# recruiting



## maggyx13 (May 19, 2008)

anyone know any good ways to recruit people for any type of tech crew? 

(if this helps i'm a high school student who needs to recruit more people)


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## mbandgeek (May 19, 2008)

Best thing that has worked for me is to first take a look at your friends. These are people that you know that you can get along with. Think long and hard about which might be good for the job. In my experience, I have a friend that has a huge interest in tech, but sometimes his work ethic is non-existant. So, before you start asking people narrow down to who has a good work ethic. Next after you think that you might have a good candidate ask them to see if they are interested. If not, move on down the list.

thats my $.02


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## Peter (May 19, 2008)

I would echo what Kevin said and add that if you are obviously having fun, other people will see that and want to have fun too. Beggars can't always be choosers, so you may have to let new help do the "fun jobs" while you do the less glamorous jobs, at least part of the time. Of course this is all in moderation, theoretically, they'll need to do the less glamorous jobs at some point so they need to learn how, and of course you dont want to sick someone with no experience in a situation where they are running a board for a critical show. 

When I was just starting to introduce new people to our auditorium, I made the space available afterschool for interested kids to just come and plug in a mic and play with the effects or shine colored lights around the stage so they get a bit of a taste of what the stuff does and what can be done. The key here is to let them actually DO stuff too. It's a super scary feeling letting someone else sit down at the board, but they will enjoy it alot more if they get to "play with the little slidey things". 

As you probably realize, in HS this is very important as you will be graduating in a few years, and need to have ‘young blood’ to fill in behind you too.


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## dunnohowto (May 19, 2008)

Well, thsi is what happened for us. Our Senior put a notice up and called for all students who were intrested to help with tech crew and have them launch an expression of interest. Then pick the best one. One thing I suggest, give them a trial period.


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## len (May 19, 2008)

I wouldn't know about a school program, if that's where you need them, but I've had better quality people respond from backstage jobs, and a higher quantity of people respond from craig's list. However, I found my #1 guy at Craig's list so go figure.


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## Spikesgirl (May 19, 2008)

It also helps if once you get them inside the theater to give them a little pep talk and let them know that theater is a great way to make a living and have fun doing it. 

At our school, the professers required that all Drama 10 (Theater Appreciation) students had a choice of either a term paper, putting in ten hours in the shop or being on a running crew. They could do both and help their grade point as well. We didn't always get the most brilliant crayons, but sometimes a warm body is a warm body. If the students enjoy the tech work enough, the next semester they would resurface in the tech class. We had many, many students join the fold that way. 

At the theater where I work now, we have a huge signs encouraging anyone interested to come to one of our volunteer meetings. They can then fill out a short questionaire upon what interests them and we use them accordingly. We have nearly 200 volunteers on the book (not counting actors/actresses), so something must be working!


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## gafftaper (May 20, 2008)

Friends is a great way to go. Don't forget to ask your other crew people to check with their friends. Also people who have done tech before but aren't currently involved. People who have recently graduated may be willing to come back and help. Actors with small rolls who can help with crew when they aren't on stage. Actors who didn't get a part or aren't in the show for some odd reason this time around. And there always is faculty and parents.


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