Author Topic: WORK/LIFE BALANCE: Tech or Church?  (Read 16484 times)

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Rebbe

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #15 on: Oct 18, 2007, 12:17 am »
If your priority is your religion then good for you... but then don't do a show that will get in the way.
That sounds harsh to me. Those choices are complicated when you’re not in a majority religion, but still want to do exciting projects and need to pay your bills.  Few jobs don’t give you a day off for Christmas, while negotiating time off for Yom Kippur or Janam Ashtam or Bodhi Day often just isn’t possible.  But balancing religion and theater is a thread for another day. 

I think the issue here is what the Sound Designer was contracted for.  Many Equity contracts allow for the next day’s rehearsal call to be set with as little as 12 hours notice.  Even if a tech week schedule or full calendar is issued, it will probably say “subject to change” at the bottom to allow for this.  So I would hope that the Production Managers, when they hire design and production staff, would set up those contracts along the same lines, requiring everyone to be available, so if they want to change the actors’ span of day the rest of the team can accommodate.  If that’s not how the Sound Designer’s contract was set up, then I think it’s fair for the SD to say they can’t make an earlier call.  But if the contract was set up along those lines, it would have been more responsible for the SD to have covered their Sunday commitments in advance, just in case their call time changed.
"...allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster."  (Philip Henslowe, Shakespeare In Love)

MatthewShiner

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #16 on: Oct 18, 2007, 11:59 am »
I think the request is 100% reasonable, the timing of the reqyest is the issue.

When he receieved the tech schedule, he should have discussed his issues with the production manager that any Sunday rehearsals before noon are impossible.

Theater is a job; religion is something bigger then that for most peple.

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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

keypalsman

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #17 on: Oct 23, 2007, 04:11 pm »
In my unwanted opinion I believe that tech should not be more important verses church. Tech should not be allowed to be on Sunday mornings to begin with. I face this same problem with my belief of church. I always come to tech after chuch but never have I missed church just for tech.
JUST MY TWO CENTS!

avkid

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #18 on: Oct 23, 2007, 04:26 pm »
Ours start at 1 P.M. on Sundays so everybody will be out of services by the time it starts.
Philip LaDue
IATSE Local #21 Newark, NJ

centaura

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #19 on: Oct 23, 2007, 04:41 pm »
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Tech should not be allowed to be on Sunday mornings to begin with.

To take my moderator hat off for a moment so I can be inflamatory, why should one religion get special treatment over every other religion?  I know that its PC to declare that Christianity's holy time should be honored above all others, but not even every christian sect meets on Sunday mornings.

Okay, I'll end before I enter into a rant.

Back to being a reasonable human being, I think the resolution to this boils down to what the contract said the time obligations were, and whether any unions and their regulations were involved.  If the theatre doesn't have something in their contract that covers time changes, then they're stuck with people's out of job commitments, no matter what they are.  The PM's personal feelings about the commitment have nothing to do with the SD's contractural olbigations.  That is what this thread should be about - was the SD in conflict with his contract? - instead of opening up the pandora's box of religion and its highly emotion responses.

-Centaura

MileHighSM

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #20 on: Oct 23, 2007, 08:43 pm »
Just to add a new element which I should've mentioned before, this was a graduate production at a university.  No unions, contracts, etc.

megf

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #21 on: Oct 23, 2007, 10:01 pm »
At my university, PMs were typically staff, directors usually faculty or graduate students, designers grad students or upperclassmen, and everyone else (including SM staff) undergrads of all classes. Technically, there was a "no conflicts" policy in place that applied to all students, regardless of their position on the show; what is the situation in this context? Are there agreed-upon conflicts on the schedule? And are either PM or SD students?




sourc3

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #22 on: Oct 23, 2007, 10:35 pm »
Typically, I'll bend over backward for a program - but if I have my heart set on attending a service/sunday school/whatever and 10 hours before, I get told "Sorry, we're starting tech earlier because I feel like it," I'm going to say some pretty un-Christian things and walk out.

I agree though: Christianity should NOT be given any higher priority than any other religion - despite being a Christian myself - and equal concessions should be made for all. But as has been previously stated - Theatre is a job. Religion is a way of life. I also agree that one service is OK to miss --> but the nature of the commitment doesn't really matter in this case. It's the nature of how quickly the change was made.
-David

avkid

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #23 on: Oct 26, 2007, 10:48 am »
To take my moderator hat off for a moment so I can be inflamatory, why should one religion get special treatment over every other religion? 

In a democracy the majority rules.
From the CIA fact book on the U.S.A:
Religions:
   [Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, ]
Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10%
Philip LaDue
IATSE Local #21 Newark, NJ

Scott

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #24 on: Oct 26, 2007, 02:22 pm »
In a democracy the majority rules.

Simply not true.

KMC

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #25 on: Oct 26, 2007, 02:41 pm »
In a democracy the majority rules.

In a democracy yes avkid, the majority does rule; a workplace however is not a democracy.

You mentioned some statistics about religions in your post about  - I think these are irrelevant to the debate in this thread.  If, as a manager, you are going to acknowledge religion you need to be consistant and respect the religious views of all of your team members, regardless of how small a minority their religion may be in the bigger picture. As a manager it's important to remember to be as conistant as possible in your approach and treatment of all employees.  Getting into a situation where you pick and choose which religions to observe would get very messy very quickly.
Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

PSMKay

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #26 on: Oct 26, 2007, 04:15 pm »
As I see it it's a matter of priorities, politeness and prior commitments.  When priorities conflict it's always going to make for a difficult situation, and doubly so if the reason is a touchy one such as religion.

The thing is with priorities, it's also about consequences.  We can choose our own priorities based on what the consequences will be for ourselves - and generally that is exactly and exclusively what we do.  It's a very rare person who will designate priorities based primarily on how they will affect other people. 

BalletPSM

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #27 on: Oct 27, 2007, 09:12 am »
Quote
To take my moderator hat off for a moment so I can be inflamatory, why should one religion get special treatment over every other religion?  I know that its PC to declare that Christianity's holy time should be honored above all others, but not even every christian sect meets on Sunday mornings.

There is a Jewish theatre group in town who does not do rehearsals or performances on Fridays.  So, that is out there.

That said, Kay brings up a good point -- where do you set your priorities?  It is a personal choice and decision that you as an individual have to make.  I recently asked my bosses if I could have a rehearsal off so I could go to a class at church - I asked in plenty of time before the rehearsal and made sure all of my bases were covered to have the rehearsal off -- they were fine it.  My TD knows I'm never going to be at Sunday load-ins right at 8:00 am because of church. 

A lot of times as an SM, I've found it's all about covering yourself and making sure that the rehearsal/performance will still be able to run in your absence.  After all, this is what we should be doing anyway!    I know this thread was originally started about a designer missing a tech, but seems to have evolved since that... 
Stage managing is getting to do everything your mom told you not to do - read in the dark, sit too close to the TV, and play with the light switches!

centaura

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #28 on: Oct 27, 2007, 12:51 pm »
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I know this thread was originally started about a designer missing a tech, but seems to have evolved since that... 

That is the unfurtunate consequence of using an emotional touch-off word or concept.  I found myself reacting with an emotional response to the off-topic comments, which is always a bad situation to be in.  This thread would have been totally different if the nature of the SD's conflict had been different.  The focus would hopefully have been centered on the timing in which the warning was given, and the SD's implied (since there was no contract) commitment.

-Centaura

avkid

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Re: Tech or Church?
« Reply #29 on: Oct 28, 2007, 01:13 am »
In a democracy the majority rules.

Simply not true.
Well yeah, we are really a republic.
And a bunch of rich idiots run everything.
An honest to god direct democracy is almost impossible.
Philip LaDue
IATSE Local #21 Newark, NJ