Topics

1

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / RUNNING: Costuming the Crew

« on: Dec 17, 2008, 08:39 am »

So I'm on the running crew next month at the local LORT theatre, and just got a call yesterday that the costume shop needs me to come in for a fitting, because the crew is going to be in costume. This of course has me ridiculously excited (it's Mrs. Warren's Profession, so I'm assuming I get to dress up Victorian every night, and since I'm a history/Renfest geek when outside the theatre, this makes me very happy!)

It got me thinking though-- while this is the first time I've worked on a show that's actually done the costumed-crew thing, I've had a few shows I SM'd where it was either discussed and dismissed, or discussed as having been a part of a previous production of the show I was working on.

So far, I've run into three viewpoints on costuming the crew-- "Yay that's so cool," usually coming from those who would be costumed; "No" with an eye toward the cost and concern for the extra load on the costume shop; and "No" with the view that it's silly and therefore unprofessional and is just a way for the crew to goof off.

Personally I think it's great when productions do this, not just because this time I get to wear it and that makes me geek out, but also because I hate it when you see the crew onstage at all, I feel like it ruins some of the magic to see guys in black and be reminded that this thing or that thing is a prop, that that wall is really just some plywood on wheels, etc, and so having Victorian maids or whatever move everything feels a lot more in the spirit of theatre.

What's everyone else's thoughts? I tried to find a thread on this and couldn't find anything (though, putting the words "costume" and "crew" in the search box on this forum makes for a lot to sift through!)

2

SMNetwork Archives / SM: the musical

« on: Dec 15, 2008, 07:28 pm »

Note from Moderator:
This topic is split from "The 12 Days of Christmas thread" found here:
http://smnetwork.org/forum/index.php/topic,4198.0.html
~nmno

That was fun and I think we just wrote the big Act 1 finale number for Stage Managers: The Musical 

Now there's a fun and/or scary idea... can you imagining being the "real" SM on that show?

Hmmm... visions of 20 tapdancing stagehands...

3

Employment / Overhire?

« on: Nov 17, 2008, 04:27 pm »

So I'm sure this is the wrong place to post this but I couldn't figure out where it would be most appropriate.

I just accepted an overhire position for a lighting load-in for next week, and I'm more than a little scared of it. My secondary emphasis in college was in lighting, but in the 2 years since college I haven't really touched a lighting instrument, and everything I heard in college about professional lighting (usually screamed by angry lighting professors during slow-moving focuses) was that pro hangs are very fast paced and no-nonsense. The logical part of my head says that I'll be fine (and that my credit card bills need me to be working more) but the rest of me is going "oh crud what have I done?" since it's at the biggest place in town, where I do NOT want to be summed up as an idiot!

I'm sure people on here have done these before, can anyone give me some pointers on what to expect? Should I bring my own wrench? Etc. (Or feel free to calm down/shut up, too! For being a generally calm SM I freak out about my own stuff way too easily...)

4

Tools of the Trade / Useful iPhone apps?

« on: Jul 24, 2008, 10:46 am »

So I'm in the process of inheriting my husband's iPhone, since he just *has to* have the new 3G one, and I'm wondering if anyone else has one and can suggest some useful applications to put on it? With all the various types of apps they've come out with for iPhone lately, I'm sure there must be something good for us out there!

(Stuff that's particularly fun and/or useful in a non-SMing-way also appreciated!)

5

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PROFESSIONALISM: When you ought to have experience but you don't think you do...

« on: Jul 14, 2008, 05:02 pm »

So what I'm posting reflects relatively badly on my current/past employer, so I'm hoping that there's an understanding on here that one can tell it like it is to a certain extent...

I've been out of school for a year now, and during said year I was an intern at a mid-size theater in my area. At this theater, intern doesn't really mean intern-- everyone they hire is an intern, and if a job needs filling it's filled in-house, they never bring in anyone who isn't fresh out of college. Everyone from the Managing Director down came to this place as a 22 year old with stars in their eyes... and nobody ever, ever leaves for another theater as far as I can tell. (So most people's opinions from this company aren't going to count much from a networking point of view as far as I can tell.)

Of course, my stars got washed out relatively quickly when their PSM left, and I, one of a whopping 3 stage managers left in the place, and definitely one of the more experienced SM's (which should tell everyone something), got left with the entire mainstage season. No ASMing, nobody to ask questions of or help me with mistakes. It got interesting when 3 of my 5 shows were done with the Artistic Director as either cast or director... a painful place to be in at a company where the 83-year-old Artistic Director is also regarded as something akin to a god, and she also loves arriving for performances sometimes as close as 10 minutes to curtain time... and you can't say anything to her about it... But it was pretty much fine... I've learned a lot this year. But it's all been learned via falling flat on my face.  

In college I was always the SM and never had an ASM (I always got picked to do the smaller shows that "didn't merit" an ASM), and then I did this internship, where I SM'd 5 shows and had ASM's who either had never done any theater whatsoever before coming to this company fresh from highschool, or were from other departments donating their employees to Production for a show.

So now I'm wrapping up my final performance at this theater. I almost quit at least twice, but I decided to live out my contract nomatter how stressful things got. I could have stayed on for more seasons if I'd wanted to, but the atmosphere there is incestual at best and downright abusive at worst, and the pay works out to about $2.15/hour, so I decided to take my chances. I've got a part time gig with an orchestra that pays decently, but I also want to keep doing theater-theater.

So my question is... how badly is all of this going to hurt me? I think I look pretty good in my resume, but I know I just don't know much about stage managing beyond my own weird little style I've made out of trial-and-error and various books. I'm really worried that I'm going to end up falling flat on my face and making a fool out of myself since I've never actually worked with another SM who had any level of experience!

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

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Stage Management: Other / Orchestra Stage Management & Unions/Pay Rates

« on: Jun 20, 2008, 11:31 am »

This is my first post here, I've been googling all over the place and can't find what I'm looking for so hopefully someone here will know...

I've just been hired on as SM for a chamber orchestra. Previously the only work I've done has been in theatre and the occasional musical, and all of my professional SM work has been for non-union companies... so I don't really know all that much about union work beyond Equity, IATSE, etc-- the stuff they teach you in college.

The first "assignment" I've been given by the orchestra is to find out what the union would be for an orchestra SM, and more specifically to find out the pay scales that would be used there. I'm not sure if the musicians for the orchestra are unionized or not-- it's a small company that right now flies in artists for concerts, but they're in the process of becoming a full-time professional orchestra, so they're wanting to start out on the right foot and be professional about everything.

Any help/links/info you all can give me would be great! Right now they're paying me hourly based on what I've made previously, but something tells me the standard rates are probably better than what I make now!