Messages

1

Tools of the Trade / Re: What Type Of Drill Is Best?

« on: Feb 06, 2009, 10:02 pm »

Nothing says "I love you" like powertools

Sadly, my wife thinks that birthday presents should be "fun" and not something you would buy for yourself. I'm trying to edumacate her :-)

Our shop uses DeWalts. Maybe it's just the batteries they have for them but they can't just be left on the charger, they have to be charged only until full and then unplugged. Rather annoying as you have to keep track of which batteries are full and which aren't. They're pretty good otherwise! I've also had exceptional luck with the Makitas though. Bought my dad a Craftsman a few years ago and he's still loving it - so there's something to be said for that. DeWalt would probably be my first choice though.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: First Show SMing at my College

« on: Jan 24, 2009, 09:04 am »

As a new(er) college SM myself, I recently picked up the Kelly book - "Backstage Guide to Stage Management" and have found it both helpful and easy to read.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Favorite Deck Flashlight?

« on: Jan 20, 2009, 04:58 am »

Ok, sorry to revive an old thread here - I didn't want to start a new one, but wanted to bring this up as a point again:

1) I love my MiniMag. Bought an LED conversion kit from www.thinkgeek.com that included blue and red gel filters, plus a "fancy" replacement endcap that allows for 3 different brightness settings, 2 strobe settings, and sporadically blinks with a SMALL red LED so if you've lost/dropped it somewhere in the dark backstage, it's easy to find again. As for batteries, I usually snag the leftover Duracell ProCells from our Mic packs since they're only used for one performance and then go in a box to sit until they're needed (for Flashlights, 2-way radios, etc.). They seem to last quite a while in my MagLite, so I can't complain!

2) I was going to start a new thread inquiring about the usefulness of Headlamps, but I think this thread answered it pretty well. From what I'm reading, the Petzl E49P is a good one (three brightness settings, a "flip-down" red filter), but I was curious if anyone had personal experience with any other brands/models that they absolutely loved/hated?

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Protecting your tools

« on: Jan 12, 2009, 06:22 pm »

Most of the "smaller" stuff, I don't sweat. The only real things of value I have (at this point) I keep on my person (iPhone, leatherman, maglite). Everything that would be "sitting around" is going to be stuff like band-aids, sharpies, etc., all easily replaceable consumables. The exception to this is Joseph (yes, I've named my laptop.) Losing him would be terrible, but that's where homeowners/renter's insurance comes in. In my area at least, $10/mo gets you a $250 deductible with up to $20,000 in event of fire, flood, theft, accidental damage, etc. I keep a good backup of all my files (daily to an external harddrive and offsite servers (google docs is similar to what I use) so I lose 24 hours of work at most, and then simply replace the laptop. A pain, yes - but worst case scenario I'm out $250 instead of $2500. Most of the other "expensive" tools are owned by the theatre and provided, so I don't need to worry about those.
Just my $.02.

5

Tools of the Trade / Re: Herbal cigars?

« on: Jan 12, 2009, 06:07 pm »

I believe the "state" in question here is "Ireland"

http://www.marijuanaalternatives.com/herbal-blunts.htm

^ Several options available there. Not sure exactly how big your designer is looking for?

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Useful iPhone apps?

« on: Jan 12, 2009, 05:59 pm »

Seconded on Flashlight, and the stopwatch within Clock. Mail itself is INCREDIBLY useful for tapping out quick e-mails to people as needed, as is Address Book for quick consolidation of information in contact lists when people update you and you're away from your laptop. I'm of the "new school" stage managers and have gotten to the almost entirely paperless except for hard-copy backups point, so for me, an iPhone (iPod Touch in your case) is almost irreplaceable as a necessary gadget. Scheduling in Calendar, etc.

In terms of specific apps, I've not discovered any "must-haves" for a stage manager, though Sudoku is great for killing time :-P

7

Employment / Re: West End Employment

« on: Jan 11, 2009, 11:22 am »

I'm a student in the states currently in London for a class myself. In poking around a bit - I notice that Cirque du Soleil is doing an "interview fair" of sorts on the 3rd of Feb here in London. www.cirquedusoleil.com/redcurtain is the place to go to register for it. Maybe not exactly what you're looking for - but at least an interesting place to learn a bit more about the trade, eh?

8

Tools of the Trade / Re: [FAQ] What goes inside a SM Kit?

« on: Dec 06, 2008, 09:34 pm »

-Condoms

For mic packs? Or do your actors get frisky backstage... :-P Had a hysterically funny incident the other day in which our lead and I were talking and a non-theatre friend of ours walked in just as she was saying "...so I had to go into the mens dressing room to look for a used condom..." since she was the only mic'd person on stage.

Also, as a male SM, do any of your female actors find it awkward coming to you for tampons if the need arises? I'm still working in a collegiate setting and am friends with most of the actors - male or female - and that seems to be somewhat of a personal thing. It really doesn't bother me, I just didn't know if there was another use for them.

I have a AA Maglite that has become my best friend. I got a nifty little LED conversion kit for it that means the light will basically a) never burn out  b) included red and blue gels, and c) came with a new endcap that has a nifty dimmable switch on it. (bright, med, dim). www.thinkgeek.com  <-- Has the LED kit as well as TONS of nifty little cubicle toys that work well for SM toys.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Drawing the line?

« on: Feb 06, 2008, 10:57 pm »

Thank you very much for all the advice!

Fortunately, I ended up in a circumstance where the directors... incompetence? I guess that's not the right word... more like, lack of doing anything, directly inconvenienced his boss. He (the director of theatre, not the director of the show) hasn't said anything to me yet, but we're meeting rather soon to discuss it.

There's a LOT I could've and should've done better, and I don't want to make excuses, I just didn't know at times what my role was supposed to be, and wasn't getting any help from anyone in directing me - nor was I asking I suppose, I just wasn't prepared for the amount of work this show was going to be, even after being told exactly that by a member of the faculty.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Drawing the line?

« on: Feb 03, 2008, 12:21 pm »

We have no SM prof in our program at all - the LD/Director of Theatre is the closest thing to that, and is what I'd call my advisor for this.

With the whole 'props thing' it's apparently a part of this style of theatre, but he didn't make that entirely clear to any of us (including myself) until we were knee deep in the process. I didn't mind so much building the props at first - it was just when it came down to spending 75% of the time doing it for the majority of the run that it became a problem.

I'll let you know how the meeting on goes.

11

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Drawing the line?

« on: Feb 03, 2008, 03:12 am »

Ok, so I haven't been terribly active lately as this show has been consuming my life (see the 'dropping cards' thread for a peek into that), and that's partly why I'm posting a new thread:

As a college SM, where can I draw the line with a director who is also my professor, especially if the show I'm SMing is the class he teaches?

It's been one nightmare after another this entire process. He is a very talented man who has done a lot of non-traditional theatre, and this was my first time SMing out of HS, and his first time EVER having a stage manager. This meant a few things: a) I didn't start out terribly organized. b) I wasn't sure what fell into my realm of duties, and what fell outside it and c) I was a first time SM working with what ended up being essentially a 1st time director, as he'd never really done this type of show before - at least not to my understanding.

Throughout the entire process, he communicated VERY little to me, other than to reprimand me for things that he mentioned once in passing but never made a firm decision on, but didn't get done because I didn't put them at the top of my priority list. Part of this show was that all the actors were building props for the majority of the rehearsal period, and we really didn't get to start *running* scenes (we'd crammed 2-3 hour blocking sessions in for a largely movement based show throughout the month-long class) until 4-5 rehearsals before 1st tech. This meant LITERALLY 15 hour days at the theatre for about 2 weeks straight, and a director who was changing lines and blocking without me or my lone ASM there because we were too busy getting props ready for the show and running errands that he sent us on. On one of our first chunk runthroughs for our LD (also the interim director of the theatre program whilst the normal one is on sabbatical) turns to me and says "David, I don't have that chunk in my script. What's going on?" and I respond "I have no idea. I don't know a thing about it either." This was a COMMON occurrence.

We're now in the midst of the run (we've had 1 matinee and 3 'standard' performances thusfar, 2 more matinees, 3 evening shows, and 2 days of filming left) but he is still pulling crap like telling my ASM (without first consulting me or the costume crew head) to give some random people a tour of our green room/backstage area shortly after the show ends and there's a flurry of activity - including 'naked' (i.e. costume undergarmets, half-street dress, etc.) actors and crazy props getting put away. He flew in a producer friend of his from the BBC in London to film the show sometime this week, but has told me NOTHING about how he intends to do it yet, despite me repeatedly prodding him.

All this is to say, I'm worried that since I haven't handled this as gracefully as some of the more experienced SMs at my school might have been able to, that it will reflect poorly on me, but I don't know where I can draw the line with this prof and say "NO." Every time I've discussed the fact that he's pulling actors out of their other classes for the matinees, EVERYONE is sick from exhaustion (in addition to performances/rehearsals for large portions of the day, we've resumed normal classes and homework loads), and people are getting burnt out to the point of hating the show and wanting it to be over, I always get "Well, I reserve the right to..." or "They knew what they were getting into..." (they didn't) or once, though half-joking (I hope) "I'm leaving next year anyways, so they can't fire me." (he's an interim prof here).

He expected me to do EVERYTHING, but told me NOTHING, and got frustrated when I didn't get things done because I hadn't had time since I was *ALWAYS* at the theatre working on some aspect of the show.

I guess more than anything, this has all been to vent to other SM's who can hopefully say "You're not alone" or "There's not much you can do about it, just ride it out" or "I know the feeling - here's what I'd do."

I've requested a meeting with our director of theatre to talk about it, so we'll see how that goes - but I was planning on asking him for a letter of recommendation for some local theatre scholarships, and I'm hoping I've done a good enough job to warrant it all things considered.

Thanks for hearing (reading?) me out...

12

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Dropping Cards?

« on: Jan 14, 2008, 07:18 pm »

Hmm.... I thought it was the other way around? Or does Berkie (Berkey?) Photo still exist as the parent company for Colortran?


Wow... this thread has gone waaaaaaaay off topic.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Dropping Cards?

« on: Jan 14, 2008, 12:08 pm »

Berkie Colortran Mini-Ellipses! That's the name of them. Anyhow.

14

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Dropping Cards?

« on: Jan 12, 2008, 03:05 am »

Ok, I'm going to ask about the exact name of these things. They were pre-Source Four. The lights for which Source Four was designed to replace (essentially). I believe either Rosco or ETC bought out the company that made them, but I don't remember which. I'll talk to my LD on Monday and find out.

As for "kabuki".... I think we're going to stick with "Chinese Propmen" but put an asterisk behind it with an explanation so as not to piss of the locals so to speak.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Dropping Cards?

« on: Jan 10, 2008, 05:42 pm »

The show won't be entirely in that style, but the people dressed in black are called "Chinese Propmen" (a PR nightmare to put in the program, we're working on that, in reality, it was the Chinese who invented the style - not a derogatory term at all) and we're going to have them in every scene. In the scene where Alice is in the rabbits house getting the gloves and fan and gets huge, we're going to have the people in black manning giant puppet limbs, and also making the 'pebbles' fly through the air and turn into cakes. It's all very complicated and we're hitting "ohbugger" phase right now, but it will all come together soon enough. It's a "Mimodrame" by definition, so we'll have to see how it all comes together? *keeps fingers crossed*

I apologize for the poor image quality, these were snapped by my phone. You'll notice three poles, though they're kind of hard to see, running vertically across the top of the stage. There are flat 6'8" panels that will be rising out of the floor to use as transmogifiers allowing Alice to change from marionette puppet size to her huge room-filling self. We're having those chinese propmen hauling out huge legs/arms/hands/feet that will literally fill the room when all is said and done.


Stage left. The Lighting Designer is the individual in the picture. He's about 5'10" for a point of reference


Stage right. These pictures were taken from the third row.


Taken from the back row looking at the stage. The gap in under the stage in the center will be filled by a revolving door.


This is the grid. There will be over 130 lights on this grid - all the lights the facility we're in has without getting into their old-skool lights (the square ones that have the lenses that can be flip-flopped to get different throw angles... I forget the name, but it starts with a B)