Author Topic: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?  (Read 4675 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

BayAreaSM

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 410
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Bay Area SM
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Current Gig: VP, Operations in AV Events
  • Experience: Professional
PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« on: Jan 08, 2012, 11:31 pm »
I've experienced Walk-Ons in outdoor Shakespeare and in ballet. Normally it's someone who paid money at a company gala/silent auction for the honor, and sometimes it's a favor your AD owes to a former Chairman of the Board to get their 4 year old granddaughter onstage while they happen to be in town for Grammy's birthday.

Have you SM'd or ASM'd a show that had a Walk-On? How did your company handle it? Were there rehearsals? Costume Fittings? Were you the one responsible for said person? Did your show get modified for said person's appearance?

I'd like to hear about other people's experiences with this not-so-common occurrence.

Edit to subject line-Rebbe
« Last Edit: Jan 25, 2012, 07:34 pm by Rebbe »

Tempest

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 374
  • Gender: Female
  • Learn to love chaos, then tame it.
    • View Profile
  • Current Gig: The Center For Puppetry Arts
  • Experience: Professional
Re: WALK-ONS: How do you handle them?
« Reply #1 on: Jan 09, 2012, 01:37 pm »
We did the auction walk-on thing a few times at my Christmas show.  Generally, they ended up being my responsibility. They typically had two bits, one at the beginning of the show, and one at the end.
Rehearsal/costume fittings I had to wedge into my show prep time, usually at 15 minutes before half hour.  We'd walk them through their two small bits a few times, and generally had a couple of costumes that would be okay for the role, and just chose whichever one fit best.  These were throw something over your street clothes type costumes, though.
House management would make sure they were seated on an aisle, and about ten minutes before each bit, I'd radio the HM and have her go get our "guest" and bring them backstage, where a stagehand would get them prepped and then (usually) literally shove them out on stage because they couldn't remember their cue from when it was given them, half an hour ago.
They almost always fudged up the scene, but it didn't matter so much, because of the type of show it was.
For a more...precision show, this probably wouldn't work out.
Jessica: "Of course I have a metric size 4 dinglehopper in my kit!  Who do you think I am?"

ReyYaySM

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 360
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Current Gig: Freelance
  • Experience: Professional
Re: WALK-ONS: How do you handle them?
« Reply #2 on: Jan 09, 2012, 04:54 pm »
I have dealt with several walk-on roles, generally during the holiday musical.  Here is how our process breaks down:

1. Development solicits a list of potential dates/times for rehearsal and performance that will work with the production schedule/AEA rules from Stage Management.
2. Development sets the date with the walk-on actor as well as securing measurement info and setting a fitting date.
3. Stage Management works with the Associate Artistic Director to create a track for the walk-on actor.  It usually consists of 2 to 3 appearances and curtain call.  This is then communicated to Costumes and Development.
4. Development shadows backstage to learn the track for the walk-on so that they can serve as the performance escort.
5. Development meets the walk-on in the Lobby before rehearsal.
6. Stage Management gives the walk-on a tour of the space followed by a rehearsal of the track.
7. Stage Management conducts a put-in rehearsal with the full company for the walk-on. 

The costume fitting was generally a week before the performance.  The rehearsal was generally the hour before half-hour and the walk-on performed that night.  And yes, once they are onstage, they will pretty much do whatever they want. 

I'm happy to answer additional questions regarding our walk-on process. 

Kelasaurus

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 58
  • Gender: Female
  • Live, Laugh, Love
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: CAEA
  • Current Gig: Getting my feet wet in the industry
  • Experience: Professional
Re: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« Reply #3 on: Mar 06, 2012, 05:16 am »
I ASMed a show with a walk on role a few years ago.  Basically from what I understood, people could win said role in local silent auctions.  We had about 10 of them over our two month run (10 in 2 months.  Guess who did the role at all the other performances.  If you guessed me, you would be right), ranging from a 10 year old boy to a 70 year old long time donor.

We asked them to wear black pants and shoes, and we had a top we would give them, with a hood, that was more or less one size fits all (the show was Robin Hood.  They were a peasant).  They arrived at the one hour call, and would get a quick walk through with one of the actors.  They were to enter, hand a wine goblet to the sheriff of Nottingham, exit, and then cross the stage carrying a platter less than a page later.  They would sit in the dressing room hallway until I came and got them, and showed them where to standby and wait for their actor companion, who would guide them through the part.  We would then have them change and take a seat in the house for act two.

It was a little silly, but many of the walk ons were super psyched about wearing a costume and "being in the show". Some even had a large entourage of family and friends cheering them on in the house.  It was cute.
‎"We keep moving forward, opening new doors... because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
- Walt Disney

bex

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 298
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Twitter
  • Affiliations: AEA, Auburn University
  • Current Gig: Freelance SM/ASM
  • Experience: Professional
Re: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« Reply #4 on: Mar 07, 2012, 02:07 am »
Here's my walk-on horror story... not exactly what you were asking, but I feel the need to share-

In college, we were doing a production of Deadwood Dick, a Wild West melodrama.  The founder of Yellawood Lumber, which is based near where I went to school, donated a massive amount of money to the College of Liberal Arts, and our opening night party was also a gala in his honor, and so the university had the bright idea of giving him a walk-on role. 

Now if you live in the Southeast US, you may have seen him in a commercial or on a billboard in his BRIGHT YELLOW cowboy outfit.  If you haven't, just imagine a pudgy, middle-aged man in a ridiculous yellow cowboy suit.

This walk-on role consisted of him, in his yellow suit, walking onto the stage and announcing "The stagecoach is coming!" and then walking off again- a line normally said by one of the ensemble cowboys.  In this case, the ensemble cowboy got the line "Who was that Yella Fella?"  Absurd, ridiculous, cheesy, and the audience full of donors loved it.

But here's the best part- the man rode to the party afterward on a horse, in his yellow suit, and promptly fell off the horse in front of the entire crowd of bigwigs.
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.

LCSM

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 249
  • Gender: Female
  • @LuciaCorak
    • View Profile
  • Experience: Professional
Re: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« Reply #5 on: Mar 09, 2012, 10:43 am »
bex, that was just the story I needed to hear this morning. I am in such a good mood now.

On_Headset

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 402
    • View Profile
  • Experience: College/Graduate
Re: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2012, 10:29 pm »
Children's theatre, so take this with a grain of salt roughly the size of a soccer ball.

The show involves an evil dentist whose plan to take over the planet is to hold us all hostage with her gingivitis ray. The walk-on parts (donors, bigwigs, local celebrities, etc.) appear in a single scene: they sit at a cafe, sipping coffee and eating cake, when suddenly... GINGIVITIS! (Lights go green, tea is spat out, horrified expressions, blackout.) No lines. (Although anguished cries are encouraged.) No blocking. Nothing to screw up.

It worked a charm, but it was an extremely easy put-in: they can wear their street clothes, they don't have to learn or memorize anything, and because they hit their mark (and exit the stage) during a blackout, the cast and running crew can literally grab them by the arm and take them to their place. Un-screw-uppable.

BeccaTheSM

  • SM Expert
  • ****
  • Posts: 153
    • View Profile
    • Becca Pickett
  • Affiliations: AEA, SMA
  • Experience: Professional
Re: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2012, 11:27 pm »
Un-screw-uppable.

Never say that. Someone will always find a way.
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. - Stephen Sondheim

Jessie_K

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 528
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • International Stage Manager of Mystery
  • Affiliations: AEA, AGMA, SMA (on leave)
  • Current Gig: Queen of the Night
  • Experience: Professional
Re: PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2012, 12:07 am »
We just did a walk-on role with a local TV morning new program.

As part of the reporter's ongoing series called "Crash Course" during which he learns various different jobs quickly and then shows it in 6 minute segments.  So we were one of the segments.  We filmed it over 2 days- one day rehearsal/ training (as he had to learn blocking AND a small amount of acrobatics).

Then the next evening, he appeared in the show and it was filmed from the audience.

We started the show with an introduction to the audience to excite the audience and to explain the TV cameras in the house.  He appeared in one scene and the bows.  He was escorted by various artists throughout all his stage time and escorted by an ASM when backstage.

All in all it went very well.  I took a long time to plan given his busy schedule and the filming/training dates were actually reschedule 3 times.

 

riotous