American Folklore Theatre: The professional, positive aspects of e-networking
August 31, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
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As we begin the transition at American Folklore Theatre from our outdoor summer season to our indoor fall season, and I begin my own transition from being fully in Door County to mostly in Texas, I’m often asked how it works to do my job long-distance.
The truth is, with ever-changing technology, it works better and better. Computer — critical. Email — essential. Mobile — a must-have. Instant messaging — indispensable.
Now the big question for me is (and I’m not joking) — Should I become a full-fledged user of Facebook? I say “full-fledged” because I did set up a shadow account (username shall remain undisclosed) about a year ago in order to receive an audition video from a prospective hire. I have exactly one “friend,” and I keep getting notices that I haven’t visited my “wall” in awhile.
But the honest truth is that I’m starting to see how fundamental Facebook has become as a networking tool. In the same way that I eventually convinced myself to get a cell phone, while still decrying its vices, I see my Facebook future before me.
My long-distance job this past winter included hiring more people for the season than I’ve ever had to before. We had decided to do a rather ambitious season with, for us, some unusually large needs for personnel.
The selection of “The Spitfire Grill” for our fall season particularly compounded this need. We are accustomed to scaling back in the fall with a severe reduction in artistic staff and a smaller-scale production than what we tackle in the park. But we were determined to showcase “Spitfire” in its 10th anniversary as part of our “Limitless Legacy of Fred Alley” celebration. Coupling this show in the fall with another of Fred’s works, “Guys on Ice,” resulted in quadrupling our usual fall footprint in terms of personnel.
I wasn’t altogether sure how this was to be accomplished in the offseason. I purposely used the passive tense to ponder this challenge because, from the time we decided to do “Spitfire” to the actual prospect of having to make it happen, I had donned a cloak of denial. I think I had the experience of 2002, when we last presented “Spitfire,” still in my cellular memory. Even though Skylight Opera, who was a co-presenter with us, handled that production’s main elements, I remember how difficult it was to get certain things in place, again long-distance. But of course that was before almighty Facebook had arrived.
