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Job responcibilities - dept. heads

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Topic: Job responcibilities - dept. heads

Posted By: Pat M
Subject: Job responcibilities - dept. heads
Date Posted: 3/15/04 at 3:51am

I have it in my head that , after being used and abused by different dept heads in the community theatre group that I belong to, that I would like to research what is needed to propose a show for me to direct. As a hopefull first time director, it would be great for one to know what are the job duties and responcibilities of the different deptment heads, and significant other positions, such as,first off, the director, production manager, etc. etc... are. I can imagine that every group out there has a different system, but is there a standard that all the systems are built around and has anyone any idea where to find a list.

Thanks

Replies:

Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 3/31/04 at 6:49pm

Pat there are loads of stuff in books & on the net.

Basically backstage you have 3 main sections of Technical, Sets & Wardrobe. That in turn can be broken down further to what you need or your production dictates.

Such as Technical;- Lighting, Audio, design. & so on.
All of these are referred to as the ?mise en scene? departments, which loosely means the overall look of the performance.
However as a Director you have a lot of other concerns in community theatre, such as the Front of house & administration. As well as everything else!
Grab any ?How to do IT? book on theatre & if your still not sure - make IT up! By using what ever departments the theatre has in place normally & what would be the requirements of your proposed show to get it on the boards.

-------------
Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 5/21/04 at 7:15am

Hi Pat,

Books, books, and more books. Yes, there are many books out there which are helpful.

There is a series five small-ish books on the basics of theatre back-stage which I have found useful. They are English, first published in the late 1980's, but (I believe) still in print. Each book is about 5.5" X 8.0" with 120-something pages. The publisher is PHAIDON PRESS LIMITED, London.

The titles are:
* Costumes and Make-up
* Directing a Play
* Lighting and Sound
* Stage Design and Properties
* Stage Management and Theatre Administration

Series Editor is David Mayer (Head of the Drama Department at Manchester University).

They gave me a reasonable insight to some areas of the theatre about which I knew little.

Our amateur theatre company is preparing a simple handbook of about two dozen pages, the bulk of which lists, in a point-by-point style, the roles of various members of a production crew. (See my comments on "Job description" else where in this site.)

Hope this is of some help,

Cheers
Russell

Posted By: DanLB
Date Posted: 5/21/04 at 12:46pm

As other have said there are a lot of resources out there that describe various job responsibilities, but community theatre by it's very nature is often very unstructured. The best way to get a handle on what your responsiblities will be is to sit down with the people who run the theater and discuss what they expect of you, and what you expect of them.

Dan