Being in the "biz" of theatre - or, for that matter, any aspect of the entertainment industry, means that you get to work with a lot of fabulous people. The up side to that is all the different people you get to know, learn from, create art with - even if you don't love or even like all of them. The down side is that you are constantly saying "good bye" to some one, either as folks move on, a season ends, a tech wraps up, or a show closes.

While this is something I have often thought about - and have reflected on in previous posts - it's very much in mind as my season comes to a close, and both seasonal folks move on, as well as other full time colleagues have decided the time to move on is at hand.

From a personal and emotional experience - the extreme sides of changing faces are being torn up every time someone you work with and grow to like moves on to the next thing in their life and career. The opposite is not invest in coworkers from the start, or shutting out memories - forgetting the names and faces as soon as the door closes. I hate to say at one time or another, I have been both of these extremes, and I would much prefer to be somewhere in the middle - where I can miss people who I've enjoyed, remember people who I didn't necessarily enjoy, but not be broken up or, alternately, cold, and reintroducing myself to people when next we meet as if we've never crossed paths before.

I've worked places where the majority of the resident staff had been in the building for years, and only a small number of folks came in and out. I've also worked for summer stock or seasonal companies, where every season or summer is different and goodbye happens at a set time. Most of the places I've worked have been somewhere between that, with some long time staff member and a mix of new people, or... newer people.

The professional side of changing faces - requires being able and ready to adapt to a changing work environment. When a staff position changes, even if the new person has a skill set very similar to the person who left - they will, of course, have their own individual approach to a problem, project, task, or even meeting environment. While some of the "duty" expectations are going to be the same, expecting the new person to react or replace their predecessor is unfair and unrealistic. This is the same for both colleagues or your own employees.

In terms of employees, I've had several engineers, and have had 5 interns over the past 4 years, and each of them has had entirely different back grounds, skill sets, expectations, strengths, and goals. While I've always recognized that, I wonder more I could have done to help expand strengths and meet goals.

So how do you deal with new staff, new coworkers? What is best part of working with new people? What's the hardest?

Until next time cats and kittens,

Cheers,

~R