This week's minutes: The Laramie Project

It went up. We raised a lot of money. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500 going to BAGLY.
Happy with how the show went and attendance.
The 4-Week Process: It *happened.* Touch and go at the end. Made it happen.
For future first-slot shows, emphasize the time restraint and logistics of putting up a show in four weeks.
Without Evan and the absurdly dedicated cast, this wouldn't have gone up.
Snow days didn't affect us too much due to aforementioned dedication.
Biggest issues are getting off book - you need a certain amount of time to get reliably off-book so real "directing" can happen.
For future boards: do not recommend this level of difficulty on a future director. Consider doing a staged reading first; no requirement that charity show has to be first. This option can be excised next year (Spring 2016).
Evan: thinks the show is a fantastic learning and growing experience as a director. Thought he knew how to deal with a time crunch before - was "kind of right," but this was still *different.* Feel confident in being able to handle anything Mother Nature tries to throw at us.
Eternally grateful to Aryeh for opportunity. Consider taking assistants to train up in the future.
Big virtue of "the assistant director:" gives you an idea of what being a director "is like." Time, scheduling, trials of getting off-book. One Acts is a great entry point -- but it's a major jump to a main stage.
Directors looking for assistant directors: be careful in choosing your assistant. Make sure it's the right person. Be absolutely confident.
Things we learned: An AD is not an SM. Marisa had a fantastic time despite the short process. Maybe consider assigning an SM or ASM that aren't on tech show. (Major conflict.) Channels of communication: the SM needs to be kept in the loop.
Keys: who should the stage manager give the keys to if they are unavailable to open the theater? // Ultimately, up to the discretion of the SM. Director, ASM, AD, whoever you trust.
Marissa returned keys to Eli.
Establishing roles (heads of production, specifically). Everyone works differently, every team works differently - set clear expectations on how you want things to go. Worked well for Laramie.
Floating keys can be problematic -- getting contacted by third parties to open spaces. We need a better system to protect people holding keys. (Generally, only eboard members with keys should be being contacted.)
Strike notes sent to Camille.
We should be communicating with the charitable organization before the show goes up - we shouldn't just send them a check unannounced. We can establish a partnership and fill seats.
People can be generous when it comes to charity shows.
Cilicia had a wonderful experience. Chalk board is still in the theater - needs to be returned to owner.
Keys returned to Camille.
Producing went well despite short process. Final ticket sales were $1,182. $100 in donation box. Sold out Saturday, near sold out Friday.
Having a local charity is nice because you can reach out to them and establish partnerships. Locals more likely to care.
We need a new vacuum desperately - it barely works.
The cabinet display case outside is frozen shut.
OOShirts is an unreliable vendor. Don't use them again.
Major issues with speakers during tech week. Eli has contacted people to try and fix them. The amps are going to need to be replaced. The amp is ours - we would have to replace it ourselves.
Debra will mercifully and gratefully take the lead on this.

Angels in America

Lots of progress in the room.
We open in 2 weeks (HAHAHAHA). Think we're in an okay place.
Actors are great on lines.
Ryan Chernin will be guest directing Monday of tech week.
Will need to figure out when to move-in.
Light meeting sent up for next Wednesday. Volunteers happy to help. Ilana will be doing sound (yay!) (That sounds nice!)
For future staged reading: many people did not know what they were signing up for. Some confusion over that amongst the actors.
Expectations and commitments need to be made clear to auditioning actors at the time of the next staged reading.
Shirts are made - deadline extended a little. Poster photos are hopefully being taken Tuesday, barring objections from OB, who has the theater.
No producing budgets - imploring help from people with high print quotas.
Head shots are happening.
Reaching out to similar groups that Kimball reached out to for Laramie - similar themes and interest areas.
DHD will be getting emails from Laramie and reaching out to them for promotion.

Hail Satan!

Line issues with some cast members. Hard off book was close but wasn't quite there.
Some people during soft off book period had scripts in-hand.
Need the EventBrite link to complete our BUS ad submission. Consider using a QR code?
Show is in a good place.
Absolutely zero excuses after Spring Break.
Mandatory meetings with SMs?
Use rehearsal time for mandatory line learning?
Things are coming together! Getting desks tomorrow, Home Depot Thursday.
All other departments are moving along. Only thing that is concerning is the blood sacrifice on top of Idine.
Need to practice with the knife.
Carpet is happening! Backup plan if it doesn't come fireproofed.
Spring break is being a demon, people assume they have more time than they do.
T-shirt design is finalized.
Photo shoot happened today.
One-sheet programs are happening.
Programs were not dismissed lightly. Producing budgets did not allow for both that and advertising.
Katy Taylor as Head Set Dec: Do we want a board for the theater - a changeable directory. Needs about $50 more.

Private Lives

Blocked Act 1 and 2. Soft off book. Hard off book this week, along with blocking Act 3.
Actors need to be talking to Alison when they will be late or have conflicts.
Department meetings are done! PO deadline is set. Production photo days set. Frustration exists - so much stuff.
We have a shirt design in the works - nearly done. Tentative production shot date. One page programs are looking likely due to money.
Eli had a great idea for the posters, just need an artist.
Warren posters are still available. Eli wants one for Private Lives.

Abi

Has been sick. Feel better!

Eli

Fun primer in theater maintenance. Speaker problems happened. They technically work right now. For future reference: call 617-353-HELP for these sort of problems.
OR NOT. We need to buy new speakers, basically.
The current setup is unnecessarily complicated. The volume is perpetually set way too high. Cause of the hissing noise.
We need an official eboard policy on the theater sound system. Debra can help. Praise Debra. Hail Debra.
Received link tables for Hail Satan!, Angels, and Private Lives.
The theater was too hot. Facilities fixed it the second time Eli called.
Keep in mind no rooms can be booked before 7 PM on Saturday makeup class days.
New policy may need to be instated about "due dates" for room requests. Stay tuned.

Celia

All pitches are picked up! 4 main stage pitches (reading committee emails going out tonight), 1 parents weekend pitch, quite a few one act pitches!
When are we doing One Acts auditions? During Angels tech week so that One Acts can have as much time as possible.
Eli and Celia need to have a meeting about BUSTies stuff - specifically event location.
BUSTies host pitches tonight!
When is reading committee? March 15th (one week before GM).

Joe

Sarah returns keys to Joe
Raised over $4000 for The Laramie Project; BAGLY is surprised we're donating stuff to them?
Only went to SAO once -- filled out PO for Hail Satan! wood
Karen will be restocking part of the makeup kit!
Brushes came in, reimbursement will be distributed once Joe gets receipt
One Acts Producers will happen eventually!

Kyle

Tweets and Instagrams went well. Get photos as soon as possible, even if they aren't official production photos.
Members -- keep favoriting and retweeting, it gets the attention of major BU tweets.

Camille

Lights are back in The Space!
Need to send that email to Liquid Fun (if it didn't already go out? Huh?)

Eric

Schedule for 2015-16 is in and "done."
Apologies for the heat in the meeting space.
Meeting with Joe tomorrow about Parents Weekend budget.
When are we meeting again - March 15th, Sunday after Spring Break.