Don’t you sometimes wish you had your own personal assistant to tell you where to be and when? Well, we kind of have that during the summer at Glimmerglass Opera. We have a lot going on, and for all of it we have a schedule that tells everyone where to be and when. A lot of work goes into preparing this schedule, or what we refer to as the master calendar. The master calendar is just that – the master of all schedules. If it’s not on the master calendar, chances are it’s not happening. Everything from off-site rehearsals to recitals, onstage rehearsals and the Guild Eat & Greet event is on this calendar. It’s the who, what, when, why and where of Glimmerglass Opera’s summer.
When creating this calendar, the staff needs to schedule rehearsals for all four shows, assuring they don’t schedule one person to be in two places at once. Coachings for the Young American Artists are also scheduled, along with each of their recitals. The schedule also considers meal times for the Young American Artists. Load-ins and load-outs of scenery and lighting focuses are included. It even provides the music staff with the schedule of who is doing which pre-opera talk.
From this master, the seasonal scheduling manager creates daily schedules: rehearsals, where, for how long, who’s in them, etc. These are posted around campus, sent out via e-mail and recorded onto our scheduling hotline. There is no excuse for not knowing where you are supposed to be during the summer.
Creating the master calendar is a harrowing, time-consuming project. The production and artistic departments are in the editing phases now.
