Auditorium Manager-> Technical Director and House Director -> Stage Manager -> LD and Sound Engineer -> Director -> Floor Manager.

It's hard because I'll be running around doing something and ask for the SM, but at the silly High School, the Floor Manger (which is technically a video broadcasting position) does the Stage Manager's job.

EDIT: It's also interesting that I'm actually a Production Designer, and the SM does the TD's job. 

It's very odd, and takes a lot of getting used to. Problem is, I go back into the professional world, and then call for the wrong people again.


----------



## whosaprettygirl (Mar 6, 2011)

I recently took the position of TD at the high school I graduated from and the former TD became Director. He acted like he knew the world, but I have discovered that he really doesn't. Today he was explained to me what he wanted with the lights, as I looked up I realized that our entire stage is covered with strip lights and various other instruments that were all meant as front light or down light, most of which were hitting teasers or blocked by the projector screen. There was no side light or back light and there were no gels, he kept complaining that the strips the school had put in had green in them. I realized in that moment how little he had really known and finally understood why the lights always looked like crap when I was there. 
High school TDs vary. Some schools do not understand the purpose of having them, some are there because they knew someone who asked them to do it, some are just volunteer teachers, some are union guys who needed a side job, and some, like me, are working their way through college. There really isn't a specific TD type you find in high schools.


----------



## CSCTech (Mar 6, 2011)

As I know it, our high school's auditorium was never intended on being used as it is today when it was built. So when the school was renovated and a lighting, sound, and fly system was installed they never hired or apointed anyone to be in charge of it. Before this year, there was a group of 3 students who un-officially managed it all, and three more before them. However when I jumped on board last year (As it was Senior year for these 3), we realized and brought up some issues we were having, such as security concerns, aswell as outside, and inside, groups messing around with equipment and things going missing. So this year, starting fresh with a new group of three students, including myself, we did some renovations. Including a new sound system, lighting console and building of a booth with a donation from a local business. The schools IT worked with the engineer doing the project with what to get etc. I also know the person personally and assisted with the installation. So now after spending upwards of $10,000 I believe it was, the schools IT was put in charge of theatre's technical equipment. And now everything is kept locked up with a limited number of keys and myself and two other students are the only people in the school other then a few faculty members who are allowed to operate any of the equipment.

So all I have to say is that, I think Highschool TDs work great, as long as the faculty knows who they are and know they know what they are doing. It is so much nicer this year now that everyone knows who we are and don't need to question us every time we are doing something. Aswell as being safer and more organized.


----------



## CSCTech (Mar 6, 2011)

museav said:


> Combining the poll results with the comments of some who apparently did not vote it seems like there are quite a few student TDs and/or faculty and staff TDs with limited relevant background. I think it's important to try to get out of this how to most effectively potentially assist people in those positions, so knowing the processes and resources those in such situations use could help with that.
> 
> So for the student TDs, how do y'all learn? Do students pass what they know on to new students? Do you teach yourself and if so, how? Do you get experience and information from sources such as productions or classes outside school? Is there any 'quality control' on what is 'taught' or passed down?
> 
> Sort of the same questions for faculty or staff TDs with limited relevant background or education, how do you try to gain relevant knowledge and experience? Do you use and try to learn from more experienced volunteers? Does the school support efforts to increase your knowledge outside the school?


 
As far as learning, I taught myself most of what I know. However the former student TDs did teach me a bit. I however have more of a desire for theatre thent hey did so I had to teach myself more because they simply didn't know. I've read over all of our manuals and installation documents. I have also worked with an audio engineer who has taught me a lot. 
But mainly, I would have to say that other then just sitting down at the desks and studying the equipment we have aswell as the internet, Control Booth has taught me a lot of what I know. And I am surprised at how much I have learned in the last two years.

Heck, three years ago I didn't know what an amplifier was for in regards to passive speakers.


----------



## bhallerm (Mar 6, 2011)

I voted, but I'll add to it here. I am a high school TD with a .75 contract. So, not full time, but probably more than many I suppose. I have a crew of tech students that varies from 6-10 each year. We also have a full time theater/drama director/teacher. 

I come from an audio background. Degrees in Audio production and music education. So, I had all the live sound and recording stuff down. I just didn't have much of a clue about professional lighting. Had only played with DJ style FX lighting in the past and never really programmed much.

Needless to say I started reading everything I could. I also had a couple students that were VERY knowledgeable in lighting and learned a bunch from them to get me going. Once I got my head around the basics, I just kept playing with things and reading websites, forums, manuals, books, etc. Most of our shows are student designed with me and the director watching over them. I actually did my first full lighting design for a concert style show a couple weeks ago. Got good reviews from the tech side. Basic, but now I am going to start designing for the spring show. Midsummer Night's Dream...black box. Should be fun.

BJH


----------



## Tex (Dec 19, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


> Newton North, the school I work for has a full-time TD as well as myself, a part time ATD. It's not all THAT uncommon.


In the 18 years that I've taught high school theatre, yours is the first I've heard of. Most TD's teach tech classes as well. It's VERY uncommon.


----------



## Footer (Dec 19, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Tex said:


> In the 18 years that I've taught high school theatre, yours is the first I've heard of. Most TD's teach tech classes as well. It's VERY uncommon.


 
I was a full time TD as well at a High School and a member of the faculty. Also, the High School I attended had a full time TD that was not on faculty.


----------



## Call911 (Dec 19, 2011)

Footer said:


> I was a full time TD as well at a High School and a member of the faculty. Also, the High School I attended had a full time TD that was not on faculty.


 
My district has about 8 full time staff dedicated to the theaters, and not a single one of us teach.


----------



## Tex (Dec 20, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Call911 said:


> My district has about 8 full time staff dedicated to the theaters, and not a single one of us teach.




Footer said:


> I was a full time TD as well at a High School and a member of the faculty. Also, the High School I attended had a full time TD that was not on faculty.



Well, that's what I get for making a blanket statement.
What I should have said is, it's very uncommon in this part of the country.


----------



## LXPlot (Dec 20, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Tex said:


> In the 18 years that I've taught high school theatre, yours is the first I've heard of. Most TD's teach tech classes as well. It's VERY uncommon.


 
I can think of at least 4 schools in the area who have TDs who work enough to be considered "Full-time." I don't know whether they are officially "full-time," but it does not seem unheard of to me...maybe it changes based on the state.


----------



## Tex (Dec 21, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*

Sorry for the continued hijack...
For those of you who know or have been a full-time TD at a high school, how big are those programs? How many shows per year? Do they offer tech theatre classes? If so, who teaches them? Do those TD's also design? 
I handle all the auditorium management and TD all events at our school plus teach a full load of classes. If all I had to do was manage the auditorium and TD events two or three times a week, I would have a lot of free time compared to my current schedule. I'm guessing that those schools with a full time TD do an event or show pretty much every night?


----------



## Sony (Dec 21, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Tex said:


> Sorry for the continued hijack...
> For those of you who know or have been a full-time TD at a high school, how big are those programs? How many shows per year? Do they offer tech theatre classes? If so, who teaches them? Do those TD's also design?
> I handle all the auditorium management and TD all events at our school plus teach a full load of classes. If all I had to do was manage the auditorium and TD events two or three times a week, I would have a lot of free time compared to my current schedule. I'm guessing that those schools with a full time TD do an event or show pretty much every night?



We do 13 shows each school year, about 2 per month, and that's not including the music department and outside events,. The TD does teach ONE class in technical theatre. None of our staff design anything unless we have to, as many of our shows as possible are Student designed and student directed. 

We don't do shows every night...but we don't slack off, all of our free time is spent building the set for the next show. We don't do cheapo "high school" sets ether...we build full professional level sets with moving parts and pieces. For Sunday in the Park with George for example we had 6 flown portals that moved in and out and a stage floor that split center and rolled off stage with actors on it. In one scene the entire set became a giant projector screen using our Christie Digital HD10K-M projector we have mounted on the back wall. We have a full compliment of scrollers and other accessories like right arms and gobo rotators. 

Yes I would say we are not your typical high school theatre, but I do know of other high schools with full time Technical Directors like ourselves who only do theatre stuff.


----------



## Tex (Dec 22, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Sony said:


> We do 13 shows each school year, about 2 per month, and that's not including the music department and outside events,. The TD does teach ONE class in technical theatre. None of our staff design anything unless we have to, as many of our shows as possible are Student designed and student directed.
> 
> We don't do shows every night...but we don't slack off, all of our free time is spent building the set for the next show. We don't do cheapo "high school" sets ether...we build full professional level sets with moving parts and pieces. For Sunday in the Park with George for example we had 6 flown portals that moved in and out and a stage floor that split center and rolled off stage with actors on it. In one scene the entire set became a giant projector screen using our Christie Digital HD10K-M projector we have mounted on the back wall. We have a full compliment of scrollers and other accessories like right arms and gobo rotators.
> 
> Yes I would say we are not your typical high school theatre, but I do know of other high schools with full time Technical Directors like ourselves who only do theatre stuff.


How is the non-teaching staff paid? In Texas, staff numbers are based on enrollment. You get so many "staff" or "teacher" units per x number of students. After that, booster money or other raised funds may be used for additional staff (private lessons, pianist, etc.)
How many kids are in your program? Are they all students at your school?


----------



## Scarrgo (Dec 22, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*

The District that I work for has 3 Full time people; Director, TD,ATD/Scenic Designer.

We support 2 high schools, 4 Middle(6-9 grade), 8 elementary schools. Population of around 11 thousand students. We do not teach any classes.
There is a mega church that rents our space every sunday and holidays that we support lighting wise. 
There is a staff of about 14 students that are paid to work all events, that we teach how to run our equipment.
Sean...

To the OP, as others have said, keep a written account of what has been said/done by you about safety concerns in your space. And remember, all info must be transparent, to show that every thing is above water, no bashing, just facts, no matter how you feel.
Good Luck, Not a pleasant place to be...


----------



## Sony (Dec 23, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Tex said:


> How is the non-teaching staff paid? In Texas, staff numbers are based on enrollment. You get so many "staff" or "teacher" units per x number of students. After that, booster money or other raised funds may be used for additional staff (private lessons, pianist, etc.)
> How many kids are in your program? Are they all students at your school?



I have don't really know how our money is received or divided (never liked getting into the politics of that stuff) although we are considered regular staff, not adjunct or aides, we have close to 100 students in our program and they are all students at our school.


----------



## Tex (Dec 23, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*


Sony said:


> I have don't really know how our money is received or divided (never liked getting into the politics of that stuff) although we are considered regular staff, not adjunct or aides, we have close to 100 students in our program and they are all students at our school.


No politics involved. The state decides how much per student and how many teachers/professional staff per x number of students. It's simple math. I was really more interested to see if the salaries for the non-teaching staff are from district payroll or department funds.
I have facilities similar to yours; mine are about 6 years old but still similar. Our class enrollment is about 200 (Texas requires all students to have a fine arts credit to graduate). I have about 50 truly dedicated students. I had 120 cast and crew for the musical. I just can't imagine trying to do that many shows in the course of a school year, but then again I'm pretty much a one-man show. Three directed by me and usually one or two student directs. One other person who really knew what they were doing would allow me to add a couple more productions. Maybe next year...
Thanks for the information. It's always enlightening to see how things are done in other parts of the country.


----------



## Sony (Dec 23, 2011)

*Re: rediculous employers ignoring saftey issues (horror story)*

No problem, we have 3 major faculty/staff in our performing arts department, 2 are full time and then myself who is part time but we have at least 2 other part time staff who come in and help when they are needed. There are also a few other faculty members who like to help out.

The three major staff are myself the Assistant Technical Director, The Technical Director, and then the head of our section is our Executive Producer who teaches all of our acting and directing classes. The TD teaches one technical theatre class as well as stage crew with myself after school. I usually only come in in the afternoon's and work with after school stuff. On top of us 3 we have a musical director that only comes in during the large musicals and another person who comes in and helps with directing and acting classes.

The other thing is our school is a mostly vocational high school, so a lot of our budget goes into vocational tech. That includes us the performing arts center as well as a full auto shop, carpentry shop, engineering, "greengeneering" (they produce biodiesel and design environmentally friendly products,) architecture, television production (we have a full TV studio,) visual arts (pottery, painting...etc) and graphic arts


----------



## ruinexplorer (Dec 23, 2011)

Since a similar discussion has occurred in another thread, I have moved posts from that thread here so as to keep things on track. So if some of the discussion seems slightly off topic, that's why. At least I kept their title the same so you should know which ones came from the other discussion.


----------



## milan (Sep 8, 2013)

I wanted to weigh in on the TD in High Schools issue. I am now in my 3rd year after being added to this high school. There is no Performing Arts Department for drama or a way to solve "my way or the highway" issues with picky teachers. (sigh) But, when I arrived, I took on the job of TD for the PAC because no one else knew anything about maintenance short of telling the janitors to vacuum the house. 

Ok, I'm stretching the truth a bit. My coworkers are learning. 

Anyway, we have a PAC that runs many shows requested from the district, shows brought in by disctrict and district related events, and rentals from various entities. There is only a manager and technical manager(myself) to supervise and run the PAC. So I have the honor to TD and do any design/construction/build for the plays and select other designs.
So that is work on one-act, drama play, musical, show choir concert, lighting one community theatre show, and then enough rentals to ensure I don't have a life outside of the school! 

I never had this kind of training in HS and wish I did. But at least I can let my students in on the amazing work that can be created in a theatre.


----------



## lwinters630 (Sep 8, 2013)

The choices for the question do not match the question. There should be an option for yes my high school has a a tech director / auditorium manager who is knowledgeable in Theater. At our school this is not a teacher, nor is it a custodial staff, it is full time auditorium.


----------



## DaveySimps (Sep 8, 2013)

You do realize you are responding to a poll over 2 1/2 years old right? In this case, it does not further the discussion.

~Dave


----------



## MPowers (Sep 8, 2013)

Where in Okla? I spent my early High school time at OKC NE. Do you have a situation where an outside comment or note could help?


----------



## JonasA (Sep 29, 2013)

As an Australian, this is an interesting discussion to watch. Although most larger schools here have a performance space of some description (ranging from a drama room with a little stage to 1,000 seat auditoriums with limited flying capabilities), I know of only two schools in Melbourne which employ a technician/venue manager/TD part or full time. Because we have a lot of community theatres, our school venues are usually smaller and don't have the outside client use, so there's a greatly reduced need for such a role. 

Personally, we had a music teacher who was also an semi-professional lighting tech/designer who supervised the student crew, but with 24 dimmers and three working mics she usually just let the students run riot. Nobody ever cared about the quality of our work anyway...


----------



## agbobeck (Nov 8, 2013)

In Montgomery County, Maryland every high school has a Media Services Technician (MST) who is responsible for the management of the TV Studio, Theater, and all other media related systems in the school. They supervise the rentals of the facility and make sure everything is working correctly. at some schools, the MST also serves as the TD (or Stage Director as they are officially called), however at many schools, including mine, the TD is a part time position responsible for the technical side of the productions. The MST is not involved with the school's shows except to insure everything in the space works.


----------



## gafftaper (Nov 8, 2013)

I just took a job as a theater manager in a high school PAC. I don't actually start for a couple weeks, so I don't know a lot yet. The job is apparently funded from several sources. It is not a teaching position as hired, although I am certified and that may change in the future. The position supports the Drama program, but not in the way a true TD does as there are other duties. I'll report back in a couple months when I better understand the situation.


----------

