Stage Crew Society: Equipment Officer

Hey all, my name is Dylan and I'm a fresher studying Linguistics and SPS. My role in stage crew mainly lies in the sound department but have been learning more and more about the other departments - you might have seen me around during various get ins and get outs trying to learn as much as possible! I don't really have a manifesto as such, but I do have a few ideas as to how I'd like to help the society if I were elected its Equipment Officer.

First and foremost, I found that there were many who never got to give everything that they wanted a go due to oversubscription. In particular, people new to Stage Crew as a whole often didn't get the chance to really explore each department and find their favourite. I would want to work with the VP in order to provide more opportunities for these newer members to learn how to use the equipment we have, providing them more chances to find their niche here. Building on the work done this last year by Rahul, I would also create a guide which the society (particularly new designers) would be able to follow in case they felt they were unsure of how they should go about designing a show; especially what equipment the society has access to, potential hires, and what each piece of equipment is for as well as how to use them. I would also work with the other artsUCL societies to find off-site places to store set and props and look at potentially upgrading our equipment: e.g. new desks for externals, or plugin availability on the blooms desk.

For anyone who doesn’t know me – I’m Gabi, Geography Second Year.

As equipment officer, I will build upon the success of and maintain our current inventory management system which allows us to assemble lighting rigs and mic plots and minimize everyday frictions like battery and tape shortages, as well as keeping up with potential new purchases, and tackling any breakages or problems. Having and managing our equipment effectively is essential to run shows.

One key goal is to tackle the next hurdle in Stage Crew’s equipment management: storage. Hunting for and moving equipment between the range, the theatre, other storage spaces here and there and other venues take away time and energy. 

I propose to take advantage of the underutilised Gospel Oak storage to do this through a combination of:

• Moving some items there and acquiring a van/truck for transport.
• Opening this storage to other societies so we could use the space they currently do on campus.

These ideas have been discussed with committee members from Stage Crew Society and other ArtsUCL societies like Musical Theatre Society (who are interested!!!), and I’d love to get things in motion.

I’d like to get people familiar and confident with, and excited about the range of equipment we have on offer through smaller training sessions, as an extension of training weeks and/or spaced throughout the year and before production weeks.

I have been a member of UCL Stage Crew for the past 6 months, while I have been involved in stage productions for over 8 years! Throughout this time, I have had the pleasure of working in almost every aspect of crew, each new venture broadening my passion and excitement for theatrical arts. 

My interest lies specifically in not just participating in but understanding the collective effort, as a show is created from the bottom up. Each crew member, cast member, production member, and technical staff contribute value. Yet as does the equipment and resources this society treasures. I believe the collective effort in creating a show must not ignore efficient attention towards the oversight of equipment, to ensure a stress-free process and operation by theatre productions, and I am confident in my ability to make this happen!

My dedication and love for UCL Stage Crew, in combination with my dedication and love for cleanliness and organization, make me the ideal Equipment Officer. Not only through respecting, regulating, and attending to any and all needs of the society and its members productively, but by prioritizing the care, knowledge, and management of our resources and storage, for with the care of equipment comes the success of the theatre.