The Perfect book report

Blair computer technology teacher John Kaluta's book The Perfect Stage Crew, will be in bookstores soon. This 170 page "how to" book describes the process of theater construction.

In the spring of 2001 Kaluta took a break as stage crew sponsor. He wanted to tell his replacement everything he knew about the job. Kaluta started to write his replacement notes. After typing for a while, he found that even after 14 pages he still had much to say. Kaluta then decided to keep writing and turn the notes into a book.

When he had 45,000 words, he sent the manuscript to 10 publishers, getting a response from two within two weeks.

He wrapped up the book at 80,000 words, and then he began to deal with editors and designers.

After having the book sent back from the publisher countless times with revisions, he sent the final copy on New Years Day, 2003. The Perfect Stage Crew will be sold on Amazon.com and at conventions. The publisher, Allworth Press, also has the book on catalogue so that anyone can visit their site to purchase a copy.

"The concept is to open the book to any page and find valuable information. This book is for people who know what they're doing when it comes to construction but aren't familiar with theater construction," Kaluta explained.

Kaluta's publisher paid him a lump sum for the book itself and will pay him royalty for each book sold. If there is a significant number of books sold, Kaluta says that he will "get a substantial amount of money that, most likely, will pay for a few vacations."

Working with the illustrations was the most aggravating aspect for Kaluta. "Getting the right print took too much time and energy. The designer couldn't work with the black and white line art, although I put them in the right format. After going back and forth many times, the designers ended up being wrong the whole time. It was very unpleasant," Kaluta said.

Overall, Kaluta enjoyed this ordeal. "The book was fun to write," Kaluta remarked. "Blair stage crew kids will have fun reading it, but they might have pressure trying to live up to the image set by the book."