Ensemble Jobs Guide
by Lisa Messeri and Julie Kane

Contents

• Officers
  • President
  • Chair
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
• Semester Jobs
  • Prod Positions
    • Producer
    • Stage Manager
    • Assistant Stage Manager
    • Technical Director
    • Assistant Director
    • Lighting Designer
    • Set Designer
    • Costume Designer
    • Sound Designer
    • Props Master
    • Dramaturg
    • Box Office Manager
    • Hair/Makeup Designer
    • Publicity Designer
    • Publicity Manager
    • Master Electrician
    • Master Carpenter
  • Term Jobs
    • Social Chair
    • Ensemble Class Coordinator
    • Archivist/Office Bitch
    • Director Search/Play Choice
    • Scene Night Coordinator
    • Webmaster
    • Alumni Liaison
    • New Member Liaison
    • Member Liaison

Officers

While each of the officers has their own duties, it is imperative to note that there are many additional tasks as responsibilities that fall to the officers as a whole. Being an officer is a collaborative effort. Regardless of position, everyone does about the same amount of work to keep the Ensemble alive. The more excited the officers are, the more excited the group as a whole will be. At the beginning of each term, the officers will decide together what specific ensemble jobs need to be accomplished in the coming term (i.e., inventory by archivist, etc.) The officers will have one meeting, at least, per month. Officer meetings are open to the entire ensemble.

President

The President acts as the Ensemble's representative in issues involving other groups, and as the Ensemble's spokesperson to the broader community and the outside world. First, the President must maintain a strong link between the Ensemble and the Theater Arts Faculty. To foster this link, the President must attend the monthly Theater Arts meeting. To be aware of Ensemble issues, the President must attend all Ensemble and Ensemble officer meetings. The President must disseminate information from the Ensemble to the faculty and vice versa as needed. The President must be prepared to work with the faculty when concerns about the Ensemble arise.

Second, the President must field questions and concerns from outside groups such as the Office of the Arts, other theater groups, other departments, and students interested in the program.

The President is not required to deal with issues involving tour planning or publicity for shows.

The President may ask the Chair to call meetings. If the Chair is not able to attend a meeting, the President will run the meeting.

The President is a link between any Consulting or visiting director and the Ensemble. If the director has difficulties working with any Ensemble member, or with the rehearsal process, the director can bring these issues to the President's attention. The Ensemble officers, the consulting director, and visiting director should then work together to resolve the issue.

The President shall be responsible for ensuring that all constitutional amendments are lodged with the MIT Association of Student Activities.

Chair

The Chair is to the Ensemble as the Producer is to a production.

The Chair has two main functions: to chair and to whip. It helps to either be into sadism and masochism or else to be anally retentive to do this job (don't ask). It is the Chair's responsibility to give adequate notice of meetings and agenda items to all members (the actual "rules" regarding this are set out in the Constitution, but the "rule of thumb" is that at least a week's notice is polite and sufficient). This generally involves negotiating with the Ensemble via e-mail in order to find the best meeting time, a process that needs to be begun well in advance of the meeting (like around two weeks before). All meetings of the Ensemble are chaired by the Chair (surprise). This involves introducing each item of business and facilitating/moderating the discussion so as to ensure that everyone who has something to say on the matter is heard and that the meeting doesn't become unruly or develop into unrestrained nuclear warfare. It will fall to the Chair to make procedural or substantive recommendations to the Ensemble from time to time in order to facilitate a smooth flow of business.

The rest of the year the Chair's job is to work together with the Producer and make sure that everyone else is doing their jobs. When this is happening, the Chair's job is relaxed and not very time-consuming, but when people start to neglect their responsibilities the job of Chair becomes very time-intensive and stressful. Chairs in the recent past have been known to turn into horrendous baby-eating monsters at times like these.

Sometimes, under extreme circumstances, Chairs have been known to actually DO the jobs of people who have neglected theirs, but this is more out of incipient insanity than responsibility.

Secretary

The Secretary shall:

1. reserve rehearsal rooms if the Stage Manager is not an MIT student, or is unavailable during the day. This is annoying as CAC is more evil than the devil.
2. Respond to emails send to ensemble-request in a timely fashion.
3. Take responsibility for all of the documents in the Ensemble, like this one. Keep them updated and fresh, or form a committee to do it for you. Give them to the Webmaster to put on the webpage.
4. Place all minutes on the webpage: http://web/ensemble/minutes/ Yeah. In there. Work out with the webmaster who will edit the page after you upload the text files to that directory.
5. Create a contact sheet of all active members within the first week of term.

Treasurer

The Treasurer is in charge of finding grants (the DeFlores Grant), applying to Finboard for money, and managing the Shakespeare Ensemble's bank account(s). This should be done ON TIME. The Treasurer is responsible for fundraising, including t-shirt sales, candy sales, sonnet sales, and any other money that may pass into the Ensemble. Any money spent should be reimbursed quickly by the treasurer to those members deeply in debt.

In addition, the Treasurer must give the Producer a detailed budget at the beginning of the production (BEFORE the first production meeting). While it is the producer's job to keep the designers within budget, it's the Treasurer's job to keep the producer within budget. Other people who need money also will come to the Treasurer, like the Social Chair, Rush Chair, etc.

The Treasurer must enter all incoming and outgoing expenses into a book, preferably one that is not lost every term.

Semester Jobs

Broken up into Prod Positions and Term Jobs

Prod Positions

Producer

The producer is to the production as the chair is to the Ensemble. The producer will be chosen based on an interview with the officers. They must have experience doing MIT theater - preferably technical theater. Words of wisdom.

Primary Responsibilities:

1. Make sure people are doing their jobs. Get them to do their jobs. This does not mean that you should be doing the work for them when they slack.
2. Be present. Your presence reassures people, and is necessary as much as you can possibly manage.
3. Stay informed of the progress of the production as a whole, and check in daily (or as often as is feasible) with the production staff in order to be aware of any problems or potential problems.
4. Run production meetings. Production meetings are generally the primary means of communication between all the people involved in producing the show. They are *very* important.

Important Details:

1. Try to stay current with all the departments and remind them of upcoming deadlines as necessary. (see master production schedule.)
2. Facilitate meetings between the director(s) and the design staff on an individual basis very early in the process so designs can proceed in a timely fashion. This includes the props person (though usually in conjuction with the scenic desginer and costume designer).
3. Try to get and idea of what run crew (dressers, stagehands, etc.) will be needed as early as possible and start looking for them as soon as possible, as they are usually difficult to find.
4. Your responsibility is to see that the work gets done, not to do it yourself. Repeat this to yourself over and over.
5. Problem areas usually include props, publicity, sound, and production meeting tardiness/absence.
6. Help out the stage manager(s) in any way you can, especially during prod week. At that point your job will be mostly over, but theirs is just beginning. Making their life easier makes everyone happier.
7. Especially be aware that you may need to resolve emergincies much more often during prod week. Plan accordingly.
8. If you cannot be around during prod week, at least check in with the stage manager once a day, including performance dates. Remember that you are expected to be around for prod week, and plan your personal schedule accordingly.
9. You'll be in charge of scheduling production meetings once a week. Try to schedule them for the same time each week and all ahead of time.

See the Producer's packet.

Stage Manager

During the rehearsal period, you act mostly as a liason between the director/designers/producer(s) and the actors. It's your job to help provide communication between the actors and everyone else to ensure that everything will be ready for prod week. You attend the weekly production meetings with the designers, director, producer, and random others where technical aspects about the show are discussed. Desicions are made about what is possible and what is not. You should bring information from rehearsals and the actors to these meetings and vice versa.
You need not be at every rehearsal, but it is your responsibility to make sure that an ASM is at a rehearsal that you're not. You need to make sure that the space is available (we reserve the rehearsal spaces, so if a group is in there that's not supposed to be, you need to let them know). You need to open and close the rehearsal space, calling CAC or crawling in through a window when neccesary :). If actors aren't there, you do your best to find them and get them there, otherwise you'll fill in. During rehearsals you should make note of anything that the director wants for the production (costumes, makeup, props, unusual needs (ie- can we spill X on person Y with costume Z?). Rehearsal notes that contain such valuable information should be sent out to cast, crew, and production staff afterwards.

During prod week and the run, you control everything. It is your responsibility to make sure that you get into the performance space every night, and that it's secured when you leave. Your word is law. When you decide the show will start is when it will start. You have to coordinate the actions of the cast, crew, housemanager, ushers, audience, etc. Again, you need to make sure that everyone that's supposed to be there is there. You call the show. You tell the light board-op when to hit the button. You tell the sound board-op when to hit the button. You tell the stage crew when to move the button (or table, or chair, or flat, or elephant, whatever!). If anything goes wrong, it's your call on what to do, who to call, and how to fix it, so be prepared to make split-second decisions about what should happen in case an actor takes your pre-show comment to heart, and really does break his leg. :) Seeing as how you know all the lines anyway from rehearsal, maybe you could fill in the part! (I'm kidding!)

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show that you've seen at least a thousand times already (maybe not, but it feels like it) and watch how your audience responds to the production that you got to see take form from beginning to end. Have fun!

See the SM's packet.

Assistant Stage Manager

The job of the ASM(s) is to assist the stage manager (duh!). During the rehearsal period, the ASM usually takes one or two rehearsals per week. During production, the ASMs usually help out in the capacity of backstage crew. The job of the ASM is very SM dependent, just like SMing is very director dependent.

If the SM is not at a rehearsal and you are, you assume the duties of the SM (it's like being vice president). Check with the SM about how he/she/it has been running rehearsals and proceed accordingly. Send a rehearsal report to the company list so that everyone (especially the SM!) knows what happened during the rehearsal. Pay particular attention to any issues that come up about light, sound, set, props, costumes, and other production needs, and include them in the report.

Communicate, communicate, communicate! Your mission is to make everyone's life - especially that of the SM - a little easier. When in doubt, ask how you can help.

Technical Director

The Technical Director will be chosen based on an interview with the producer and officers. They must have experience doing MIT theater - preferably technical theater. The TD is primarily responsible for realizing the set plan put forth by the designer. If the designer is not technically savvy, you must help them understand what can and can't be built given our shop. You are also responsible for ordering and arranging for pick up of all raw materials needed to build the set. You must go to the weekly production meetings. You are in charge of arranging the set shop hours and making sure there is enough for people to do when they come. You need to plan all aspects of put-in and strike (including light hang) with the producer. At put-in and strike, you are God. You are in charge of the Master Electrician and the Master Carpenter. Above all else, you are responsible for safety: that the set is up to code and that no one gets hurt during put-in or strike.

As a review, the TD must:

• Procure materials
• Oversee set build
• Attend Prod meetings
• Organize put-in and strike
• Be safe in all of the above

Assistant Director

The assistant director assists the director. Duuh. Note that the assistant director and the director should meet as soon as possible to decide between themselves what the duties of the assistant director should be. Once they have decided, the assistant director, director and producer should discuss these duties and write an appropriate assistant director contract.

Lighting Designer

See LD packet.

Set Designer

See Set packet.

Costume Designer

See Costume packet.

Sound Designer

See Sound packet.

Props Master

Read the final cut version of the script. Make notes about where props are used, reused, etc. Make a list, by scene, of each prop. Write down when it is reused, but make note of when it originally appears.

Show this list to the director. Ask questions about specifics. What kind of dagger or sword? How big do you want something, what color, etc. When you have this list, check through the Ensemble's stock to see what we have. If we don't have something you need, check with Bill in Rinaldi. If Rinaldi doesn't have it, think about asking MTG or GNS. If you still don't have it, look at your budget and see if you can afford it :-)

Begin this and start gathering props as early as possible in the production. If there is a complicated prop you want it as early as possible in order to give the actor time to practice. This involves pulling rehearsal props, which are similar to the real props in structure and use, but not as detailed.

Props people also have to go to the production meetings each week. There you will meet with the director/designers/tech coordinator and tell them what your status is. These meetings are useful for getting ideas on where to go and also asking for help if there are too many things to be done near the end of the production.

Props is a very time consuming job. Props takes several hours per week for the entire production. Be prepared to spend a lot of time doing this job.

Dramaturg

During the rehearsal process, the dramaturg is available to settle questions of pronunciation, staging, costuming and cross-dressing… Wait, no. That was the old Jobs Guide. Find it if you are interested.

The Dramaturg must attend prod meetings and rehearsals when necessary. They must be present at full cast rehearsals and any other they or the director feel necessary. As a text-based group, the dramaturg is most important and most exciting. Often the director or actors/designers will have questions that the dramaturg needs to research and answer. The dramaturg being in the show is not a bad thing.

The dramaturg for an ensemble production works closely with the directors and design team to provide historical and factual context for the production. In the earliest stages of play choice, the dramaturg's research provides insight on particular plays under consideration (famous productions, historical "problems" with the play, how the meaning of the play seems to have changed over time (significant readings of key sections as illustrative). Thus, the ensemble goes into a production of a play well-informed on their place within the historical context of the play, and (hopefully) with an idea on how their forthcoming production plans to address these issues.

Ensemble directors will typically come with choices of their own to address these issues; the dramaturg at that point would act as a liason to present the ensemble's view of its place within the play to the directors.

During the rehearsal process, the dramaturg is available to settle questions of pronunciation, staging, costuming, and stage-dressing. Hopefully the dramaturg can attend enough rehearsals/production meetings to spot potential problems early.

If the directors feel it would be helpful, the dramaturg can supply information to the actors on how their roles have been handled, historically, including videotapes of famous performances and/or previous ensemble performances. Some director prefer a "clean-slate" approach, however.

At the end of the rehearsal process, the dramaturg is responsible for some "Notes" to occupy about a half-page of the performance program, to fill in the audience on the context and performance issues which, raised during the first stages of play choice, the ensemble has been working to address during the entire rehearsal process, and the solutions we feel we've reached.

Similar functions are useful in the traditional ensemble scene nights, as often the scene directors have little context as to how their pieces fit into the larger picture of theatrical history and performance.

Box Office Manager

The Box Office Manager must attend prod meetings. The manager is also responsible for printing tickets up for the show well in advance. The number of tickets should not exceed the number of seats - this means harassing the set designers until they give you an exact number. The manager must work with the publicity designer/manager to get the program done.

Booth
The Box office manager needs to arrange the booth hour schedule and make sure there is at least one person per slot. The manager must fill vacant slots. S/he must also confirm that the producer or officers have reserved the aforementioned booth. Additionally, the manager must make sure the publicity flat is dressed for the production and present at the booth. The Manager must maintain the ‘book and box' so that there are clear instructions about what people working booth have to do. They should also send out an email with such instructions. The manager must arrange with the officers how much money to start out with in the box, and also must pick up and keep track of the order of the book and box (especially the money within).

Another main responsibility of Box Office is to arrange for 2 Ushers and 1 House Manager per night of show. The ushers should arrive 35 minutes before the show starts (since house opens 30 minutes before show starts). The ushers are responsible for handing out programs and ripping tickets. The House Manager must arrive an hour before show. The Box Office Manager should tell them when late-comers can enter the theater (discuss this with SM). They are responsible for selling tickets and hanging out reservations. The house manager needs to stay 10 minutes into act 2. During intermission, the HM should give the book and box to either the Box Office Manager or Stage Manager - whoever can better look after it.

The Box Office Manager also should arrange to borrow the SLP cash box during the runs of the show. RESERVE THESE BOXES AT THE BEGINNING OF TERM. (Go to SLP and ask, they'll tell you what to do). Pick up the box and make sure it stays safe. It's expensive, don't lose it! It comes with $100 in 1s. This is amazing.

After the show is over, fill out the blue form (consult with the producer/officers about "how" to do this....). Place the nights earnings into the overnight bag and put it in the overnight box (the key is in the cash box from SLP, the overnight box is right next to the Fleet ATMs in the Student Center). On Monday morning, check back in with SLP, return the box and give SLP the little deposit strips (the number comes off the top of the overnight bag).

Hair/Makeup Designer

The Hair/Makeup designer designs the hair and makeup for the production. S/he is responsible for buying the necessary hair, makeup and related supplies (you know, brushes, sponges, wet-wipes). In recent terms, makeup has been purchased from Ben Nye. Make sure that each actor has either a student or “full” professional makeup kit - and order one for them if they need it. Typically, actors pay for their own makeup. Fight makeup and Old Age makeup are also necessary on a production need basis. That's not Old Age the color, but old age as in purply colors for making baggy eyes, and white and real dark tan for wrinkles.

The task of the Makeup person is to buy make-up and other make-up related supplies (brushes, wet wipes, sponges, you get the picture). You need to go to whatever make-up workshops/rehearsals there are, find out what kinds of base people need, and what specialty make-up people need (hair grey, mud, etc.).

Places to get Stuff include:

• Hank Lee's Magic Factory (on South Street, about 2 blocks from the South Station T stop) is a good place to get Ben Nye Makeup and hair grey. (Ben Nye's CH-0, CH-00, CH-01 are good hilites, CS-3 is a good generic lowlight).
• Woolworth's in Central Square has triangular sponges for pretty cheap. Plan on a bag of sponges a night or a little less.

You can get brushes (usually fine-tipped brushes-- see the ones we already have) at CVS or Woolworth's for cheaper than at Hank Lee's or an art store.

This job requires very little time during the semester (maybe one afternoon to do inventory and look through the make-up. a few hours in discussion with actors/directors/designers about what is needed) until about 2 weeks before the show. Then lots of little 1-2 hour blocks a week (you go out and buy make-up, then other people tell you what they need, so you go out and buy that, then someone else gets back to you and you go get that, then it gets used up opening night. so you go and buy more, etc.).

Publicity Designer

The publicity designer designs the teaser, poster, drop poster, Tech ad, LSC ad and works with the publicity manager/box office manager to design the program.

Publicity tasks include:

• Posters, flyers, cards for dining tables etc. - design a poster or get someone to design a poster. Use this design to create posters, flyers and other visual publicity materials.
• Drop poster - The drop poster is generally a very different format than the rest of the rest fo the publicity materials, but it works best when it is at least reminiscent of the main designs. Design a drop poster or get someone else to do it. Then,in coordination with the Publicity Manager, paint it or get others to paint. Help with this is very useful.
• Talk it up - Just never stop talking about the show. Tell your friends until you have none. Tell your classmates until they all drop out of school to get away from you. Tell your professors until they fail you. And above all make sure other Ensemble members pull their weight regarding poster distribution and talking the show up.

Publicity Manager

The publicity manager is responsible for printing teasers and posters and seeing that everyone puts them up. Note: Talk to CopyTech about an ad swap: they get space in our program, we get free posters! This is *key*. Do it. The publicity manager also oversees the creation of the drop poster, helps with the program and writes a publicity email to be sent out. The publicity email must be sent to the ensemble and major theater mailing lists by Put-in at the latest. This email should be re-sent multiple times over the run of the show. Additionally, the publicity manager must write and send a publicity mailing to local interested parties. A list of addresses can be obtained from the TA admin. Make sure there is an ad in the Tech (we get one full free page per year - so use half a page for your show) and that Tech and Technique photographers come take pictures at the final dress rehearsal. Arrange for a competent Tech reviewer to come see our show. Keep in contact with these people to provide names for captions and make sure our pictures are in the Tech ASAP! Get people to talk up the show.

Publicity tasks include:

• Posters, flyers, cards for dining tables etc. - create posters, flyers and other visual publicity materials. Reproduce vast quantities of these materials well in advance of the first performances (ideally a month before) and ensure their distribution all over campus at regular intervals. Distribution sites should include not only the overly popular Infinite corridor and Student Center, but slightly more obscure yet important places such as the upper levels of the main building, the buildings that come off at right angles to the Infinite corridor, dormitories and ILGs, Media Lab, Med Center, Building 20, Building 14, Sloane and Dewey. Posters in some of these "more obscure" places will not have to be replaced as often as ones in the Infinite Corridor or Student Center.
• Drop poster - Drop poster space needs to be organized as early as possible, with any luck the Producer will have already taken care of this, but CHECK! Well in advance of the date we have the space for the poster, the publicity folk need to be getting people psyched and organized to paint the thing. Publicity folk are responsible for ensuring the drop poster is painted and hung on time, whatever that may take.
• On campus media - As soon as is practicable, notify all major campus publications (including the Tech, Tech Talk, Thistle, Counterpoint, hell even Rune!), MIT radio, and MIT Cable of upcoming events/productions. Many of these will give us free advertising space in one way or another. The Tech will send a reviewer and photographer to our dress rehearsal if we give them enough advance warning. The radio and cable channels may invite us in to talk about our activities, and publicity people either need to be prepared to go on air or to prep another member to do so.
• You also need to approach LSC very early on to get a slide organized. The slide will usually be based on the poster design, but may have to be severely edited in order to fit the slide format.
• Publicity manager should also prepare a snazzy email (or series of emails) advertising the show which ALL members will proceed to forward to everyone they know.
• Off-campus media - A largely untapped source in years past, there are many off-campus community publications which will advertise our show for free. If you get in touch with the Globe early enough they will even put it in their Arts calendar. Radio stations, particularly smaller community stations, are a good source of free publicity too. The one hitch with off-campus advertising is that you really need to get onto it very very early on in the piece.
• Talk it up - Just never stop talking about the show. Tell your friends until you have none. Tell your classmates until they all drop out of school to get away from you. Tell your professors until they fail you. And above all make sure other Ensemble members pull their weight regarding poster distribution and talking the show up.

Master Electrician

Dave Kemp says we must have this. You must be in the theater helping the lighting designer whenever the lighting designer is hanging/focusing/whatever.

Master Carpenter

You build stuff. The TD is your God. Do whatever they tell you to.

Term Jobs:

Social Chair

In order for the Ensemble to stay an Ensemble, members need to know each other and see each other often. The Social Chair should plan as many parties, outings, retreats, excursions as physically possible. For those over 21, maintaining a bar is a good start for members “mixing”. The most important duty is planning the retreat. The business side of a retreat is organized in format by the Officers, the pleasure and logistics part is all the Social Chair. Hotel/Talbot house, transportation, liquor, food, and purity tests are necessities that need to be taken care of.

Social chair is also responsible for making sure cast parties happen. If the social chair is not in the show, they can delegate this to a cast or crew member. Parties can be informally after each show, but there must be at least one after strike.

Ensemble Class Coordinator

There will be 8 ensemble classes per term. The structure is as follows:

• The first class is introduction/bonding - making an ensembleThe second should be on what it means to be ‘text based' - how do you do text analysis - how do you design/act for.There should be 1 class on how to be useful at put-in the class before put-in
  
  Then, it whatever order is possible:
  2 consecutive classes on one design aspect - relate this to using text to create design2 consecutive classes on one acting aspect
• 1 on a random acting topic

The first ½ hour of class should be spent doing theater games and other fun such things. As coordinator, you are responsible for finding good teachers for each class and emailing ensemble encouraging them to come. Also make sure to take attendance so it is known who fulfills the membership requirement.

Class should not occur during production weeks, as members are hosed. The coordinator should make sure that classes do not return into rehearsals. The director can request/teach specific classes as long as they are useful to the membership at large. The director should not attend unless s/he teaching.

Archivist/Office Bitch

The Archivist/Office Bitch (from now on just refered to as Archivist) is responsible for all things pertaining to the office. The Archiving area is located in the grey metal cabinets. In here there are videos, old designs, and most importantly scrap books relating to all past shows. The Archivist must maintain a detailed compilation of documents, pictures, articles, programs, ticket stubs, and any other pieces of paper or small props that have historical significance (this is what the scrap book is made up of). A video tape/DVD of each show would be great. Work with the producer to make this happen. Other responsibilities, more related to office bitch are that there should maintain a log where members sign out plays.

Another job of the Archivist is to keep the office clean. If things are in utter chaos it is your responsibility to arrange a cleaning party and/or come up with a fantastic new organizational plan for the office. You are also the person who will be in charge of the office during strike, and as such should be in there for the duration of strike. At least once at the beginning of term and once at the end of the term you should arrange an office cleaning party.

Director Search/ Play Choice

The director strongly influences the Ensembles attitude as a whole. If this job is done poorly, everyone will suffer. The search should be done one term or more in advance of the term for which the director will be hired.To find potential directors, scour community theaters, ask faculty and Rinaldi people for suggestions, ask the Ensemble over email if they know anybody, look to graduate programs at other schools like Emerson, Harvard, BU and the New England Conservatory. Alums are also a good source of knowledge and can be potential directors if they have been doing professional theater. Once a list has been compiled, the searcher should discuss the position with the director, and explain the ins and outs of the ensemble, our casting policies and our design aspects. This is good time to talk about fees and other potential concerns. If you are unclear about these policies, discuss with the officers or have one present. An official resume should be received including contacts of past stage managers. It is good at these meetings to gather what ‘kind' of director he or she is. Again, text-based=good. Next, the directors need to be seen in action, if at all possible. This has been done in the past by having the potential directors direct ensemble members in a scene of the director's choosing. The Ensemble will then vote on the director. Yay - now we have a director.

Play choice is easy. Through email or in person collect the top 3 choices for the next term's play from each member. Compile a list of top 5 overall (“long list”), submit to director, have director narrow down to 3 (“short list”). When the short list has been obtained, you should arrange ensemble readings for the 3 plays. Following this, or at a later (but not too much later) date, a meeting will be held to decide the play. At this meeting, those who attended play readings or have read the plays on their own or those who have attended a meeting where the director pitches ideas for the 3 plays and feels they can make a well informed decision are allowed to vote. The previous sentence implies that the director has come to talk to the ensemble about his or her vision of each of the choices. This is another thing you should arrange, normally it's coupled into the play choice meeting.

Scene Night Coordinator

Starting soon after the mainstage show closes, contact the Officers and set a date for scene night. Then, email the Ensemble about scene night: specifically ask for potential directors/actors/scenes. Match up directors with actors and a scene (oooh, novel idea.) Make sure that directors and actors are actually rehearsing said scenes. Reserve (or get the officers to reserve) space for said scene night - rehearsal rooms, Walker 201 and the coffee house are some good starting places. Contact the ensemble and arrange for tech IMMEDIATELY. This is a LOW TECH show, but if lights and/or sound are absolutely necessary, they CANNOT be left for the day of the show. Scene night coordinator is responsible for the publicity design/management and small program for scene night. Try to find a unifying theme among these scenes. Good luck. If you have different and cool ideas for scene night, awesome. (I personally like the idea of Shakespeare on Demand :-)The scene night coordinator organizes the time, place, and content of Scene Night and ensures it runs smoothly. The main things to be done as early as possible, like on Reg Day, (in roughly this order) are:

1. choose an appropriate date for scene night (not too many other conflicts that night, etc.) with the input of the rest of the Ensemble.find a desirable space for the performances (little Kresge, 66-110 and Killian Hall have been used in the near past, 1-390 is a decent space too).reserve the performance space for 6-11pm on the nights of performances and at least two nights beforehand. If possible get the space for a half-day or day sometime in the week immediately prior to the first performance so that scenes can rehearse in the space in half hour or hour blocks.send a questionnaire (usually by email) to the Ensemble to find out who will be participating and in what way (acting, directing, both), what they hope to get out of scene night, what scene or sort of scene they would like to work on (and why), what character or sort of character they would like to play (and why), who they would like to work with, who they would not like to work with, etc. meet with the consulting director to discuss how many and which scenes will be performed and who will be involved in each of them. Decide whether there will be a theme for the scene night (eg: modern, Shakespeare's contemporaries, sex and seduction, scenes about women)search for more directors if there is a lack of them.
2. organize a publicity design (do it or get someone else to do it) and undertake some early publicity such as contacting free on-campus media and publicizing on our town-crier list.

Scene groups are responsible for their own rehearsals and their own tech (special effects, sound, props etc.). The Scene Night Coordinator puts a signup sheet for rehearsal times in the Ensemble office.As the Scene Night gets closer:

• find Stage Manager/crew/ushers for the show.have at least one run-through in the space (to work out set changes, scene order, etc.)
• ensure that the following things happen: posters go up, publicity email goes out, a lovely program gets made (liaise with scene directors to make sure the right spiel goes in on each scene), an introductory spiel is given at the beginning of each show.

Don't Panic. An ability to delegate is very much essential here.

Webmaster

Webmaster updates the web page. At the beginning of each term the webmaster must add new darts to the website, and shift new full members to the full members site. Bios should be updated/created for each member based on their last terms activities if members refuse to email you. For the web page, there is always more to be done. Minutes should be updated and taken from the Secretary's email. Check the README to make sure you don't screw up the files when editing. Write new stuff to the README when necessary. Get and compile new bios for apprentices and members. If you want, it works to just tell members how to access the BIOS files. Put the Contact Sheet online every term. The ensemble list owns the ensemble locker. The webmaster should work with the stage manager to set up a Callboard site for the show. If needed, the webmaster should provide help and advice to the Stage Manager on how to maintain the callboard and implement any new features the SM might require.It is imperative for the Webmaster to be somewhat Athena-savy. HTML and PERL are good things to know, too. The job of Webmaster is to update, expand, and generally jazz up the Shakespeare Ensemble web page. Some possibile additions are adding new links, features, graphics, interfaces, and enlarging and maintaining our archive of pictures, sounds, or whatever from past shows. At the beginning of the term, put the past show in the Past Productions area, if this hasn't been done already, and put up a short blurb about the upcoming show in "Our Current Show". It's also helpful to put this on the main page under the "what's new" heading. Send out email to the ensemble telling them to check their current bios on the webpage and to send you updates. Update the bios, or create them for people who don't have them. Email the darts with a bio format and tell them to fill it out and send it back to you. Put up an apprentice bio page, linked to the members and alums bio page. It would be nice to organize with the social chair some kind of party where you could photograph the current members to put pictures on their bio pages. BUG PEOPLE ABOUT SENDING THE BIOS BACK. People are notoriously slow at doing this, so keep sending out email, zephyring/bugging people in person, etc. Also ask people if they've run into any cool Shakespeare/theater web pages, and tell them to send you the URLs, so you can put them on the appropriate pages. One important thing to do is to get the list of term and run-time jobs up as soon as possible. Link this list to the descriptions in the ensemble jobs guide, so people don't have any excuse for not knowing what they are supposed to be doing/how to do it.
A page should be created for EACH show (though not necessarily as spiffy a page for Scene Night) and there should be a link to the current show from the main page. The show webpages should be kept visually appealing, creative, and simple to navigate. Two to three weeks before put-in is a good time for the show page to go up. Good things to put on it include:

• a graphic of the show, it is nice if this is the same graphic that goes on the poster, but make do if the poster's not ready yet. dates, time, place, etc. links to make reservations director's note (and dramaturg's note, if available) cast/crew listings, with links to their Bios link to the text of the play link to reviews and articles about the current show when available photos/movies/sound clips when available
• anything else you can think of that would be interesting

Look at the archive of past productions to get some ideas, but don't be afraid to change the format :) Also, a good way to help out publicity is to request a spotlight on the MIT homepage. Go to the Spotlight Request page and fill out the form and send it in. If you have to pick one day for the spotlight, pick opening night. If you do not get confirmation from them about it after a couple days, email again. Of course, the show webpage has to be at least mostly done by the time you request the spotlight, because they'll look at it, and you want a decent looking page. Another way to be helpful to publicity is to make up an email announcement. Do this the week before Box Office starts selling tickets in Lobby 10 (or wherever). Making those fancy text things for the title is a good way to get people's attention. I've used a web figlet in the past. Play around and see what looks nice/legible. Also put in the email the show dates, times, and location. Put the name of the director, the cost of the tickets, and mention that we will be selling tickets in place X (usually Lobby 10) on [insert correct dates here]. ALSO put in the URL of your lovely webpage. It's also nice to put in some simple ASCII art, and I've gotten a nice rat/shrew from this ASCII art archive in the past. Of course, don't be afraid to do websearches for other figlets and ascii art. Send it to publicity when you are done, so they can double check it and send it out. If the constitution gets amended, ask to be sent copies of the amendment and change the constitution online.

Possible things to do in the future include changing the ways for our fans to communicate with us (the opinion and request forms). Also add some way for them to be put on town-crier or some theater mailing list.

Alumni Liaison

Alumni are sources of money and wisdom. They like to be contacted every once in a while. The alum liaison should keep the alums up to date on what's going on by sending an alumni mailing each term. On the Saturday of opening weekend, an alumni brunch should be planned and hosted in space. The Alumni Association is very strong at MIT. They have clubs all over the country. The alum liaison should email these clubs to see if they would donate money to our group or would like us to perform. Working in the Boston metro area first is the best thing. Also, make sure all alumni know that donations to MIT can be directed to the Ensemble - especially target seniors who are donating for the first time!

The Alumni Liaison for the spring term is responsible for coordinating an “Ensemble Update” newsletter. You should contact officers about what should go into the newsletter. Gather pictures from recent shows to go into the newsletter. Addresses of alums can be obtained from the Alumni Office.

New Member Liaison

It is during times that the ensemble has few members that we realize exactly how much new members contribute to the group. Consequently, the new member liaison is a new and loved position. NML plans the Infosession to talk to interested people about what we do and who we are. The NML is also responsible for the Activities Midway booth and whatever advertising is possible (mailings, etc.) over the summer. Keep in touch with the new members. Attend ensemble class and make sure new members are attending and feel welcome. Plan a new member dinner with the current members. Encourage new members to get involved with the show if they aren't already: assisting a position, coming to put-in/strike, doing run crew are great ways to get involved!

Random Shakespearean awareness. We think everyone knows who Shakespeare is. But MIT is not known for its liberal arts program. The more they remember that Shakespeare exists, the more, we think anyway, they want to join us. Give their soul to the old man.
Random pictures of Shakespeare's bust (not his boobies) would be cool. Have fun with it.

Member Liaison

The Member Liaison keeps track of members and makes them feel loved. Make sure members are fulfilling their requirements and keep the online web-log up to date so members know what's up. Read the constitution so you know what the membership requirements are!

Arrange meetings with each designer, yourself and the Producer and estimate the number of shop hours necessary for the production. Post it online and make sure all cast/crew/ensemble members know what is required of them. Keep track of hours and make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to! If someone is not fulfilling their hours, inform the Producer and the Officers.