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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.
**INSERT SPIEL ABOUT DELEGATION. IF YOU ARE A FUTURE TD READING THIS AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT, TLDR PLEASE TELL PEOPLE TO DO THINGS AND DONT DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF. DELEGATIONNNNNNN***
TD is a BIG JOB and takes a lot of time. Take this into account when figuring out your commitments for this semester. I believe in you, though!
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- That it meets fire and safety regulations
- Any platforms more than 4 feet off the ground require railings, and railings must be 42" tall.
- That the exits are wide and straightforward
- That the entire set can be seen from booth
- That it fits in la Sala and/or KLT (It's also helpful if it fits in 491/ 407, since anything larger tends to be pointless, since blocking is never done in rooms larger than 491/407), with room for backstage, the entrances and exits actors need, enough audience room.
- Likewise, it should be able to fit backstage/through the wings if it has to be there. Check where the set designer put the back curtain in KLT.
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The TD is responsible for meeting with CAC to get final approval for the set design a week or two before Tech Weeksafety meetings with CAC and EHS. Our current contact at CAC is Meredith Sibley (mfsibley@mit.edu), and our current EHS contact is Alice Ursella (aursella@mit.edu). The producer should also attend this meeting, and it can be helpful for the set designer , and perhaps the lighting designer, to be present. The producer is in charge of scheduling this meetingEither the producer or technical director should schedule these meetings. Two meetings generally occur: a preliminary sets and safety meeting soon after the set design is finalized, and a second meeting for lights much later on, usually a week before tech week.
The primary purpose of the first meeting is to assure CAC and EHS that the technical elements of the show are safe. The meeting typically consists of a short summary of the set from the TD/set designer, including any particularly challenging or unique set elements; the light plot from light designer; the weapons , the weapons plan from the props designer; , a production safety, and a work safety plan. See the sample documents here.This EHS now requires a 3D CAD of the set (or at least, photos of a CAD). Vectorworks tends to be terrible for 3D CAD, but it is useful for lights and showing general layout, so you should still have a vectorworks set design even if it isn't what you use for the 3D CAD. This meeting is also when we request tables, chairs, costume racks, Germans (the large audience risers), and butterflies (larger but shorter risers). You will need more tables than you think, ask for 15 + number needed on stage. They are used for booth, changing room, and keeping backstage tidy. If you want a fancy ticketing table, ask for one or two of the tables to have a maroon skirt. This is also when you should ask anything about the MEWPs (Mobile Elevating Work Platforms, i.e. lifts for reaching high spaces). It can be useful to have both the Genie and Skyjack (2 different kinds of lifts we have at our disposal) for Sala to make things go faster.
The second meeting is similar, but for lights. You will need a lighting plot made in vectorworks, a cable plot, and an instrument schedule. You should also ask about picking up the genie and skyjack keys at this meeting.
Examples of documents for both of these meetings can be found in the Technical Director Samples drive here.
If you're in Sala, you also need to ask for the Sala and Genie keys at the If you're in Sala, you also need to ask for the Genie key at this meeting. Genie is the lift that exists that is helpful for lights hanging. Meredith will either give it to you now (if you mention it in the email) or will let you know when you can come pick it up and drop it off.
Sleep
No seriously. You will be up late on Saturday putting up scaff (if you're in Sala), and seriously. You will be up early on Sunday for put-in. During Tech Week you should expect to spend 3-4 hours per day putting up audience or finishing set pieces, on top of PSets and rehearsals (although there is some work that can be done during rehearsals, anything noisy has to be done earlier or later in the day).
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- Put-In is usually the Sunday before tech week, lasting from 7am - 11 pm.
Each actor and Ensemble member is required to complete a number of hours, usually 8. Details on this have varied from show to show – use your best judgement. If membership is particularly large, for example, you could only require 6 hours. - Email out a google form asking for everyone's availability and what they are comfortable doing/skill level doing so
- Heights, power tools, painting detail work, sewing, carrying heavy things... things like that
- Dietary restrictions/pizza preferences
- Email department heads, asking:
- How many hours their department will need
- How many people they need
- When they think they'll need them
- The rule for department heads is that they should arrive at 7am when Put-In starts and should stay until their department is over or until they have completed their 8 hours, whichever is longer.
- Once you have this information, you want to start making your scheduling spreadsheet. There are fantastic examples from earlier shows – if you don't have one, for some reason, contact the previous TD.
part of the spreadsheet from She Kills Monsters (summer 2018) credit to Cami
- Scheduling is hard. The most important thing is that you want to make sure there are no "dead" hours, meaning you want to make sure there are always enough people on a task at a time to be getting things done – if there is an hour where there are only 2 people assigned for sets, for example, not much is likely to get done. You also want to pick out sets/lights people who are experienced to help lead what is happening during that time – remember, you won't be building during Put-In.
- At the same time you're doing this, make a checklist of things that need to be done and when you think you can do them. This is extreeeeeemely useful, so don't slack on this. I split time into a few sections: FIRST THING, MORNING, AFTERNOON, and LAST THING. First thing is stuff like getting things from the set shop and setting up a tool area, morning is things
- New members probably won't have skills. That's okay! See where they'd like to go, and help them learn from upperclassmen. You might help find the next lighting designer or TD...!!!!
- Remember, the sets people there in the morning will be doing runs from the set shop to bring set pieces over. They should have the full list of set pieces for this.
- If you have a competents sets person in charge of this that lives in EC, you might want to ask them to go to the set shop first instead of space to get things ready for when friends come.
- You're going to want to designate someone you trust as Put-In-Assistant TD (if you don't already have a formal Assistant or Co-TD). If, let's say, you need to leave space to deal with something in the set shop, this person should have an idea of what needs to get done such that they can tell people to do things if other tasks get completed. Sit down with them a few days prior to Put In so that they have a sense of the Put In so they can effectively lead in your absence.
- You're also going to want to schedule someone to be the TD's assistant – they're in charge of ordering food and taking attendance when people arrive. There is a term job for the food master who should be in charge of food, and the SM is a good choice to replace them when they leave. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, Dominos for lunch. (according to older versions of thie wiki we used to get cookies in the evening... I'm jealous)
- Once the schedule is done, send it out to everybody so they know when they're scheduled.
- Make sure everything is ready to go – first aid kit, tools, list of set pieces in the set shop...
- If you're in Sala, you need to construct scaff the night before. Contact the lights team to do this, or it can be a last-minute chance for prod hours.
- The night before, send out one final email to everybody, reminding them of these things:
- You should have your prod hours done by put-in. If not, email the TD to figure something out.
- Check the spreadsheet again to ensure they know when they're coming in and what they're doing
- Wear closed toed shoes, clothing you aren't afraid to get covered in paint, and tie back long hair
- If you hear someone yell GROUND CREW, stop what you're doing and go to move scaff. Everyone is ground crew.
- If you are uncomfortable with what you're doing, you should tell the TD and they will find you something else to do
- If you ever are looking for something to do, ask the TD
- HYDRATE OR DIEDRATE
- If you're on lights, bring an adjustable wrench attached to your belt.
- GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP. If you don't get 8 hours before put-in, you're gonna be reeeeeeal sad.
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Running pre-strike in the week between the two weekends of shows or during the second weekend of shows will make strike go MUCH more efficiently. You can offer post put-in hours for this/offer to let actors make up prod hours for this. Try to clean up everything that won't get used for the show/strike, and move it all back up to the office/set shop. For example, return all the paint supplies and most power tools/saws to the office, but remember to leave behind the drills and their batteries so the set can actually be taken apart. In addition, to expedite the process, try to come up with a list of tasks ahead of time.
You don't need to make a strike plan as intricate as the put-in plan, but a concise strike plan could be useful for making sure things run efficiently (it's easier to tell people what to do if they know where to go).
Delphine Kaiser's vision of an efficient strike:
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Mike Katz - Former TD for MIT Theater Arts, possesses an endless supply of awesome beard and terrible puns. He's still in the area, and knows everything. Email: narishkup at gmail dot com
Becki Gray - TD for MTA (As of 2023 MIT Theater Arts is now MIT Music Theater Arts), bcgray@mit.edu