Author Topic: Opinions on Producers  (Read 12049 times)

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Ladytatooine

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hehehhehehe!
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2006, 11:22 am »
Great suggestion! :) Although I think it's just a learning experience. I have learned to what level I will accept the treatment that others give me as a Stage Manager, and I know where I will not work at again.

erin

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Re: Fired
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2006, 01:07 am »
Quote from: "Ladytatooine"
J
Se la vie and I am healthier for it.
/quote]

Yes!    That was an absolutely ridiculous situation, where you were being taken advantage of horribly.  No producer can expect one person to fulfill so many roles, even if it were a one person show with no moving scenery.  It sounds like these "producers" need to retitle themselves "PSM"s and own up to their control issues.

This site has a decent blacklist, right?

killerdana

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Opinions on Producers
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2006, 06:55 pm »
Congratulations on getting away from an awful job.  

Now that you're fired (for what? doing your job?) you can write a scathing email to the company (and I'd include the director, designers, higher ups) explaining to them what a stage manager does.  They won't be able to hold on to any decent SM if they keep treating them the way they treated you (and for $100/week--that barely pays for gas nowadays!).  A SM is supposed to be near the top of the heirarchy of the theatre, and you don't deserve to be treated as any less.  As for the "secretary" line--my day job is in an office and I still refuse to let anyone call me a secratary.  

Just remember it's a job you're well rid of.  You will find better.
Science without art is sterile.  --Albert Einstein

ljh007

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Opinions on Producers
« Reply #18 on: May 25, 2006, 10:58 am »
I've got to say that a scathing email post-show will only be destructive. That is not a professional way to resolve your disputes with producers/theatres. It will only leave the theatre with an extra-sour feeling about you as an SM and make them more enthusiastic to spread the word about your "bad" SMing to other people. Just let this go. Get it out of your life. It's over. If you're ever asked, you can certainly be very frank about your terrible experience. Actively try to keep your friends from working there, just to save their own sanity. You might take the opposite approach and send personal emails to any show folks whom you got along with telling them that you really enjoyed the production, were sad you had to leave (in the case of a dismissal like this), and that you'd love to work together again. Work on maintaining the positive relationships you developed on each show, and let the bad ones go. You can't save a theatre from bad practices, you can only try to keep yourself away from such mismanagement. Behaving professionally will keep your reputation intact, and other people will see that the theatre really lost out when they mistreated a fab SM like you.

Ladytatooine

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Thank you
« Reply #19 on: May 25, 2006, 11:38 am »
I actually now have another part-time gig as House Management for a Union Theater for a show. So I'll be able to start over and show what I can do and how I work, even if I'm not Union. So I guess it is true: one door closes so another one can open. :) But naw, I'm done with the other theater. There are so many good theaters out there that I haven't experienced yet: that's my future calling.

 

riotous