[SML] Sovereignty over your stages

[Riter, Andrew]

Matt asked:
>>What is your Theatre Departments relationship with your Facilities Management or Physical Plants team, regarding sovereignty over your stages?
We control our building within the university environment.  Plant-operations will come in and maintain plant equipment without notifying us, unless it’s a shut down or similar, and sometimes we can get them to re-arrange based on client rentals.  We call the trades to come and fix “core building” equipment.  Up to us to service/maintain loose equipment (console, theatre lamps, etc).
We have a Facility Manager within Plant-Ops that acts as our liaison within plant-ops, to deal with larger projects, to put out fires, or start fires under the trades.  We have our own Co-managing Director for the building (Chan staff) that could also be called a Facility Manager, but he is responsible for the operation of the building, and is different from the plant-ops FM.
>>In other words are you allowed to transform the physical space or do you have to request permission from the management of Facilities?
Our spaces our transformable on a per show basis (pit lift, choir loft moves, seating towers move).  We do the “theatre” work ourselves in-house with our theatre staff.  Based on the next question, Yes we can modify the structure of our building as we see fit.  We’ve added dimmer ccts, and that required coring through a wall.
>>For example, are you allowed to paint the floor and backstage walls, screw into the stage floors, attach items to the backstage walls, remove doors, or build scenery into the house? What other type of adjustments do you make in your spaces?
If it is core building work (fixing gear, modify the building for construction/projects) we “hire” the plant-ops trades to do it.  If the project is large enough, we can hire outside the university trades.  The $1mil audio upgrade was funded by us, contracted by the university through a bid process, and then 3rd party contractors did the work.
The adding of the dimming circuits was done by the university trades.
***WE*** don’t allow people to screw into our floors.  We paint our studio floor black as needed.  The theatre school will paint the studio floor for shows as needed.  Sets could be built into the house, but **we’d** be very particular about that.
We brought in plant-ops to install hangers on the wall for railing pieces, and cable hooks.  Better their time than mine.  If it’s really small, then we might tap an anchor into the wall ourselves.  It also depends if we have the tools and knowledge.
>>What skill sets are you expected to know to have complete sovereignty over your space?
It’s our building.  We can do as we like with it  (pending approval of our own management).  We have an ongoing discussion with Trades management and the electrical permit holder about my ability to tie in cam-locks.  I have the appropriate provincial ticket for it, but there is also union jurisdiction as well (I’m a different local than trades).
Generally we let trades do their work, and they let us do our work.  Our work is theatre/stage/lighting/sound related.  Theirs is building infrastructure, maintenance of core building equipment and structure.
We have management oversite of the building.
Does that help?

Andrew M. Riter
Assistant Technical Director / Head Lighting Technician

604-822-2372
Andrew.riter at ubc.ca<mailto:Andrew.riter at ubc.ca>

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