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How to start being Set Shop Master

Add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. Add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. Add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. Add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. Add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. 

Did you add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder? No? Go add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. Once you've added yourself, read the "READ ME!" document and familiarize yourself with the folder's contents. You'll know you're familiar enough when you can answer these questions:

  1. Who are the current/most recent Set Shop managers and Technical Directors for the Musical Theatre Guild and the Gilbert & Sullivan Players? Do they know who you are? (The answer to the last one should be "yes.")
  2. What times during the week should the Shakespeare Ensemble have builds?
  3. How is the Ensemble's stuff labeled in the set shop? How is shared stuff labeled?
  4. How and when should you get a wood dumpster?

If you had trouble with question 1, look more closely at the contact information sheet. If you had trouble with question 2, check out the build calendar and the set shop rules. If you had trouble with question 3 or 4, look more closely at the set shop rules. As of April 2018 the set shop rules are posted on very large sheets of paper in the set shop, but the ones in the Google Drive should be the most up-to-date.

Wait, where did these set shop rules come from? And why should I care about what they say?

The original version of the set shop rules was created in spring 2017 by Jakob Weisblat '18 (Shakespeare Ensemble), Kirsten Olson '17 (MTG), and (I think, I being Kim Dauber '18) Anna Constantia-Richardson (GSP, a non-MIT person). There may have been others involved as well. The agreement has been updated since then by various people from those three theater groups. The spring 2018 version is the one posted on the walls of the set shop.

You should care about these rules because we need them in order to work with the other groups. Everything written there was recorded for a reason, usually because of some problem we ran into. For example, the different groups' belongings are labeled with different colors because MTG has had a problem with other groups and individuals borrowing their tools and not returning them. Build times are negotiable because Shakespeare Ensemble's originally listed times (Saturdays and Sundays before noon) turned out to be unreasonable for student schedules. 

If there are parts of the rules you disagree with or rules you think are missing, great! This is a living document. Talk to the other groups about the changes you want to make and then make them. If you simply have wisdom to add from your personal experience, you may do so with out consulting the others, but be careful with this. Speak from your personal experience and try to provide credibility for what you say. Finally, remember that these rules were written by weak, selfish, fallible human beings just trying to do what was best for their group. Take what is written there with a grain of salt and remember that someone had a reason for everything written there. Try to figure it out before making a change. 

Tasks to do during the term

Here are some tasks you need to do during the term.

  1. Immediately: Update the mailing list setshop-management@mit.edu to include yourself. setshop-management@mit.edu contains the current set shop managers and current (or upcoming) technical directors - basically, the people who have the biggest stake in what happens in the Set Shop during the current term.
  2. At the beginning of the term: 
    1. Email the Ensemble an advertisement about the Set Shop Google Drive folder and encourage them to add themselves. 
    2. Add interested people to setshop@mit.edu as well. 
    3. Update the roles on the Contact Info spreadsheet in the Google Drive to accurately reflect Shakespeare Ensemble members' most relevant positions. For instance, if someone is listed as the TD for five different shows, the three oldest ones are probably irrelevant by now. The previous set shop manager should not be listed as the current set shop manager. 
    4. Try to offer a tour of the set shop to interested Ensemble folks.
  3. When the term show gets one or more Technical Directors: 
    1. Add them to setshop-management@mit.edu as well. 
    2. Introduce them to the set shop Google Drive if they don't know about it.
    3. Introduce them to the other groups' TDs and set shop managers.
  4. When the term show gets carpenters:
    1. Put the sets mailing list (probably [showname]-sets@mit.edu) onto setshop@mit.edu. This is important because people make safety announcements to that mailing list.
  5. When the term show gets a set design:
    1. Help the TD(s) figure out what already existing furniture, flats, and other large objects they will want to use from the set shop. They probably don't know what's there.
    2. If the TD(s) decide to build something new and large and want to keep it after the show is done, have them email setshop-management@mit.edu to determine if this is okay with the other relevant parties. Storage space is at a premium in the set shop, so it's very important not to waste it.
  6. After put in:
    1. Double check that the Ensemble cleaned up according the rules agreed upon in the set shop folder.
  7. After strike:
    1. Take the sets mailing list off of setshop@mit.edu but encourage everyone on it to get personally added to the Google Drive and the mailing list.
    2. Double check that the Ensemble cleaned up according the rules agreed upon in the set shop folder.
  8. Once per year:
    1. Coordinate with the rest of setshop-management@mit.edu to organize a set shop cleanout. You may find that there is no good time to have one. Do it anyway. Good luck.

Some other advice

This job does a lot of interfacing with non-Ensemble humans. The biggest problems with the set shop come from a breakdown in communication. You really, really, really need to make sure that your current TDs know who you are and who the other groups' set shop managers and TDs are. Remember that they have different ways of doing things and different cultures and communication styles from the Ensemble. For instance, the MTG set shop manager position is voluntary and may not even be filled. Whoever is doing it is probably doing it either out of the goodness of their heart or because they really care about/are frustrated by the state of the set shop (or both). As far as I can tell, GSP does not even have an official "set shop manager" position as of spring 2018, so nailing down who you're working with there may be difficult.

Be aware that as of 2018, a lot of the people who care about the state of the set shop in the other groups are alumni and community members, not current students. GSP and MTG have a much larger non-student contingent than the Ensemble does. Those people tend to have 9-to-5 Monday-to-Friday work schedules. Be sensitive to this fact when scheduling set shop cleans and meetings.

When in doubt, email setshop@mit.edu. This mailing list is full of people with a lot of experience and probably also with opinions. If you found an old tool that you don't know how to use, if something breaks and you don't know how to fix it, if you think there is a safety issue somewhere in the set shop, these are the people you will want to contact. Soon you will be one of them as well.

One last bit of advice - at least for now, edit this document and the set shop rules heavily as we learn new lessons. The position of Set Shop Master was created in fall 2017 by Kim Dauber, so it's currently one of the newest. If something needs changed, change it! If something on this page is wrong, fix it! We have comparatively little experience with this, so take the advice given here but be bold and forge your own path. I believe in you (heart)



P.S. Add yourself to the Set Shop Google Drive folder. (wink) 

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