Working in any team requires all collaborators to be on the same page in order to move forward with a project efficiently. This week I am focusing on one of the most popular and widely accessible team collaboration tools on the internet: Google Drive. While this tutorial is specifically geared towards stage and production management for theatre, these methods I introduce can be adapted to any event or project management purpose.
I think it is important to choose tools that speak to the needs of the production and that resonate with the user. Google Drive is great because it gives users great flexibility when it comes to sharing and editing files, all while having a relatively simple interface. Google Drive is a great option for those who may not be so technologically incline, or who want their technology use to be straightforward, with no extra frills.
This tutorial will first show you how to set up a higher level organizational folder for sharing with an entire production team. If you are a stage manager, I would ask to see if your company already has a method for this, as most larger companies do. However, especially in college, I have been asked to set up entire team drives for the production or even the whole season, it all depends on the individual company. The second part of the tutorial shows you how I personally like to organize my stage management team within google drive. I set my folders up for myself, keeping in mind that they need to be accessible and easy to use for the entire production team.
setting up a team folder for your company…
So you have two options when creating a “database” for file sharing and collaboration in Google Drive. You can create a shared folder and give access to all collaborators on the production, which is something everyone is able to do on Google Drive. Your second option will be to create a Shared (formerly known as Team) Drive; this option is only available to individuals within a G Suite organization. If you are a student at a university who uses Google for their email service, or similarly you are at a large theatre company that does the same, you probably have access to Team Drives. The benefits of a Shared Drive are that if anyone leaves the Shared Drive, their contributions to the shared work will not be deleted and remain in the drive. The ability to delete files and folder in a Shared Drive is also only given to administrators. With shared folders, if someone loses access to the folder or their account gets deleted, all of the documents associated with that account will be deleted from the folder. Contributors to shared folders also have the ability to delete folders and files within that folder, which could lead to problems when working as a team. If you have access to Shared Drives, I would definitely use them for this purpose; if you don’t, no worries, you will still be able to use a shared folder in almost exactly the same way (just make sure you don’t delete anyone after it’s been created).
In order to create a new shared folder, you’ll need to be logged into Google Drive. From the main screen, you can click the drop-down menu under “New” in the upper left hand corner, and select “Folder” to create a shared folder, or “Shared Drive” if you choose this option. I personally don’t like to share the folder right away, as I want to have everything all set up before I send people access.
The next step I take is to create a separate folder for each department on the production. So at the very basic level, you’ll have a folder for “Lighting”, “Sound”, “Scenic & Props”, and “Costumes”. If you’re doing a musical you may add a folder for the music director and the choreographer. I personally like to have my folders numbered in the order of the rehearsal report (the order doesn’t really matter, I just like the uniformity). I also like to color-code them, although I’m pretty sure I’m the only user that can see the color coding, so it’s purely for aesthetic purposes only. The photo above shows what the list of shared folders look like when I’m done.
These folders I create so that my collaborators have a place to keep their work and share it with others; I won’t do any further editing after I create them and I’ll only interact with these folders if I’m looking for something like ground plans or a costume piece list. These folders are mainly for the designers’ and directors’ use. This is also the point where I feel comfortable sharing the folder with my collaborators; I like to include a short message for how to use the folder and encourage them to upload their content to the folder labeled with their department. If everyone contributes to this folder, it will make finding necessary paperwork easier for everyone, and reduce the amount of emails sent back and forth to try and find a specific list or chart.
setting up your stage management folder…
Once you’ve set up the higher level team organization, you can move on to organizing your stage management folder. I like to break down my folder into as many sub-categories as I can, starting with a folder for prep week and adding in all relevant categories to help make all paperwork accessible to both my team as well as designers and directors. Using properly labeled folders, even if there are only one or two documents in each, is a lot more efficient for finding paperwork than sifting through one folder with everything in it. You can see how I like to organize the stage management folder in the picture below.
I also like to number these folders to keep them in order of most relevant as opposed to alphabetical order or most recent. The best part about using labeled folders is that it is easy to guess what goes in each. Prep work includes all the paperwork I created during my prep week, including breakdowns, preliminary lists, and a copy of the ground plan with plot points. The rehearsal, performance, production meeting reports folders along with the daily call folders all have pre-made copies of each report (yes, for every single day) as well as a template copy just in case.
The rest of the folders will contain any piece of paperwork related to that folder, so a working props list in the props folder, a quick change list in the costumes folder, and my shift plot will live in the tech folder. I keep an archive folder for all of the outdated versions of paperwork so they don’t clutter out the updated versions (it’s all about efficiency!).
The folder that needs special attention is the Contact Info folder, because this is the folder that will contain confidential information, but if you remember, we shared this Google Drive folder with the entire design and production team. Things contained in the Contact Info folder will include the contact sheet, emergency contact information, medical and allergy info, and anything else that may pertain to your individual project. Some of this stuff needs to be shared with the entire production team, such as the company contact sheet, but a lot of it needs to stay confidential to the stage and company management teams. Lucky for us, Google Drive allows us to edit sharing privileges for folders within a shared folder. The way I handle this is by creating a sub-folder labeled “Confidential” and I use the sharing button in the upper right hand corner to edit who is able to view the contents of this folder (shown below).
TIP: I usually send out a Google Form to collect contact information (discussed more below), and on that form, I have a question where individuals can elect NOT to have their contact info displayed on the company contact sheet. I then create two versions of the contact sheet, one for my team, and the other I share with the whole design and production team. I put my version in the confidential folder.
keep and edit your stage management paperwork in google drive…
Using Google Drive to store and edit your stage management paperwork has become easier since Google Drive added a feature that allows users to edit Microsoft Office files within Google Drive. Now you can upload your templates and edit them in Google Drive instead of having to constantly upload new versions to the drive. I like to upload my rehearsal report, daily call, performance report, and production meeting report templates to their respective folders and then create a copy for every single rehearsal, performance, and production meeting that will happen throughout the process. I fill in the appropriate dates so that each report is ready for me to edit within Google Drive. Since the templates are already in Google Drive, I can have one of my assistants working on rehearsal notes or scheduling during rehearsal, and then I can pull it up on my computer to make the final edits and send it out. Having a copy pre-made for every report and daily call not only streamlines my stage management process, but it also prevents me from sending out the wrong report, which happened a few times when I was just duplicating documents or editing the same document and sending it out.
Another feature of Google Drive that helps to streamline my process is their Forms. I use a Google Form to collect contact information, emergency contact information, medical & allergy information, as well as rehearsal conflicts from everyone I’m working with. Google Forms allows me to funnel all of that information in to a single spreadsheet which I can use to create my contact sheet, my emergency/medical info sheet, my conflicts calendar, and anything else that my production may need. Google Forms is user friendly and it looks professionally made, so it’s really good for making professional first impressions while doing your pre-production work.
Possibly one of the most important features of Google Drive for stage managers is it’s ability for simultaneous editing! Editing a document or spreadsheet in real time with multiple collaborators has been a game changer for stage managers everywhere. Instead of having to handwrite notes on separate documents, and combine all the changes into a completely new document, we can make direct changes as they happen in the rehearsal room. I love using this feature when working on quick change plots and shift plots during show runs because I can be making edits simultaneously with another stage manager, ensuring that every detail is marked down in the most accurate way possible. For simultaneous editing to happen, you simply need open the document on each of your computers, and Google Drive will make it happen!