Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Orginization?

These were at a small theater company I visited and my head hurt to see the "orginization" there... This is what happens when you leave things to unsupervised volunteers... Here is a sample of the problem;


Take a good look at the boxes above... Let me take a moment to explain exactly what is wrong with this;

"Cumberbunds + Suspenders"
1. It's spelled Cummerbund
2. The box also contains Sashes
3. Cummerbunds and suspenders do not serve the same function and are not used in the same outfits (the suspenders that are hard to get to amongst the Cummerbunds are going to be used much more frequently)
--Solution--
Put the suspenders in their own box, cummerbunds and sashes are ok to mingle

"Teddies, slips, bras+ tops/ Bum rolls pads, etc"
--ok this is an everything box full of things that you don't have a lot of, you are forgiven, although a box of slips alone would be useful.

"Goggles + knee pads"
1. Eew
2. actors also say "EWW"
3. anyone who has worn knee pads while working hard can tell you why this is bad. Imagine a lot of sweat, imagine crawling on the floor... now put those sweaty dirty things in a plastic bin to stew with things that go on your face... even if you had washed the knee pads before putting them in this box (which you clearly did not) it's not sanitary,
--Solution--
Put knee pads and elbow pads in their own box, and always CLEAN them before storing them.
Keep Goggles with sunglasses

"Ties + Scarves"
1. So you're putting together a nice suit for your leading man, all you need to complete that outfit is the perfect... scarf? Really?
--Solution--
Use your head, think about what you'll be needing when you reach for a tie, what it will be going with. The only thing that would be ok to have with your ties might be bow ties... although in fact I find that putting ties in a box just leaves you with a nasty tangle of ties that take forever to look through.
Hang your ties, box your scarves, ne'er the two shall twain.

--This has been a public service, thank you--

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Some shop!

I must take a moment to pat myself on the back... my shop is getting to be so organized! This week I finished measuring and tagging all of the blazers...

and the suits...

I separated and labeled the sweaters, the pants, the knit tops...

I made sure the shoes were all on the correct shelves (A Sisyphean task at best)...

Why is all of this super anal work important you ask? Mostly because when you're pulling for a show time is not on your side. If a designer needs to dig through 50 pairs of black pants to see if she can find one pair that will fit an actor, it is actually more time efficient to go to the store and buy a pair that say "38x32" on the tag... then the next designer has 51 pairs of black pants to ignore because none of them are labeled. Pretty soon you have essentially a stock that is a big laundry heap where nothing is useful because nothing can be found. A disorganized stock is about as useful as no stock at all. Thus; I'm pretty pleased with my efforts.