A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition

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A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO STAGE LIGHTING

•Donotsignacontractthatcontainslanguage

that you don’t fully understand. If you don’t

understand a clause, ask for an explanation. If

you’re not satisfied with the explanation, ask

someone else.

•Keepacopyofyourcontractandknowwhereitis.

Once the contract is signed and delivered, many

designers keep a copy of it close at hand, in a pri-

vate place in their bag or briefcase. They believe that

if there’s a need to review the contract, it should be

immediately available. Other designers leave it at the

home office, believing that once signed, the contract

won’t need to be referred to again. In any event, all

designers with an eye towards business agree that all

design contracts should be stored together in a sin-

gle folder or binder. Having all of the contracts in

one place, rather than separated by tax year, makes

searching for or comparing old contracts a snap,

rather than an extended parade through one’s tax

receipts in order to find the right one.

Shelley’s Contracts for Hokey

Figure 4.1 is an imaginary non-union agreement

between Steve Shelley and the Template Enterprises

Company for the lighting design of Hokey: A Musical

Myth. The show is currently being booked into

The Hybrid Theatre for an open-ended run. This is

the first time that the show will be fully mounted.

The producer and the general manager are top-tier,

and on the surface appear to have been hired with

the purpose to get this show up on it’s feet and move

it to Broadway, or at least to a subsequent life. All

of the clauses included in this contract have a basis

in the United Scenic Artist 829 Standard Design

Agreement Contract, so none of them should be

perceived as odd or unique. At the present time,

any thought of filming or video-taping the show

has been vigorously denied. So while there’s no spe-

cific filming or taping clauses, all of those “what if”

clauses have been combined into a single “if any-

thing happens, renegotiation will need to occur” in

the preamble. While royalties were brought up in

contract negotiations, they were abandoned; check-

ing with the rest of the other designers, they weren’t

successful negotiating any AWC either. On a posi-

tive note, however, the company has agreed to pay

for an assistant, albeit only for five weeks. If the

technical rehearsal period, or the preview period,

get extended, then either the assistant will be forced

to start later in the process, the designer will have

to pay for additional weeks out of his pocket, or

renegotiation will have to take place.

Figure 4.2 is Shelley’s Union Cover Sheet Contract

for Hokey: A Musical Myth. It’s a much simpler form

to fill out. Under the designer’s name are the relevant

dates to be filled in. Under that is the area to fill in

for the compensation thirds. It also includes a space

for the AWC, and below that, a space to fill in the

Pension and Welfare payment.

Below the regional offices are the two vital

clauses, the insurance clause, and the dispute clause.

The dates show that the representative of the com-

pany, Dr. George Spelvin, signed the contract the day

before the designer. This is standard operating pro-

cedure; the designer should always sign the contract

after the producer, before it’s sent into the union office.

That sequence should be true for every contract; the

employee signs after the employer. And when that

can’t happen, for your own protection, photocopy the

contract with your signature before you send it back.

DEFINE THE PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

The production schedule is the calendar constrained

to show-related activities for a single production,

or the monthly flow of a multi-show season. In gen-

eral, the document’s scope ranges from listing spe-

cific technical events, to activities that impact the

production department. As the production meetings

in Chapter 3 showed, while the production sched-

ule may list task names for time periods or work

calls, it starts by highlighting the dates for a pro-

duction’s load-in and opening night. The production

schedule and the budget are often viewed as two of

the most important parameters of any production.

And in a way they are: time and money. So much so

that, when many union lighting design contracts are

submitted for approval, the budget and production

schedule are included as support documents.

By the time the lighting designer is hired, a pro-

duction schedule may range from being completely

frozen to being completely liquid. At one end of the

spectrum is the job where, once the lighting designer’s

been hired, he or she is provided with a rigid produc-

tion schedule and advised to adapt to that established

structure: “Nope, you only get 6 hours for focus.

That’s the way we’ve always done it.” At the other

extreme are “not yet decided” contracts, when the

lighting designer arrives on the scene, and the sched-

ule hasn’t been touched. The only “times of knowl-

edge” listed on the schedule may be the first day of

the load-in, and the date of the opening. After getting

the job, the lighting designer’s first order of business

may be to quickly help create a production schedule

on the fly in a hastily-called production meeting: “Hi,

you’re hired. What do we do?”