Production schedule

The load-in, set-up, rehearsal, show and strike schedule for technical crews, usually spanning the day before to the day after.

How it works in practice

The production schedule is written for crews, not guests. It starts with the first truck at the dock and ends when the last case leaves. Each row has a time, a task, the crew responsible and the area they need: the dock, the freight elevator, the ballroom floor, the stage. It usually spans the day before to the day after, because larger shows load in overnight or strike the next morning.

The order matters. Rigging and overhead truss go first, before anything is on the floor. Then staging, then lighting focus, then sound, then decor and table setting, then rehearsals and sound check. Florals arrive late because they wilt. Doors open only after the room is clean.

Build in slack. In our experience, the first two hours of any load-in run late, and a 30-minute buffer before sound check is cheaper than a band still line-checking as guests walk in.

Worked numbers

A typical one-day schedule for a hotel ballroom gala:

How to handle it

1. Get the venue access time, dock window and curfew in writing first.
2. Collect every vendor’s required set-up and strike time, and every tech rider.
3. Sequence the trades so nobody is waiting on another crew.
4. Reconcile it with the BEO and the run of show.
5. Send it to every crew lead and the venue, and name one person who takes calls on the day.

Related tools

Use the run-of-show template with an extra tab for crews, and the vendor contact sheet so every crew lead’s mobile is on one page.