ABSTRACT
Hold on to your hats, it is time for action! The day has come for you and the shop to commence your production’s build. How exciting! If you have done a good job in preproduction, then this time will be smooth sailing. The TD will still have plenty of work to do during the build, but this is where all of your earlier hard work and planning will pay dividends. You now have to manage the efforts of the many while communicating your shop’s needs and progress with the rest of the production team and other shops. Tracking expenditures, labor, and build progress become your main concerns, along with making sure that your shop has everything that it needs to function at top efficiency. Remember that all this is happening as part of your TD juggling act. Most TDs will be managing this build while in preproduction for the next show and in design meetings for the one after that, all the while managing the run of another on stage. The progress in the shop is exciting, and watching the design team’s vision come alive is magical, but we have to be able to keep our eyes on all of the other moving targets and not get caught up in this highly enrapturing portion of the production process.
