E-mail, the communication of the future

errr...and the communication of the now!  Email is a quick way to get in touch with someone to talk to them.  For my internship, though, email is how I communicate with my supervisor, directors, actors, and writers.  Without email, I would not be able to do my job because of the variety of people and schedules with which I'm working.  Even though email can be quickly worded and quickly sent, I take great care in how I word and send my emails.  I read them through at least three times so that I know exactly what I'm saying.  If I don't know what I'm saying, I don't expect the other person to know what I'm saying.  I follow a certain method when it comes to emailing a director about a show.  Because I am knew to the M.T. Pockets community, I do not know any of the people I am contacting.  The formula I use helps me establish a connection with them without taking a huge chunk out of their schedule.

1) The most important part of establishing communication is to email the right person.  Because I do not know the people I am writing, I need to know that the address I have is the correct one and not someone entirely unrelated to the theatre.  This first email contains who I am, who my supervisor is (as a point of contact for them to relate to), and what I am going to be emailing about.

2) The second email I send (after they have replied to mine) is the one where I ask the questions.  I preface it with a restatement of who I am and what my job is, and then I let them know when I would like their information back.  Then, I ask the questions.

3) The questions can range from the general to the very specific, depending on what Vickie has told me about the show already.  I try to find out before the first email what job the person holds in the production of the play, i.e. director, actor, choreographer, etc.  This helps me know what kinds of questions to ask.  I don't want to be asking a set-designer what choreography is necessary for a duel sequence!  The questions are specific to the person and pertain to the article I write.  I try not to ask unnecessary questions.  This saves them time, as well as lets them see that I can be to the point.

4) As soon as I have gotten a reply, I email the person letting him/her know when I will be done with the article and where they will be able to see it.  I also send them a link to the article once it has been published.  I want them to be proud of being in the newspaper for all the hard work they have done for the show!

This formula has worked two out of three times.  The one time it did not work is the time when the snow caused the power-outage and I had to submit the article without hearing back from the director.  Currently, I am awaiting a reply from the organizer of a fundraiser the theatre is putting on.  She, my supervisor, and the company of "Poe" traveled to the SETC competition this weekend.  She has not been able to reply because of workshops and performances she is attending.  For this reason, email is the best way to handle this interview.  Without email, I would have to further press her for time so that I could get my article written.

I emailed my supervisor letting her know that I would not have the article at the specific time due to the competition.  Because my supervisor is also there, the entire situation was resolved through email.

Because I want to go into editing and possibly branch-off into freelance, email will continue to be helpful to my job.  This internship has already helped me realize exactly what needs to happen to get effective responses to queries.