Messages

31

The Hardline / Re: Calling All Ballet Stage Managers

« on: Sep 23, 2015, 11:56 am »

Dance Stage Manager:
Thank you for the information. It sounds like in Canada the standard is for ballet SM's to be Equity along with the dancers, is that pretty accurate? Here it seems to be more of a personal and/or company choice as to whether SM's residing over AGMA dancers are in the union or not. (Yes, our dancers are AGMA. There is nothing in their CBA regarding stage management at this time.)
Right now I have a letter of agreement that does not outline much. I am sort of floating in limbo between a seasonal contracted employee and full time. Right now I am treated the same as the full time employees, but I am engaged for 44 weeks and renewed annually. I do track my hours as they are usually over 40, which is the standard for other full time employees. I know that it's the nature of my job to have to work extra, but I do want it to be acknowledged.
Thank you for the agreements that you have pointed out, they are a great starting point for research and potentially building a contract for my position at some point.

Bay Area SM:
Do you work full time or are you seasonal? Do you have an ASM every week that you are on? And do you have a company manager?
Out of curiosity, what responsibilities does your ASM have after you leave for the day that they are there for another half hour?
If you would be willing to send me a copy of your contract, I would love to have a look at it. I understand if you're not comfortable with that though.
Thanks for your help!

32

The Hardline / Calling All Ballet Stage Managers

« on: Sep 22, 2015, 01:03 pm »

Hi Everyone!
I have been working in the ballet world for about a year and a half now, and I am working on researching what my position "should be" as far as hours, pay, work load, etc. goes. There are definitely things that my company wants to change, but I don't think that any of us know yet how or how much.
I find it easy to research what comparable jobs would be in an Equity setting, but the ballet world seems to be a completely different monster. I know that I am getting paid about what an Equity ASM at a comparably sized company is, I do not have a laid out contact, I only have an ASM in studio for one week before techs, and I work too many hours with no added compensation.
So, I suppose here are the questions that I am posing to other Ballet SM's:
Are you a member of a union? AGMA?
Do you work under a contract? 
What kind of terms are in your contract?
What kind of hours do you work?
Who is involved in your production team? Do you have ASMs? Do you have a company manager?
What determines how much you are paid?
How are you paid? (as in per production, weekly salary, annual salary, hourly, etc.)
Do you get overtime pay?

I know that a lot of this is sensitive information, so I understand if you don't want to give too much away.
Any advice or information that you can give to help me research would be awesome. Please feel free to post or PM.

Thank you!!

33

Tools of the Trade / Re: Stopwatch recommendations?

« on: Sep 14, 2015, 10:52 am »

I like this one.... doesn't beep.

Haha. My production manager made fun of me when he bought me a new stop watch and the first thing that I did was open it up and cut the speaker out.

34

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Multiple Shows at once....

« on: Sep 02, 2015, 02:39 pm »

My biggest advice for juggling multiple jobs of whatever nature is to stay on top of your schedule! I suggest putting everything into once calendar and color coding, but that is just personal preference.
Make sure that you write everything down and make time to take care of your basic needs - mainly food and sleep!

Other than that - keep calm, prioritize your work, handle one task at a time, and enjoy the fact that you have work.

Good luck!

35

Tools of the Trade / Clock for Backstage Tracks

« on: Sep 01, 2015, 03:03 pm »

I fee like in the past I have worked on a couple of local crews for tours that have had show clocks backstage that the crew would be able to see so that they can have a more specific idea of what timing we are at during the act. When creating backstage paperwork for our productions here at the ballet, we always include act timings in everything and I think having a clock backstage would be great.
Does anyone else use a show clock backstage?
I think I would want something that starts at 0:00 and can start a count up on my control (via remote?).
Thoughts? Suggestions?

36

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Creating a Brief Portfolio and Resume for College

« on: Aug 27, 2015, 02:35 pm »

I think for something like this, there is no reason that you couldn't send "hypothetical" paperwork.
Choose a show (one that is coming up soon would be smart because then you can use them) and create templates for yourself. Fill in any information that you have in the script and leave spaces for the rest to come later. Just be sure to present them as what they are - title things "Rehearsal Report Template" for example.
If you are looking for ideas of what paperwork you may want to create, look through the uploaded forms forum and see what you think would make your life easier given the specific production. Not all shows call for the same paperwork.

37

The Green Room / Re: ARTICLE: Career or children?

« on: Aug 12, 2015, 11:20 am »

Interesting article - thanks for sharing.
And thanks, BayAreaSM for sharing your story. It's a very valid point in our profession; we work crazy hours and don't necessarily make a great amount of money for it. How do we go about finding childcare if we have a spouse in a similar work environment?
On top of that, the article sparks the conversation of our country's view on maternity/paternity leave. I know our business manager just walked in while I was discussing with a co-worker and looking through our employee handbook - we have nothing here. It would just have to fall under unpaid family medical leave.
There are definitely challenges that go along with wanting to have both a family and a career.

38

Employment / Re: SM Resumes for Dance, Opera, Theme Parks, Television, and Film

« on: Aug 03, 2015, 04:06 pm »

I'm a little on the same thought process right now - I think I need a resume re-vamp!
I am the stage manager at a ballet company and now that I'm starting my second season, the company column on my resume is getting repetitive. I still want to list all of the productions, but I am thinking of going more towards the style that Nina posted.
Does anyone out there have any examples they could send over?
Any suggestions?

Post Merge: Aug 03, 2015, 04:50 pmActually, I may have come up with a happy medium on this one?
I'm still working on formatting/layout, but does anyone have thoughts on this section of the resume?

Thanks!!

39

Stage Management: Other / Re: Rehearsal DVDs becoming obsolete

« on: Jul 28, 2015, 04:02 pm »

I feel like with whole production videos, by the time that you compress them down to vimeo/youtube sizes, they are getting to be poor quality anyway. You can definitely use these or drop box to share, but I agree with BayAreaSM that sometimes the best option (and creating less extra work for yourself) is to let the dancer borrow a DVD during a break in their rehearsal day. Then they can either use a company computer/tv or borrow from another dancer to have one with a disk drive.

40

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: COMMUNICATION: Be agressive?? Be, be agressive?!

« on: Jul 28, 2015, 10:50 am »

One of my personal bad habits (working on it!) is that I sometimes ask people to do things instead of telling them. Ex. "Will you please kill the works for me?" where it can be just as polite, but more assertive to tell people to do things. "Kill the works please."
I know that sometimes people will respond the same to either, but with others little things like that can make a big difference in whether they see you as a co-worker on a level playing field or as a people manager.

41

Tools of the Trade / Re: A very silly ToTT

« on: May 27, 2015, 05:41 pm »

Here's another one that's equally adorable!
http://www.firebox.com/product/5569/USB-Toast-Flash-Drives

42

Tools of the Trade / Re: Books Books Books

« on: Oct 14, 2014, 10:43 am »

I definitely agree with getting to know all areas of tech theatre. I actually have a degree in lighting design/tech, so something like "Technical Theatre for Non-Technical People" would probably not be the most satisfying read. (On that note, the "Illustrated Theatre Production Guide" by John Holloway is halfway between that and the Backstage Handbook. I keep it around as a reference book, and would highly recommend it.)
I have read the Lawrence Stern Stage Management book, and also have that around as a reference tool....I've never used it that way though because I think a lot of it is a little one-sided and a little outdated. I do think it was a great outline of "here are all of the things that you could at one point be responsible for as a stage manager" when I was in SM class in college.
I have not read the Ionazzi book or "The Stage Manager's Toolkit." I will have to look into those, and the sort of alternative books that shanakathleen recommended.
Thank you for the recommendations.

43

Tools of the Trade / Books Books Books

« on: Oct 09, 2014, 12:39 pm »

Hi Everyone,
I know that most of us are on the same page about sm books - How much can you actually learn from reading? Don't you learn more on the job?
That being said, are there any books that you would recommend from some free time (hahahaha) reading?
Books about design, theatre in general, bios, novels, educational books. Anything that adds perspective or is interesting that involves theatre, ballet, music, the arts in general would be great to hear about. =]

44

Tools of the Trade / Re: TOOLS: Washi tape for prompt books!

« on: Oct 02, 2014, 02:39 pm »

Interesting alternative to Avery stickers... How would you say it compares? As easy to pull up? Do you have to use Sharpie or does a pen work also?

45

Stage Management: Other / Re: DANCE:teaching dancers how to move set

« on: Sep 26, 2014, 03:27 pm »

We had a show like this last spring in Milwaukee.
I agree - treat it like choreography to the music and then rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
Also, if you can, post a list of who's doing what when backstage. You'd think that dancers could remember scene changes if they can remember a full-length ballet....but anything that you can do to remind them should help.