Published September 23, 2026 · EasyStagecraft

You Have Just Been Given the School Theatre. Here Is What to Do First.

Running a school theatre for the first time means your first ninety days are not about producing shows — they are about understanding what you have inherited. Start with safety and emergency procedures, then work outward to equipment, competencies, records, and the calendar. Everything else can wait.

Nobody volunteers for this role. It usually lands on you because you directed last year's musical, or because the previous coordinator left mid-term, or because the principal needed someone with a key. You are now responsible for a workplace that contains flying scenery, high-voltage dimmer racks, scaffold towers, and sometimes a few hundred audience members. That is not meant to frighten you — theatres are managed safely every day by people who learned on the job. But the learning needs to happen in the right order.

Week One: Safety and Emergency Procedures First

Before you touch a single lantern or open a single cupboard, find out what happens when something goes wrong.

• Locate the emergency exits and evacuation assembly point. Walk every exit route, including backstage ones that audiences never use. Note which doors are kept locked during shows and whether that is actually permitted under your state's building code.
• Find the first-aid kit, defibrillator, and the closest trained first-aider. Confirm who that person is during evening rehearsals, not just during school hours.
• Read the venue's emergency evacuation plan. If one does not exist in writing, flag it immediately to your principal and your WHS coordinator — this is a legal requirement under Safe Work Australia's model WHS legislation, adopted in all states and territories.
• Locate the electrical switchboard and the main isolator. Know how to kill power to the stage without needing to call someone.
• Check the fire extinguisher service tags. They should be inspected every six months. If the last tag is more than six months old, log it as a defect straight away.

Do a proper walk-through of the entire venue — understage, fly tower if you have one, control booth, storage rooms — and note every hazard you observe. A structured performing arts centre safety audit gives you a proven checklist format for this so you do not have to invent one from scratch.

Week Two: What Equipment Exists and What Condition Is It In

Your second priority is an equipment audit. You are not trying to become a rigger or an electrician overnight — you are trying to know what you have, what is current, and what is broken or overdue for service.

Electrical Equipment

Every portable electrical appliance used in the theatre — leads, practicals, portable dimmers, power boards — must be tested and tagged under AS/NZS 3760. Check every tag date. In school and entertainment environments, most items are on a twelve-month cycle. Anything untagged or overdue comes off stage until it is tested. See the detailed requirements at Test and Tag Requirements for Theatre Equipment in Australia.

Rigging and Flying Systems

If the venue has a fly tower or a counterweight system, do not touch it until you know its last inspection date and who is competent to operate it. Under state WHS regulations, flying systems require regular formal inspection — typically annual for the system itself, with operator competency checks on top of that. The fly system inspection schedule guide explains what must be checked and how often. If you cannot find a recent inspection record, treat the system as out of service and tell your principal why.

Lighting, Sound, and AV

Walk the rig with a torch. Note which lanterns are working, which are missing lamps, which have damaged cables. Check that the patch bay or dimmer rack is labelled and that someone on staff actually understands it. If reading a lighting plot feels foreign to you right now, that is fine — start with how to read a lighting plot and you will be across the basics within an hour.

Build a Quick Asset Register

A simple spreadsheet with item name, quantity, location, condition (Good / Fair / Needs Repair / Out of Service), and last service date is enough for now. You are not writing a theatre manual — you are getting a picture.

Week Three: Who Is Competent to Do What

The single most dangerous thing a new theatre coordinator can do is assume that because something has always been done a certain way, it is being done safely. Find out who has actually been operating the fly system, rigging overhead lighting, and running electrical connections — and whether they have any formal competency or training behind them.

• Ask to see any training records, certificates, or evidence of prior instruction.
• Identify which tasks legally require a licensed or competent person in your state — rigging and working at height are the most common.
• Do not let students work at height. This is a non-negotiable under Safe Work Australia guidance, and your school's duty of care makes it doubly clear.
• If you are bringing in casual or parent crew for a production, they need a formal induction before they touch anything — a structured theatre induction checklist for casual and volunteer crew will cover what that induction must include.

If you are the person who needs to upskill — and most new coordinators are — EasyStagecraft's venue management course gives you a structured path through the competency areas that matter most in an Australian school context, without assuming you already have a production management background.

Week Four: What Records Exist

Look for the following documents. If they do not exist, you now know what you need to create before the next production.

For ongoing risk documentation, EasyRisk — EasyStagecraft's risk assessment tool built for school productions — lets you generate compliant, site-specific risk assessments without starting from a blank page every time.

By the End of Month Two: The Calendar

Once safety and documentation are under control, pull together a venue calendar for the full year. Talk to every department that uses the space — drama, music, dance, community hirers, sports presentations, examinations. Conflicts discovered in week two of rehearsals cost everyone dearly. A production schedule template helps you map backwards from show dates to bump-in, tech rehearsal, and first rehearsal with full crew — see the production schedule template for school plays for a working format.

What to Stop Worrying About Right Now

You do not need to have the perfect lighting rig, a fully stocked costume store, or a state-of-the-art sound system in your first term. You do not need to know how to operate every piece of equipment before the next show. What you need is to know what you have, confirm it is safe to use, identify who can operate it competently, and document enough that if you step away tomorrow, someone else can pick it up without putting a student at risk.

The rest — the craft, the creativity, the extraordinary shows — follows from that foundation. Get the foundation right first.