medium.com: I’ve always admired how the theatre industry handles feedback.
First of all, it’s all happening in real time…for everyone. This makes it much harder to cover up slip-ups. If you’re a singer or musician, you either hit all of the right notes, or you can mess up. If you’re a technical operator, you either trigger the correct spotlight or microphone cue, or you miss it. Since every part of the show — good and bad — happens in front of everybody else, there’s no hiding from mistakes. Everybody learns how to hold each other accountable and look for opportunities to make the show even better.
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This article pointed out something interesting that made me realize something I loved about theater that I hadn’t really thought about. That element of constant, objective criticism and forward progress is something that appeals to me, and I had never really viewed the performance report in that way, maybe because I’ve always been the one to write them.
There’s something to this idea of bringing the performance report into other industries. It could, in effect, catch where people are consistently slacking or if something is an out of character single offense. The same idea would go for non-human elements. Maybe you are always having problems with your projector, and now you have a written record of you reporting that problem and it not functioning the next week. That can either open up a conversation with IT about not fixing your projector, or maybe you just have a really shitty projector that can’t be fixed and you need a new one. The idea is that performance reports are a way to increase efficiency by putting things in writing, not only to track but also to keep accountable.
Criticism is a huge part of theater. Those who are incredibly defensive are not easy to work with. Performance reports are a big part of that. It requires a cast and crew who willingly recognize their mistakes, and a stage manager who not only holds others accountable, but also will write down and admit to their own mistakes. While people may think that performance reports are just a way for angry stage managers to put their grievances into writing, reports are actually a tool that can and does help managers who struggle to hold others accountable. My reports kept me more honest than I would have been without them. Things can slip by easily and mistakes can be covered up if documentation is not mandated. I can admit that I would without a doubt be less inclined to hold people accountable for small mistakes if it were not for my performance reports. They are not a tool for vindictive managers to call out performers and crew members, but rather a document which holds every single person to a higher standard than they would otherwise hold themselves too, including the stage manager.
Often, I learn something from an article that I read, but it is not often that I find my mind entirely changed and persuaded. Until about five minutes ago, I was sure that performance (and rehearsal) reports were an annoying, tedious, but necessary method of communication and updates. The uniqueness of unerring detail and objectivity never occurred to me, and more importantly, never occurred to me as a method for both trend analysis and for gently giving criticism without "calling someone out" or embarrassing them. It certainly never occurred to me to apply a performance report-esque structure to anything but theatre; it's a good idea, though. It might be extremely tedious in most scenarios, but in any context where no one has to go out of their way to record details, a quick, consistent, and objective summary of times, attendance, engagement, and task progress would be invaluable in the long term. Further, the range of contexts in which that task would not be annoying will surely expand as our lives become ever more integrated with technology. I could easily envision an app that integrated with smartphone calendars, gps data, and even speech to text software to automatically record when individuals in a group of people arrived at a meeting place, when they left, what general topics were covered, and maybe even more advanced functions like detecting arguments/conflicts or noting individual conversation engagement. It could change the way whole companies function.
Yes. Absolutely. Do some performance notes and production meeting notes for your corporate meetings, but oh man, do not let this writer write them—or a rehearsal report. There is so much editorializing in their examples! If the goal is as Bethany Crystal suggests to find opportunities for improvement, you cannot have that much sass in your writing. Reports are not just for management to get some extra swings down to the Austin cast of your tour, but are also technically legal documents for the companies. With as many iron clad union contracts as an average theater company deals with on a literal daily basis, rehearsal reports can be your first line of defense in the case of an always absent actor or tardy technician. Those are your way to show to the unions “no really, they’re late,” and as they are often created by a fellow union member, there’s a barrier of safety there. I’ve also worked at places where those reports have been used by emergency services staff. As an SM any time there’s a major event happening such as an audience member having a heart attack, my first instinct is to glance at the clock—and then to never quite look away from it. Because I write down everything a report might read “Audience member collapsed at 7:45pm in the audience. 911 was called at 7:47pm. Another audience member began CPR at 7:49pm. EMS arrived at 7:52pm” That is so helpful for those people to know exactly what happened when.
Normally I don’t reply directly to other commenters, but I skimmed Jessica Meyers’ response, and I have to say, I disagree that show reports should be entirely objective. I agree that they need to be factually detailed, and knowing what needs to go in is definitely a skill that has to get developed. However, it is also incredibly useful for upper management to get a sense of where general morale is, where there might be friction between individuals, and (in touring, at least) what the general vibe of the venue is. Keeping show reports totally objective and factual removes that level of information from the mix, and when there’s a major issue on the team that does make it onto the report, it comes as a huge surprise. Show reports are also useful for preparing to go into a venue; I want to know if so-and-so was a major pain in the butt so that I can prepare a management strategy to deal with it. Yes, the facts and numbers are the most critical part of a performance report, but any sass (particularly in a report that is generally low-sass or sass-free) is also useful data.
Sending reports is a very important job for a stage manager. The reports created by stage management are sent to all the creative team that needs to know how the show went. Without these reports they are unable to know if the show is being kept up artistically. Producers are able to see who is late or didn’t show up and the designers are able to see if any tech went wrong or if they have notes. One interesting point they raised was that these reports on tours can also help with staffing. If they see that a lot of cast members are sick or there was issues with a city they are able to look at the reports and hire the appropriate staff for that city. The article mentions that the report needs to be as neutral as possible and I think that remaining neutral is 100% true. I also think that if the stage manager messes up it should also be include in the report.
Performance reports are an incredibly important component of improvement in productions. Creating a centralized list of errors that occurred during a show can help all parties involved make corrections in time for the next run. So many people in every profession that exists could benefit from things like this. Once people get into a normal schedule of work, the particulars of the work become less likely to be taken care of. Performance reports are so helpful in this respect, because they keep theatre artists on their toes in a job that is literally repeating the same show night after night. They can inspire general improvement, increased efficiency, and conversations, and thus create a better experience for those working on and watching a show. They are a solid honest reminder that there is always something to work on, and that little things in a show matter just as much as the big ones.
I really enjoyed the perspective of this article. Discussing reports in live entertainment, the article focuses on the idea that the realtime nature of the project helps boost accountability. To illustrate this point, author Bethany Crystal states, "This makes it much harder to cover up slip-ups. If you’re a singer or musician, you either hit all of the right notes, or you can mess up. If you’re a technical operator, you either trigger the correct spotlight or microphone cue, or you miss it. Since every part of the show — good and bad — happens in front of everybody else, there’s no hiding from mistakes. Everybody learns how to hold each other accountable and look for opportunities to make the show even better." I also really enjoyed that she tacked the idea of ego and mistakes. She writes, "There’s no room for ego in the performance report. It’s simply an objective retelling." I couldn't agree with this idea more. A performance report is supposed to be a factual retelling in the clearest and direct way possible, and really and truly, pride and deception have no place in these reports. Sometimes, I feel that departments see reports as a public rebuke, and I would really like to send this article to some crew heads and stage managers so that they can better understand this idea.
I really liked this article and its perspective on performance reports. My high school didn’t do them- the director and TD would be offering notes right up until the top of the first show and then they would suddenly drop out and never comment on what happened unless it was to say ‘good job’. I understand why they took this approach, but I agree with the article that performance reports are really helpful tools for improvement, especially over long show runs. Objectively pointing out errors that occurred in a show is not the attack that some people might view it as, but simply a tool to help ensure the problems that occur one night do not become recurring issues. I loved the author’s example of using performance reports in an office setting to point out issues with classic meetings, and that helped me realize how they are as a tool to find problems without it being an attack on anyone. Ego shouldn’t come into it- everyone makes mistakes. But recording mistakes in an objective manner to help ensure they never happen again is a great practice that if done right should help make sure shows stay as error-free as possible over their runs.
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