However, other than the role of senior pastor, probably no role deals with the prospect of burnout quite like a TD either.
It’s hard to face the gauntlet of expectations every week: being the first one there, last one to leave, constant pressure for everything to be perfect, under-appreciated, only recognized when something goes wrong, and the list goes on.
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This article is so effective in conveying the idea of a burnout through the use of religious believes.
The usage of "Satan" in this article serves as an image to demonstrate what might lead to a burnout, which works well in a sense that it conveys the reasons for a burnout in a very concise and understandable way, which is quite refreshing.
This article essentially points out to ways to fight a burnout which are understandable and if worked can be really helpful.
It talks about how we should first figure out the reason for the burnout; one cannot solve a problem without understanding the root cause of it.
The second asks us to replenish what we lost which essentially means that we should get back our motivation, inspiration and work that we first had before we burned out.
The last one and probably the most effective tells us how we should be able to communicate about our problems so that they are not festering up within us, hence leading us to be further burned out, which in any scenario is not desirable.
This article describes ways of fighting “burnout” within the context of being the technical director for a church. While the religious aspect of the article is not one I particularly agree with, the author brings up good points that can be helpful in most aspects of life and theater. A lot of theater includes long nights and constant revision on work and it can be draining and discouraging at times. The first strategy the author brings up is to “understand our purpose.” If you forget that you are working on something because you love it and you do not understand why something matters or why you are doing something, any work that has to be done feels like a chore and cannot be enjoyed. Just reminding yourself that you are doing something because you see it as important and you care about it is enough to reinvigorate yourself and face new challenges. I have also noticed, in theater, as the article points out, that people often show off how much work they are doing by themselves and how hard they are working. While being hardworking is certainly a good trait, theater is all about collaboration and it is often less productive to do things alone than it is to do things with other people. As the article points out, being aware of when you need a little extra assistance is extremely beneficial and will make the entire experience more enjoyable.
It is a little bizarre to read a religious reaction to overworking yourself when it comes to a stagehands work. I was not aware that these kinds of articles existed. I myself, am not a christian and its interesting to see how people are told to rely on god, but when they are unable to devout themselves on sundays, to move to friends. It is telling people how to seek and allow criticism from the people around us, and to accept helo, all things necessary for any person regardless of faith. There are definitely some important points made, however I feel they should be created within a person, and have it reliant on themselves. It is worrisome, for some people who may feel they are able to be with god on sundays may not feel they get to rely on the people around them as much. I would be interested to see more results of how faith helps people with entertainment industry jobs.
As someone who is not overly religious and a times find myself a little leery of religious organizations this was still a weirdly interesting article. I say this because as a Technical Director I often find myself trying to fight the idea of burn out in my professional life. But the article does make so good points knowing what effect your work has on others can truly be rewarding as I know I have done shows that nearly destroyed my desire to continue working in the industry but have had people express their appreciation for both the work I put in and also the product and that some times can help soothe you if everything else has gotten you ragged. The more important point I find is finding a way to recharge away from the job and knowing that if you are only working all the time it will only exacerbate and feelings of burn out you already have, some you just need to escape and recharge with friends and family.
This is an excellent article. I started out expecting something more superficial like most top five lists out there. However, after reading it only further set my belief that the number one cause of Technical Director burn out is caused by not feeling appreciated for the work we do and the lengths we go to to do it. A few years back USITT and the tech commision did some research into Technical Director burn out, and I was given a copy of the article in a particularly stressful time by my TD advisor. It concluded that the primary reason for Technical directors to leave a place of employment or leave the industry as a whole was due to the feeling of not being appreciated. Often we are put into positions that make us seem like we are the "bad guy" and that we are unwilling to compromise or change. This is mostly due to the fact that we are the most direct check between a designers vision and the reality of time and budget. It is often the forgotten resolution of thanks and appreciation that cause us not to be able to justify all the stress and "hatred" getting to the point where one has not to expect the thanks is hard, but it is sadly where we mostly have to live.
I was a little skeptical about this article at first but after reading through it, I find it very relatable and the solutions that were present applicable to different aspects of life. Burnout is a thing that is not just specific to our work but as we see from this article is also present even in religious settings. As a Christian, I really appreciated the premise in which this issue was spoken about and the practicality behind it. All three points resonated with me but what stayed with me the most, is finding the purpose in what you are doing. Understanding the benefit of what you're doing helps in motivating you to do things out of the desire to see things get accomplished. Most of the time, we do things out of duty to the process and not necessarily understanding the purpose of it. One cannot emphasize the importance of taking care of one's self. The author of the article said it best "I can’t give what I don’t have". We produce better when we are in a healthy state of mind.
Aside from the paragraph about how burnout is a tool of Satan, this article provides some very real and very applicable adviceto people in the theatrical industry as a whole, not just in church tech, but also not just in the position of TD. I think the advice which resonated the most with me was "3-Open up healthy lines of communication." The sentiment the author of this article is trying to combat I think is all too common, especially in smaller community theatres and such. A person who is thrust into a position of management and who may have doubts about their qualifications may feel that they have to be able to do everything on their own, or without support, or else they are not doing their job properly. This can even spill over into their personal life, where people who are stressed or depressed often think that they have to deal with all of their emotions on their own. I think that opening those critical lines of communication, letting other people help you and shifting some of the burden of responisibility to other people in a productive way can allow everybody work better, and more importantly, have more fun in this industry of ours.
Coming from a very traditional area of South Carolina, I am all too familiar with the scope of production that is put into these “mega-churches”. Some churches I have been to have some of the most state of the art production equipment that I have never even seen in union houses before. I studied under a light designer at one of the mega churches and the work that is expected on a weekly basis is nothing less than superior. With each week having a different band, sermon, social functions, etc the demand for designers is higher than ever. This article really did a good job touching on the burnout aspect that, inevitably, comes along with this environment. I think that every work environment has some sort of burnout level but in the religious production sector, this level seems to be considerably higher. The article touched on some factors like more streamlined communication which would seem like a standard to most productions, after all, without all of the designers talking to the management team, a production would never come together. It was really interesting to read about the ways that TD’s in this industry seem to experience burnout when all they are really asking is for a more professional production environment.
I’m not a Christian, but I enjoyed reading this article and thought it provided some good advice on how to fight burnout not only as a church TD, but as any theatre professional. The advice it gave on putting your body first and maintaining healthy communication strongly reflected the advice we were given in our first few weeks of college- make your health a priority, and talk to people when you’re struggling. I interpreted the first point as remembering why you chose to work in this field- ultimately because we enjoy doing it, and because we find value in what we do. I think advice like this is important to remember not only for those working in a church, but also for those working elsewhere. Burnout is a serious problem in the entertainment field, but hopefully one that can be mitigated by people recognizing when they’re on the verge of it and doing what’s best for themselves.
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