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« on: May 14, 2016, 01:54 pm »
I just recently had this experience as an ASM for an opera production of the Barber of Seville. I had worked on the show before (with another director on another set), so I was familiar with the music but was not familiar with anything else. Looking back, I was happy with how my work turned out. If the situation presents itself again however, I'd do some things the same, and definitely do some things differently.
I found that making a score in my style was probably the best choice I could have made, trying to call the show from the old assistants score would have been a challenge at best, and updating the paperwork would have proved next to impossible. Because of the timeline I was under (I was called in after the Final Room Run and before the first day of tech) I didn't have a chance to see any of the show, however I had a video which was "close enough", and very much regret making the choice not to watch it before we got to stage. I leaned heavily on the other ASM and the PSM during the load-in to pick up what nicknames the props had gotten (i.e the "purple note") which had made their way to my paperwork, and super heavily on my props crew (who I have a great working relationship with) to run the show for the first time, and man was that piano tech a doozy.