Tour Management

This fall The Magik Theatre will be sending their second national tour out into the world. Last fall around this time I was busily packing to fly to San Antonio to begin work as the Tour Production Manager for The Jungle Book, which was their first national tour. I was nervous, excited and a little trepidatious.

Although we drove long hours and ate very repetitive road food, the experience with The Jungle Book was overall a great one. I worked with some very talented people and had enough happy laid back folk in the group to counteract any negativity. The theaters we played were for the most part beautiful and the hotels were (for the most part) better than decent.(tour blog here)

I am slightly sad to not be going back this year. However with moving and marriage and a great Fellowship at Arena Stage, it's just not in the cards.

I will continue to have a smaller role. One that doesn't have to sleep in hotel beds or eat Subway until I want to die or sit in the car for 10, 11, 12 hours at a time. This year I will drop the production part and just be- Tour Manager.

My new duties include prep for the contracts meeting happening on Tuesday, creation of the Tour Procedures Manual for the Stage Manager/Company Manager and Actors, training of the new SM/CM in all of the budget and report documents, arranging travel plans and booking all of the hotels. All of which I can do from my computer.

In my pajamas.

While on Facebook.

And eating some Subway.

Yum.

Educational Supplements

My brain is exhausted and my typing fingers are sore it must be that time again, Educational Supplements Time!

In layman terms I write Study Guides for performing art programs. Each supplement (I was told by an Educational Director the other day never to call them guides)is focused on standards based activities created to augment whatever prep the teacher is doing for the field trip and to give the educator some standards-based weapon power in their fight against the district cuts in field trip funding. Say that 5 times fast.

Generally my guides/supplements have a similar layout. I keep them down to 4 to 6 pages, easy to read with black and white art as many educators do not have access to color printers- plus if it is already in color what do the kids get to color? One page is completely focused on language arts and discussion questions (who, what , when, where, why , how would you?, what do you think). One page focused on multi step mathematics word problems and the additional activities and information in science, social studies, health topped off with a list of standards that are reached just by attending the arts programming itself. AND if the show is in the summer I just might pop in a word search, crossword or maze to mix it up.

A major difference from many guides/supplements I see online is that mine are ready to go for the student. As a former teacher I really detested the 14 page brightly colored list of donors, sponsors and ads with a page or so of guidelines for how to act in the theatre followed by suggestions of activities I could do in my classroom if I wanted to take the time to create the materials I would need to perform them. Obviously the people writing these guides had never been in a classroom. I wanted something I could print and give, looked good printed on the 10 year old printer I was lucky to have access to and that dealt with a wide variety of learning styles while also giving my students practice in the formats they will become familiar with through the amazing amount of state sponsored testing. (I think I found more field trip money!) I wanted TEKS I could write down on the 800 forms I needed to fill out to justify the trip. In short I wanted the trip to do part of my work for me.

I hope I'm helping.

BUGS

Washington DC is a bug filled place.

Living in hotels and in NYC for the last 2 years has spoiled me. There are no bugs. Hotels are cleaned and sanitized so often that very few bugs survive and NYC is so toxic the bugs are smarter than to try. Sure in NYC you see cockroaches, but they were never in my apartment. Even during our bed-bug debacle of 2009 when we had sticky traps throughout our apartment, nothing was ever on them but dust bunnies. (By the way our "bed-bugs" were actually Ryan developing a peanut allergy. No actual bugs)

Living in DC there are bugs everywhere. I know it was built on a swamp, I know it's summer, I know I live in a basement, but goodness gracious this place is a bug convention! In our house alone I have battled huge house spiders, some big ole furry black spider, tiny beetles that look like baby roaches, 2 slugs and the grossest of all, HOUSE CENTIPEDES. (here is a picture)

I hate centipedes. Just typing that word makes my skin crawl. When we first saw the nasty things I looked them up online and read about how great they are, how they keep other bugs out of your house, ect, ect. I do not care. Those things are gross. They have way to many legs.

Eww.

When I was little we were vacationing at our house in Kerrville TX. My little brother and I had gone exploring and were now in the bath when a huge gross centipede walked around the corner of the doorframe and into the bathroom. My mom freaked out and my grandpa caulked the thing in under the sink counter. When that piece gets pulled out for remodeling the biggest, grossest centipede skeleton EVER, is still going to be there mocking me.

Eww. Yucky.

Signature Theatre

Ever since we arrived in Washington DC I have been attempting to find a theatre to work for part time. I applied to numerous box office jobs but my upcoming fellowship precluded me from many of the positions. Then I started emailing and calling to volunteer. I have been sent usher packet after usher packet even thought most of my conversations began with- "I would love to volunteer in some way other than ushering. " You would think with 10 years of theatre experience I would be able to find an administration that needs some sort of assistance filing, organizing, typing, answering phones, or even sewing but weeks of inquiries left me with nothing. Finally I sent a short email to Signature Theatre in Shirlington VA that just said;

Hello, I just moved to Washington DC and I am looking for a place to volunteer. I have ten years of experience in theatre management including Stage Management, Tour Management, House and Company Management and experience in a variety of administrative duties. I would prefer not to usher. Can you use any of my skills?

And got a response back in 2 hours from their PR person asking "When can you come in?!"

So for the past few weeks I have spent 2 to 3 days a week at Signature Theatre doing cut and paste, organizing folders, writing PSA's, writing Press Releases, participating in meetings and generally helping out.

It's nice to finally be needed somewhere!

The National Zoo

Last Saturday we found ourselves at the Zoo. We had actually started out to go to the farmers market a few blocks from our house but one thing led to another and then a walk and then we were at the zoo.

We've been to the zoo before. Right when we moved in we took nightly walks and have found ourselves crossing the bridge and staring at the big concrete Z-O-O on the hill. The first time we were there it was 6pm and no animals were out. Well, correction the prairie dogs were in fine form enjoying the lush grass filled concrete planter they live in, but no other animals. This time it was a Saturday morning and although the prairie dog pit is now a dirt covered hole with wasps, there were animals out in full force.

We were able to hit the monkey house, invertebrates, small mammals and the great cats before the heat, lack of food and huge number of annoying tourist families and their massive strollers did me in. I wonder if they have an "Adult Swim" concept where no one under the age of 18 is allowed in the zoo. I think that's when I want to go next.

All in all it is a beautiful zoo and one of the items I am proud to sponsor with my tax dollars.

National Public Radio

Last week my husband and I went to NPR headquarters in downtown DC. As many of you know, he used to work at a radio station in San Antonio TX called KRTU 91.7. He was the Operations Manager and then later on the Station Manager before we moved to NYC. Because of his background and radio and our mutual love of NPR, this tour was particularly interesting.

On Tuesday mornings they give a public tour around 11am. You sign in on a computer by the front desk and get a printed nametag and wait with all the other NPR fans in the lobby. It seems to be a fairly relaxed work environment. People were coming in for their day around 10:45 and most people were dressed in a shirt and slacks or jeans. The only person we saw in a suit was Ari Shapiro and he covers the government so there you go! (He was also very handsome, the Anderson Cooper of radio)

Around 11 Alan our tour guide joined us and took us in and around the building. We saw most of the offices, a couple studios, heard a recording/interview of Dave Mathews that was being edited, met the technician for Morning Edition and were able to see the place that the "Tiny Desk" concerts are taped. We were even offered a seat at the concert that afternoon!

Unfortunately we had a lunch so we missed the concert taping but overall the tour was great- a must do on any vacation list for DC that includes intelligent adults. For Ry's view of the event check out his blog here.