CMU School of Drama


Friday, February 12, 2010

DC Theatre Technician Cattle Call Announced

iSquint.net: "Do you live and work in the DC Metro area like I do? Are you looking for part time, possibly full time work with in the the theatre industry? Then mark your calendar for Sunday, May 9th and Monday, May 10th. The DC Theatre Technician Cattle Call was just announced!"

7 comments:

tiffhunsicker said...

I have never heard of a 'cattle call' like this before, but I think it's a really good idea! It gives a lot of people an opportunity to get their name to companies they otherwise wouldn't normally be able to do. While it does kind of suck since you are going up against hundreds of other people, it still gives you a chance to get heard. I think there should be more opportunities like this available.

Robert said...

This is an extremely cool event for the DC area. I live in the DC area and I would like to go to this event if they are looking for interns over the summer. One problem I see for me would be the fact that it is extremely late to be getting a summer internship. In that it is just before we get out of school. This article says nothing about interns. It just talks about work and does not specify for what time of year the work is. Is it for year long jobs or is it for seasonal jobs? Nonetheless I am going to look into this to see what it is about. Also the list of theaters is a good reference.

MONJARK said...

I am going to have to say a cattle call is not the best thing to call this. Insinuating theater techs are animals hurts a little. All joking aside though, this is a fantastic job conference for people in our industry. Bringing together theaters and talented, though, unknown technicians is valuable to both parties. I hope if this model is successful, it can be reproduced in different regions.

Devrie Guerrero said...

I think this is a fantastic idea. I live in DC so this is really convenient for me. I don't think it was meant to be insulting.
I agree with Robert that this says nothing about interns and its very late to get an internship anyway.
I wish they had thing like this in other areas. i think it would benefit a lot of struggling technicians.

Allegra Scheinblum said...

I don't think that calling this a cattle call is insulting at all. They call auditions cattle calls too. Anyway, I think this is a great way to interview with a lot of different theatre companies. It's hard to find the time to go to a lot of different interviews, and fill out all of the paper work, so this is a great alternative. I do think though, that it would be hard for some of the theatre companies, because they can't ask you questions that are specific to their company. I would be interested to go just to see how this works.

Alana Clapp said...

It sounds great from a employee perspective, but I'm not sure how I would feel about things if I were looking for someone. A lots of these companies are high profile, who I'm sure get lots of applications each year for various positions. I would think that this type of fair attracts both skilled and unskilled labor. If you have to sit through 5 people who have no idea what they are doing just to hear one person who is good, wouldn't you rather do that via resumes in your office than people talking?

Brooke M said...

I agree that the company's involved may find this a tedious event, but it would never hurt, as a hopeful employee, to be involved. It seems to me that the 'cattle call' is meant to be treated like any other job fair, in which both the employers and the employees are looking for a good working relationship. This kinds of situations are great for getting your name circulating, and with several follow-up conversations, can definitely land you a job.