Shows Staff Shares Secrets of Shows

The staff that brings the wildly popular OA Shows to life each night at NOAC are sharing their knowledge with the next generation of showmen. At new training sessions they are conducting, experienced members of the OA Shows staff teach participants how to put on a quality show at their section conclave or lodge event. The session explains the ins and outs of the planning process and covered the most vital parts of a quality show.  Among these lessons are items such as ensuring that you can get all of the needed equipment while staying within budget constraints and ensuring recruitment of enough help to complete the show. The instructors then presented the participants with guidelines for planning a show and asked them to break into groups to plan the basics of a show on their own.  While they do not have to have a complete script, they were asked to produce a plan for carrying out a program.

In order to ensure that youth got as much as they possible from the class, participants were instructed to have no more than two youth in a break-out group, regardless of the class size. The groups all had the same theme, time restraint, and budget, but that is where the similarities stopped. One group might be given the resource of a script writer from the NOAC Theme Show script team, another might have a professional sound and lighting technician, or a ceremony team that has been practicing together for years.  It is the unknown element that pushes each team to understand that teams will not always have all of the resources needed, and must innovate in order to have a successful program. It is the understanding of this fact which distinguishes good leaders from great leaders, and the OA Shows staff is helping to ensure that the future leaders of our Order can inspire Arrowmen through their local shows.

Revised 8/5/2006