Author Topic: Show Survival Kit  (Read 46842 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

mhowson

  • Guest
Show Survival Kit
« on: Mar 25, 2008, 11:35 pm »
Hey,

I work as Stage Manager for high school productions, which at our high school means renting out the local theatre in the world, getting some of the biggest ego-ed dancers you will ever meet and a show produced to professional standards without - well, without the money, frankly - which makes forms my friend. I've enclosed a PDF of my 'Show Survival Kit', which compromises:

  • Cast Contact Form
  • Cast Illness and Allergy Form
  • Cast Register
  • Props Register with accompanying key to Check Points
  • Cast Schedule Conflicts Form
  • Four different 'notepad' forms I use
  • Sound and light cue planning sheets

Accompanied with my annotated scripts, these enabled me to single handedly SM a show with a cast of nearing 50, plus primary school kids, with only 2 stage crew.

Hope this helps!

zayit shachor

  • SM Expert
  • ****
  • Posts: 175
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • http://thankyouten.blogspot.com
"All Paperwork" Excel document
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2008, 12:27 am »
I like having as much paperwork as possible for each show I do in one Excel worksheet.  Here's my template; a lot of these forms have been borrowed and modified from documents posted to this very board, but it's been a while so unfortunately I don't remember who created each form.

The worksheet includes:

Contact sheet
Calendar (for "at-a-glance" schedules)
Daily schedule
Scene breakdown
Props tracking
Sign-in sheet
Run sheet
Shift plot
Props preset
Cut list
Line notes
Phone card

Some of the docs can do some cool things: in the calendar, if you change one date it automatically updates the following dates; for phone cards, if you enter info in the top left card all the others will fill in.

Enjoy, and feel free to PM me with any questions.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2008, 12:33 am by zayit shachor »

Jessie_K

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 528
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • International Stage Manager of Mystery
  • Affiliations: AEA, AGMA, SMA (on leave)
  • Current Gig: Queen of the Night
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2008, 01:55 am »
This is an interesting idea.  I had never thought of combining documents this way.  Thanks to both of you for sharing.

themikejones

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 52
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • Mike's Homepage
  • Affiliations: AEA, SMA
  • Experience: Professional
Re: "All Paperwork" Excel document
« Reply #3 on: Jun 01, 2008, 03:58 pm »
I like having as much paperwork as possible for each show I do in one Excel worksheet. 

What a great idea!   Thanks so much for sharing!

MatthewShiner

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 2478
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA, SMA
  • Current Gig: Freelance Stage Manager; Faculty for UMKC
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #4 on: Jun 01, 2008, 04:39 pm »
I think it is interesting to combine the documents in form . . . my only concern is if you are more then a one person team, how to update and access the form could be problematic.

How do you handle multiple users of the same document????

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

Maribeth

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 1056
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Experience: Former SM
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #5 on: Jun 01, 2008, 06:02 pm »
i did something similar for a show last year- one of the downsides is a file that large can be problematic to load on a slower computer. (i had a file with a backstage runlist, preshow/postshow checklist for each crew member, quick change plot, etc each on different tabs).

for a show with a larger SM team, you could use the 'track changes' feature, and leave the file on a shared computer drive. or pass a thumbdrive back and forth.

MatthewShiner

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 2478
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA, SMA
  • Current Gig: Freelance Stage Manager; Faculty for UMKC
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #6 on: Jun 01, 2008, 06:08 pm »
Our teams (4+) tend to work on documents on the same time, so I don't think this would work on a large team, but I think it's great for solo SM projects.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

acemetallic

  • Tourist
  • *
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #7 on: Jul 07, 2008, 12:09 am »
At my university we have a Theater Staff server that everyone can access and update. That's where we keep all the forms, plus examples of reports and such for new SMs.

RenMan

  • Tourist
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #8 on: Jul 07, 2008, 09:36 am »
The Google Apps for business shows promise.

Allows -- internal website only those chosen to view it can access
joint real time editing -- both docs and spreadsheet
calendar all can see

considering using it in the theatre and journalism classes I teach.

(ed version free, business version has fee for the most advanced features)

missliz

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 569
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Personal Site
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2009, 10:39 pm »
I think it is interesting to combine the documents in form . . . my only concern is if you are more then a one person team, how to update and access the form could be problematic.

How do you handle multiple users of the same document????



I'd suggest creating a communal GoogleDocs account. That's been a lifesaver for my theater. Everyone on the production team has the username and password and can upload basic Doc/Excel files, access the calendar, contact info, etc. and edit it. Works very well.
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

fetchthis

  • Tourist
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Experience: Community Theatre
Re: Show Survival Kit
« Reply #10 on: Jan 10, 2013, 04:29 pm »
Thanks for sharing this - I hadn't thought to combine my docs like this.   Appreciate the idea!! :)