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Messages - loebtmc

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1306
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / cumbersome scene shifts
« on: Nov 29, 2004, 05:29 pm »
ah - two fun areas, practical food and absurd scene shifts

both in my recent production of The Real Thing
 1) they have to pour and drink mimosas on stage - easy, right? but no, one actor can't have fruit in any shape, three can't have sugar (nor sugar substitutes) and one is allergic to anything chemical. So we mixed mineral water (not artificially carbonated, no additives) lightly touched w black tea (amazingly, something all four could digest) for champagne, and used yellow bell pepper juice - really - for the OJ -

2) and the scene shifts - in a tiny and cluttered backstage with ackwardly oversized and stupidly heavy furniture being SILENTLY swapped on the upstage half of the hollow wooden turntable while the scene took place in lights downstage - the worst two being a) a full set-up cleared and reset with another full set-up by two slight backstage crew (one doubling as the quick-change/wardrobe mistress) during a very quiet and intimate 15-20 second scene, and b) similar full unset and reset with a full stage worth of props and furniture during another quiet 1 minute scene.

Sigh

1307
anything to keep it out of easy audience pathway in the house, or actor pathway backstage...I think leaning against a wall, w sandbags on the ground AND rungs along w some form of masking it is a good option.

I will try to pull up my long-gone memories of the summer I spent in Edinburgh (a gazillion years ago) when we also could not attach anything to the walls of the city hall community center we were using as a theater, and yet we had trees and sidelight somehow - if I can figure out what we did I will let you know -

regardless, good luck! (or rather, break a lamp...)

1308
I assume you don't have the budget, but I work in hotels all the time where they bring in scaffolding and a free-standing truss or two from which they hang side light. And I assume there isn't enough of an aisle to safely roll in one of those free-standing round-based pole-style trees?

Actually, a ladder sounds like a pretty decent option, all things considered - are you using an extension ladder locked to the wall somehow?

But you're so right, solving this will take major creativity...

1309
Can you get a metal or other round pole-shaped floor-to-ceiling pipe at, say, home depot that can be locked at the top and along the sides to the wall? Seems like it might be an easy solve - or maybe drop a tressle from the ceiling?

1310
Here are some thoughts - albeit a bit scattered -

In a musical, you have music v acting rehearsals, and the chorus v the leads - it is up to the music director to schedule and rehearse the orchestra (or band) in their own time - you actually don't have to deal w that until they move into the theater. But you want to find time for what's called a sitzprobe, which is where the orchestra and singers work in their respective spaces, going number to number, without any other pieces.

You need to factor choreography into the mix, which is a big chunk of your rehearsal time (esp if you are working w nondancers or "moves well" actors)

You can usually schedule concurrent rehearsals in separate spaces early on for chorus and principles because they often aren't on stage at the same time, so the chorus works music or choreography while the director works w the leads, and vice versa. It's best if they can afford a rehearsal accompaniest so you can have music in both rooms. And even if it's a show without a chorus, you will need to add in rehearsals where the performers sit with the musical director and learn the songs.

This is an area where having an assistant is essential - you can each be in a rehearsal room keeping an eye on things.

And for big group scenes, we sometimes split up taking blocking notes as leads v chorus, or SL v SR, depending on the nature of the blocking. Also, some songs are blocked and some are choreographed - so you want a dance captain who tracks all the movements of the chorus (and is responsible for keeping the dances correct and clean) - that takes one thing off your plate (tho you still need to have some sense of where everyone goes and what they do)
 
Unlike legit plays where you can buy a copy easily and simply keep it, you often have to collect the rented scripts and scores at the close of a musical and send them back to the company holding the rights.

You also have to add in piano-tuning time, tho how often will vary depending on how hard the instrument is worked and if you are sitting or touring. The tuner needs a couple of hours of relative quiet and can overlap lighting tech work, but the incessant pitch adjustments can drive folks crazy. And the piano will need to be tuned several times during a run.  

You always need a call at a new theater to re-space and to hear the room, but that isn't different from a straight play.

Yes, there often are more cues. What I love is that you never have time to get bored in a musical - altho I gotta warn you, straight plays can have just as many wild and crazy and complex technical aspects. And you want a whole lotta batteries for the sound packs (tho that is usually the sound person's bailiwick)

There can be more backstage people, or less, again totally show-dependant. My two fastest quickchanges, both requiring dressers, have been with PHANTOM (a musical) and THE REAL THING (a straight play).

There is more but I think I will stop here to collect my thoughts (I just opened a complex and challenging show and my brain needs a rest!)

1311
As this is a school assignment, I'd love to hear your thoughts first - brainstorm it - what do you think might be different and/or have to be dealt with differently - think both rehearsal and performance -

Once you have cogitated a bit and there is a sense of you heading in the right direction, I will be happy to weigh in and give you some of my thoughts -

1312
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Building fake OJ anyone?
« on: Sep 30, 2004, 04:35 am »
she can't do corn starch either - we've thought of so many ideas....right now, she is grinding up sweet yellow and orange peppers to make a sort of pepper juice so the color and opaqueness is within reason - but she is the only one w a juicer, too -

and once the season ends, peppers become prohibitive. So the challenge is, how do we get something this allergic-to-everything person can imbibe?

Of course, our deep backup plan is that everyone else drinks the OJ and tea-colored fizzy water champagne while she just pretends.

interesting conundrum, eh?

1313
My actor is allergic to OJ - in fact, all fruits - and we have to mix mimosas on stage, downstage in a small house and completely in audience view. I will have an opaque OJ jug, but the champagne glasses are clear. We are already mixing it with fizzy water and tea for color - have already checked and she can't do gelatin or that ilk either.

Ideas?

thank you all!

1314
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Drugs, anyone?
« on: Sep 28, 2004, 04:35 am »
long long ago I had to build some for an anti-drug film - and (if I am recalling correctly) they told me it looked like hard rock candy - which, of course, will boil  and liquify nicely if set afire, being sugar and all - caramelizes and everything.

1315
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / THE REAL THING
« on: Sep 11, 2004, 08:11 pm »
we have a two-sided turntable, and I think all our records will be on pretape thru a rigged speaker downstage on the actual stage floor -

how did you do the house of cards? the exec prod here talked w a magician and worked out something w a monofilament - but still....until I see it rigged and working I am suspicious of everything!

And those quick-changes (esp the one Max and Annie make from 1:2 to 1:3) - what is there, something like 10 seconds for a full top-to-bottom and coat change? I assume those costumes were rigged but even so....

anyway, yes, it is a lovely piece and other than our Billy, I think it will be quite lovely -

feel free to share any heads-up or thoughts as they occur! We have 10 days to throw this puppy onto its feet -

1316
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / SHOWS: THE REAL THING
« on: Sep 10, 2004, 01:45 pm »
I am doing a production of The Real Thing in a small, small theater (SPT contract) with almost no time - in reading thru some of the gags, including the House of Cards, and how fast some of the costume changes are, I thought I'd throw it out to see if anyone else had done the piece and how some of these challenges were solved for them. Of course, they have folks working on it here and I have my own ideas, but it's sure be nice to have some back-up notions in case we run out of time or the stuff they are suggesting isn't working.....

THANK YOU

1317
The Hardline / Rehearsal/Performance
« on: Sep 03, 2004, 09:29 pm »
So the bottom line is that there are actually rules for readers theater and you can get them from your rep.

I might add that, at least in LA, my reps are very cool abt discussing "hypotheticals" with the understanding that I will bring them in if it can't be handled in other ways, but for the meantime I know all my options and am making the best choice based on the reality of the moment and the needs of the show.

1318
The Hardline / Rehearsal/Performance
« on: Sep 02, 2004, 12:48 am »
...and heck, if you are in NYC you have the best access to the most business reps around - that's always the first line of defense -

1319
The Hardline / Rehearsal/Performance
« on: Sep 01, 2004, 01:08 pm »
Stupid qq but, do you have the rules? I don't think they're on the website but it's seomthing like only one page - the office shd have a copy (I have it at home but am currently out on the road, sorry)

Either way, as I recall the rules are pretty loose - of course, your reh counts in your max 20 hrs of reh, but my guess is that as long as you have given the actors that 2-hrs before call for dinner for a call that is 4 hrs or less, it works -

push come to shove, just have your actors vote on it - and that makes it good. And looks like the way most REAL Readers Theater I've done works - a pick-up reh the day of before a dinner break before presentation - just watch the length of day (tho, unless the show is horrifically long, you prob won't have an issue w going long)

1320
...or

is there a compromise - as in, is there an indoor locked office for your company nearby, or someplace other (and better built/protected) than this shed where you might store it? I would be concerned abt exposure to heat. cold, insects etc as all of those affect the guns' ability to fire.

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