Messages

46

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Splitting the jobs between co stage managers

« on: Sep 30, 2006, 01:03 pm »

the only reason i suggest the TD not being involved in the run process is that there are so many people involved already. when set pieces come in and/or during tech, i feel that the TD should train and hand everything off to the SM team backstage.

47

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Splitting the jobs between co stage managers

« on: Sep 29, 2006, 01:27 am »

well, having been in a quasi-similar situation, here's one option, but remember that there are many more and that you should all sit down together and talk through who does what.

SM1: Booth SM - calls the show (all cues)
SM2: Deck SM - supervises backstage and handles scene changes (after called by booth)
assign one ASM per SM to delegate to
TD: depending on the structure, but the TD is not running the show - there to buil show and solve problems during tech, etc

as far as rehearsals, the breakdown could stay along those lines, but the deck SM could track all technical elements while the booth SM takes blocking and does line notes, etc

48

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Blocking Charts?

« on: Sep 21, 2006, 02:55 pm »

i use a little of both - depending on the show. if i have a large cast, i use a groundplan and place everyone on it for each major formation. i number the pages and put them in my book. for the main characters, i write their blocking in the book. all of my blocking notation goes on the left margin of my page and the cues on the right, so it doesnt become messy. you'd be amazed if you saw my book for Les Mis - i did blocking and cues in the score and it's very legible.

49

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: how do u put on spikes/marker if your set is full of gravel and sand?

« on: Sep 17, 2006, 01:13 am »

i heard that glueing white rocks down works well.

50

Employment / help altering resume

« on: Aug 29, 2006, 12:32 am »

anyone ever alter their resume from stage to television/film? if so, what did you do/what advice do you have?

i know the two positions aren't exactly the same but have many similarities. which qualifications should i highlight?

thanks in advance.

51

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Final draft, new scripts, and electronic markups

« on: Apr 04, 2006, 12:20 am »

last time i worked with final draft, i had the same issues. the person who made the script cheated it and when i put it into word, all of the formatting went crazy.
fortunately, after a week or two, i never had to go back to FD, but was able to make updates in word only.
i tried creating a script in it, but had glitches with that also. - i'm not a fan.

hope you find a solution

52

The Hardline / Actors Equity Salary

« on: Apr 03, 2006, 12:45 am »

salary minimums vary by contract. look under individual contracts for more info (under "documents")

53

Employment / moving to the other city PHL

« on: Mar 21, 2006, 08:25 am »

philly's hard to break into. trust me - i just moved here last august.

54

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Calling Rail Cues?

« on: Feb 23, 2006, 11:19 pm »

for rails, i always give warning, sb, go.
if it's a fast sequence, i'll warn and standby the entire sequence and then figure out with the ops what makes sense for calling the go's.
i have certain aspects of how i call shows that follows through each production, but of course, there are adjustments to calling each one.
work with your op (and td) to determine what works best. and remember that things change in tech, so if how you thought would work best doesnt, change it.

55

SMNetwork Archives / Spike Tape Problems

« on: Feb 22, 2006, 12:58 pm »

you can always try covering the spikes with packaging tape

56

The Green Room / SMs in media?

« on: Nov 09, 2005, 11:57 am »

i think the worst was in "center stage" - you hear the sm yelling places then standby curtain warmers and curtain warmers out - with no time inbetween - just really random

57

SMNetwork Archives / Calendar programs on PC's

« on: Dec 19, 2004, 12:06 am »

i love my word template - can save as for anything i'm doing and it's easy. i can color code, use the header and footer, copy and paste. plus it's wonderful for me to use on the macs at work and my pc at home. i can also email it out to anyone no matter which syatem they have.

58

SMNetwork Archives / old posts

« on: Nov 14, 2004, 05:28 pm »

what happened to all of our old posts?

59

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Lights? Electrics? Elex? What do you say?

« on: Oct 18, 2004, 05:27 pm »

i use "lights # go" even though we refer to the crew/department as electrics (or trix). for sound, i am currently calling "audio." when calling regular sound cues, i like to letter them "sound A". if i need and out cue i call "sound Ax". there are certain letters i avoid (Q, O, X), then i go into double letters, but i dont combine them (ie i would call "BB" but never "AB") for everything else, i call it what it is.
but it is nice to change things up a bit and give certain things names. this summer, for "kiss me kate," our bird was named gus, and therefore was called as "gus go." for the show i'm currently working on, there are two inflatables. one is named "big bird" the other is "oscar" - much easier than saying house eagle and stage eagle when it's all in a large series of cues.