Technicians for Change: I don’t generally write what I consider “opinion pieces” but here’s an opinion that every theatre technician I know agrees may as well be a fact: theatre has a ‘no’ problem. Or rather, theatre has a problem with saying ‘no.’ In our pursuit of art and in the name of collaboration, we are taught to disappear that word from our vocabularies and from our attitudes. Often this disappearance is in the name of collaboration, but what effect does that have on the people involved?
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I think this article brings up many good points. One thing that it opened my eyes to is the separation in treatment by the director or creative lead between Designers and Technicians. I’ve always seen theater from the perspective of a designer, and I have often been pressured to not say no to a director’s vision and to just take the burden and execute it. I realize now that this falls even harder on technicians as they are the people executing the design. This way of thinking seems new to me because I’ve never had a technician in a show I’ve designed, I’ve always been a team of one or two when I have a partner. That made it easier to say yes because it was just putting more work on myself, but now that I’m training to do this professionally I should practice saying no to protect my technicians.
This article is heavily relatable to me, as I am sure it is to anyone who has worked in a technical position in theater. In a lot of programs I have been a part of, saying no is very much the last option. This can somehow be a good thing; forcing you to conquer fears or think creatively. But obviously, this is not always the case. I have found that in my experience educational programs are typically less likely to encourage this culture. To me that is because they hold a good amount more of liability in comparison to IATSE or independent theater companies where technicians are expected to know the hazards and their personal limits. Like everything, there is a balance that must be found. It is not reasonable or beneficial to constantly say no in terms of the creative process, but it certainly is not the solution to always say yes.
I completely agree with this article and am glad was included here. It is basically thought that you should only say “no” when there is absolutely no other option. You are to bend over backward, juggle knives, and get the wordle on the first try before even considering saying no to a person. This is harmful for so many reasons, multiple listed by the author of this article. There is only so much saying “yes” is going to take you. At some point, the whole scheme can fall apart if you do not set the brakes on anyway. Yesterday in tech we had the director re-stage a solid portion of a scene, leaving the lighting design to scramble as they tried to re-program the cues they already had made. Later on, they were allowed to have some time to catch up with this change. Had the stage manager said that we had to stick to a schedule I’m sure it would have derailed everything else further.
As many other people have said, this article brings up a really good, and really important conversation for us to be talking about more. Boundary setting is something that has become a crucial part of all of my relationships, both personal and professional: we all need to be able to say no, to say a task is not within our capacity to complete (whether because of health, time constraints, budget constraints, labor constraints, you name it). But, there is a very strong mentality that “no” is plan z. Gaby said it very well (I loved the wordle reference!); no is the response you go to after breaking your back to avoid having to say no. As for the hierarchy point, I know I’ve felt this hierarchical tension in the room before, but this is one of the first times I have consciously realized where that comes from and how it affects the room. This is something I will be thinking about more.
I am reading this article at a very interesting time; just a few hours ago, I had a very long conversation about this very topic with an upperclassman here at CMU’s School of Drama. She talked about how the heavy academic pressure of our curriculum forces students to either say no to certain show assignments and miss out on certain opportunities or compromise both grades and show design and work quality. It is unfortunately very true that saying “no” in any capacity in the theater space is very difficult and may feel near impossible in any circumstance. The opportunities and experiences of the shows that people are assigned can be very exciting and valuable, but other factors of the school make the hard choice of saying “no” the better overall option sometimes; even then, many (including myself) would have a hard time refusing due to the fear of missing out or the reactions of both faculty and other students involved.
I felt this article deep in my soul. The more I continue into pursuing theatre as a career the more I realize how important it is to be able to say no. Becoming overloaded by the work will only diminish the quality of my work overall and it won’t be fun anymore. My biggest takeaway from this article is that not feeling like I can say no does cause “irrevocable damage” and even as a freshman in this program I am feeling the strain. It is hard to feel like you need to give your all to something even if you are not feeling 100% and it is even more difficult when you feel like you will be disappointing people when you take a moment for yourself. I think saying no and asking for help are things that need to be normalized in our society in general but I do think that the entertainment industry as a whole has a larger problem with the idea. This article had some great points about how we should start to fix the problem at hand but it is a long process.
This article discusses an important topic in the entertainment industry that is not always taken into consideration: boundaries. Whether it be personal, professional, or artistic, it seems this line is hard to see for most people in the entertainment industry. Not establishing or following such boundaries can lead to, as this article pointed out, “physical and emotional exhaustion and often injury”. This article explains that it is important to listen to all the voices in the room and the more voices the better because not one person knows everything about a certain situation, and it is important to hear from everyone’s expertise. As a stage manager, this concept is extremely important to me because there are times where I will acknowledge when I don’t know the best plan of action and someone else in the room may have input that sways my decision. In terms of communication, making sure to listen to the input of everyone on your team, no matter what position they are in will in turn provide a smoother process.
This article is hilarious, it's like it was written directly to me. It's so easy to want to please everyone in an industry that likes to talk so much about it being a collaborative art.
A really good quote that I heard while at USITT is "I can do anything, NOT everything." and it's so true. Even if in theory there are a thousand small tasks that DO fall within your skillset, if you try doing all of them and only have a capacity for 600 tasks and only 400 were critical to the show happening, you are risking the really important things falling between the cracks and getting yourself and the production team into a terrible situation because you weren't honest about what your production capabilities actually were. It's easy to want to help everyone and try to be the best collaborator you can be, but often times it takes an even better collaborator to step back and realize that it's okay to be honest and instead compromise and take on what is actually within your capability
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