Messages

1

Employment / Re: Read your contracts carefully

« on: Jan 02, 2010, 01:33 pm »

As someone who works as a SM and on the other side as a PM, I try to find the time to go over contracts with everyone I hire before they sign them- clarity is invaluable. I realize on larger gigs this is impractical, but it's saved me many headaches.

Last summer I had problems with a theater that contracted me to PSM then tried to deduct pay for something the contract specifically allowed. I was floored.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Requests for Electronic Scripts -- Post 'em here!

« on: May 12, 2009, 06:06 pm »

Does anyone here have Pinter's Old Times?
Thanks!

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: cookies

« on: Jan 02, 2009, 11:50 pm »

If you melt butter before mixing it into the rest of the batter it keeps cookies soft after baking. You could also play with putting pudding into your cookie batter.

4

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

« on: Jan 02, 2009, 11:46 pm »

I think it's fine as long as the costumes don't interfere with crew duties.
In college I worked a jingju (Chinese opera) where the crew was dressed in tan kung-fu outfits and had to embody emotions while changing the set. The theatre I work at now alternates in how crew members are dressed. We've put the crew in black sweats for a show involving Irish gangsters, used black cover-alls for a show about a destitute Western family, and just use plain blacks for some shows. It depends on the amount of set changes and how much light they require. However, whatever we put crew in, the line is drawn if the costume would hamper people.

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Stage Management: Other / Re: Your most interesting "Other" Project

« on: Dec 12, 2008, 11:08 pm »

A group of dancers improv-ing to a group of improv-ing musicians in an art gallery's performance space. I was SM and operating the light board, and arrived on the night of the performance to find a note asking for 'lighting shifts that indicated major mood changes.'

6

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Handling an emergency

« on: Dec 11, 2008, 09:18 pm »

My first thought is why didn't he have his inhaler at the theater?  I try to know if there are medical issues from my actors (though come to think of it I am not sure the legality of asking this).

I actually do ask my actors to fill out a personal info sheet that includes medical info (I tell them it's confidential & shred them after the show). He hadn't had an asthma attack in over 2 years so he didn't write it down and hasn't carried his inhaler in over a year. Needless to say his inhaler and peak flow meter are both with him for the rest of the run. 

7

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / CALLING: Handling an emergency

« on: Dec 11, 2008, 02:00 pm »

I guess my question is "how would you have done this differently?"

In the middle of a show one of my leads began to have an asthma attack. It was a very slow onset- during a scene shift he asked my (backstage) ASM to call his partner to drive his inhaler in then went back onstage without saying anything else. He didn't show any symptoms until 10mins later, at which point I (from booth) asked my ASM if he was ok or had seemed sick to her and she said over com "I'm dealing with an emergency right now, I can't talk." I sent my light board operator down to the stage immediately to find out what was going on and alert the box office/house manager (thank god for wireless coms). Long story short I created an intermission at the next scene shift and booked it to the green room while the actor used his inhaler. In about 3 mins he was walking, talking, and breathing normally but I asked him to let me know if he wanted the rest of the show canceled anyways. He said he'd like to finish the show out, and after holding another 10mins to be sure he was still okay I began the show again- he even participated in the dance sequence I'd expressly told him to sit out of, then danced again during curtain call when the actors sometimes do a few measures of dance improv (the show is a mini-musical with a few instances of singing and dancing).

After the show ended and actors left I had a conversation with my ASM about letting me know what was happening backstage any time something like this happened, and how she could've kept me in the loop while handing the situation.

I'm curious how other people would've handled this though- I initially sent my board op backstage instead of going myself so a)I could keep my eyes on the actor who I thought was getting sick (the one having the asthma attack) and b)I could call the end of the scene into an intermission, which he couldn't have done and I couldn't have done while getting backstage. Then I asked the actor for his feelings on canceling the show (not in front of the other actors, the final word came from me) because while he visually was back to his normal level of health I wanted to be sure he felt like he could and wanted to finish the show out- those are the two big things I'm wondering about.

8

Employment / Re: For employers: When do you call references?

« on: Oct 21, 2008, 05:59 am »

I usually call after I've interviewed someone, although sometimes I call beforehand- it depends on how much of a pain scheduling the interview is.

I have run into a few instances while making such calls when what wasn't said was the important portion of the conversation.

9

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Hell Week...?

« on: Oct 21, 2008, 05:39 am »

I haven't called tech week hell week since high school. 

Same here. It was fun to say back then, but it's not a phrase I use in professional settings.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Before Show Pep Talks - Cast and Crew

« on: Dec 24, 2007, 11:59 pm »

When I did college shows the director would typically hold a pre-show chat for cast members either right before house opened or ten mins before curtain. I try to 'set the mood' for the crew by being upbeat, but that's about it unless someone's having a visibly bad day or something. If I know an actor's mood is going to interfere with their acting I'll pull them aside and try to improve their mood or center them or whatever works, but that's really only happened for me in college & amateur shows.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements

« on: Nov 16, 2007, 10:11 pm »

Our HM has gone to something like "Please use this moment to take your phones out and ensure they are off or on silent mode. Also, please note that we do not permit use of your cell phone, including text messaging, during the performance." It gets a few more people to follow the rules.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Wireless mic issues - and advice?

« on: Nov 15, 2007, 04:41 am »

If the transmitters are underneath their skirts, you may want to check if that actress is wearing thicker slips or padding or skirts or whathaveyou. Also be sure she's not coiling the transmitter's antenna up (be nice, but just double check). Could you try moving the receptors backstage then running well-shielded XLR at line level to booth?

Also, do you have an area mic hung? In highschool we set up a shotgun that we'd be able to pull up if someone's mic went out. Works best if you lower everyone else's wireless levels when you do it... it's not the best, but it can work.

13

Employment / How much payment should I ask for?

« on: Nov 15, 2007, 04:33 am »

I'm graduating this December with a BA in Theatre, and I'll be moving from Oahu to Denver and am looking to get started SMing there. If I get an ASM position for a show at someplace under 300 seats, would $10/hr be a reasonable amount to ask for? Could I go higher? I've been offered up to $30/hr to work out here, but that position was to SM for occasional touring shows at a nice theatre.
How about at a larger complex? If I get to SM a show I assume I should ask about $50 a show (per the earlier question about this), but how about for rehearsals? My experience is mainly at my school, but because of the rigorous requirements of our program I want to work professionally and not apply for an (unpaid) internship.
Thanks!

14

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: The Pillowman

« on: Nov 15, 2007, 04:15 am »

Wait, why did the props volunteer get transferred to the box office?

He decided to remove the blanks before putting the gun in the filling cabinet onstage, just to be safe. He was someone's teenage nephew who needed babysitting.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: The Pillowman

« on: Nov 14, 2007, 04:51 am »

I stage managed it last summer and we played to packed houses each night (in Honolulu, so this was a one-of-a-kind show). It was an intimate theatre, seating between 60 and 100 I think. Our actors all had training in traditional Asian theatre forms, so we used masks for the parents and they played most gory scenes in stylized, slow-motion sequences. It was pretty brutal, we had people crying every night. For the gunshot to the head (after the first night, which featured Katurian being pistolwhiped and the props volunteer being transferred to box office) we took vaseline tubes (http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/products/lip-balm.jpg), cut the round tip off, filled them with syrupy fake blood, and stuck 1/3 a cotton ball in the open edge. These were taped inside the bag Katurian put over his head, so when he took it off for the final monologue he could squeeze the blood out and onto his hair.