Prepping for the School Year: A Theater Teacher’s Guide to Starting Strong

Plans are hard. Prepping for the school year is even harder. Here in Wisconsin, we’re about a month out from the start of the school year. That’s when teachers report back, not when we get kids. We spend our summer prepping: designing, lining up student crews, hiring our designers, reviewing our documents, all of those things we have to do to get ready for the school year.

Here is where I start, and what I suggest for a pre-season preparedness plan.

Maintenance and Safety First

At the end of the year, we do a maintenance report. Follow up with your maintenance department about what things are getting taken care of and what things still need to be addressed as you go into the school year.

Do your materials lists for your basic shop needs. Are your blades sharp? What tools need to be pulled out of your inventory? If you didn’t do that at the end of the previous year, go through and do it now. Where are you with your consumables? Glue, screws, bolts, washers, all of the things that you need to put your sets together.

If you have a fly system, has your rigging been inspected? This is a big one, and we’re actually struggling with this in our district because it’s about a $2,500–$3,000 charge to have your rigging inspected. It should be built into your school's maintenance plan. Not your theater’s budget. If other groups use your stage (band, orchestra, assemblies, rentals) a rigging inspection should be a shared expense, just like lamps and carpet cleaning. Some systems need to be inspected every year; some systems need to be done every other year. You can contact theatrical companies who do rigging inspections (DRS out of Bloomington, IN, Mainstage Theatrical Supply based in FL, but with offices in WI, TN, and TX) they can tell you what your house needs as far as scheduling. Here’s the reason regular inspections are important: if something happens with your fly lines and you have not had your inspections done, you are liable for problems, damages, injuries. You don’t want things to go wrong with your fly lines, so make sure that you are having your rigging inspections done.

Fire inspections on your curtains should happen annually. Have the paperwork on your doft goods available. Make sure you know the person doing the testing, because not everybody knows how to do it correctly. You can contact the manufacturer of your curtains to find out how it needs to be done. Different materials need to be tested differently, so make friends with the people who are doing your fire safety inspections.

Go through all of your wire rope rigging and aircraft cable (they are different materials). Pull out anything that’s damaged, kinked, or has that little twist separation in it. You don’t want that birdcage effect.

Order Early, Order Smart

Figure out what you’re going to need for your shows this year and make your orders early, it will make your life easier. We usually buy bulk muslin. We buy a big spool of tie line, not a little spool. Gaff tape, mic tape, spike tape, painters tape. All the tape. If we are getting low on aircraft cable, we’ll buy a spool of that as well. Any hardware that you need for your rigging, sleeves, quick links, all of those things that need to be checked on a regular basis, figure that out and put those orders in now. It will help you tremendously when you start to install your first set to know you have the raw materials and equipment ready to go. .

Season Planning and Budgeting

We go through and do all of our season planning. We know what shows we’re doing, and we start working on set designs over the summer so that we can hit the ground running.

I put in a large lumber order at the beginning of the season that covers what my classes are going to do and what the shows are going to build, to kind of meld those two things together. My classroom budget covers our consumables and safety equipment. We usually lose goggles and frequently used items over the course of the year, a couple of tape measures, paint brushes, roller sticks. We replace saw blades, not every year, it depends on the saw, but we replace saw blades regularly. Sandpaper, glue, screws, that comes as one order for me at the beginning of the school year. Before the students start, I hit the hardware store and get all my consumables taken care of.

We just purchased new replacement rollers for our panel saw because ours were all cracked. That’s going to help us out a lot. Then the materials order for the shows (plywood, 1x4s, luan, masonite).

Materials Management and Storage

Figure out what you need, what you can use and reuse. This will help your budget. We made excellent use of lumber last year. We built set pieces that we then used consistently throughout the year. We might even roll them over. We’re making that assessment now. We might roll them over and use some of them in the coming season if they’re still in good shape after our summer show.

If you need to get rid of things, do it now and don’t feel guilty about it. That’s huge because every theater person I know is a saver. “Oh, I could use that for a show. Oh, I could use this for a show.” You have to start picking and choosing.

We all know that storage is not unlimited. If we had four times as much storage as we have stage, we’d still fill it up. So decide what you can get rid of. Don’t feel bad about it. Find another theater that can take it. If you can’t, it is okay to take it to Goodwill. It is okay to pitch it. You need to clear that space so that you can bring in new things, new shows, and a little bit of peace of mind to your brain as you walk into your prop room.

Get Organized on Paper

Get things organized on paper as much as possible, and understand that your plan will change. We all know this. But you have to have a Plan A before you go to a Plan Z. If you get it down on paper, you will feel good about it going in. And again, you can change the plans once you get moving. But if you don’t have anywhere to start, then you’re just rolling in chaos.

Planning for the Kids

If you get your class lists early, make phone calls. Call the parents. Don’t let the first call they hear from you be the first day that they screw up and you have to write them up for doing something stupid. Call the parents and let them know who you are. Let them know what the kids are going to be doing in class.

We like to meet with parents in person. We have a big parent meeting at the beginning of the year. We really like doing it as a picnic. Sometimes that works out schedule-wise, sometimes it doesn’t. Get to know your families before you get into your season. They will be more supportive, and you will have that basis for communication when you need them, good or bad. And hopefully it will all be good. But when their kids struggle, and every kid struggles a little bit, then you know who you’re talking to and they understand who you are.

If you have the benefit of being able to communicate with middle schools or junior highs, call them and say, “Hey, who is this kid? What can you tell me about them?” It takes time but it is well worth it when you have a beat on who the kids are before they come in.

Need Help?

If you’re interested in having somebody help you plan, I do have a one-day service: I will sit down with you and take a look at your show, take a look at your drawings. If you’ve got scribbles and sketches and don’t quite know how to organize them, or if you have an inventory but you don’t know how to work it in with your current design, I will be happy to sit down with you, create a plan, create the paperwork, and create the build schedule so that you feel good about where you’re going. That’s TD in Your Pocket, and it’s available on this website, for blog readers. You can also DM me through the facebook page.

Take Care of Yourself

The more planning you have done in advance, even if you change absolutely everything, the more control you have over what you’re walking into, and the better you will feel about starting your school year.

It’s not just planning for the kids. Plan for yourself, too.

Please join us on the Backstage AIC Facebook page. Please tell us how your summer is going. Tell us what you’re doing to relax, because your peace of mind is the foundation for your season.

So take care of yourself. We’ve got a month to go. Plan well so you can have a really enjoyable incoming fall.