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✨Running Crew

A running crew is the group of people who are running a specific show!

The idea is to have specific roles that will be filled for a show, this make organization easier and will hopefully facilitate some institutional knowledge!
An important point of this is that shows do not run on "heroes." IE one or two people who lift almost all of the weight of a show.

Critical Roles

In general most shows would want all three of these. However, the only truly truly non-optional one is the Producer. We have always had this role filled in the past but not called it a producer. The producer could skip the other roles if they think that makes sense.

Producer -

  • This person talks with venue staff to arrange the show.

  • They recruit and manage performers who will play! They are responsible for the $$$ made at the door. And they are the most "in charge" of how an event is run.

  • They have directorial control over the show within reason.

(ie If they specifically want to run a "dancey" rave then they are entitled to recruit performers who are interested in playing dance music. They should not however hand-pick an entire bill without reaching out to the broader community)

  • They are responsible for promotion of the event! Posters, Socials, word of mouth and all. Any individual part can be delegated away however.

Stage Manager - timeliness! doing of things!

  • They are responsible for the overall technical success of the show.

  • Responsible for run of show, keeping the tech check on time,

  • Shuffling acts on and off stage at the right times.

  • They are the Producer's go-to for getting shit done.

Audio Tech -

  • works with the venue sound techs,

  • acts as an in-between for performers and the venue staff.

  • Helps diagnose audio problems with specific sets if the need arises.

  • Also responsible for the recording of board audio.

Optional Roles

These are great to have but you shouldn't be worried if you don't have people for these. If they are are not filled then the responsibilities will be assigned by the Producer or Stage Manager

Video Tech - responsible for wrangling projectors, dongles, and HDMI of all variety.

Stage hand - catch-all helper for the Stage Manager and Audio Tech. The will have tasks delegated to them as appropriate.
Tasks may include "help X carry their gear" "hand out drink tokens" "set up the stage tables" "hang a cable over there"

Documentarian - responsible for the venue wide-shot camera and any other documentation they are inclined to create

MC - does crowd work and intro-ing performers.

co-<role> or Assistant <role> - We may someday choose to have a role filled by 2 people.
Potential reasons for this I can see:

  • Someone new wants to learn the ropes of being a Producer but doesn't feel confident doing it alone so they ask to be an Assistant Producer. The Producer would include them in the process and delegate some of the responsibility as appropriate.

  • Someone feels ready to be Stage Manager but want's backup just in case. They become the Stage Manager and their backup is Assistant Stage Manager

  • Two members are only available for part of the evening but they are killer audio techs. Both people filling the role would be co-audio tech and simply switch off partway through.

Having the assistant or co version of a role is not derisive and it doesn't make the other crew members their boss.
We're all friends here and this is meant as a way to build each other up so we can put on great shows!

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