Author Topic: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan  (Read 6063 times)

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BayAreaSM

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Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« on: Jul 14, 2011, 12:03 am »
In preparation for this Concert/Winery site-specific event, I had high hopes of taping out the ground plan of each venue so that the actors and director would have some semblance of how far away things are. I've contacted the TD from the Concert half of the show, and he's trying to get me a ground plan. As far as the Winery show is concerned, we're all over the place - in the "woods," in a gazebo, along a cement wall, inside a catering tent - and all I have are photos the director took when she walked on the grounds last week. Oh, and she drew a pretty picture which is obviously not to scale. I have been promised a catering plan on Monday, the first day of rehearsal, but that only tells me the inside of the tent area. Oh, and we won't see any of the spaces until our 2 hour tech just before the performances in each space.

Have you ever dealt with this? What would you do? There's a part of me that aches to think I won't tape out a plan so that we have a rough idea how far apart we are...

Or is this when I learn to relax, lighten up and just "let it happen"...?

There's a part of me that wonders - WWMD? (What would Matthew Shiner Do?)
« Last Edit: Jul 14, 2011, 12:18 am by BayAreaSM »

loebtmc

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #1 on: Jul 14, 2011, 12:50 am »
This is a quick overview, based on the environmental stuff I've done - in some very, very odd venues - and sometimes it really is playing it by ear.

One of the most important things you will want to have set up before your tech is the audience seating/standing area - where will they be and how much room do your actors have. Look for and establish escape areas, aisles, hideaways, back routes etc - and also think abt how you and the actors will hear/see cues (check acoustics and sightlines from a variety of spots and see if you can find a few options). Where can they change. What can you lock off from the audience, what needs guarding so your performers have places to breathe, change and/or wait off stage. Is there natural masking or do you need to score curtains, tablecloths or some other creative device. What abt quick change areas, valuable storage, a central place for the callboard/sign in sheet, water, bathroom access.

Keep your good humor, a smile, a spirit of adventure, lots of patience and all your creativity at the fore, take a deep breath, and make it work!

BayAreaSM

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #2 on: Jul 14, 2011, 12:58 am »
Loebtmc - the one thing we do know is that at the Winery, we have the actual Winery as our dressing room/green room which is closed to the patrons. So all dressing/changing/locking up/bathrooms/etc takes place there. Thankfully for two of our scenes, the patrons will be seated eating dinner, which is why I am eagerly awaiting the catering plan.

I am very worried about the actors hearing their cues - especially with distance between areas, and for our first scene, which actually is supposed to take place in the middle/among the patrons waiting to be seated for dinner. The director doesn't want to use mics, and there will be only one of me - no assistant.

Thanks for the tips, I'll start making my list!

ScooterSM

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #3 on: Jul 14, 2011, 11:07 am »
There's a part of me that wonders - WWMD? (What would Matthew Shiner Do?)

I love this idea!!

In addition to everything that loebtmc said, a few more ideas...
1) you may want to have the director consider whether it is a type of show that the actors could be part of the environment, ie could catering set up an extra table that the actors would be seated at, and then they could step up to the performance area when they hear the cue.
2) is it possible for you to go to the venue to do a walk through?  That would give you a sense of what the space looks like and you could measure areas that would be used for performance.  It will never be as structured as a traditional show tape-out, but would tell you if you have 100 sq ft or 1000 sq feet, and if it is a square or a circle.
3) Definitely breath and go with the flow.  For all of their high maintenance-ness, actors are surprisingly flexible, and will fill the space they have.  And it is the rare actor who tries to walk through a hedge because "it wasn't there in rehearsal..."
4) Is it possible to rehearse in some sort of similar situation?  It may involve a bit of guerrilla theatre, but if you have a seen that takes place in a crowd, can you go to a bus station or big restaurant (with site management approval), and do a trial run of working around people or tables?

Let us know how it goes! :-)
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MatthewShiner

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #4 on: Jul 14, 2011, 01:20 pm »
Quote
There's a part of me that wonders - WWMD? (What would Matthew Shiner Do?)


I can just see the bumper stickers . .  .

My advice . . . "Let go, Let God."

There is something in our DNA that wants to anticipate and organize, and know everything, but in reality, we faced with these types of projects, we are just NOT going to know anything.  Everything could change the day of . . . catering could change plans, wrong size tables, more guest, the weather could not co-operate, etc.  You need to do as much planning as possible but be ready to turn to your company and say, okay, we are now doing this scene in the round, with a Ice Sculpture in the middle of us.  Let's do it.

I would arrange a site visit as soon as possible, if possible.  You will learn more then the photos will teach you.  Going with the director would be ideal - so you can problem solve together.  (I hate if one person goes and starts talking about things the other doesn't know.)  Take your own pictures - share them with the cast . . . as you would scenic design.

As far as taping out, talk to the director - does he have a solution to this in mind already?  He might be directing in such a style that the PHYSICAL set up is not very important . . .  I would argue for doing some sort of tape out . . .  even if it just giving you the general idea of the space.  The reason being is it will help give them some grounding so when they show up on the day of the event, they have some familiarity of the lay out.  Even if it is just a line and a notation of where the audience is. 

Also, given the level of support and the high level of "changes" that may happen, you need to make sure everything is streamlined.  You can't be dealing with props, while getting actors in place, while talking to the catering manager, and dealing with the face they just parked two trash cans where you were going to do your next scene.  Not having an assistant is going to be hard - see if you can get some sort of PA/Runner for the day of the event . . . just someone to get water, run an errand, hold down the fort while you run to the bathroom.  If you don't have an assistant, make sure the physical production does not bog you doing with an additional duties that will take you form stage management.

Have fun, keep your sense of humor.


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BayAreaSM

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #5 on: Jul 14, 2011, 06:51 pm »
Here's a mini-update:

I met the director for the first time today, and she fancies herself a Jill of all Trades - to avoid hiring a CD, she's pulling costumes from stock (it's R&J scenes) and doing the fittings herself. There's no SD, so she's pulling small props from storage (mostly rapiers). It's basically her, me and a Fight Director.

The performance venues are about 15 minutes apart, but it will be 150 miles round trip for me to visit them. She did take several photos and sent the actors, Fight Director and I the flickr link to see them all. My director is not available this weekend because she's opening another show, so if I go, I'm going solo. (Granted, now I sound like those whiny kids who have an excuse for everything...)

She did mention helping me out during the Winery performance (which is my major concern) so it will kind of be like having a PA for the show. She is aware that I don't have ground plans, and thankfully for our first day of rehearsal we're doing more text work and fights (though the fights need proper spacing...) so hopefully I'll get something in hand by Tuesday. She didn't have a real solution for us, but she's up for general ideas of taping out - like "it's maybe this big by this big, so let's just assume this is right and here's some marks."

As you said, Matthew, it will be best to just roll with it - and the director is completely open to letting the Winery blocking be fluid until tech, while the performance on the stage for the Concert can be more solid.

And...and who would know that Google Maps would help me see my ground plan...now if I can just get a scale on it, I'm set!

Oh, and I think I totally need to make binder clips that say "WWMD?"

bex

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #6 on: Jul 15, 2011, 03:58 pm »


And...and who would know that Google Maps would help me see my ground plan...now if I can just get a scale on it, I'm set!


Google Street View saved my butt! The only tour I've ever done (wasn't really a tour, more like "pick the show up and move it to Delaware for 3 days so we can get this company to give us money") was moving a show from a proscenium house to "an outdoor stage." That was the only description we had. The "technical contact" at the venue told our TD we could bring "as many lights as we wanted!" and a groundplan was out of the question, but luckily the stage was actually close enough to the road that Google Street View gave us a fairly good idea of shape of the stage, entrances, etc.
You will have to sing for your supper & your mortgage, your dental coverage & your children's shoes, over & over again while people in desk jobs roll their eyes the minute you start to complain. So it's a good thing you like to sing.

BayAreaSM

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Re: Prepping for a show with No Ground Plan
« Reply #7 on: Jul 24, 2011, 12:37 pm »
The show is over. It was an incredibly long day (15 hour span: 2 techs & 2 performances & 3 hours of travel).

For this kind of event, it was great that the director was willing to be so flexible with the blocking. She was the only one who had been to the venues, and with no ground plan for either one (theater plot was not to scale and we were told we would "maybe have 5' of room downstage of the symphony" - and the google map of the winery had trees covering a lot of important items for us) it all went rather well.

The most difficult section was our fight in the Winery - as it was built to have 2 men with daggers up on a wall (away from patrons) while another set of actors did more "ham" fighting amongst the crowd - hitting each other with napkins, shoving appetizers in each others' faces, twisting nipples with wine glasses, etc. The two fights went on at the same time, but eventually a member of the hammy fight had to join the knife fight, so the two teams had to watch each other for timing - which was almost impossible given the volume of people in the space.

Our fight director had given the actors sections which could be cut or extended, depending on space, people in the way, etc. There were so many variables and none of us knew exactly what to expect prior to getting there. (We know there's a wine bar, we have no idea how far away it is from the scene action, how many people will block the actor's path to the bar, etc)

The rest of our scenes took place in a tent during dinner, and knowing that the platform were were on was 2' high and 12x12, that was easy to stage in advance. However, actors get used to the director and SM being on one side during rehearsals, and our 12x12 stage was in the round. During our rehearsal in the space, the director and I sat in various locations in the tent, so that the actors would pay attention to the fact that there was an audience on 4 sides.

I thankfully did have a PA (I would never have been able to do this without one - because the director really needed to schmooze with the Winery management and money people) and we timed our entrances (2 min 30 sec from the Winery House where we were changing/eating/relaxing to the stone patio waiting area, but 1 min 19 sec from the House to the staircase for scene 1, etc) and I worked with the event coordinator for the dinner to time out when we wanted the actors to arrive based on table bussing/wine refilling. I would station with the coordinator, and walkie to my PA an she'd send the actors.

I was kinda scared about the whole thing, but after seeing the venues and getting our 2 hours in each space (it helps to only have 26 minutes of acting with no real tech, so you can concentrate on spacing) I would do it again. And thankfully, the President of the Winery's wife went gaga for the show, so we will be doing this again.