Stretchy Velcro

Textol Systems (www.textol.com) has a product called Velstretch. It’s basically Velcro that allows up to 55% stretch. For a production at UMKC while I was in grad school, my fellow TD’s discovered the product during their research for use with spandex panels that made up the background of the set they were working on.

PM

A topic interesting to me is the overlap between project management and technical direction. Technical direction is a very industry specific way to look at the job. And, granted depending on where you work and the specific shop structure of that theatre the job may vary significantly from someone else with the same title. It is for this reason that I think the term makes it more difficult to generalize duties and needs. While I think that there will always be hammer slinging TD’s in small venues, there are a variety of places, where the TD’s job is much more a management position. Furthermore, A great TD isn’t always the best welder or carpenter, and great welders and carpenters don’t always make great TD’s. Thus, I find it useful for framing a TD (particularly the management style) in a project management frame of reference. Why? Every show is a project. A season is a project – and a series of projects. Here is a definition of a project: "A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result" PMI PMBOK 3d edition.

You may have noticed on my blog that there are a lot of resources for project management. It is for two reasons – I am one, (and a TD), and I believe the above. By framing the job differently I have a wealth of resources that helps teach me how to plan, organize, manage, and other wise develop the many different aspects of the job. It also makes it easier to teach, talk, and think about concrete skills that a TD of any level should have, and ways to scale up and down the projects.

I am working on a session that will develop these ideas for USITT in Cincinnati – and I am sure I will sound off more here about it in the upcoming months. If you have insights, or comments please let me know!

Work support for sawing

I saw an interesting product in my new CherryTree catalog. Its called a
porcupine pad. It’s a mat with flexible pins that support your work surface, but which you can use a jog saw to cut through the material. From the picture it looks like you can buy multiple pieces and lock them together.

Rivet Nuts

I cam across a new (for me) piece of hardware called a rivet nut. We were working on a light-box and discussing ways to connect the milk white acrylic to the aluminium channel, and the rivet nut was suggested, after I brought up weld nuts.

So I looked up rivet nuts, and they are interesting little pieces of hardware, useful in a variety of situations.

Check out this sight for more information: http://www.rivetnuts.com/

At the bottom of their page they have an instruction graphic to show you how they work.

Rigid Rigging Point

While working on my last project I became aware of a new rigging component that I have not used before!

You can find it at: http://www.thelightsource.com/products/50/view

It has a safe vertical working load of 1100 pounds. While it doesn't allow for vertical adjustment in the same manner that a chain would, yet I can think of a variety of situations where it would be very useful.

Humor of the day

Things have been a bit crazy lately, but I hope to get back to posting regularly soon. As for now- a bit of humor for you :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxwTC13f1PE

Failure

Last Friday, the Artful Manager delivered another insightful email linking to his recent blogs. Basically he spoke of an issue that I fully agree with – that if you want to have innovation you need to take risks. If you take risks, you will have failure. And that failure is a measure of success.

I do think that it is intriguing about what the definition of failure impacts risk taking. If you take a risk where the failure means extinction, true risks are very difficult to take. Sure you might have much to gain, but losing everything isn’t worth it. This can be seen in many arenas – the stock market comes to mind. In this case, risks, in my opinion, need to be defined and explored. Perhaps a theatre can’t change its programming all at once, but 1 small scale show in a different genre could open a window. One small risk at a time, building on failures and successes. Its important because I think it can be easier to seen what you did wrong, then what went right – or at least easier to plan according to what was wrong in the past.


Fail early, fail often
Philanthropy 2173

Software

I was a bit under the weather last week, and wasn't able to post.

Now that I'm feeling better and back into service, I thought I would pass on the following website / service: http://www.callsteward.com/

The site allows you to schedule calls, and get confirmations back from those called. You can get a free demo on the site. I could see a use for this in a variety of situation, above and beyond union calls. Check it out!

Toggle Clamps

I visited a metal working company while I was in grad school that had an awesome system for welding – They had these huge table that was a steel grid on about 3” centers. Where the framing members joined there were holes available for hold down clamps. While I haven’t yet created a plan to build a table like this in the shop, I was browsing the latest copy of Machine Design and came across a company that has a wide variety of clamps. As there are a variety of other theatrical uses for these clamps I thought I would pass the link on.

Carr Lane


Their site also has a variety of useful reference material available here

Branding

One of the big catch phases of the day has got to be branding. From major brands, to small businesses and even individuals – everyone must have a brand to succeed, or at least it seams. Brands used to be a static message that the corporation delivered to the masses. While people have always held opinions, and probably aren’t more vocal today than they used to be, the methods of sharing those opinions have vastly changed, mostly due to the internet. There is a plethora of websites that you can voice your opinion on without creating a community. Plus there is another vast amount of places where you can voice your opinions within a community (or multiple communities) that interest you. For something theatre related, for example, I could express an opinion not only on my blog, but also on my facebook theatre groups, appropriate myspace pages, LinkedIn groups, and on the stagecraft mailing list. Additionally I could be asked about a product through all of those methods as well. Thus any individual’s distribution ability is much wider than it may have been previously, and longer lasting – blogs don’t expire, mailing lists can be searched. An off hand comment today may influence a future purchase 3 years down the road.

This availability has though, I think, increased the desire of the consumer to communicate their experience of a product or event. This is a result of the desire to want to have the experience in the first place. There have always been brand identification, and peer pressure with regard to brands, but there seems to be more of a trend towards identifying with the brand. Its almost like a brand needs to create an experience that makes mini ambassadors for the product. The catch to the company is that they are not able to streamline their image the exact way they want to, but the experience is much more authentic.

These ideas have been spurred on by the article “O.P.E.N. for Business: The Future of Branding in a Web-Made World”, published in the April 2008 issue of Event Marketer.

Theatrically speaking, I think these thoughts can go into 2 different directions. The first is to confirm, create, or develop the product (the show) into something where your audience has a meaningful experience. This is inherent in every show, yet something we don’t play up – while the movie theatre industry makes much more of this situation. Secondly, I think we need to help our patrons to form and/or participate in communities that support their experiences and let them talk, discuss, play, create, and in general be active in regards to their participation with our event. While I think it is important to note that much of this may always be independent – I think there is a lot of room for the theatre community to facilitate as well. And, happily, I thin this is starting to happen – for instance it isn’t uncommon for a theatre to have a blog (even if it isn’t updated much), or to have a facebook group. The issue that I see with what they are doing is that it isn’t kept up to date enough, and it isn’t done with the full authority behind it so it looks limited. But at least it is something – and I will continue to anticipate future developments.