Author Topic: Stage Management Guide  (Read 5450 times)

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deletedoldnotanymore

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Stage Management Guide
« on: May 09, 2007, 11:17 pm »
Hello all, I am working on a guide for stage management at my school, and I was wondering if anybody would be willin to take a look at it.  It has just been started, so a good portion is just section stubs, but if you have any ideas for improvement, or anything else, please feel free to post them!  I would highly appreciate it.

Balletdork

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2007, 10:02 am »
It looks like you've got a great start!  ;D

Keep pluging away- and may I suggest a table of contents?  :)

This project is something very similar to some honors thesis projects I'm familiar with.

killerdana

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2007, 06:49 pm »
It looks great.  If it's all right, I'd like to borrow a few sections for the class I teach.  They could definitely benefit from your insight.
Science without art is sterile.  --Albert Einstein

jwl_868

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2007, 12:40 pm »
Looks good.

You may want to consider putting Safety in a chapter of its own; the topic covers many things other than "Rehearsal".


Joe

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2007, 02:25 pm »
This looks pretty good and a lot of thoughts put into it.  I had to do one of these in college.  I do have a few thoughts/suggestions:

In Chapter 1:
--I believe the SM needs all the knowleged of everything that happens in the production and not just some of it.
--"Totally responsible for everything in the production", where did you hear this quote.  This quote I know (though paraphrased) came from Danial Ionazzi's book from one of his students.  You should quote him so you don't take credit for those words.
--"We need SM's." (Who?) It is really good to be specific.
--Why remove the tabs, these tabs can be very helpful?

Chapter 2:
--"Hit by a bus..."--If I am not mistaken, this quote was either covered in Thomas Kelly's or Lawrence Stern's book.  You should quote these words so you don't take credit for them.
--Keep in mind every item in a kit is just as important to an SM as another item. (at least in my mind)
--"Painfully long rehearsals..."--To me this could be taken as an insult to a director.
--Do your production meetings happen on other days?  What if everyone can't make the meeting that day, what is the procedure to re-schedule?
--What is an AD or ASM?  You should explain these abbreviations.

Chapter 3:
--I personally would but saftey in it's own chapter.

Chapter 5:
--Production is quite vague, it might be better if you used performances.

Hope this helps.  Best wishes on your project.

deletedoldnotanymore

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2007, 08:16 pm »
Hi, the two quotes in question I have heard many times, most recently by a fellow SM, and I do not know the original source.

"--"We need SM's." (Who?) It is really good to be specific."  This is referring to our theater program, this guide is targeted specifically for our program.  Same with the production meetings, we always have them on Tuesdays, it's how our Artistic Director works.  If someone can't make one, someone contacts that person to get information if it is time sensitive, or it gets brought up the next week.

I am definatley considering making safety it's own chapter, or having a section devoted to it in each chapter.

These suggestions are great, thanks!  I am hoping to get another 1-2 chapters typed up this weekend (a lot of this is already written in my journal), and will work to incorporate these suggestions.

Thanks guys!

kaitlinmarie

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2007, 10:59 am »
Awesome job, so far. You have so much more knowledge as a high school student, than most of the SM's at my college.

I have to agree about the quotes, the second "Hit by a bus" quote is from Lawrence Stern from his book Stage Management. I have his book and we've said that sentence hundreds of times in my SM class. Other than that, keep up the good work.

KatrinaFrances

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Re: Stage Management Guide
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2007, 05:46 pm »
This is very small, but something I thought was missing from your SM kit was cough drops. The only thing I've been asked for more than cough drops is band aids.
This seems great so far.