Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2010 - 64

MAnAgeMent

By Richard Peterson
can you imagine? You are a stage manager for the newest musical in town. You have
been working for four to five months on the production. the opportunity comes your
way to be placed in a management position for the regional theatre facility operations
department. You take it-more money, benefits, regular hours, to a point. Why not!
this is how many of us started as managers, directors, operations
managers, you name it, a few years ago. usitt holding places in the areas
of costumes, lighting, scene design etc. needed a management commission too. Where were these people heading into some management role
going to learn more, adapt more quickly, become the best? so it begins.
this writer will "flash-back" to the early 1980s-far enough for
those of us who were there, and discuss some of the ideas and concepts
that have moved through the commission.
one of the early projects was the yearly pre-conference seminar with
bill flynn and larry christenson discussing the many roles we play as
managers. We talked about where we were, why we do what we do, when
best to ask for promotion, more money, when to move on. remember,
yelling out, "Just do it!"? the sessions were somewhat limited for enrollment and we all tried to "take the class" year to year for at least two times
some three or four times. from the pre-conference activities many of
us plowed right into the sessions and roundtables. remember the sessions discussing job titles? How many ways can you state stage Manager,

1993

operations Manager, the list was extensive! Well that was us. some leaders
were generated, many followers, but the work of the commission was to
represent management to the technical theatre world because so many of
us became managers without knowing the inside story. How do we read
an employee's abilities, or inabilities! How do we handle a stressful employee problem? How do we hire and fire people? all of these have been
topics for discussion at the regional level and national conferences.
Many of us would look forward to the conferences to reacquaint
with old friends, meet new ones and look for new ways to solve problems.
thing is, we soon found out we all have the same kind of issues-different
names and faces, but the management issues are similiar. this led to more
diversification and some new avenues for the commission.
Management commission work is ongoing and deeper behind the
scenes than the other commissions. Managers are working ahead, planning
budgets, future dates for staff work projects, and coordinating multiple efforts from all the angles-bridging the gap between board of directors and
staff needs. searching through the current usitt Membership directory

Publication of IATSE: One Hundred Years of Solidarity, celebrating the union's centennial.

1994

34th Annual USITT Conference & Stage Expo,
Nashville, TN. Incoming president, Elvis, played by
Dick Durst, brings the banquet to a thunderous close.

1993

33rd Annual
USITT Conference &
Stage Expo, Wichita,
KS. President Sarah
Nash Gates rides into
the banquet in style.

1994-1996

Richard W. Durst USITT President

1993

Publication in TD&T of research at University
of Kansas by Mark Reaney in virtual reality as a
scenographic tool. Photo shows typical VR interface
head-mounted display and power-glove which are
connected to a Macintosh personal computer running
Virtus Walkthrough software.

theatre

design

teChnology

W I N T E R

2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2010