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Messages - bex

Pages: 1 ... 17 18 [19]
271
Tools of the Trade / Re: Running Shoes
« on: Sep 13, 2010, 01:21 pm »
Back when I was still in school I would actually wear my Capezio Dansneakers.  They were lightweight and supportive, but had very good protection around the toes, due to that built in box for toe stands they had.  They were also pretty durable, lasting through four years of both dance classes and running shows in them.

I wear Capezio dance sneakers as well. I have low arches, and they are just about the best thing I've found for keeping my feet from going completely flat.  I would probably choose a different option if I had to climb anything backstage- the split sole is not conducive to ladder rungs, but for our absurdly low-ceilinged theatre they are perfect!

272
Tools of the Trade / Re: TECHNOLOGY: Would you use it?
« on: Sep 11, 2010, 12:17 am »
I would definitely be interested! I was thinking about trying it out for an upcoming show that I'm doing as an experiment (it's a 2-person cast, so I figure if it crashes & burns it won't be a huge deal), so if I could see someone else's that would be a big help!

273
Why aren't you wearing
The costume you were given?
It was too wrinkled.

If you ever spit
Prop food on the floor, you can
Clean it up yourself.

274
I have a related question, hopefully some of you have dealt with this before:

We have actors who want to videotape performances for their own personal websites- not for facebook, but for their portfolios.

We are not an Equity house, so AEA regulations don't apply.  I'm researching copyright laws and looking at the MTI & Samuel French rules right now (it's not looking promising for the actors).

What I really want to know is, does anyone have any resources for laws or regulations regarding the work of the designers or choreographers (again, non-union, but if you know IATSE or SSDC rules I'd appreciate a point in that direction)?  Intellectual property, original designs and all that.

275
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Recording blocking
« on: Aug 20, 2010, 12:24 pm »
I agree with everything everyone else has said as to how absolutely essential it is to take blocking notes.  I use the same system as missliz, with a small version of the floorplan on one side of the binder and a page of the script on the other.  As to there not being enough room on the page, I have spent countless hours physically cutting and pasting and recopying pages of a poorly photocopied script to get rid of the gross black photocopy edges so that I had nice white margins.  I also use the 2-script method, and on blocking-heavy shows I number each section of blocking on the page with the groundplan and just put the number on the script page.

In addition to that, just a word of warning about color-coded hiliters.  I love me some color-coding, but I never color-code my cues.  Maybe it's just because I'm color-blind, but when I get into the booth and have a dim blue or purple-gel run light to read my cues by, those colors no longer look the same.  Plain old pencil and "LQ 7," "SQ 3," etc. work the best for me.  Do what works best for you, but I would hate for you to get into dress rehearsals and have all of your hard work on your calling script be useless because you can't read your cues.

276
The Green Room / Re: Funny definitions
« on: Aug 19, 2010, 07:25 pm »
Stage manicure: The state of one's fingernails immediately following the taping of a groundplan. 

277
The Green Room / Re: show us your booth!
« on: Aug 15, 2010, 02:09 pm »
That's Olyney, isn't it?  I never worked there, but I had a friend who was an intern there and she gave me a tour once and mentioned this little arrangement.

Yeah, it's the Olney Theatre Center, I worked there last summer.

278
The Green Room / Re: show us your booth!
« on: Aug 13, 2010, 12:27 am »

That is crazy!! Are you at POTS?  And I thought the intern housing was bad when I was there 15 years ago... :-)

Yes and no- I start my internship at POTS on Sunday! That booth is actually at a theatre in Maryland, where I worked last summer.

279
The Green Room / Re: The Stage Manager's Nightmare
« on: Aug 12, 2010, 10:19 pm »
I have a recurring nightmare that I've been having since the first show I SM'ed in college. I think it stems from the fact that filling in for an actor in rehearsal is my absolute least favorite part of the job, and having to potentially go on for an actor is actually my worst nightmare (a performer I am not).

My first show was a dance concert, with several pieces choreographed by a fairly well-known guest choreographer.  In my dream, one of the dancers breaks her elbow, and I have to go on for her in one of the pieces. The director keeps saying "You've been to all the rehearsals! You'll be fine!" over and over, and I keep telling anyone who will listen "But I don't even know how to tap dance..." I end up going on and absolutely failing miserably, since, you know, I don't know how to tap dance, and it ends with the guest choreographer backstage yelling at me about how I've ruined his vision.

I should maybe clarify that right before I SM'ed this dance concert, I was the ASM for a show where one of the actresses got really ill. The SM and the Director decided that the contingency plan was for me to put on the frilly yellow dress and go on for her, since her character gets kidnapped and carried around onstage for all of the second act, and the other ASM was "a little chunky." Their words, not mine. Anyways, the first time I had this nightmare, the possibility of actually having to go on for an actor was a real and looming threat. Thankfully it never happened, but I've been having the nightmare ever since.

280
The Green Room / Re: show us your booth!
« on: Aug 12, 2010, 09:44 pm »

um - HUH???

how does that work! yikes!

Well... it's hard to explain. But it works, I promise! It's a little tricky getting into the hallway once the show starts because you have to walk through the house, but it actually works out fairly well.  There is a bathroom and 3 2-person rooms (and one single, lovingly referred to as "The Closet") up above the lobby.

281
The Green Room / Re: show us your booth!
« on: Aug 12, 2010, 09:33 pm »
I haven't seen my current booth yet- I'm moving in to the housing on Sunday!!  But I'll post pictures of the most unique booth I've worked in.



A fairly normal booth, you say? LIES.



That on the right, where the chairs are, is the booth. The door on the left is the doorway to an intern room. The interns live above the lobby of the theatre, and it was not an infrequent occurrence for one of the interns to stop on their way to the bathroom and watch part of the show over my shoulder.

282
The Green Room / Re: unusual rehearsal spaces
« on: Aug 12, 2010, 08:35 pm »
This summer I worked for a company that did 5 productions in 12 weeks (heyyyy summerstock!). In those 10 weeks of rehearsal, we had 5 rehearsal spaces, not including the theatre itself.
- A church fellowship hall
- A ballet academy
- The still-under-construction children's theatre belonging to our company
- A banquet hall
- (my personal favorite) The gym of an abandoned elementary school purchased by an architectural firm.

I had worked at another professional theatre before this summer, but they had a rehearsal hall on-site, and all of my college productions rehearsed either on-stage, in the black-box, or in our dance studio. Needless to say, it was a brand new experience for me carting rehearsal props back and forth and not having keys to all of the rehearsal spaces, etc.

Has anybody ever had any run-ins with non-theatre people in your non-traditional rehearsal spaces?  We had a couple of issues this summer rehearsing The Producers next door to/above the offices of a law firm, a florist, etc. They were not fans of 20 people tap dancing overhead, nor the frequent heil Hitler's.  Rehearsing "Keep it Gay" in a church fellowship hall was also fun.

283
What is the personal statement going to be used for? Is it for an application to the program, or some kind of publication?

Personally I would stay away from artsy quotes either way, but that may just be me.

284
The Green Room / Re: Stage managing your life
« on: Aug 10, 2010, 04:25 pm »
I'm actually fairly messy in my personal life, my friends refer to the pile of clothes in constant residence on my floor as the "laundry monster." Other things I get super-organized about, though.  At the beginning of the summer, I put all of my DVDs in a carry-case to take with me to a summer internship where I wouldn't have room for all of the cases, and I ended up not only alphabetizing them in the carry-case, but also put a label in each slot so that I'll know what disc goes there.

285
I have SM'ed 8 shows- 2 professional & 6 in college. 2 musicals, 4 straight plays, 1 dance show, 1 fund-raising concert extravaganza.
I have ASM'ed 7 shows- 3 in college, 4 professional, and was a PA for another play.
And I'm leaving in 5 days to start a year-long internship where I'll be SM for 8 more shows over the course of the upcoming season!

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