Messages

1

Tools of the Trade / Re: how essential is a kit?

« on: Jul 09, 2006, 11:12 pm »

You have never heard the saying "Have a sticky beak"? Wow... It means to poke through the space looking at everything, or "Being a sticky beak" - like being nosey.

Basically it is a derogatory term for 'examine'/'look around' etc.

2

Tools of the Trade / Re: how essential is a kit?

« on: Jul 07, 2006, 08:19 pm »

From my experiance in various roles, most 'transient' SM's always bring their kit. A lot of the company type SM's (who only work for one company) will often drop the use of a kit as they know exactly where everything is.

If you are really worried about "Looking like a dork" - since you are SM, you will be one of the first there. So when you set up your rehearsal space, just push it into a corner or under your table. Chances are it will be ignored by everyone, and then, take the time to sticky beak through the space and make sure that you know where things are - that way if something goes wrong and there are supplies in the room to fix it, you can get it straight from the room, but if there isn't anything there, well look who is a nifty little SM, prepared for every event - Instant karma 

3

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Giving line notes - a real novice question

« on: Jul 05, 2006, 04:48 pm »

Printed line notes are my preference - because at the end of the week, I look through all of the line notes for each actor and start to piece together a 'map' of which parts they are having problems with. If there is an actor who is obviously having a hell of a time with a certain area of the script, I can tell the director that - and if the director does not want to spend much more time on that area, I can offer some assistance to that actor - be it reading the other parts in a 1:1 line learning session, or recommending some good books to browse. I can also use the notes to build up a hazy sort of image of where the show is at as far as lines go. It also provides a means of fallback if you have issues with the publishing company believing you have contract violations (written records of trying to fix it) and also provides a means of fallback if the actor wants to take out their frustation on someone ('You never told me I was having trouble with XXX', 'I handed you line notes just last week that dealed with that act. It was certainly on there')