# Training the new SM



## artable (Feb 24, 2015)

I am the SM for my High School, and will be graduating next year. I have hand-picked a freshman who has the skill set necessary to do my job.
I started designing a carruculum of sorts in order to teach him, but, as it turns out, teaching such a fine-tuned art as stage management is fairly difficult. (As expected, of course. SMs must always look ahead. )

I was thinking that starting him in light design, with an emphasis in managing the lighting crew would be a good place to start (partly because he's interested in LD. Off-topic: do all/ a surprisingly large number of SM types have an interest in LD? Just a correlation I noticed). Hopefully, he'd be able to ASM for me while doing LD. Finally, I'd like him to full on SM the final show of the year, and I'd be his ASM. With daily meetings about what went well and what didn't, etc.
All of that, of course, is all for training by experience. How much is there that can be taught at a desk and lecturn?

Thoughts?


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## artable (Feb 24, 2015)

artable said:


> I am the SM for my High School, and will be graduating next year. I have hand-picked a freshman who has the skill set necessary to do my job.
> I started designing a carruculum of sorts in order to teach him, but, as it turns out, teaching such a fine-tuned art as stage management is fairly difficult. (As expected, of course. SMs must always look ahead. )
> 
> I was thinking that starting him in light design, with an emphasis in managing the lighting crew would be a good place to start (partly because he's interested in LD. Off-topic: do all/ a surprisingly large number of SM types have an interest in LD? Just a correlation I noticed). Hopefully, he'd be able to ASM for me while doing LD. Finally, I'd like him to full on SM the final show of the year, and I'd be his ASM. With daily meetings about what went well and what didn't, etc.
> ...


Addendum:
My school does a musical in the fall and a play in the spring. All school assemblies are held in my ridiculously huge auditorium. There are 2 dance concerts per year, and a number of band and choir concerts.
I mention this because they are potentially valuable. They could be opportunities for the trainee to manage things without me there.


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## StradivariusBone (Feb 24, 2015)

We cross-train our students on everything. My kids work outside of theatre and have band and lacrosse and chess and all sorts of crap. If I had one SM for every event, I'd go nuts trying to get them to make it to rehearsals. So everyone knows how to do everything within reason. The other side is that they get a few shows under their belts they start to thinking they've figured it all out. Eventually they do settle into some area where they feel most comfortable, but I always try and push them out of that nest and throw them into something where they have to use their brains and react under pressure. If they sink, we help them back up, but more often than not they find a way to make it through and usually want to do it again. You are never done learning.

The truth of the matter is the more flexible you are in a theatre, the more useful you are and the more likely someone is going to give you money to do stuff. That all being said, I spend about 2 months doing "book work" with the kids and hands on labs of sorts, getting them acquainted with the various trades we use. After that, we get busy and start running shows. I find that about half of them forget 2/3 of what I taught them in the first quarter. The other half only loses 1/3, but all of them have some latent ideas that will give them "Aha!" moments when they're running tech for a show. They don't really understand the work until they're hip deep in it. 

I think you're on the right track letting them shadow you, but make sure you both take an opportunity to observe all working areas and have enough knowledge to where if someone plunked you down in front of an audio desk you can EQ mics or if someone asks you to fly in lineset 14, you know how to do it safely. Learn something from every person you meet. Even idiots can be quite educational in the proper context.


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## DRU (Feb 24, 2015)

How long have you been SMing at your high school? If you have had a ton of experience SMing various concerts/shows/assemblies in your high school, and your adviser doesn't have anything written down, I would take time over the next year to write down your process for each type of production with your adviser's help. Write down where things are, how to turn things on, how to set up certain gear, what to do in emergencies, etc. Having a guidebook for using the space would be helpful in the long run than a "classroom" style teaching system. Have anyone interested shadow you, and if they still are interested, have them work under you to gain experience, and with the guidebook, they should be fine in the future. 

Just make sure your adviser signs off on everything, and that it is in line with any school policies and procedure.


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## artable (Feb 24, 2015)

StradivariusBone said:


> We cross-train our students on everything. My kids work outside of theatre and have band and lacrosse and chess and all sorts of crap. If I had one SM for every event, I'd go nuts trying to get them to make it to rehearsals. So everyone knows how to do everything within reason. The other side is that they get a few shows under their belts they start to thinking they've figured it all out. Eventually they do settle into some area where they feel most comfortable, but I always try and push them out of that nest and throw them into something where they have to use their brains and react under pressure. If they sink, we help them back up, but more often than not they find a way to make it through and usually want to do it again. You are never done learning.
> 
> The truth of the matter is the more flexible you are in a theatre, the more useful you are and the more likely someone is going to give you money to do stuff. That all being said, I spend about 2 months doing "book work" with the kids and hands on labs of sorts, getting them acquainted with the various trades we use. After that, we get busy and start running shows. I find that about half of them forget 2/3 of what I taught them in the first quarter. The other half only loses 1/3, but all of them have some latent ideas that will give them "Aha!" moments when they're running tech for a show. They don't really understand the work until they're hip deep in it.
> 
> I think you're on the right track letting them shadow you, but make sure you both take an opportunity to observe all working areas and have enough knowledge to where if someone plunked you down in front of an audio desk you can EQ mics or if someone asks you to fly in lineset 14, you know how to do it safely. Learn something from every person you meet. Even idiots can be quite educational in the proper context.


He Already has that basic skill set. I should have mentioned that. (actually, now that I think about it, he needs fly system training. And sound training. (I probably could use an extra lesson on sound too, but I digress.)) however, as per your suggestion, I will ensure that he is trained in all aspects of tech. By the way, I am the one SM for all events. I also light design and act. Really, I also need my replacement to continue PR-type stuff to get more crew. But that conversation belongs in another thread.


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## artable (Feb 24, 2015)

DRU said:


> How long have you been SMing at your high school? If you have had a ton of experience SMing various concerts/shows/assemblies in your high school, and your adviser doesn't have anything written down, I would take time over the next year to write down your process for each type of production with your adviser's help. Write down where things are, how to turn things on, how to set up certain gear, what to do in emergencies, etc. Having a guidebook for using the space would be helpful in the long run than a "classroom" style teaching system. Have anyone interested shadow you, and if they still are interested, have them work under you to gain experience, and with the guidebook, they should be fine in the future.
> 
> Just make sure your adviser signs off on everything, and that it is in line with any school policies and procedure.


The general guidebook is a really good idea. This year l, I'll make a checklist format guidebook for the rehearsal process and that flavor of thing. I'll save the rest of that project (IE, documenting the stage) for when I have an ASM to do it with. My advisor (the director) and I have a very good relationship. He trusts my choices.


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## StradivariusBone (Feb 24, 2015)

DRU said:


> Just make sure your adviser signs off on everything, and that it is in line with any school policies and procedure.



+100 to this. Make sure your sponsor/adviser/drama teacher/TD is cool with your plan. No quicker way to derail this kind of plan than to undermine what your teacher is doing.


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## artable (Feb 25, 2015)

StradivariusBone said:


> +100 to this. Make sure your sponsor/adviser/drama teacher/TD is cool with your plan. No quicker way to derail this kind of plan than to undermine what your teacher is doing.


I'm not worried about how he'll respond. Ill make sure he's okay with it though.
This threads purpose was to define exactly what "it" will be. At this point, there's nothing for my advisor to pass off.


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## Les (Feb 28, 2015)

I personally feel that the idea of having 'that sole student' undermines the educational goal. I get that there are star students and there will always be the most competent lighting designer, SM, sound board operator, etc; but it really should be a group effort. I also don't think you should worry about the fate of the department after you leave, nor feel obligated to "fill the gap". I know it's probably a labor of love for you, but the department will survive either way. Everyone in the department should have equal opportunities and by "picking a favorite", you have unknowingly hurt other students' chances at having the same shot. Not everyone will have the skills - that's why there are shows. To go in with no experience and learn something in the process. Sometimes you have to throw a new kid in there and let them figure it out for themselves. Sure, you may end up with a clueless SM or lackluster lighting design, but that's the nature of the beast. Life goes on and that's where the education really is. Believe it or not, the goal of a HS theatre department is not to pick the best of the best and use only them for the tasks in which they excel. You allow the most interested and willing to explore on their own and allow it to develop naturally from there.

Can you give this student tips and pointers? Sure, just be careful not to pass on bad habits. I would not however develop curriculum or a training regime unless everybody is involved, and all interested parties receive the same training.

So what to do? Hand over the reigns. Don't try to "duplicate yourself". Pass on your knowledge but don't give up all your secrets. Accept that they will make their own mistakes. Let them beat their own path.


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## StradivariusBone (Feb 28, 2015)

Going off Les- we do a children's show and this year I'm taking my hands off completely and have assigned out the crew and design roles to all the kids for the show (with mindful supervision). I purposefully assigned LD/Board Op to a student who has never done that before, but has a keen interest in going that route (his uncle is an LD for a theme park company somewhere). It kinda cheesed off another talented student I have who has done lights frequently, but he is now doing the set design. Both guys are out of their depths, but they are doing well and learning. The majority of the work these kids will find post-HS in this area will demand that they know multiple areas of tech. "I'm a sound guy" won't get them as much work as "Yeah, I can patch/hang/rig that." A lot of non-union companies that build stages, light them and do their own reinforcement. 

I've heard of this methodology in assigning out these roles for the year or season. Is it primarily in schools where you only have a drama teacher and not a technical director of some sort?


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## artable (Mar 7, 2015)

I appreciate your advise and I completely understand your concerns, but I think everyone on CB could agree that Stage Management requires a very specific kind of person! And forcing someone into the role feels capitally cruel to me. Also, my tech crew is extremely small. Right now, its basically two competent and interested people, including myself. As hard as the TD (who is also the director, but a pretty tech savvy one!) and I try, we can't get the other techs to take the jobs seriously. If we gave the duty of, say, light design (but you could insert any other position here) to one of the uninterested technicians, even with all the training in the world I doubt the job would ever get done. Of course I'd love to have a crew of fully competent and cross trained individuals. People that can only do one thing are basically useless until they do that one thing, and are useless again after that.
Really, our grand problem is interest I think. I doubt it will be solved until long after I leave the school. In the meantime, I think that the school is going to need at least one fully cross-trained competent student. In the pipes, there is a very promising individual indeed!


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