In Theatre we all have a golden rule we live by: the Good Fast and Cheap Rule.

The trick is that you only get two of the three. If you want something good and fast, it won't be cheap. If you want something fast and cheap, it won't be good. You get the picture. Keep this in mind when you are listening to people around the production table. One of the chief responsibilities of the stage manager is to maintain that schedule and keep people up to date. Last minute finagling and requests abound in our world. If the desire is good and you need it fast it probably isn't going to be cheap.

There is another triangle I like to use when scheduling my shows or my season. It is the skill, space, and availability triangle. Unlike the good fast cheap rule, this rule helps you determine important characteristics of your show when scheduling.

In the skill-space-time triangle, skill refers to the level of skill involved in the project. The higher the skill the larger the expectation that can be placed on it. Space helps identify the kind of theatre you are going into. In our case, the Pavilion Theatre is an extreme thrust theatre. There is no fly loft. The Playhouse is a traditional proscenium theatre with 36 line sets and 800 lb arbors. The downtown theatre is a 152 seat black box. Each is unique and each dictate what can traditionally be done in the space. Time is the amount of time you have to accomplish what you need to accomplish for your production. Add the three together and you get what your production schedule can handle. Highly skilled technicians in a large theatre can accomplish more than unskilled labor in a large theatre. You will need more time for them. Large dance shows cannot be done in either the Pavilion of the downtown theatres unless modified from their dance original. The Space is not conducive for it. If you want to do a large scale musical in a nontraditional space it will require more time. Conversely, if you only have so much stage time then the design has to match the space and the time allotted. If not then it will be a very large headache for all involved. Think of it this way; in summer stock time is a very valuable commodity. So valuable that the paint crews often work overnight. It is their only time to get the space where no one else wants it and they can allow the paint to dry.