How can a lighting department contribute to the commercial success of

[edrichg]

A question that came up in a job interview recently was:

 

"When considering health & safety in Technical Theatre, what do you consider to be the key factors involved?"

 

Or something along those lines. I am curious as to what some people may give as an answer to such an ambiguous question.

 

Also

 

"How can a lighting or technical department add to the commercial success of a theatre?"

[bigclive]

It's completely vague. As such you should return an equally vague answer intended to tick all the boxes for the person presenting it.

 

The key factors involved in technical theatre safety are ensuring that you and others are wearing protective clothing suited to the work being done, and work being carried out is done in a way that presents no danger to yourself or others from hazards including electric shock, fall from height, trip hazards, fire risks or fume inhalation. Communication with others at all times is an important part of safety.

 

There we go, that should tick their box.

 

For bonus points you could also throw in fire procedure awareness. No details, just those three words. :D

[gareth]

In terms of making a direct contribution to the commercial activities of the theatre - first and foremost, by renting out equipment which isn't being used at a particular time. This can be a double-edged sword, though, in my experience.

 

If your lighting department is lucky enough to have a large and varied equipment stock, then it's possible to generate a worthwhile amount of income by renting some of it out locally. My old venue used to do this (and still does, to a lesser extent), and up to a point it was a worthwhile exercise. Local schools, amateur groups, etc. looking for a handful of extra lanterns for their Christmas concert, with a few cables and a small dimmer pack to run them ; or perhaps half a dozen radio mics for a secondary school putting on a musical. Great, nice little earner and doesn't take much time or effort to look after - the kit is there anyway, and if you're not using it you might as well make some money out of it!

 

But you have to be careful it doesn't get out of hand. One small part of the lighting department began to labour under the misapprehension that we were a lighting hire facility first and foremost, with our remit to serve the needs of the building coming a poor second - and that began to cause problems. We'd be looking for a particular piece of equipment, only to find that it had been rented out to someone and wouldn't be back for a couple of weeks. Or we'd be short of people at the theatre because there were four people spending an entire day putting a large lighting rig into the local ice rink for the skating club's Christmas show. Or all our storage space was clogged up with PA gear, distro, rigging, etc. that only ever got used on outside jobs and not in the theatre, leaving us without enough space to store the stuff that we did use. Or you'd have to spend so long recoiling cables after they came back from the local school coiled around someone's arm and then just thrown untaped in the boot of an estate car that the £20 profit you just made on the hire pretty much disappears on the couple of hours it took someone to sort the mess out. Or ... well, you get the picture!

 

There's definitely a line in the sand with this sort of thing. Stay on the right side of the line and administer things well, and you can make your department's equipment really work for you - but if you let things get to the point where the hires interfere with the main purpose of the department (which is to service what's going on in the building and the touring work of any resident company) then it quickly becomes a millstone around your neck.

[gareth]

A question that came up in a job interview recently was:

 

"When considering health & safety in Technical Theatre, what do you consider to be the key factors involved?"

 

Or something along those lines. I am curious as to what some people may give as an answer to such an ambiguous question.

 

What a ridiculously woolly question. Two responses spring to mind. "Can you clarify the question, please? Which particular element of health and safety?" .... or "Don't die, and don't kill anyone else!"

[edrichg]

Hi Gareth,

 

Thanks for your reply and what a great idea. Some very good points to consider and notes to bear in mind with the risks involved.

 

If anyone has any other ideas, please do share. Perhaps in an indirect way as well direct such as hiring out unused equipment.

[edrichg]

Perhaps they meant most important topics? I think it was related to having a responsibility for health & safety from a managerial point of view.

 

The only thing I could think of which could covered such a wide base was reducing risk as this covered everything.

[Just Some Bloke]

As someone who takes interviews from time to me, it sounds like one of those questions where there is no right answer. The point is not for you to say what they have written down on a piece of paper (e.g. "What is 2+2"? the answer I am expecting is 4) It's more a case of whether you can bring up a few sensible items with a justification for each.

 

Thus "PPE and PAT testing" would be the wrong answer but "well it's most important that you protect your staff and your customers at all times so I'd be particularly mindful of working at height, use of heavy items and high sound levels amongst other things, as well as the constant need to keep up all routine testing and certification" would get you a tick in the right box.

[NeilW]

My thoughts went straight to the other side of the profit equation and thinking about the technical department as a cost centre to the business - what ways could the technical department be run to maximise return on investment and minimise costs.

 

A few thoughts would be inventory planning to meet requirements without incurring excessive sub rentals, but recognising specialist requirements that would be better served with a short term hire and minimising stock siting unused at a cost to the business. Choice of inventory that increases flexibility and reduces the time taken for crew to accomplish tasks.

 

Management of consumables and a strong preventative maintenance strategy are a couple of other areas I thought of.

 

None of these are generating tangible income for the company, but to my mind commercial success doesn’t just come from revenue.

[paulears]

Moderation: Sorry for the confusion now I merged these two topics, but they were so similar, relating to the same interview that it seemed odd having them in separate areas. Please just bear in mind that the above posts relate to both questions in the first post. In hindsight, I probably should have left them alone, but merging them made it impossible for me to undo what I started to do - sorry!

[empyfree]

Paul, we’d have all done the same! I double checked Earlier to make sure I wasn’t just reading the same post again...

[Simon Lewis]

A question that came up in a job interview.....

 

What was the position you were being interviewed for?

Although they are vague, general questions, I suspect they were asked in order to get an idea of where candidates are "at". If the role is asking for some management of health safety and welfare or cognisance of budgets and profit centres, the answer from a 'good' candidate should give some evidence that they understand the role and its responsibilities?

 

 

 

[tbjhilton]

I wonder also whether you might approach the second question with something about how the provision of consistently high standards of technical support could contribute to the overall quality of the venue's offer, and therefore to it's reputation and ultimately returning customers. They may be looking to see how well you 'buy in' to the organisation as a whole, including its 'vision & values'?

[mark_h]

The commercial success question is making me think of the current Venue claw back thread.

 

Charging for as many 'optional' items as possible would make the technical department appear more profitable. This danger is that this goes too far and it gets to the stage that the items charged for stop being that 'optional' resulting in the venue loosing business to rivals.

 

A better approach may be to go down the route of emphasising the importance of having a good technical team and equipment when attracting venue bookings.

[kerry davies]

The first question asks for a response which might lead to the second.

One way of answering would be to start with the legal duty of care to "oneself and those around you" including members of the public and innocent bystanders. That could be developed into a moral argument for harm reduction measures and finally to the key factor that a safe place of work tends to spend a lot less on lawyers and compensation as well as having higher productivity, instead of rushing back and fore to hospitals.

 

Those are also supplementary answers to the second question but, IMO, the main response could be that all departments contribute to the economic well-being and if the paying punter cannot see or hear what props, choreographer, director and actors are up to then we are all wasting our time.

 

Trying to find examples is not answering questions which are philosophical in nature. Examples might help illuminate responses but as an interviewer I would be looking for understanding of basic principles first and foremost. We may earn extra by varying means but, as others highlight, those "extras" can and do interfere with first principles if we are not vigilant.