How to deal with problem Actor's/Audience members

[Trinity]

How do you deal with Problem actors or audience members?

My first show I SM'd I ended up with both.  The show was "Servant of Two Masters" and the director was allowing a fair bit of improv to happen within the show.  Mostly the improv was being done by the main character Truffaldino, but occasionally when actors forgot their lines they'd do a bit of improv to get back on cue.
>On a sidenote on SMing... we were hitting a Massive time crunch til opening night, and I had to make the decision that I couldn't get the show completly on book.  I opted instead to make sure that they were as on book as possible, that the lines were said, and I only corrected if they went completely off book or if what they had said didn't get the idea of the line across.<
One of the actors had been fighting to make his character funny, and unfortunatly that's not what his character is, nor does he as an actor have the timing of a comedian.  Opening night he asked if it would be ok if he added a line when he first came onstage.  The director had him doing something similar anyway that wasn't part of the script, so I allowed it on the condition that if it didnt work within the context of the play he wouldn't do it again.  It of course didn't work, I told him it didn't, and he continued to try to do it every night until suppisdly another actor said something to him that threw him off and made him stick on book for the rest of the show.  I had talked to him a couple of times about not doing this added bit, but he never seemed to listen... How do you deal with problem actors that don't listen to Stage Management?

Also Audience members that disrupt the play or other audience members... What do you do with them? I've had audience members familiar with the crew and have yelled at us either about something that wasn't right with how the stage was set up or that they didn't like the song being played as preshow and to change it.  In every case it's been as the audience is coming in and I've yet to see or hear them do the acts themselves, but I informed all my crew that if the person did it again to let me know and I'd remove them from the audience.  Do you think this is appropriate? or Should it be you do it once and you're out? 

[PSMAK]

Is this high school theatre or college theatre that you are doing?

One of the most difficult things that you will encounter, is making sure the actors are staying true to the text of the script. Unless the Director is okay with minor ad-libbing in certain places, they shouldn't do it. By doing so, they are changing the words of the playwright. It is also considered copyright infringement. If something is going to be ad-libbed, write it down in your script and make sure that they are saying that particular thing each time.

As for the audience: If this is high school theatre (which it sounds like it is), this is very common. Perhaps you need to have someone post signs or make some kind of announcement for noise in the theatre. I mostly sounds like you have people viewing theatre that don't know how to view theatre, which can be a problem. You might want to discuss with your director or theatre faculty adviser about appointing a house manager that could talk to audience members about disrupting the show.

[zayit shachor]

I agree about appointing a house manager; I don't think having to deal with audience members should fall under your job description as an SM.  You've got enough to worry about!

[Trinity]

Actually this was college theatre.  The director was the director of the program.  The show we did with the adlibbing was originally an Italian Comedie Del'Arte play which means it was originally "written" as All ad libbing.  And the actors weren't so much adlibbing as they couldn't remember their lines word for word so they'd change the occasional word to something that meant the same.  By the time we came offbook about a month before production half the cast didn't know their lines.  I tried to get them on book as much as possible, but it gets to a point of having them say their lines to the best of their ability (as memorized as possible and where what they say is roughly what the line says) and them relying on me to say their lines for them.  It's very hard when I correct the actor at every line he/she says and eventually when it's their turn to say a line they don't even try and just look at me and say "Line". (Litterally... 4 or 5 rehearsals of this!!)  The director wasn't happy with the actors, but supported what I was doing  with getting them as on book as possible.  I still corrected when they got the line wrong, but 2 weeks before production I started to relax my insistance that they said the lines word for word: It wasn't going to happen.  BUT!!! For ONE show out of our two week production EVERYONE was on book word for word!!! I was SOO proud of them all!

Our House Manager had little idea as to what he was supposed to do, so whenever anything happened everyone looked at me as SM (and supposidly the most knowledgeable person there) to find out what to do.  The problem audience members at the time was one of our first years from the course and was almost one of my ASM's before the director removed them from the positiong(they switched programs after the first semester)/ and the significant other of one of My classmates.... Both of which should have known how to act in a theatre setting.

I was just wondering in a more professional setting, when is the appropriate time to have an audience member removed?  Does it depend on how and when they disrupt? Obviously have them removed if they did it during the actual play... but if it's still when the audience is coming in, would you let it go the first time?

[ChaCha]

I had the problem with an actor (male lead) changing a line in the show because he thought it sounded better or was was funny or somesuch ( it was long ago when i was a young stage manager and I forget exactly why). It was an exit line for the scene and of course his version was terrible; more to the point, it wasnt as written. It was a new work, so there had been lots of  rewriting and i expect all the cast felt a bit of text ownership, but we did have a playwright! The actor and I had gotten on well until now.

The first time I gave him a line note. He explained he'd done it on purpose. I said, please dont. he did it again. I told him not to in small words. he did it again. I wrote in the show report " Mr X changed exit line Sc X, has been asked not to do this'  No one from management commented or got back to me. I am getting all worked up and actor and I are annoying each other a lot! I write it in the show report again. Finally the Director calls ( from 2500kms away) and I ask him if its Ok with him. He says no way, tell Mr X to stop. I relay the message. Actor stops. we continue to be polite but not superfriendly with one another.

A few weeks later we tour the show to Sydney, Mr Xs hometown. all the other cast are from Perth, where we rehearsed and opened the show. Between seasons we have a week off, Mr X  at home in Sydney.

On day one of the Sydney season, Mr X comes to me and, out of the blue, apologises for his behaviour in Perth regarding the line. I suddenly realise he had been feeling hugely stressed without the director still there to support him, and without his usual networks . he was quite young ( so was I I guess!).

I was glad then that I had always stayed professional, and even though i had taken his refusal to deliver the line as written as a personal affront I hadn't behaved like it was personal.

Of course now I think about this incident and laugh. I was a baby stage manager. now i doubt the actor would have defied me, and if he had i would have done exactly as i did but the situation wouldnt have got to me. I would have left it on the show report and gone home and forgotten about it.

[Trinity]

I'm glad he apologized about what he had done.  It is very hard for everyone else if it's the same line over and over that is wrong.  We had another actor when I was ASM that did something similar to one line... Everyone was on book including him... except for that one line.  The Stage manager corrected him Every time, whenever I was in charge of lines I corrected him every time... Even the Director talked to him... I think he only got the line right Once in the two weeks of production.  It got to the point the other actors knew what the line was supposed to be themselves.  Unfortunately it was the cue line for the next actor... The one time he got it right it threw the other actor off for a couple of seconds.  One thing me and all SM I've worked with have always insisted on, even for the play that we had problems with being on book, was cue lines... All actors had to get those lines right and they knew it.  I think they sometimes focus more on their cue lines instead of trying to memorize the Entire line.