Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1984 - 26

COMPUTERS

Editors: W. n. File & R. Reinecke

Using Time Manager
by George Gunkle

There are a number of "calendar" or "time management programs" on the
market, some suited specifically for certain types of computer equipment. Each
program will have slightly different "command" terms. This article shows a possible use for Time Manager T.1f without programming changes.
-W.n.F.
As Director of Theatre at California
TAR6ET DATES FOR VARIOUS ACTIVITIES ON SPRIN6, 1984 SHONS
Proj"t,d by the Ad,ini,t"tiv, T"hni,,1 Dir"tor, CSUN
State University, Northridge, I must
oversee the production of a ten-play ACTlYITY
ALBERT H.
m. TRANS. SWP.-OUP. DREA"
season and monitor the state of each
Direction-S.tting ""ting lincludes preli,inary light,
show almost continuously. This means ,ound, and prop, planningl
that the staff and I are inevitably inFin.1 date of tile period during ,hich designer and 1.0.
volved in dozens of target dates for the interact about the costs of various aspects of the desiqn. III
completion of various tasks related to
Designer Paint Evaluation
each show. Getting ready for a season Targ.t date on 'hich the 1.0. gives 0".1 .pproval of the
involves receiving a set of target dates desiqil in teras of shop tl ill! a d I.!terials costs. (2)
from support area supervisors for the Prop list frol De~jqner {wI irettar =pprovaD to 1. .
onset or completion of significant acFirst drafting5 and uterials ordered
tivities. The form we used for Spring,
1984 is given in Figure 1. We then nego- hchnical Drafting Co,pl.t.d
Set Co struction Begins
tiate these and adapt where necessary.
From here on out, I use Time Man- Sound CUE ShEEt C**pl,t,d
lightIng Plot Co,pl,t,d
ager™ to create three new and very
Properties Run Plot Co;pleted
needed types of lists:
A. ALL TARGETS FOR ALL Lights Hung and Focused
SHOWS, listed consecutively. A samRun-Through for lighting Oeslqner
NtT
ple month is given in Figure 2. This is
KLT
my master list and is intended primarily Sound i Qp:/E ff ec t s CDlp Iete ~ le\'e Is Set
lighting Pre-Set Conference IDir/Deslgneri
NtT
for use by me.
B. ALL TARGETS FOR EACH ShoM Hand Props (o.pl eted
Set [onslruction and All Visual Ele.ents COlpJeted
SHOW, listed consecutively. A sample Dry Tech Rehe.us21
show is given in Figure 3. This list is
Set Dressing Furniture COlpleted
handed out to the Director, Designers, first lec Rehearsal .ith Actors
Stage Manager and other relevant persons working on that particular pro- III TI: Int~ractIQn betwe~n th~ deSigner and the technical director include; sharing tIoor plans, front elevatlo s, SEctions.
duction. It contains only the targets lodel; or renderings and nfCeSSir'f details 2t nriolls stages oi co.pleticn. It IS Iissu.ed that t IS InteractIon Mill prOVide a
(OntHEI,;.l cosl-correcti 9 lunclICln tor t e ~esigner so t at tihen the pre(~dlng uterlals are given to the ,D. is dEsigner-ready
for that show. There is one such list for and dtrector·read)', all I 1Iings s~l(luld 3\'e pointed to the design being luthln budge,
W'llE t~t,:c~lnq base -It t e .r:. IS prJ **rily t e designer's rE\pO sibility, It IS elp~(tE-: t at t e i,O. wIll :!ctivel;
each of the 10 shows of the season. This
soliCIt It 3iOi'lg the III!. If. In t e .0.'5 Judg.ent, the requencyof Hlter.etlon IS rot SUfflClEii to give rEiso1c.ble e.ssura ce
list is particularly helpful at weekly of 5t::\1 d l(lt~dr, support levels. the i.e. IIlil reyert this to the Olre!:te-r of T Ei t. e.
meetings of the production team for a
(2) If the eirller Intffiictl(lfl has proceeded properly, .pproval here should be pro foru, Mlth the additIono1l .eel prOVidIng enough
particular show.
tilE for t~€ LCr. to dEvel,=~ = lore refined .nd SECUr~ estilate. If o1pproval IS not secured by thl:' dale. l Ere 111111 be 01 real
C. ALL TARGETS WITHIN A ris; 0: t e entire cori4tructlon schedule falling behind. Accordingly, If the l.D. percfl\'eS a pOSSibility tho1t the design cay not
be ipprove'1 Illt~oUt substa tl.Jl \: ~nges, he Illil report this to the Director Ot TheJ1tre IN ADVA.'lCE Or THIS ATE 50 t olt i uellng
SUPPORT AREA
FOR
ALL of t :: diri;clo', deSigner .;nj i.D. cu be called ON THIS DATE.
SHOWS, listed consecutively. A sample for sets-props-lights-sound, administered by our Technical Director, is giv- Figure J: Sample form for inirial elllry of rarger dares.
en in Figure 4. Other support areas inTM permits me to assign a classifi- divisions.) Accordingly, as the initial
clude costumes, publicity, and playbill.
A supervisor in a support area likes this cation code to each show and each sup- materials of Figure 1 are finalized, enlist because it presents for all shows port area. (In addition, it has a fine tering the dates into Time Manager is as
only the targets in his / her own area "keyword" function which allows ex- easy as entering dates in your own pertraction of information by further sub- sonal calendar book. Using TM, each
of responsibility.
24

Theatre Design & Technology /USITI /Surnmer 1984

http://www.o.pl

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1984