Capstone scenario brief — Les Misérables · St Joseph's Senior CollegeEasyStagecraft Tier 1A · Module 6 · the production you will plan, schedule, risk-assess, budget, and brief · the full constraint set is below · this is what your portfolio must address
How to use. Read this brief once carefully. Re-read it before each deliverable. Treat the dates, the budget, the venue, the cast, and the constraints as fixed — the Capstone evaluates your response to a real-feeling production scenario, not your ability to invent a different one. Where the brief says nothing, you choose — and your portfolio explains why.
You are the Production Manager at St Joseph's Senior College, a mid-size co-ed school of 720 students in Melbourne's outer east. The school has approved a production of Les Misérables (MTI School Edition) as the major Year-12 end-of-year show. You have 12 weeks from this brief to opening night. You must produce a complete portfolio (six deliverables) demonstrating you can run this production from initial brief to closing — within budget, within compliance, and without burning out the team.
The production
Title
Les Misérables (School Edition) · MTI Australasia licensed
Show category
Major musical — sung-through, large cast, pit band, technical complexity
Running time
Approx 2hr 30min including 20-min interval
Director
Ms L. Murray — Drama HOD, 4 years at school, has directed two prior musicals
Musical Director
Mr H. Chen — school's MD, leads the orchestra program
3 — FOH coordinator (A. Smith), costume hand (R. Patel), transport (L. Davies)
Venue + dates
Venue
St Joseph's Senior College Theatre — 200 fixed-seat proscenium house, 6m grid height, manual fly system (8 lines), single dock door, no resident lighting rig (school owns Source Four × 14, Mac Aura PXL × 6, school's own QL5 sound desk)
Bump-in window
Saturday 10 – Tuesday 13 October 2026 (4-day matrix)
Tech week
Monday 12 – Thursday 15 October (overlaps with last day of bump-in on Mon)
Dress rehearsals
Wed 14 + Thu 15 October evenings
Performances
Wed 14 evening (preview) · Thu 15 evening · Fri 16 evening · Sat 17 matinee · Sat 17 evening — 5 performances total
Bump-out
Sun 18 October (all-day) + Mon 19 morning
Curtain up
19:30 evening shows · 14:00 Sat matinee
The budget
Principal's approved cap
A$ 35,000 net deficit ceiling (gross spend can exceed this; net of all income must remain within A$35k or lower)
School subsidy committed
A$ 12,000 (drama dept budget allocation)
P&F contribution committed
A$ 5,000 (last year's fundraiser)
P&F backstop available
Up to A$ 5,000 additional if formal deficit overrun is unavoidable (must be requested)
Expected ticket revenue (75% capacity)
~A$ 24,000 (calculated in your P&L)
Key risks identified at brief
The flying-harness sequence
The director wants the lead character (Eponine, "On My Own") to perform a brief flying-harness moment for the death scene. Eponine is played by a 17-year-old Year-12 student. The student is keen. The director is committed to the choice. This is the single biggest WHS call in the production. Your risk register + SWMS pack must address whether this proceeds, under what controls, with which contractor, with what insurance, and with what parent + student consent process. The principal will read your treatment of this risk first.
The pyro gunshot in Act 1
Director would like a real pyro device for Inspector Javert's confrontation scene. The school does not employ a licensed pyrotechnician. Your default position (Module 1) is to substitute digital + strobe. Your portfolio must document the decision either way + the rationale.
Second-hand rented gear without an SM
Module 6 brief snapshot: "7 days to opening, 14 cast, 4 dance numbers, no SM, second-hand rented gear, budget A$8,500" was the Module-6 wake-up scenario. Your Capstone is the real-money scenario: full cast + crew + budget. But your portfolio's reflection (deliverable 6) must answer: if you arrived to find the SM had just resigned with 7 days to opening, what would change in your plan?
The six deliverables
Build each deliverable using the Module template referenced. Bundle into a single PDF + submit via the course portal.
1 · Risk register + SWMS pack (Module 1)
Minimum 12 hazards across the production lifecycle. Score uncontrolled + residual. Apply hierarchy-of-controls. Produce full SWMS for the 3 highest-residual hazards. Address the flying harness and pyro decisions explicitly.
2 · Full production schedule (Module 2)
12-week plan from this brief to opening + run + strike. Bump-in matrix at the day-by-day level. Tech-week run sheets. Pre-show timeline for opening night. Apply the 70% rule.
3 · Team + accountability framework (Module 3)
Org chart. Accountability matrix (RACI) adapted to this production's roles. SM delegation contract (signed-version-ready).
4 · Compliance pack (Module 4)
Seven-category assembly: WHS (linking to your SWMS), licensing tickets, insurance CoCs, material licensing (incl. streaming-rights position), image release, child safety / WWCC, records retention.
5 · P&L + pricing + principal brief (Module 5)
Full P&L within the A$35k cap. Ticket structure with break-even justification. 1-page principal brief using the four-element structure.
6 · Reflection + customised post-mortem template (Module 6)
One-page reflection (500-700 words) covering: what surprised you, hardest framework, contractor BS-line most ready to challenge, biggest change to your approach. Plus a post-mortem template customised to this scenario's specific reality. Include answer to the SM-resigned-7-days-out hypothetical above.
Reference data — assumed for the worked example
The Module-by-Module worked examples in this resource pack are all calibrated to THIS scenario. If you want to see specific numbers in worked form, refer to:
P&L worked example — M05/production-pnl-template.html
Bump-in matrix worked example — M02/bump-in-schedule-template.html
Run sheet worked example — M02/run-sheet-template.html
Principal brief worked example — M05/principal-briefing-template.html
You do NOT need to match these examples line-for-line — you may diverge with justification. The brief is the constraint; the response is yours.
Submission
Bundle all six deliverables into a single PDF (or zip of PDFs). Submit via the course portal. Assessor review: 5 business days. Pass-or-above triggers your Tier 1A Certificate of Completion + CPD hours documentation. See capstone-assessment-rubric.html in this pack for the scoring criteria.