[SML] designer responsibility, was Newspaper Scenic Treatment

[e-mail frank.wood95]

On 4 January 2015 at 22:34, Jeffrey E. Salzberg via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> I always want to reply, asking if the theatre was built by an
> "architect/plumber".

You do plumbers, and other tradesmen, an injustice. Architects, I am less sure.

Since 1964, we have has three architects across our theatre, The
first, who designed the buiding, was an active member of our group. In
consultation with the membership, he designed the best space that we
could afford, and supervised its consrtuction, actively assisted by
the membership. Of course, contractors were used for the main
structure, but you might be surprised by the numbers of amateur
bricklayers we found.

Our second encounter was less happy, but saved by competent detail
project managers, again from within our membership.

Our third was a disaster. Our project manager was a psychology
graduate turned computer programmer, who nothing about engineering
projects.
Moreover, our engtineering team was specifically barred from talking
to the contrtactors. At least we got to see the drawings, but I still
have a long file of errors, omissions, and plain stupidities.

I suppose that the moral is to involve the active people as far as is
possible. Sadly, these are now in very short supply. The fact that we
have now become a public theatre, with the compulsory compliance with
the rules and regulations, may have something to do with it. For the
first time in my memory, which goes back 50 years, we hired in a set
and a sound system for the Christmas show (Jack and the Beanstalk).
When I joined, we worked within our own resources. Perhaps we did
better work then.

-- 
Frank Wood