[SML] designer responsibility, was Newspaper Scenic Treatment

[June Abernathy]

I can understand both sides of the "Design Responsibilities" debate. I agree that if you know what you are getting yourself into ahead of time and agree to those terms, then no harm no foul, for the most part.

However, very often, companies get so used to having their designers participate in hands on things like programming the light board or painting the set or fitting the costumes that they literally lose sight of the actual job parameters of a Designer. They forget that such things aren't technically part of the designer's job, and they tend to forget to mention that such duties will be expected of any designers coming in to work at the company in their advertisements or interview process. And if any incoming designers DO balk at such assignments, or balk at the pay once they realize the extra work expected, they tend to consider them fussy Divas, rather than rather normal Designers with rather normal expectations.

This happens the other way around, too. Many places get used to having their Master Electrician design lights for shows, or their TD or Head Carpenter design sets, or their Wardrobe Mistress design costumes. Usually, this means having them cobble together what the show needs from what items are currently available in house with as little extra buying/renting/building as possible. And many Technicians enjoy doing that in addition to their regular job. But some do not, and they get usually labled as unhelpful or overreaching if they either want someone else to do that stuff, or if they want to get paid extra to do it.

At the end of the day, sometimes having a Designer also do some or all of the Technical work, or a Technician do some or all of the Design work, works out. But sometimes, you lose something along the way, as one person doesn't really have time to do either job as well as they might if that was all they had to do, and that one person may be significantly less skilled in the other area than someone who specializes in that thing would be, and sometimes shows suffer from having one vision when collaboration might have allowed for some different input that might have resulted in something more inspired for the end product.

Also, some Designers, who have spent a lot of time in small theaters where the Designer typically does a lot of the hands on work have a hard time when they book a job in a place where they are not expected (or allowed) to do such things. They haven't developed good skills in calling focus to a crew, or working out show programming with a Light Board Programmer, or doing detailed drawings, elevations and samples for someone else to paint or build or fit your stuff without you there. Those things takes skills and building those skills takes practice, and you won't get that by doing it all yourself. But they are very necessary skills to have if you want to move up into bigger commercial productions.

And, every person doubling up is potentially cutting someone else out of a job, and may actually put MORE stress on the person or department that you are trying to help. Because "helping out" turns into "We don't have to hire you an assistant, because you have the Designer to help you out with that stuff", or even into "We don't need to hire a Technician at all, because you can handle all that stuff" faster than you would believe.

As I always say in the old recurring "Stage Manager running the light board" discussion, there is usually nothing wrong with one person doing two jobs, as long as the People in a Hiring Position (and the person up for the job!) realize that that person actually IS DOING TWO JOBS. It's also really helpful if they pay them commensurately. But it's rarely an ideal solution.


June Abernathy
AEA Stage Manager
IATSE #321 (Tampa, FL)
FOH Electrician
The Lion King National Tour

> On Jan 5, 2015, at 2:00 PM, stagecraft-request at theatrical.net wrote:
> 
> Re: [SML] designer responsibility, was Newspaper Scenic
> 	Treatment