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What's a TD
Overview and Organization
The Technical Director, TD for short, is responsible for the construction of the set, organizing builds, keeping track of hours, Put-In, Strike, and the safety of everyone involved with the show. The TD has FINAL SAY in all matters related to safety, from the set design to props to audience placement.
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Talk to the Set Designer and make yourself a google sheet of set pieces. Label them as you go – TO BE BUILT IN A BUILD (smaller set pieces), TO BE ACQUIRED (chairs and platforms, see below), ALREADY BUILT (yay!), TO BE BUILT AT PUT IN (larger set pieces that can't fit through doors if you build them in the set shop).
Acquiring material
Conferring with Master Carpenter: Look down at your list of set pieces and draw out designs of how you want to build them. Make a big list of wood, luan, plywood, and the like that you'll need. Chat with your Master Carpenter to make sure finalize how you're on the same pagebuilding them and your materials. The TD is responsible for procuring all the raw material for sets. Things like luan are best to be scavenged from the set shop and the office, but a trip to Home Depot and Backstage Hardware usually takes care of the rest of your needs (office wood is mostly useful for panic "oh shit we need x" during builds or put-in). General set shop rules is are you should be leaving as much material as you're using.
Reusability: The next thing you should do is scout out the set shop and/or office to find set pieces that you can reuse, specifically platforms. The platforms in the office have the benefit of being closer, but they are very heavy and overbuilt. The Many of the platforms in the set shop are farther away and overused (meaning there are a lot of old screw holes), but they are a lot lighter. Decide what you think is more importantthere are some newer ones and many of the old ones are still in good shape. Still, when reusing older platforms, I would keep an eye out for problematic things such as many screw holes, weaknesses in the frame, disintegrating wood, and similar. . There are plenty of chairs and tables and generic things like that in the set shop that are great for any sort of set. Get in there with a roll of tape and a sharpie and mark pieces you'd like to use for the show with "SE [SHOW NAME] [TIME/YEAR]" (example: "SE HAMLET FALL 17"). This will let other theater groups know what has already been claimed. Furniture in the office is also always up for grabs! There are IKEA tables that are in the office that are good. Budgeting can be hard, don't spend money you don't have to!
If you want things to roll (like platforms or big set pieces like bookcases), you should put wheels on the bottom of them. There are some in the set shop and some in the office. If it is important that these things are stationary when they are being used, (like if someone stands or fights on it), use the orange ones that are (IDK IF THEY'RE IN THE OFFICE OR THE SET SHOP WILL CHECK LATER). They are so much better than all the other ones. If it's less important that they stay still, just use the regular set shop ones. Make sure they're all the same size!
A list of materials should be compiled as soon as possible during the production process so it can be updated quickly and easily- you don't want to spend an extra hour of travel time because you forgot to buy the dowel pins when you had a U-Haul. Make sure you're aware of Home Depot's and U-Haul's hours before scheduling this trip. Home Depot's Pro Desk (for delivery) is only open during business hours. Email out about someone driving a U-Haul. ~prod hours~
Reusing can save money and time. Just be sure to prioritize safety
Paint: Paint can be acquired from Paint can be acquired from Home Depot - the Set Designer, Scenic Painter, and TD should meet before the home depot trip and decide on what colors (and gloss levels) should be purchased from Home Depot (in addition to what's in the cabinet). This should happen several days in advance at least, and it should be made sure that home depot knows what those colors mean. Paint can be more expensive than you think, so be sure to get a sense of what the Scenic Painter wants, what paint we already have, and how much you need/will be willing to spend ahead of time.willing to spend ahead of time. You should ideally choose a Behr or Glidden paint for most cost-efficient results.
Ordering online: Any materials that need to be shipped to campus should be ordered with at least a week's grace period between their expected arrival and Put-In. 2+ week shipping times are normal, especially for heavy items.
Masonite: Masonite is the material used to cover the floor in Sala. CAC has decided we can no longer paint the floor in KLT. There is a set of masonite in the office that is cut to cover the stage in KLT if the set designer wants it to be painted. it to be painted. NOTE FROM 2023: Post covid while there is Sala masonite, I have never encountered KLT masonite. Also, we are no longer allowed to paint inside Sala, so painting the masonite requires taking it outside. This significantly increases time, so masonite designs need to be considered with this in mind. I would strongly recommend doing designs with something like masking tape that can be easily applied and removed, if possible.
For the walls, we have tried hanging up linoleum and painting it, to moderate success. It was a pain to get it to lay flat, so it might be better to screw masonite to the wall. Edit this wiki if you try that, I'm curious.. NOTE FROM 2023: I have no idea what this means. What walls? KLT walls? Currently we are not allowed to attach anything to KLT walls with screws/do any alterations to KLT of this nature.
The Most of the masonite is now kept in the office or in La Sala, in the audience riser closet. Never cut masonite unless you can't help it. You can always paint "not-stage" a different color than "stage" to make up for not cutting it to the right size/ shape. Audience supplies are also kept in La Sala – find someone who knows how to assemble audience to help you out, but there are more instructions lower in this doc.
Gaffe Gaff and Fire retardant: Gaff tape and flame retardant can be purchased from Backstage hardwareonline. E33 also sells high-quality Gaff. Flame retardant is ~$25 per gallon of paint. MAKE SURE you have enough of both gaffe gaff tape and flame retardant before Put-In. Additionally, make sure that fire retardant is added to each gallon of paint as it is opened. ProGaffe tape is better than ShurTape.
Make sure you have 5+ sharpies. They're really useful and people need them to measure things to cut and such (although colored pencils also work for this). Worse, people never return them to you when they're done with them, so it's hard to get by with just one or two. We also now have pencils (they are wide and in a cylindrical case somewhere. Make sure the sharpener exists.
is opened. ProGaffe tape is better than ShurTape.
Organization: In general, make sure you know where everything is being stored. There can often be so many small components that they are hard to keep track of and easy to lose, so be sure keep things in at least a semi-organized state and ensure that people communicate to you promptly where things are placed and if things are ever moved around.
Sala door signs: We have nice black luan signs that we use to block light in Sala by where audience comes in, and MTG has matching ones that we use to block the other door. If we want to borrow the signs that block out the windows from MTG, we should contact them in advance. Black trash bags also work, although they don't look as nice. We share them with MTG, and they are passed between the two offices.
Builds
The TD should begin scheduling builds as soon as possible. This varies from show to show, but builds should start at the latest the weekend after final set design is due (you can always start earlier with set pieces that you know will happen no matter what!). Put the time you want to have your builds on the build calendar (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eknzAu2E1UHNJsdC8K2D3sX_Mn4nj92i-tLh4QF0eY4/edit#gid=21) so we don't overlap with MTG, as well as on the show calendar so that you don't overlap with builds for other departments. Ignore the generic where it says we build Saturday mornings – that's outdated. A good amount of time for builds is generally 3-4 hours per week, but you may need to put in extra hours for particularly extensive sets. Always overestimate the time it'll take to build something. Try to make sure you are having sufficient build time early on so you don't have to be trying to finish everything yourself during or right before tech week. You may want to alternate days builds happen, so people with other conflicts have a chance to go.
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