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2191

SMNetwork Archives / Sins of Stage Management

« on: Feb 19, 2005, 01:31 pm »

1) Thou shall not be late; for once you are late, you loose all ability to chatise others for being late.

2) Thou shall not lie; for once you lie about something you loose all crediability.

3) Thou shall not pass the buck; remember, the buck should stop with you.

4) Thou shall not show up to work drunk.

5) Thou shall not sleep with a cast member (for that is just a messy situation to deal with).

6) Thou shall not let your script be out of date; woe is the day an actor calls for a line, and you do not have a current copy of the script.

7) Thou shall not be distracted in the booth; for it is a sad day indeed that you miss a cue due a fact you are playing your gameboy.

Thou shall not hit your actors with a 2 x 4, for tho there is no rule against it in the Equity Rule Book, it is still frowned upon greatly.

9) Thou shall not argue with the director in front of actors; it just makes everyone feel unformtable.

10) Thou shall never loose thy temper, throw off your headsets and yell "TAKE THIS DAMN SHOW AND SHOVE IT TO HIGH HELL" in the middle of a complicated calling sequence. It's just not nice.

2192

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / To Paper Tech or Not Paper Tech

« on: Feb 15, 2005, 11:16 pm »

I find the more I work, doing a Paper Tech rarely happens - when could I possibly get all my designers in the same room at the same, heck, I can't get them in the same city before tech.

But, during rehearsal, I right the cues in as mentioned, and I plot out transitions and paper tech them myself (putting sections in order).  That is a huge time saver as well for tech, that doesn't require anyone else.

2193

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / paper tech

« on: Feb 14, 2005, 08:09 pm »

basically, start at the top and discuss and book all the cues and major cueing sequence.  Try not to get bogged too much in specifics, as a lot when change when you start the actual tech.  I like to have my entire staff there as well (aka, assistants), so they can start working on thier runbooks as well.

2194

The Hardline / Thanks

« on: Jan 31, 2005, 06:23 pm »

Thanks for all the input.  I am looking forward to laying the ground work for this new position with the company, as we start to grow into our new theatre, and start doing more and more shows.  (moving from 5 shows a year to 8-10 shows a year, with rentals coming in and so forth.)

If anyone is ever in DC, look me up . . . there is almost always a show running.

2195

The Hardline / more specifics

« on: Jan 29, 2005, 07:18 pm »

Here is some of the specifics on my situation.

We preform year around, so I would always be working on a show (5 of the six shows) - so I would never not be on an equity contract (So pension is not an issue.)  They want to include me on their health insurance (so I would be double insured).  Extra duties will include calendaring for show specific situations, supervising staff, hiring/firing staff (ASM, PA, Interns, other SMs), supplying SMs for readings, events, etc, etc, etc.  There would be some additional staff requirements such as staff meetings, department head meetings, etc.

What I am looking for is to see if anyone has had a specific situation or know someone who has - what sort of salary bump should I ask for?  What should I negotiate into the contract?  What should I be aware of?

2196

The Hardline / Joining the Staff

« on: Jan 28, 2005, 03:38 pm »

Okay, so things are going well at my current theatre, so well, they want to bring me aboard on staff, for a full time and permanent staff position.

Has anyone had experience with going from a contract stage manager to being a staff position?  What should I ask for?  What should I avoid?

I am a little flummuxed what the theatre gains by this, other then the warm and fuzzy feeling tht I am committed to them?  What can I gain, other then the warm and fuzzy feeling that I have a commitment from them?

2197

Stage Management: Other / opera

« on: Jan 26, 2005, 11:06 pm »

well, i did an opera - I was very lucky to work with an opera company who took a chance on me.

Reading music is imperative; also being musical will help a lot.  Even though you will hear the music during rehearsal, it's not quite the amount of time you will hear it when you do a musical.  (and trust me calling off a full orchestra the first time is quite a treat).

Forget a lot of what you know about "regular stage management", as much is done by the assistant director.  (For example, I did not take blocking).  There is a lot of quirks in stage managing opera, I spent some time talking to an opera SM who had done some regular sm on the side, so we compared notes.  There are a bunch too numerous to outline, but there are some traditions in opera which you will be expected to know.

(For example, tech is the most bizarre thing in the world - if you have an orchestra there, you better not be the one to stop tech to go back and try a transition again - the mastreo controls that rehearsal.)

My best recommendation is to asm for a non-union opera company and get you feet wet - keep your eyes and ears wide open, and learn as much as you can.

2198

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / blank report

« on: Jan 20, 2005, 02:04 am »

um, i have never had a blank production report.  Never.  Really, nothing happened that you would want to report?  

I often find that part of my job is not only to report notes that come up in the report, but also give a sense of tone and mood of the rehearsal.  (But I am working a lot with deisgners our of town.)  I always find something to say, not alwyas for every department, but something for someone.

2199

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PEOPLE: New Director

« on: Jan 06, 2005, 08:25 pm »

I start off with the basics; how to communicate with them, how they want the room set up, their concept for the show, casting choices and/or disappointments, and then get down to nit picky stuff like when to call brakes, how they want to deal with schedule.  Usually by the time I have answers to thinks like that, I do get a pretty good idea of how they like to work.  I also end the dialogue by asking if there is anything else, and wait for them to start letting me know things about everything.

I also, on my own time, try to track down people who have worked with them before and learn things that way.

2200

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Most cumbersome scene change

« on: Nov 25, 2004, 01:28 am »

Children's Hour (By Lillian Helman)

Act 1
Realestic Interior of New Englad Girls School
Couchess, desk, Books Cases, break away kitten

Act 2
Realestic Upscale interior
Couches, Side Board, Coffe Table, Big Side Chairs

AND THEN ACT 3

RIGHT BACK TO THE FIRST SET.

Yep, everything right back to where it started.

Sigh.

Cumbersome, you betcha.

2201

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / um, yeah

« on: Nov 12, 2004, 02:11 pm »

the board operator may be doing a crossword puzzle, reading a book, crusing the internet - but when at work they should be at work, right?

My method gives enough time to put your finger on the button, or put down the book, and still hit a cue on time.

2202

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / AND ANOTHER THING

« on: Nov 11, 2004, 05:59 pm »

speaking og Standbys . . . I don't give them anymore.  My style of calling when I say LX and Sound wiht the # there is enough of a pause before I say go that there is a standby.  I hate standbys, and only give them when there is a long sections betweens cues, or if it is a deck crew that may require the crew on deck to physically move.

But otherwise, if I have two operators in the booth, on computer boards, they should ALWAYS be in standby.

2203

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / oh yeah

« on: Oct 19, 2004, 08:58 pm »

that's a good point

as far as lettering and numbering going, if the designer has a preference, I will go with their style.  That's a very point.

But, as I said before, most of the newer designers are all learning and working in the era of automated sound - thus the numbering may become more and more common.

2204

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / lx vs lights

« on: Oct 18, 2004, 11:39 am »

I started this career calling lights cue, but during grad school and my working on larger and larger shows with other stage managers, I found more and more people calling electrics or LX cues - so I adapted my style.

Sound cues number is a result of the computerization of sound systems, although some programs can letter cues, some can not.  Also call sound cue A.7 is just odd.  Also, with 100 sounds cues in a show, you woul get to cues AAAA, which is silly  (or dealing with sound cues aba or thinkgs like that.)

I don't usuall number or letter rail cues or scene shifts, but use some sort of narrative description - although I think for my next show, with so much automation, I maybe rethinking that.

2205

The Hardline / My unemployment history

« on: Oct 07, 2004, 07:19 pm »

When I have applied, and I always do if I am unemployed for more then two weeks, it has always been very smooth, and it does very DRASTICALLY from state to state.

1) The number of contacts varies (2-4 is common).  I keep track of resumes I send out, phone calls I make, networking.

2) Some states for a certain amount of time you can limit your search to jobs in your field, but after a certain amount of time you need to open your search.  (Such as stage management for the first 16 weeks, and then you better apply at temp agencies, Starbucks, etc.)

3) Sometimes you are given the ability to limit by salary (I am normally paid $1,000 a week, I don't have to look for $400 a week jobs).

4) As far as out of state, I actually ran into this where an out of state job contact I made turned into a job offer - which paid more then unemployement but less then my current pay.  I spoke to unemployment, and since it was a "terminal job", that is had an ending date, I did not to relocated (I didn't fill them in on the Equity rules regarding moving.)

5) And some states, god bless them, state if you have a return to work date, you do not need to apply for jobs.  So, you know when you next contract is . . . you don't need to apply, you can just coast through 5 weeks off or a summer off.  Texas was nice like that.

And Finally . . . be prepared . . . they have no idea what we do for a living sometimes, unless you are applying out of New York.  Be patient with them.