The LAB! Theatre

RANSCRIBED PD ELECTION PLATFORM MEETING:

Please note that this was transcribed as best it could from people talking…very fast.

5:08 pm

Ali: welcome everybody to the prospective producer hearing we’re going to go in alphabetical order and each person is going to have about 3 minutes to talk and then we’ll have a q and a session.

Erika (Over skype in Italy):

Okay. So hello everybody I hope that my sound is not too bad or that I start to cut out part way through because on thing you discover about itally is it’s shoddy all over the place.

Basically I am going to be a senior next year and I am reallly interested in running for a position. I started sophomore year as a student rep and went through the process of creating the undergraduate manual as eveyrthing was getting squahed together, dda & LAB!, and saw what that was like and have watched LAB! grow and its been amazing. I couldn’t be on the board this year because I was going abroad but I have been really active in the community. So this is what I really want to nail down as a member of the board.

I want more spontaneous and creative projects that are short term and where the board offers opportunities for short term plays that can be put up in a room or classroom for people who can’t be involved in full course of a production. These wouldn’t be funded by LAB! but we would still provide for them. What I really want to foster in the community are things like the one act play festival and the 24 hour play festival and the making sure the litterary stuff doesn’t get ignored and supporting new work with all our students

That’s my short sweet shpeal for you guys.

Chris:

Hi. I’ a sophomore. I’ve been working with LAB! since the second week I came to unc. I’ll be directing soon, I’ve stage-managed, and seen all the angles. I want to help LAB! shore up what it is. This year we’ve had a lot of problems with LAB! and a lot of them come down to deadlines and we need to meet our deadlines. “Oh I didn’t get it done in time” isn’t okay. Want to move back deadlines two weeks. A lot of people don’t accept the repsonsibility they have. If you’re in charge it’s your responsibily if it doesn’t get done. It’s your fault even if you delegated it to someone else, that’s what you signed up to do. If it doesn’t get done it’s your fault and you need to make sure it does. That was a big problem this year.

Want to put deadlines in LAB! constitution and will really improve the framework and make us more reputable. I didn’t think deadlines were good at first but have changed my mind.

I want to improve transparency. Like- Lauren she can’t come to board meetings anymore because she has class or something but she has no idea what is going on and she’s on the board. So what is that like for the people who aren’t on the board? I want to improve those communcation lines. We also need to make sure we get our shows out there. Stick Up Kids was this weekend and I think 11 people came to the matinee. It was embarrassing. I think we need to be selective with our shows. We had too many this year can’t keep a handle on everything . We have fantastic company members and I want that to show. I want to have less shows next year with higher quality and better aims so we have a fantastic company.

Zach:

I’m a junior. I started out at UNC acting in a show and eventually progressed into the more techincal side and stage management which is what I predominately do now. My sophomore year I was the communty outreach director. It was my first experience with board so I’ve been on board 2 years. So this is my vision for LAB! coming from this year into next year. As a producing director this year I think we’ve made a lot of changes to what we envision LAB! to be, not just as producers, but as a a whole board. Some changes have been more difficult. The Constitution is an example of that. What I bring to the board most is experience and a commitement to improving. Like chris said we have things that work and things that don’t work. I want to improve what’s not working an keep what is. What that means to me is in relation to the culture here in LAB!. What we struggle with most are the technical elements of LAB!. Where that manifests most Is not having enough people who are competent to work on certain parts of shows and those we do have are too stressed out and end up working on 6 shows which is too hard. What we can do and what we’ve done with the Milford Project is helping the designers understand that we’re an education institution and learn practices that are going to help all of us in the future, like deadlines like chris said. These are things we can all gain knowledge from. It’s going to help designers show potential employers “here’s what I did - you should higher me.” At the same time as I said before its’ a cultural shift. We currently have a culture in LAB! that makes it okay going up til the last minute on things. I think my main thing would be creating a techincal culture that works well and that is a sustainable culture and bringing in people who might not have thought “Well I could be a board op” or “I could paint.”

Pat;

I’m a drama major and a writing for the screen and stage minor. I’ve been involved with LAB! mostly as an actor, director, and I wrote a show for LAB! this year. So mostly as an artist. I’m helping chris with some of the music on his show. Tyler was my producer and he was great. We had the same goals. So first I’d like to thank the current producers for doing a great job because I’ve enjoyed going to all the shows and for lettting me put on a show because it’s been one of the best learning experiences and experiences in general.

There are many students who don’t know these experiences exist. I want LAB! to be for the entire student body. We have a really strong foundation but we could improve. I’m different because I haven’t been on the board, but I’m speaking as an artist and an audience member. Like the constitution says: “As the constitution says LAB! should provide students with experience in theatrical production, provide the university community with entirely student produced shows and contribute to the artistic intellectual community. Also, as the constitution says, LAB! is open to any UNC student in this college community.”

It also says it’s open to any UNC student. There’s no one in LAB! that isn’t passionate and hard-working. But often we get spread a little thin, we’re in shows, producing, directing, doing publicity for shows, and on top of that we’re all dating each other. The more we open up to diverse student body the more we can increase quality and audience levels.

We should be going to the pit and contacting different departments telling them that anyone can submit a play. When I found out I could do that I thought it was one of the best kept secrets at UNC. I almost didn’t want to tell my fellow screen and stage minors that their show can be produced.

We should always ask the student body if they want to direct a play, design, make posters, do publicity. We should comm studies, graphic designers involved. Mel and Nicola do a great job but there are two of them and they’re acting in shows too. There are people who are just as passionate about promotion as we are about theatre. For my play I ended up having someone come to me and say “hey, I need to make a poster for this class” and made the poster. They don’t need to be on the board if we have people who need to do things. We should also contact musicians and visual artists. We could have art on display at intermission. We should have artists doing shows in the cda, the forest theatre – so that the people coming to see the shows aren’t just the people in this room. I’m promoting all these plays that I’m in while my friends are all doing these charity things. It makes me feel a little narcissistic. And I am a huge narcissist which is why I’m a drama major – but maybe add some charity events. The DTH is all over that. If you have a show but tell people to bring canned food.

My main thing is we should have promotional videos for every show. I have already talked to Tori Male who’s in the Comm Department and she’s all over this.

Opening LAB! is going to open up quality and diversity of our audiences.

Melissa;

I’m a junior dramatic arts major and I’m also the assistnat literary manager. I think we need to expan our technical community and borders in general. I often seems like the creative are butting up against the technical heads and that part of it is there are directors that are constantly having revelations about their work and they’re saying “I want this and this and this” but there has to be a point where we say, okay, you can have maybe two revelations but there has to be a point. We need directors madating actors to be at builds. One of the best experiences I’ve had was with Faustus where the whole cast had to build the set and I would say to people “hey, I built that shelf.” And we should feed them. If we’re working all day we can feed them. We can use some generated funds for that. In terms of just expanding borders we should always be looking for interdisciplinary projects. It’s been so fun with Milford to go Woods Charter Middle School because the kids are so excited and can’t wait to have their own science fair. It’s really rewarding. I was ASM for Colored Girls and there were some really amazing actors in that show who weren’t drama majors and I think we really need to be going to different communities on cmapus and shwoing up – not just using the listservs but telling people about things and that we want everyone involved.

I also hear terms like process, and product, and professionalism as our foundations. Yet a lot of us can’t event say what those terms mean. And some are contradictory. Like if it’s all about process then it’s hard to be professional. I want us to know what they mean so we’re all on the same page and we aren’t just throwing around terms so that it makes it seem like we’re all supporting something but don’t really know what it is.

Kate:

I’m not a drama major. I study art history and classics. I came into LAB! as someone who had done a little bit of theatre but not that much starting with stage-management and now more with technical stuff and design. I don’t have many ideas in terms of new things. But I am about foundations. As David said when I was working on Three Days of Rain build with him – it’s about quality. And we’re spread too thin. Tech has been mentioned and that’s incredibly important. I’m an asset to the producing directors because I know a lot about the technical side of things and what deadlines should be. We should also have mentors. I was lucky to get Joncie as a mentor and now I can do set design. I feel like there’s no on else and I want there to be other people because a lot of our processes have not gone smoothly. Deadlines are important but you also need to know how deadlines work.It’s not just telling the director you need a light plot in two week but also showing that director how to speak to the lighting director. I’d like to have small plays where we don’t just do it in the park but where designers really talk with directors so we can learn how design works on a smaller scale.

I want to use the resources we have in the building more. I was able to get Cassie to help us with painting. We should use the brilliant professionals who are in this building. I approached Mckay Coble at the beginning of this year an dher advice has been invaluable. It’s about opening communication and understanding each other’s work. And understanding the technical side of theatre. We have no problems bringing in actors. But more people will try tech if its more appealing. Right now it’s not. I want people to know it’s there – this is what we’re doing. I want it to be fun.

My last little snippet would be that we do great work but we can do a lot better. And understanding how to get to that point in the end.

Questions:

Q: How do you deal with stress? I know it’s easy to get frustrated, but how do you prevent frustration with stress?

Erika: this is one of the things that was a question that got asked last year. I kind of sat there and I listened and but I also thought “how would I do that?” because I knew I wanted to run for this for this coming year. You need to be an organized person to do this job. Just from sitting on the board my sophomore year I saw how much producing directors were doing. You learn to muti-task and prioritize. I can work under pressure and know how to keep things from back-logging. We’ve talked about dealdines and I know that procrastination is a problem because even a little procrastination can cause problems. Then you need to know which things need to be cut especially with a team of five.

Zach:

Being a PD and stage manager - the job description is pretty much described as stress. The way that I deal with it is that especially when there are issues that seem insurmountable. The thing you have to remember most is to keep a cool head. For example if you’re stage-managing a show and something goes wrong with the lights - do you panic? Or do you pause and take the time to make the appropriate response. That’s something that I kind of live by. We need to remember the stakes. What we do is stressful. But we’re still running a student theatre. So there’s nothing that’s going to destroy us. And when you have that in mind it’s a lot easier to keep things rational and in line.

Pat:

Having a goal – having priorities, with any production and having a lean team where everybody in there says “I like this vision, an dthis project, and it’s something I feel a part of” is important. Not having toom any people in a room all throwing out opinions. Breaking things down and organizing them. When you have a producer where it’s their priority talking to the director and talking to casts and he’s read the script and say “opening night, we want to have all these people here.” Having people here - stress comes when we don’t have the same aims, and don’t know where we’re going. We need to prioritize. This is what I’m good at – this is what you’re good at and do those things. Sometimes stopping and saying “Wait what does this have to do with the show that is coming up and getting people to see it?” Not just bureaucratic crisis. Maybe not a bureaucracy here but many organizations have that. It’s needs to be about the art.

Melissa:

There can be finger pointing as to whose job is whose. It’s important to remember that we all get overwhelmed and sometimes are going to have responsibilites we can’t do. It’s important for us to pick up the slack where we need to. When I’m a complete mess in the cda hallway I hope someone will be there and able to come lift me up. We need to have things more dispersed. When things come to a head know how to be there.

Kate:

I agree with Pat in terms of being goal-oriented. We create a lot of stress for ourselves. I say this as someone who constantly overextends. If you can delegate things then not one person is responsible. The person delegating to an extent is then, but we don’t have the problem where everyone’s having to pick up the slack and everything falls through. Too much in the company depends on one person. If someone’s producing one show and acting in another we can’t have something fall through. For the producers and the board we need to focus beyond just a show but havinthis realm of producer world. I’m seeing myself as a potential producer for shows and seeing myself as a tech person for shows that are techy and buildy.

Chris:

I don’t thinkn that stress is necessarily a part of theatre, just part of ours. I’ve worked with several theatre companies and this is one of the more stressful ones. When I was in theatre in high school we had our own theatre companuy and did everything, stage-managing, lights, etc and it wasn’t stressful. It comes down to delegation. I think stress – you see it coming and you push it away and make sure things are happening and make intermediate deadlines. I’m not saying next year isn’t going to be stressful. Just stress doesn’t need to be a part of theatre – we just make it that way. It’s about changing the culture of LAB! – it doesn’t need to be that way.

Q: It’s easy to slip into a place of being negative. How do you guys as leaders know how to lead things and maintain a postiive attitude and keep this an enjoyable experience?

Kate: Chris mentioned “I’m not saying it’s not going to be stressful next year.” What I do next year may not have any impact on next year. People may not think we created a cool new thing. But we’re setting up a foundation for years to come. Make these grander processes of the board and how we function better and stronger.

Pat:

As far as not getting too down or negative goes back to liking and thinking that this production, this work of art, is something that you believe in. Obviously your going to have your doubts about the art you put out “This is crap!” But we want people to feel more like they’re contributing – the more they do the less negative we’re going to get. If people are saying “I don’t like this” “I don’t like this show” “I don’t like the director” – as long as everybody feels they have an input and knowing the goal of theatre. The way we’re going to know how we’re doing is the audience.

Melissa: As PDs we need to really think about directorial processes. How the director is behaving and organizing people and how everyone is feeling. When I was in grenadine Erin Hanehan had “check your day at the door.” How we are in the room – we want everybody to feel ready to work. We have to consider shows in terms of having the people involved not be people contributing negative attitudes.

Zach: The way we deal with that needs to be more foundations. We need to be treating the illness not the symptoms. We need to create a system in which we don’t need to be negative about problems. I comes down to being prepared. This goes to deadlines – this year a lot of our shows were very late, getting the season set and everything. Need to get the information early and prepare sooner rather than later and the way we do that is to have people as early as possible. That alleviates a lot of the issues.

Kate: As a person who can get incredibly negative I agree with zach. It’s about making the process work and not waiting til the last minute and having to ben over backwards to fix it. The best way is to work ahead. I totally believe that what everyone is saying is real. It’s also improtant to hold onto what we do well – which is crank out some really good shows.

Erika:

I think we have all been in a situation where we talk outside about how the process is going and neeed to treat that very carefully because when you bring that negativity into the space with you it can be bad. When you bring negativity from outside into a space. Avoiding that and tapping into that transparency – that I know Chris was talking about – and not allowing negative thought. I mean as a PD I think that we have to remember that we’re role models and in a leadership position an dneed to be a positive reinforcment in whatever that is and committed to the process one hundred and ten percent. Being mediators and making sure that there are positive elements and not going into gossip and darker habit and when people get upset about something dealing with it in a positive manner.

The LAB! Theatre

Pages

Friday, February 17, 2012

Upcoming One-Acts

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Producing Director Hearing

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

PlayMakers Undergraduate Auditions

STICK UP KIDS Opens Thursday