[SML] Theater Architects

[Dave Tosti-Lane]

This might sound obvious, but this also is the time to be carefully
working on your relationship with those powers that be folks. Do
everything you can between now and the time that the project starts
moving to make sure they see you as a positive contributor to the
process. That can be tricky, because you will often be in the position
of asking for more money to be spent, and that does not endear you to
the administrator. But you have a window to help them understand how
the shop works and what your students experience in the shop is like.
Inviting them in on a tour during the most challenging work times when
the shop is full and everything is crazy can help you make the point
later that you need things like storage, electrical capacity,
ventilation and proper lighting. Storage in my experience, is always
the hardest sell to the administrator and often the architect - they
just hate the idea of square footage that is not "in use". A visit to
props and costume storage will sometimes make the lightbulb go on for
them, as might seeing a large part of an existing shop given over to
platform and flat storage.
I've been through several of these, and the most successful always
involved someone on the management team who became interested enough
in the operation to become an advocate for including the right voices
at the table.

Dave Tosti-Lane



On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 9:45 AM, Bill Conner via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> I believe it can be a positive relationship whether the theatre
> consultant is contracted to the Owner or architect.  I simply focus on
> the what I believe to be the Owner's best interest, and find that may
> to varying degrees coincide or not coincide with the priorities and
> preferences of the owner, administration, faculty, staff, student, or
> architect. I've never not found ways to get information and my
> opinions to any party involved.  Certainly there is more than one
> architect that probably won't call me again, but that is fine because
> life is too short to be forced to do bad work and be silent about it.
>
> I do feel that the owner's representatives ought to have a say in both
> the theatre and acoustical consultant, and not be forced to work with
> whomever an architect chooses.  There are multiple courses of action
> to achieve that.
> --
> Bill Conner Fellow of the ASTC
>
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