PROMPT SCRIPT: Formatting when SM is also running deck cues

[cserendipity]

Besides your standard light, sound, fly, etc. cues that one usually puts in their calling script, what other kinds of information/cues wind up in your book when you find yourself backstage (or anywhere not in the booth calling cues)?  Do you tend to format these cues in the same manner as if you were calling them?  (i.e. with standbys, cue numbers, etc.)  For example, if you are responsible for moving a chair onstage, do you prefer to simply make a notation that the chair moves onstage to x location or incorporate it into cues like "standby set Q11", "set Q11 go" and then have a description of set Q11 on a separate list with any details, where it goes, etc. 

I'm mainly curious in finding a good way to set up your prompt book when you aren't calling the show, so that if you needed to hand off your prompt book to someone else, it would be easy to follow.  I'm also interested to hear what kind of weird or often overlooked items that people like to include. 

Edited subject line-Rebbe

[catalinacisne]

At my theatre, at the start of tech everyone on run crew gets a master run list (created by the PA) that covers who does what when; whether the cue is given over headset, via cue light, visual, autofollow, etc.; the shift number of each move; and any notes. The run list covers moves made by actors of furniture during the action of play, behind the scenes shifts, prop hand-offs, everything. As tech progresses, it is each crew member's responsibility to take notes of what they do that changes, and turn their notes into the PA at the end of each night. The PA then updates the run sheet, redistributes, and the process starts again.

There are some shows where the run sheet has ended up being 20 pages long, which is a large amount of paper to have shoved in your back pocket during a show. I usually type up a personal run sheet in Excel that lists just the shifts that I am involved in, and add personal notes ("remember to X US to [actor] to prevent traffic jam", "You need to haul a** back on deck after this shift to make the next one...").

The PA has a master copy of the script backstage, but I've never seen it referenced during the course of the show; we only use run sheets.

[nick_tochelli]

It's funny, I don't think I've used a backstage script since college. Recently I've been using just run sheets broken down by time. While a show will breathe internally, the general timing will stay pretty consistent. So if I write a cue happens at 53:15 elapsed time, and I give the stage crew a cue line, they can be at the right place at the right time.

I also try to condense the run sheet (if humanly possible) to the size of a large index card. This way I can print out the run sheet steps, glue it to the index card, punch a hole in it, and make a tie line loop. Now you have your entire run sheet attached to your person, it's small enough to fit into a front or back pocket, and you never have to worry about where you put them down.

[Rebbe]

Cserendipity, if this is a situation you are in now, can you give us a little more detail on what you’re doing?  I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking.  I have never been an SM backstage where I am calling lights/sound etc, then left my book to execute a scene shift. If I am backstage as an ASM I use a run sheet as nick_tochelli describes, and don’t use the script at all when we hit the stage for Tech. 

I usually just have a STBY & Go for a “DECK #,” but occasionally I’ll call it by a short name for the action if there is some reason to do so (like two different deck moves close together).  What the deck Q# entails would be detailed on the run sheet, and perhaps noted in an unobtrusive place on the script, too.  Sometimes when I’m in the booth I’ll give a warning to my ASM on a particular action, even if it is not for a called cue.  These warnings my function as a reminder for some crucial element that happens backstage.  The funniest unconventional cue I've called was FART.  We had a fart machine with a remote trigger that the ASM hit when called.

[loebtmc]

My run sheets backstage are just my duties. Yes, as the SM I have a copy of everyone's for the archive script that gets turned in, divided by de fact "tracks" by the backstage folks, but when I am running the deck, I have everyone's run sheets but if I am crewing I just have my duties on as close to one sheet of paper as possible (or, for a complex show, Act 1, Intermission and Act 2 on separate pages)

I will give scripts to whomever is running the deck, but rarely are they used.

[cserendipity]

To be more specific, the last show I worked on was at a small theatre.  There was a lightboard op (who was responsible for his own queues, but whom I didn't really trust) and me backstage moving props/furniture and wrangling children and dogs.  (It was a production of Annie).  So I didn't really feel comfortable foregoing my script entirely for run sheets (Though I did have runsheets posted for the actors who moved set pieces).  I ended up scribbling a lot of notes about what needed to happen when in my script.  I'd never encountered this before, so I just went with what seemed to work at the time;  looking back, it just wasn't as organized as I would have liked.