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Right Before the Fall
By Dave McGinnis
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With recession icing the assets, administrations could start turning up the heat.
TD Talk
The recession has fallen upon us, and anyone who attempts
to deny that we’ll all soon shiver in its icy grip will learn the
awful truth soon enough. In theatre, we face a battle that
we can win, but that will force us uphill for some time to come.
As a result, jobs that have long enjoyed both security and mobility—TDs—might
soon see darker days. This scenario has divided
my colleagues—the ones with whom I speak anyways—into
two distinct camps, and I feel it incumbent upon me to put these
notions forth so that you—the TD in the trench—can decide for
yourself.
The “Go-On-the-Cheapers”
One friend of mine put it to me this way: “Theatres that can’t
make back what they spend, close; and closed theatres employ
nobody.”
The theory here implies that we should decrease our expenditures
in every possible way to decrease the amount of revenue
the theatre must take in to “make its nut,” so to speak. In some
ways, this idea makes sense. If a theatre spends less, it doesn’t
have to take in as much revenue to keep itself in operation.
On the negative side, though, this also means that gear purchases
could virtually halt, and that would send a shockwave
throughout the industry from the theatres themselves down to
the very manufacturers. In addition, we all know what happens
once a shop learns to live with less. People in ties start wondering
how much less we could get by on.
assuming they make it out of the tough times at all. While time
may cause me to change my tune, based on how general economics
and various “stimulus packages”—whatever that means
when you get home—play into my shop, I’ve opted for door
number two. In fact, I’ve agreed to the biggest build since I first
came to work here, which will have been built, used and torn
down before you ever read this.
So before the memos and messengers invade the shops of
the world insisting on doing “more with less”—which makes as
much sense as beating oneself to death over a dropped screw—
I will provide the theatres of the world with three options from
TDs everywhere. No matter how tight belts may get, there will
always be three, and only three, options where show builds and
hangs are concerned:
The build done cheap
The build done right
The build done fast
Pick two. You get all three in the afterlife…if you were VERY,
VERY good.
Tell Dave what option you chose at dmcginnis@stage-directions.com
The “It-Takes-Money-to-Make-Money” Crowd
In the opposite corner, wearing thick green trunks, stand the
folk who subscribe to the theory that a decrease in expenditures
at every pothole eventually translates into a decrease in overall
quality, which decreases theatre revenues over an extended
period of time. These people maintain, as best as I can tell, that to
cave and decrease spending simply “out of fear,” as I often hear
it, immediately sends the technical quality of productions into a
downward spiral from which it can be difficult to save it.
Ultimately, this could send potential patrons away forever. I
admit that I have seen this effect before.
Two Outta Three
As for me, I understand the kneejerk reaction to try to cut
expenditures, but how many companies have cut expenditures
to show short-term profits, only to lose their shirts a year later
when those very cuts led to miserable product quality? In addition,
using simple budget cuts to increase available revenues
can eventually lead to cuts in current staffing. I can think of no
way to reduce quality faster than to start cutting jobs. In addition,
and on a purely philosophical note, I’ll discuss reductions in
materials budgets, and I’ll even discuss reductions of job-ins, but
my crew’s jobs rely on MY estimation of their importance. I’m
not about to see any of my full-timers’ jobs cut because of mistakes
made in the front office. I’ll make reductions in purchases,
and I’ll reduce the number of job-ins I hire, but my in-house staff
are safe as long as they do their jobs. Period. That is never up for
negotiation. We close before they go on unemployment.
I will say that keeping quality up in tough times seems to
determine who’s the strongest when the good times return—
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