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SM is the highest priority. The SM MUST be found by auditions and hopefully at least several weeks before this. TD, Set Designer and ASMs also very high priority, followed by other major designers (Lighting, Costumes, Sound, Props, Publicity). It is useful to have a publicity designer and/or manager to be able to audition publicity. Meet with all production staff (this can be the first prod meeting) - be sure they understand the calendar and what is expected of them. Go over contract with each member of the production team.
It is important to check in regularly with prod staff to make sure that everyone is doing their jobs. If anyone is not on top of things, consider monitoring them more closely. For example, drawing up a very detailed schedule of when everything needs to get done can be effective for people who are unorganized. If a problematic member of the prod staff continues to cause problems and fail to do the job assigned, you can consider replacing that person as a last resort.
Production Meetings
Set up and run preliminary prod meeting to determine the production calendar, introduce the designers, talk about the director's vision, go over the budget, and schedule all future prod meetings. In the spring, prod meetings start during the first half of IAP. In the fall, the prod meeting should happen at least one week before reg day, or as soon as possible before that, even if not all of the prod staff are on campus.
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Assist as needed. Catch all the balls that are dropping. Help out the stage manager(s) in any way you can. Make sure that runtime jobs have been assigned to everyone (washing clothes, sweeping and mopping the stage, warmups, morale, cleaning the house, water/candy for actors, etc.) At that point your job will be mostly over, but theirs is just beginning. Making their life easier makes everyone happier.
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Q2Q is the domain of the SM. It is either the evening at the end of put-in (Sunday before the show opens) or the next night (Monday). The more cues are written before Q2Q, the happier everyone will be. There is frequently (depending on the designers and other people involved) no point in having a Q2Q if less than a critical percent of the cues have been written. Actual actors are necessary to get heights and skin tones accounted for.
Put-in and Strike
This is really the responsibility of the TD, but make sure that put-in and strike are on track to happen in an efficient and effective fashion. Make sure that the space is available very late on closing night for strike, and also that the cast will not get kicked out of space during tech week and performances. Chris Nayler (nayler@mit.edu) is the person to contact if the space is not available for the time needed for strike/rehearsal. Do NOT contact the CAC e-mail address, as they tend not to be very helpful.