Scheduling and Time Management are big parts of the Stage Managers job. So what tools and technologies are available to assist with the nightmare that is scheduling?
A lot of this really depends on what you want to do.
A bit about modern scheduling:In the past, when I used to create schedules by hand, I would take a weekly calendar separated into 1/2 hour blocks and shade then take cast availability sheets and a list detailing each rehearsal that had to occur. And I would sit there for hours trying to make the schedule to work arround everyones availability. Now usually that was easy when working with professional casts, as they usually had 9-5 free with the odd occurance where it was not. However I also did amdram work, where there are often quite a few obstacles to work arround. The technique worked well, but was awfully time consuming, and it meant that I had to be available to write down availability problems. With the rapid expansion of the internet, now most homes in the western world have an internet connection, so it makes sense to use the internet to share this information.
Shared callendars used to be a feature included only in expensive company groupware suites, which charged hundreds of dollars per user. Now they are wide spread. The development of a standard format for a callendar (the .ics iCal format), combined with online groupware means that now, scheduling has become less of a nightmare. Basically, if I can get every member of my cast to create a shared callendar, and I create a range of callendars I share, what ends up happening is this:
Cast member A has a doctors appointment at 10:15 on Tuesday, B has to look after their child all day Wednesday etc. They each put this on their calendar. This calendar is syncronised with their calendar on the internet (either through the technology called WebDAV, or they used an online service like those listed below).
I, as stage manager, use a calendar program which loads all of my casts calendars from the internet. Now I need to plan a rehearsal for cast members A and B, it needs to be 3 hours in length and the director needs to be available. So I select each cast members calendar, my calendar, the directors and the production calendars, and I see there is a three hour gap on Monday that everyone is free. I create an event on the production calendar. The production calendar is then synchronised with a copy on the internet.
Cast member B needs to arrange a doctors appointment now for a checkup - nothing serious. He opens his calendar application, which automatically grabs the production calendar from the internet. So he looks at the calendar and sees that he required at a rehearsal on Monday, however he has a free spot on Tuesday, so he books it for then. He updates his calendar, which syncs online.
Now these calendar applications are often capable of sending out invites, however I recomend you do that personally, and don't assume that they will all check the web based calendar every day. However systems like this make your life much much easier.
That said, there is nothing wrong with the pencil and paper method, or using excel or any other method. It is all down to personal preference.
One thing I am finding in my investigation into this area is that most online services do not support sharing amongst other services well. Some will import .ics files, and some will export to .ics but their main power is between people on the same service. The main thing that needs emphasising is that this technology is still in it's infancy.
Online Services:There are a million of these - most of these have a 'free' and a 'paid' option - for most of us, free is fine, we just loose some of the feature set. This list is in no particular order
--MOD NOTE: Links etc to be added in the not too distant future--
If you could, I would love it if you find a service, write a snippet about it, it's feature set, does it import other calendars etc. Also, most of the links above need one too, so if you use one, write one, and I will add it to this list, and link to it from the summary here (as a way of providing user opinions before they go and check them out)
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) but I try not to be reliant on it.