For Stage Managers
First Published: 2/14/21
I am a huge nerd….to no one’s surprise. I am always in search of new and exciting ways to use technology in my life and on the job.
I discovered Airtable via a targeted Instagram Ad (what does that say about my browser history?) several years ago and, as I was about to start a new show at the time, I began to experiment and have been using it ever since. A few people have asked me about it, so I thought I would share.
What is Airtable?
"Airtable is a platform for building collaborative applications. Integrate all your favorite apps and services.”
In essence, a fancy spreadsheet that is collaboration-friendly. More visually satisfying than Excel, with less coding, formulas, and formatting challenges. Great for database-style record-keeping without the steep learning curve of FileMaker. There are numerous existing templates and a whole community of creators who have provided their unique tables to Airtable's "universe" page.
How Do I Use It as a Stage Manager?
Record keeping! Record keeping! Record keeping!
I have found that it’s a great way to centralize information tracking that would otherwise end up in multiple spreadsheets and documents. On tour? Have a small office? Just generally want to decrease the amount of paper in your life? Input everything into Airtable, scan and attach the original paperwork as a back-up, and send the paper to the shredder/recycling bin. (...or, like me, hoard it for a year anyway which I do not recommend...but I get it).
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Company Info- Contact Info, Emergency Contacts, Allergies, etc.
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Lateness
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Injuries, Allergies, etc.
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Coverage- Which Understudies/Covers/Swings/Standbys Cover which roles/tracks.
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New Cast Onboarding Checklist
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Time Off Requests
It is, admittedly, most useful for a show with a long run or a resident company, but it really is a versatile program.
Let's walk through an example.
NOTE: This tutorial uses a copy of a base I created for a show with a long run. Names, Contact Information, character names, and Headshots are have been changed and replaced with stand-ins (I didn’t pay much attention to gender because who cares and it’s a fictional cast). The formating is exactly as it appears on the original workspace.
For the best experience with the embedded tables below, view this page on a DESKTOP BROWSER. Mobile devices may display the “mobile view” of the table, which, in my experience is fine and useful for viewing and light editing on the go, but is not my preferred way of editing large amounts of data, or for understanding the working of the program.
This is the Main table of the base, currently in "Info Cards" view. This lets me see info for each individual company member at a glance. A quick tap of the space bar when a card is selected opens additional details. It's pretty and easy to look at for quick reference, but it's not the best way to enter or edit information. For those purposes, let's take a look at my "Grouped by Department" view.
GROUPED BY DEPARTMENT
This is the table view I use for editing info or viewing the whole company at once. As you can see, I have fields for name, character, contact info, DOB, emergency contact, etc. The "Status" field toggles between several options. The ability to change the type of info in a field with a simple dropdown menu is one of Airtable's best features, in my opinion. Options include single select/multi-select dropdown menus, checkbox, attachments, etc. I use a column formatted for attachments to include a PDF of the handwritten info form I ask company members to fill out on the first day of rehearsal. I do the same for accident reports, which you will see in a later example.
Each company member's record (Referenced by their name) is linked to the other tables in my base. The whole workspace is inter-connected, which is what allows me to view a person's entire "history" (roles they understudy, how many times they've been late, when they are going on vacation, etc) by enlarging their record card in the first view I showed you.
We'll go through the rest of the tables next!
LATENESS
Here's the table for LATENESS. Not my favorite document and I wish I never had to use it, but it's part of the job, right? This feels pretty self-explanatory, given what we have already learned about the previous tables. Again, this is all linked to the company member's main record.
(I feel compelled to once again disclaim that these are fictional actor names)
It's easy enough to filter the table by date whenever you enter a new 6 month period and/or whatever timeline your company/employer/union agreement requires AND by Rehearsal/Performance.
ILLNESS/INJURY
Illness & Injuries- fairly self-explanatory. The "AEA Report" column is to make sure I don't forget to include it before I send the AEA form off each week. I attach a scan of the accident report, when applicable.
COVERAGE
Coverage- very useful when trying to plan understudy/standby rehearsals or for (*knock on wood*) the dreaded day you have to sit down and talk split-tracks or a modified show.
If your show has a complex coverage situation, you could add as many columns as necessary.
NEW CAST ONBOARDING
New Cast Onboarding - one of my favorite tables. Here, I use the GALLERY view feature to create a checklist to alleviate the "what am I forgetting?" moments when in the midst of putting new colleagues into the show.
TIME OFF REQUESTS
Time Off Requests- By tracking time-off requests at every step of the process, one can ensure that nothing slips through the cracks while waiting for approval.
SUMMARY OF DIETARY RESTRICTIONS & ALLERGIES
Pro Tip: Share this view with your wardrobe team (if detergent/fragrance sensitivities exist) and your Company Managers (for company meals, parties, etc)!
Other Useful Features
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Shared views/Custom Views
Say your wardrobe supervisor needs contact info for some newly hired actors ASAP and you haven’t had a moment to update the full contact sheet yet? No problem. Create a quick “New Cast” view by filtering the main view by “in rehearsal”, and use the share feature to text or email the link, and Boom, they have the info they need right to their iPhone in less than 5 minutes.
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Back-up
Periodically Export your Airtable Base to Excel and save it in a separate folder...just in case.
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Mobile Apps
for viewing info on the go
Not-so-useful Features
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Printing
Although it’s entirely possible and relatively simple to export an Airtable to PDF or Excel/Numbers, the formatting doesn’t always play nicely and I wouldn’t say it’s the best option if having aesthetically pleasing hardcopy paperwork is the goal. Airtable works best for record-keeping and/or viewing electronically.
This is very much a pro-paperless endeavor.
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Access & Understanding
Airtable is a bit of a niche program, and not everyone has the interest or willingness to give it a try. MS Office and Dropbox are still kings. BUT, if you can get your whole team on board, it's a really great way to centralize info and combine what would otherwise be several different shared documents.
So that's that! This is a “quick and dirty” overview.
Let me know if you want more detailed tutorials!
Want to build your own?
If you found this information useful and you would like to give Airtable a try, it would really help me out if you could sign up with my referral link. It won’t cost you anything (unless you choose to purchase a premium plan which is not required to take advantage of the vast majority of features), and it helps me to continue providing content.
Housekeeping:
All names in embedded tables are fictional and were obtained through an open-source “Random Name Generator.”
All similarities to real persons are coincidental and unintentional.
Photo Credits:
Stock photos c/o Pexels.com, used per license.
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