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Topics - J

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The Hardline / Buy-Out Payments
« on: Jul 11, 2009, 10:33 pm »
Does anyone know how soon buy-outs are supposed to be paid when an offer to a production tour (required because of a transfer from LORT) is rescinded?

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The Hardline / Overtime
« on: May 30, 2009, 08:38 pm »
I'm assisting on a show right now and am disagreeing with my stage manager on the issue of overtime. We are working under the LORT contract.

The basic idea is that I have understood overtime to be charged "per rule" and she believes that that is considered "double-dipping".  So in other words, if we break 2 rules in 1 hour, we get 2 hours worth of overtime.  I've done this myself on past contracts and seen it done when I ASMed on other contracts as well.  She is under the impression that even if 3 rules are broken in 1 hour, you'd still only get the 1 hour of overtime.

This came up recently when we went over on the weekly AND daily hours alloted on a Sunday evening.  A call to the rep, and then from there to the National Committee came back saying that we should charge for both.  (that day we went over by 1 hour, but had gone over on the week by 5 hours)

It has now come up because we are open and we will be going back in to rehearsal during the run.  An outside producer has picked up the show and we will be making script revisions during this rehearsal. This alone requires double overtime for any rehearsal hours because it is work outside of our contract. On top of this, the show is 4 hours long, which only allows us 4 hours of rehearsal during the afternoon hours.

We have scheduled 5 hours on these days, and I believe that we are then due for the double overtime (for the work outside of our contract) and an additional hour of overtime for working longer than the allotted hours.

Anyone have any experience with this type of issue?  I know I can call my rep, but I'd rather get some feedback here before it goes that far.

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Employment / Being new during tough times...
« on: Feb 08, 2009, 08:06 pm »
I've decided to write this post because I'm allowing myself to be consumed with current situations that are being created due to the tough economic times that we're all going through.

I am a young stage manager, late 20's, and have been working since I was out of school.  In the past 2-3 years, it turned into a full-time position for me, and I was hired on at a prominent regional theater.  First I got 1 show, then there was about 6 months off, and I got another show, and then 3 more following that.  I was working continually (and am right now) and felt very happy.

I've learned that in the coming season, there are going to be major production cutbacks, and I will have only 1 show in the season.  Our staff is hired on shows by seniority and I, along with 1 other person, fall at the bottom since I'm new.  It does seem that this other person is going to get quite a bit more work, I believe because of their age and that they had a few side projects with the company while I was working in other theaters during the initial 6 month layoff.  It's hard for me to accept that this gives this person seniority, but I guess I have to.

The reason I'm writing is more about how to handle the stress and sadness that goes along with what I'm going through.  I feel very let down that I am not going to have work with the company in the coming season.  I was handed some very difficult tasks, and did well with them, and have received incredibly positive feedback from supervisors, production staff and actors.

I feel a sense of failure for not having a full season next year, especially when this other person may indeed have one.  I know that I'm not a failure, but it feels that way.

I don't know what I want in response from this post.  As I'm feeling more and more consumed by the anger, pain and loss with this, I felt that writing it and sharing it may benefit me, and hopefully allow others to know that they are not alone.  Maybe someone has insight... I don't know.

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The Hardline / Cleaning the greenroom
« on: Dec 28, 2007, 08:40 pm »
So I've got a question regarding what a stage manager can and can't do.

A company I work for asked me to make sure the greenroom stayed clean because they occassionally have bug outbreaks due to the area of the country that we're in. This means wiping counters and tables after food has been on them, washing the mugs that the actors/tech staff forget/neglect to wash, making sure all food is put away, etc. etc. etc.

I see this as a violation of rules, falling under activities that the stage managers are "prohibited from accepting responsibility for":

Rule 63.H.7.d on page 79.  SMs cannot accept responsibility for doing building maintenance, janitorial, custodial, or house management work.

I have no problem making sure that the coffee setup is kept clean, but cleaning up after others seems a bit much. Thoughts?

And by the way, then there was a bug outbreaks (due to nothing that could have been prevented), and they expected me to deal with the bug problem, which I considered to be a violation of the same rule, falling under building maintenance.

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The Hardline / LOA referencing contracts
« on: Nov 01, 2007, 04:25 pm »
Here's a question that I feel dumb for not knowing the answer to.  On an LOA contract that references another contract, do they have to pay according to the contract they're referencing?

For example, on an LOA ref. LORT D, does the LOA contract have to pay $670/wk for the SM?

I'm thinking that the answer is NO, it doesn't NOT have to match the pay of the contract it is referencing, but I just want to be 100%.

Thanks to anyone who can clear this up for me.

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Employment / Unemployment
« on: Sep 03, 2007, 10:36 am »
I have a question about unemployment benefits.  I know that if you resign or quit a position, you are not entitled to benefits.  That said, my current situation is as follows:

I am a resident PSM for a small company that I am deeply unhappy with. There are a lot of internal problems and I know it's my time to go. The last show was in March, I did some hourly stuff over the summer for them, and then next show I work on will be November.  I am seriously considering resigning this position. Since March I have had 4 other freelance gigs from different theatres, the final one of which I am working on now until the end of October. 

SO the question is this: If my resignation with the resident company is effective before my current gig ends, will I be eligible to collect UI benefits?  If I'm not mistaken, it's all based on the last job that you had when applying.  As long as I'm not going directly from the resignation to unemployment benefits, I should be able to claim them, right?

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Tools of the Trade / [FAQ] Electronic Prompt Copies
« on: Sep 16, 2005, 12:09 am »
I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it will work or not. I'd love to hear some feedback on it.  I'm wondering if it would be possible to use the COMMENT function in word to create a prompt book, or for that matter, a rehearsal blocking script?  The comment function would enter the comment wherever you wanted in the script, and then would put the comment you wanted off to the side, therefore you could do things as such:

A x L to couch  (for a blocking script)

OR

Standby LQ 17 (for a prompt script)

Has anyone ever tried this?  What was the outcome!?!?!

Thanks
Justin

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