Line Note- POST ITS!

[AshevilleSM]

I'm a poor college student, So I haven't been fortunate enough to BUY these. But I thought I'd share the idea.

My ex-bf bought me personalized post its for Valentines day, you can order them from Post-It and they will mail a box of them to you.  It's   So here's my plan...Have the post-it say:


Character: _________________
Pg#:_____
Line:_______________________
___________________________

Skip  Rev Call  Drop  Add  Cue

Then you can just grab a post-it pad and a script and your good.   Fill out your version of the form, circle what they did wrong.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll be buying this next year when I start SMing my own shows-  Any body think I should add/change something? Can you see any possible problems?

[StageMgr2Stars]

Interesting idea. One of my friends came up with the plan that since we have to type our scripts (I'm not sure why because we bought the rights) that we just mark it in the script and then copy and paste into an MS Word document already set up. I think it sounds good, but really expensive.

[zayit shachor]

I'm addicted to Post-it's, so I think that's a great idea.  The obvious advantage over strips of paper is that you can stick them in your script and not worry about losing them.

What if there was an arrow on the post-it, too, so that when it gets hectic and you don't have time to write everything down right away, you can just point the arrow at the line that was messed up and go back later to fill out the rest of the info?

So mine would look like this:

<------
       Character: _________________
       Pg#:_____
       Line:_______________________
       ___________________________

Skip  Rev Call  Drop  Add  Cue


I agree, though, it would get expensive - I'd love to try it out to see if it's worth it!

[LisaS]

I'm with Hannah, addicted to post-its, so this would be perfect for me.  If only stage management was a big enough industry so that it would actually be cost effective to make post-its like this instead of having to special order them.

[BalletPSM]

Can you post a link to where you purchase these from?

[AshevilleSM]

http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/pmd/

[avkid]

Those are actually not all that expensive.

[StageMgr2Stars]

I was referring to buying new ones for every show.

[sourc3]

The first time I go through the script, I number every other line (1 3 5 7 etc.) in each scene. Then, I have a separate TextEdit (Notepad) document open for each actor on my computer. As I go along, I can quickly (I use expose on my Mac, windows would be alt+tabbing) switch between each of the actors and just type in the Scene/Line # and the reason, then go back through once I'm done and fill it out, which doesn't take very long. Sometimes, if it's a short enough screw-up, I'll just type out the line they miss as I go along. That way, at the end of the night, it takes 5 minutes to e-mail everyone their line notes and I'm good to go.

[Sarah]

Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, but I just don't trust stickies in my book. I also betray an addiction to stickies...especially, fun-shaped stickies. Though it's an interesting idea, I'm curious to know how you gather all the line note stickies together for each actor. Stickies are notoriously unruly once they've been separated from the pack...

[zayit shachor]

I'd probably do the same thing I'd do with slips of paper - paperclip them together and hand them out.

[Jessie_K]

I have received favorable feedback from actors on using post-it notes.  They like to stick the post-it on the appropriate pages to serve as a reminder.

I don't usually have a problem with post-its getting too unruly on script pages.  They are around long enough to fall off and get confused.

[Sarah]

On small cast shows, 6 or fewer, I usually do whole pages, front and back. For larger casts, I do strips. Maybe I'll try the stickie method on my next big show.

[jalooz]

I was given a suggestion the other day I am going to try on my next show:  Copy the script and put it into a looseleaf notebook with plastic page protectors (they would have to be the smooth shiny ones--usually cheaper) or one of those "Magnetic" photo albums with the plastic page covers.  Then, using dry erase markers, simply highlight or underline the appropriate line and use a simple letter code (d for dropped, p for paraphrased, j for jumped, etc.) to indicate the problem.  The actors are then responsible for looking at the "notes" script to see their notes.  I'm thinking of using post-its with the actors/characters name on them to flag the pages so they don't have to go through page, by page.  At the next reheasal, just erase mistakes they don't make, add new ones and leave repeated ones.  I think this will work with a small cast, not sure about a larger one.  If the cast were small enough, you could use a different color marker for each one.  Has anyone ever tried this before? 

I should point out that I am a volunteer stage manager in a small community theatre, and am required to be on book and do line notes, a nearly impossible task, no matter how good you are at multitasking.  I am currently jotting notes in pencil in my script and then transcribing them, which means actors don't usually get notes until the next rehearsal.

[Scott]

Old school here -- don't understand all the broo-ha-ha about finding methods of recording line notes.

Keep a pencil in your hand.  When a line error occurs, circle the line error.  Transpositions become more of an S shape, as in editing copy.

Everytime the same mistake happens, the circle gets darker.  As the line cleans up, erase the mark.

The darker, more frequently circled are then the line notes to give at any given point.

In my experience, it is not useful for actors to get a note every time there is a line error -- only to point out consistent errors.

In my experience, professional actors, especially stars, are not interested in defining what the error was -- it is more useful for memorization to just hear/see the correct line again as it is written.

(Twice as true for new works, where rewrites are likely.)

That's my $.02.