Policies

1. Pianos and Keyboards

• Nothing is to be placed on the pianos except the appropriate covers. Never keep coffee or any liquids around the piano.

• Only faculty and staff may move and reposition the pianos.

TWU Division of Music faculty & staff, if you need to move a piano to a different position on stage, follow these procedures:

• • Place the music stand in the down position.

  • Close the lid completely.

  • Lower the keyboard cover.

  • Unlock the piano wheels.

  • Push on the body of the piano, not the lid.

  • Watch out for corners and curtains when storing it away.

  • Preparing the piano is not allowed without written authorization from the Director of Piano Studies.

  • The Margo Jones Performance Hall has an upright piano and an organ available. Get in touch with the Organ faculty for more information.

2. Conduct

• When moving chairs and stands, please pick them up rather than dragging across the stage.

• Always apply caution moving anything on stage. Watch out for corners and take good care of the floor.

• Do not climb over chairs or audience seats.

• Do not place feet on chairs.

• No bare feet on stage. If there is an event with bare feet (such as dance) included, a proper Marley floor is required.

3. Housekeeping

• At the end of an event, all extra items and equipment must be removed or discarded by the participant group.

• As a courtesy to others, brass players should wipe their own instrument's condensation on the floor. 

• Each group is responsible for the general cleaning and upkeep of the space, this includes but is not limited to disposing of trash, clearing out the spaces, picking up any clothing left on stage or seating areas, returning all equipment and items. Items that are left behind may incur a disposal charge billed directly to the group holding the space reservation.

• Facilities only oversees the major maintenance and custodial needs of the space.

1. The following times are the official house opening times:

   • Ensemble Concerts: Doors opens 30 minutes prior to the event. For large ensemble concerts, ensemble members may remain on stage, as is standard practice.

   • Recitals:
     Faculty, Guest Artist, Student and Studio Recitals: Doors open 20 minutes prior to the event.

2. The Green Room is available for recitals. However, use of the Green Room is not automatic and requires a request for use. This request can be made at least two weeks in advance along with your technical request. The performer is responsible for cleaning up after themselves.

3. Dressing Rooms are available only for guest artists and external clients.

4. Any performance that requires performers or equipment to be in the audience area requires approval from the Technical Director to ensure compliance with ADA regulations, fire code, and address performer and audience safety concerns.

5. Use of technical equipment (such as announce microphones or projector) must be requested along your technical request form, 2-weeks in advance.

6. Make sure to communicate with the MJPH assigned student staff about your stage needs. Be aware that due to limited availability, you may have to provide additional help with stage changes and moving of stands/chairs.

7. Performers must secure a page-turner if needed. The staff will not turn pages.

8. The Technical Director may decline requests that are too extravagant or where enough time is not provided.

1. Anything that might damage the stage or the curtains is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to paint, glitter, and liquids of any kind.

2. Impeding the doors or locks to keep them from locking is not allowed. This includes but is not limited to taping the push bar, inserting paper or cardboard in the strike-plate hole, etc. 

3. All load-ins must be made from the loading dock entrance located on Research Circle off of Oakland St. Make sure that any permitted set pieces will fit through the double doors.

4. Screwing or nailing anything into the stage floor, walls or ceiling is not allowed. 

5. Only Gaffer’s tape, double stick carpet tape, vinyl spike tape and glow tape are permitted on the floors and walls of the theater. No other type of tape or fastener is allowed on the floors or the walls of the theater. 

6. No tape, push-pins, nails or fasteners of any type are allowed on the floors or walls of the Green room, dressing rooms, lavatories, control booth or storage areas.

7. Painting is not allowed.

8. Power tools are not allowed.

9. Sticky liquids are not allowed.

10. Water-based fog machines (hazers) may be allowed only after a test run and approval from the Technical Director. Damaged and/or leaking equipment of any kind is not allowed on stage.

11. Any refocusing of lights will incur additional charges. The equipment must be reset to its original position after the event is over.

12. Personal items such as speakers, cell phones, laptops, etc. should not be left unattended in the venue.  

13. MJPH staff is not responsible for any personal items left unattended in the hall, its dressing rooms, lobby or its storage facility.

1. Open flames, torches, candles, smoke generation machines, etc., are not allowed under any circumstances.

2. Explosives, flash powder firearms, etc. are not allowed.

3. Smoking and the lighting of smoking materials by performers are not allowed.

4. Confetti, balloons, or other materials may not be released within the theater space during a rehearsal or a performance.

5. Nothing is to be hung from the sprinkler pipes or equipment.

6. Fire extinguishers, strobe lights, fire alarm pull stations, exit signs, fire sprinklers and egress paths must be visible at all times; they may not be obstructed or covered in any way.

7. Any prop, set or scenery pieces, not already in the props inventory, must be flame retardant certified. Proof of certification must be provided to the Technical Director prior to load-in. 

8. To ensure compliance, the Department of Risk Management may inspect all your items. If proof cannot be provided, we will not allow your show to proceed until the problem has been resolved.

9. Performers and stage crew must always keep clear of the marked fire curtain lines on stage.

10. All aisles must be kept clear and unobstructed.

11. Our rigging system and equipment undergoes yearly certified inspection. Next inspection is due on 8/1/2023.

12. 3-phase camlock power distribution is available from the electrical panel downstage. Colors follow American convention: Green-Ground, White-Neutral, Black-Ø 1, Red-Ø 2, Blue-Ø 3.

Performer retains all intellectual property rights in their performance, but provides to TWU a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual right and license to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display the performance and Performer’s name, likeness, voice, and identity, in whole or in part, in any medium now known or hereinafter developed, for TWU’s educational purposes, and to use such licensed rights to advertise and market TWU and its educational services.

Our policies to use those recordings are divided up between ensemble recordings, and recital/session recordings.

1. TWU Ensemble Recordings

• If any clips are posted on the official YouTube channel, or any other official account, they must pass through a set of approvals and permissions. For example, ensemble directors approve, and any participating guest artists must approve with a release form given prior to the performance. Always ask prior to posting ensemble concert footage or you run the risk of takedowns.

• Downloads of a TWU ensemble performance gives you the license to keep and watch the recording for personal use, but not to redistribute the recording publicly.

2. Recital Recording

• If you are the primary musician in the recital, you have permission to post and distribute your recital recording, audio and video, as you wish. We advise you to follow all musical copyrights and artist permissions before posting recordings. Please keep in mind that musical copyrights for publicly posting or distributing recordings are not covered by the university.

The concert classification below determines if the event will be scheduled for recording. Otherwise, a request and payment for recording must be made.

Recorded Concert Classifications (free of charge)

• Degree

• Ensemble

• Faculty

Not Covered Classifications (paid services)

• Guest Artists (must sign release form)

• Non-Degree

• Other

After confirming MJPH staff availability, request a recording for your event by checking the recording checkbox in the Submit Request page. If the event is not paid within 2 weeks ahead of the event, the recording is cancelled. Cancelling or no-show under 2 weeks will forfeit any payments.

Video recording and streaming to YouTube is available for the following classifications:

• Ensemble (Multi-cam and streaming: free of charge)

• Faculty (Multi-cam and streaming: free of charge)

• All Other (Single-cam: free of charge. Multi-cam: paid service. Streaming: paid service)

Please confirm with the technical director ahead of your concert. By default, after the stream is over the video link is set as "private" and will not appear publicly on the TWU YouTube channel.

It is always allowed running your personal recorders in the hall to capture your recital, both for redundancy and practice for the future. Care must be taken that you place the equipment in a discreet location so that it is not too distracting for the audience.

Turnaround time for archiving regular concerts is within the week or less. You will receive an email when the recording is available. 

• Recitals and ensemble events are made available for download through your unlimited TWU Drive account. Folder links will be shared directly with the performers involved. You can access the files with your TWU email login and password. The login is required for keeping usage limited to academic use for copyrighted musical works, and as a division policy. If you want to share the concert with others, you must download the files and re-upload to your preferred storage service.

• Ensemble and faculty performances may be posted on YouTube publicly after a copyright review for the musical work, and approval from the ensemble director for performance quality.