This position allowed me to work and collaborate with a lot people in various disciplines. Though production managing I was a part of a team of board members that all put in their best effort to make Second Studio the best it could be. Other than working as teammate with my fellow board members, I had a lot of my own individual obligations. I created our production calendar, found designers and crew members for every production, ran production meetings, ran all of our individual events technically, and I was the main problem solver and trouble shooter for all of our productions. This was a greatly rewarding experience and I have gained so much through working with these people and on these tasks.            

 

For my EDGE project I wanted to do something that would push my abilities in theatre. I have worked very hard in high school and college as a stage manager for a variety of shows, but I wanted to find another area of theatre that I could connect with. My junior year I was the Outreach Director for Second Studio and I learned how the company worked as a whole. As we were accepting applications for the next year’s board, I grew very determined to become the production manager because I fully believed in my ability and devotion to making Second Studio and it’s shows better. Even though this was something I had never had experience in before, I was thrilled to be able to grow my theatrical knowledge and experience and to hopefully bring a new set of skills and a new passion to Second Studio.

 

Throughout this project, I came against quite a few challenges. The greatest challenge to begin with was just the fact I didn’t have a full understanding of all of the things a production manager is in charge of. I did not get fully trained from the prior year’s production manager and it was sort of a trial by fire. I had to learn what I was in charge of as the things came at me. I realized how difficult it can be to make a cohesive production calendar that works with the rest of the departments events and I learned that it is difficult to find designers for our productions when designers are only allowed to design one show a semester. But through working multiple shows and by learning how to use my resources of the people around me, I was able to create a strong calendar and find adequate designers for our shows.

Another great challenge was the fact that we deal with a lot of freshman designers, which meant a lot of additional duties fell upon me. This included finding mentors for a lot of designers and learning how to run certain things myself so I could practically complete some of the tasks. This led to being worn thin a lot of the time because I was trying to do my own job, while picking up slack from a lot of the designers jobs as well. While dealing with the large workload, I also often had to deal with conflicts among the team, such as a director and designer not seeing eye to eye on the show. Going into this year I didn’t expect having to so closely follow and watch the designers in their work. Although, I think through this year I found a comfortable place between micromanaging and just supporting my team in their work that will help me in future endeavors.

 

I truly hope that me participating in this project benefitted a good amount of people within our department. I worked tirelessly and passionately in finding ways to better how we ran our productions and our company as a whole, and how to implement them so they last beyond me. I believe that the board of directors of Second Studio has benefitted from my hard work for we had superb productions all year. I also believe I played a large roll in a lot of freshman or less experienced designers having a new opportunity to hone their craft. Through my effort and guidance, I know that the designers have learned a lot and have benefitted from this experience.

 

This project benefitted me in so many ways that I didn’t even expect. I think my greatest growth is in how I communicate as a leader and a collaborator. I have learned a lot about production management and what all exactly goes into running a company and a production season. I have so much new knowledge that I will bring to future companies I work with, or even my future classrooms. Some of the tasks and skills I learned and completed in this position definitely grow my theatrical ability. But not only that, a lot of the things that I have learned are universal in all of life: communication, empathy, ability to use resources, organization, knowing when to ask for help.  I know that for years to come this experience will impact my life for the better.