Offstage > The Green Room

The Big "Thank You Notes" Thread!

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smsam:
The most important thing I think when doing Thank Yous is ensuring that you treat everyone fairly with Thank-Yous, especially when ultimately your in a position of authority and responsibility (i.e. Stage Manager/ DSM).

So if you are going to do the cast cards then you have to do them all cards. And if you are going to get crew cards or presents do them all cards/ presents! Even when I've had my boyfriend on my crew he's got the same Thank-You card and pressie as everyone else!

Personally, I'll get the cast as a whole and the crew as a whole a Good Luck Card on the first night which I'll stick on the Call Board then at the end of the run I'll get little cardettes for each of the crew and cast and try to put something personal in each one like a funny experience or anecdote about the show! If its a musical with loads of cast and dancers though or its been a short production period then I sometimes just get the whole cast one card!


The only exception I'll make is an individual card and present to the director. As a DSM I rarely give cards or presents to the Designs/ Design Team because its not my place to, often the director will sort this out!!

Sam x

ESM_John:
Generally, i try to thank everyone at least face to face on closing. Ill get cards for the Director, an ASM, the TD, etc. but usually the show going off flawlessly on the tech end, is a nice thanks to the cast. It all depends on how you get along with your cast and crew.

kjdiehl:
I think many many years ago i may have given out a few thank you cards. That practice quickly stopped. It got way out of control. These days, I would almost never dream of doing anything for opening night. Tech  is the busiest time for me, and I don't want to jeopardize the show or my personal time for cards. Frankly, whatever type of Thank-yous I do are only personal, and always  different from show to show. I certainly don't give cards as a matter of course or to ensure getting hired in the future. If someone on the team wants to hire me in the future, I want it to be because they remember the work I did, not a card I gave. My only hard and fast rule is on tours, after the final curtain at a venue, or after load-out is complete: ALWAYS shake every crew member by the hand and look them in the eye and thank them. Otherwise, I just give personal thank you's, if i feel it's warranted. I have gotten chocolates for my entire booth, (usually near opening night,) but only if i like them and appreciate their work. I generally always give my ASMs something special, maybe a gift certificate, maybe fancy chocolates, maybe a book- but again, only if I feel they deserve it. (The one thing I do do as an arbitrary rule, before they have a chance to prove their worth, is usually on the first or second day of our working together, I try to take my entire SM team out for lunch.) If a particular cast or crew member or two have become especial good friends to me, then I'll usually get them a card towards the end of the run. This is not so much to thank them for their work, but to acknowledge our friendship. (Mind you, it'd be unlikely that their work was crap and we actually became friends, so it's a safe bet that I'll be thanking them for their work as well.)

nmno:

--- Quote from: kjdiehl on Jun 29, 2006, 09:08 pm ---I certainly don't give cards as a matter of course or to ensure getting hired in the future. If someone on the team wants to hire me in the future, I want it to be because they remember the work I did, not a card I gave.
--- End quote ---

I don't know...  My production manager knows that I do a lot of stuff for my crew -to make them feel appreciated/motivated- so it's that much less that he has to do.  Does he re-hire me BECAUSE I do these things? No, of course not.  And do I DO these things in order to get re-hired? No, they are part of my personality.  But I do feel that one of the reasons I get asked back is because of how I treat the people I work with so in a round about way, sending thank you notes does get me hired back.  That said, THIS is how I show my appreciation for my cast/crews - there are other ways of course.

I also have to add that, yes, writing all those thank you notes during tech can be exhausting.  But it has also been helpful, when perhaps not enjoying certain folks so much, to take a moment and force myself to come up with something nice to say... There has always been something nice to say and forcing myself to find it, pushes me out of my negative thinking. 

I also like using the notes for the actors as a way to ease into the idea that I'm now taking the reigns of the show from the director.

My $.02.

kjdiehl:
Hey nmno, thanks for brining that up. That's a side of the coin I hadn't really been thinking of- that thank you notes can of course be anyone's personal style for how you breed good vibes in your company. I guess it's clearly not my style.   :D  But more power to ya if it works for you.

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