Author Topic: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?  (Read 11120 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

dackj

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 18
    • View Profile
  • Experience: High School
I'm a 15 year old who has sadly fallen in love with stage management, I've shadowed the Lion King Las Vegas stage management team 4 times, a SM from Phantom of The Opera Las Vegas, and the touring production of Mamma Mia. My favourite story is either getting to sit in the lobby with Kevin, a SM from the LKLV team, with all the Hyenas waiting for their cue to enter the house, OR, sitting in the booth with the SM from Phantom, and the pyro tech goes "Watch this, Dack," and turns a key, presses a button, and the stage lights up in fire, and he says, "boom, magic."

As a side note, I've taken what I learned at these productions and applied them to how I manage my high school's shows.

A more embarrassing story, I had an espresso before shadowing the SM of Phantom, and consequently, had to go pee about 10 minutes into the show. They had to ask the dance captain to take me down the elevator and show me where the bathroom was. Awkward.

Edited for language-BW
« Last Edit: Sep 21, 2011, 12:42 pm by Bwoodbury »

missliz

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 569
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Personal Site
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Experience: Professional
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #1 on: Sep 20, 2011, 01:23 pm »
When I shadowed at Jersey Boys a few years ago, the SM forgot the cue the band in at the top of the show! They started, and all was fine and probably unnoticeable to the audience, but I remember a little relief that even big-time SMs make mistakes.
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least. -Ionesco

SM_Maddie

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 12
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Experience: High School
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #2 on: Sep 20, 2011, 09:49 pm »
I shadowed a SM last year that came through the DC area, and because of it I wound up with an internship in NY City!

Kristine

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Theta Alpha Phi
  • Current Gig: Spirits to Enforce, UW-Whitewater
  • Experience: College/Graduate
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #3 on: Dec 15, 2011, 12:22 am »
I've shadowed a few shows in Madison, Wisconsin including Wicked, Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Legally Blonde, Les Miserables, Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast (Non-Equity Networks Tour). I also had the incredible opportunity to act as a PA/SM Intern for Shrek the Musical through tech and previews in Chicago while they were opening the Broadway tour. I was fortunate enough to have theatre parents who know people and also work on the IATSE Local in Madison so they help me get in contact with the stage managers. I love shadowing, it's so cool to see how the "big guns" work and I also use the things I learn from the shows to use at my college. From Shrek, I was next to the PSM as he typed up the prompt book so I learned how he formatted it and I used that and the Vegas Phantom calling scripts to figure out how to do that for my College.

I don't really know if there were any cool stories but I'm always entertained at how often I'm told, "yeah... pretty boring... this is all we do" as they sit in their offices until places.

dackj

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 18
    • View Profile
  • Experience: High School
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #4 on: Dec 15, 2011, 04:05 pm »
I don't really know if there were any cool stories but I'm always entertained at how often I'm told, "yeah... pretty boring... this is all we do" as they sit in their offices until places.

Haha, I know what you mean. So did you shadow in Vegas, or just used their calling script?

And an update, I'm going to Vegas tomorrow as soon as I finish my last midterm to shadow the Phantom SMs, Blue Man Group, and Lion King one last time before they close... sad :/

On tuesday I shadowed the SM of A Tuna Christmas...

And next week I'm going to meet the SM of Trans-Siberian Orchestra... I've got a busy week ahead of me!

Kristine

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Theta Alpha Phi
  • Current Gig: Spirits to Enforce, UW-Whitewater
  • Experience: College/Graduate
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #5 on: Dec 17, 2011, 01:33 am »
I shadowed shows that were National Tours or sitting in Chicago. My parents were close to a PSM who got me a copy of the Vegas Phantom and the touring Dreamgirls scripts to refer to when attempting to recreate it.

dackj

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 18
    • View Profile
  • Experience: High School
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #6 on: Dec 18, 2011, 05:04 pm »
I shadowed shows that were National Tours or sitting in Chicago. My parents were close to a PSM who got me a copy of the Vegas Phantom and the touring Dreamgirls scripts to refer to when attempting to recreate it.

Was it by chance Ray or JD?

Kristine

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 19
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Theta Alpha Phi
  • Current Gig: Spirits to Enforce, UW-Whitewater
  • Experience: College/Graduate
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #7 on: Dec 27, 2011, 01:18 am »
No, Tom.

thomasjohnston

  • Tourist
  • *
  • Posts: 1
    • View Profile
  • Experience: High School
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #8 on: Jun 20, 2017, 10:28 pm »
I've gotten to Apprentice (I guess a long term shadow you could say) on Matilda (a sit down before the 2nd national) and The Sound of Music Ntl. I got to learn the deck tracks and watch the calling a bunch. It definitely confirmed my love for stage management!

smejs

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 475
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA, AGMA, SMA, USITT
  • Current Gig: Freelance SM in Denver
  • Experience: Professional
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #9 on: Jun 25, 2017, 07:03 pm »
Two decades ago - cough - when I was in college, our school would take a yearly trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. It was great to get master classes/discussions with the performers, etc., as a lot of actors went, but I was absolutely over the moon that I got to sit in the booth during Amadeus. While everyone else was talking about the fantastic acting, I was gushing over how cuelights worked and "standby for the figure" and trying to figure out what it was in advance and where it might come from.

SMAshlee

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 88
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Current Gig: Porchlight Music Theatre
  • Experience: Professional
Re: As a student, have you shadowed any SMs? Any cool stories?
« Reply #10 on: Jul 05, 2017, 12:31 pm »
I shadowed the calling SM for Phantom of the Opera in Vegas one time. I was surprised at how small the backstage area really was. During the opening, she leaned over to me and said, "don't be surprised, the booth shakes when the chandelier moves." I thought, oh yea, ok, no big deal. She wasn't joking... it was a like small earthquake in the booth!