SM Typecasts

[dallas10086]

Matthew brought up a good point in his Self-Promotion thread that I thought was a good topic of discussion. Actors tend to get typecast all the time, but it's true that stage managers get typecast as well. Usually it's out of our control or without intention, though I know SMs that had a focus early on and stuck with it.

I tend to get typecast with straight dramas for some reason. Even though the majority of my training as a PA and ASM was in musicals, I've only ever managed three of them. The only reason I can think of is job referral, since I can connect a director who referred me to another director who referred me to another director...all who were directing straight dramas.

This season though, because my company is still on a PSM/SM search, I've been assigned most of the musicals, starting with Charlie Brown and ending with Pinkalicious (lord help me). I would love to manage a large cast musical and put the early training I received to work. A large cast, in my mind, is over 30 people and it looks like I might get close this season with Secret Garden. I'd also like to try my hand at managing an opera, though I need to brush up on certain skills before I'd seriously consider it.

What kind of SM are you typecast as? Was this on purpose or by coincidence?
What kind of productions would you like to manage instead?

[PSMKay]

This is somewhat awkward to describe in a sensitive manner.

I had wanted to do new musicals. Not just any musicals but new ones exclusively. I really enjoyed working on them and hitched my wagon to a company that did a relatively large number of them. However, they are rare critters and you have to pad the season out somehow. That company also did a lot of shows about black history & shows with color-blind casting. These were originally shotgun wedding shows that I took on so that I could do the musicals but I came to enjoy them. I think by the time I switched careers I was starting to get typecast as an SM for for-us-by-us shows about the black experience.

[MatthewShiner]

Mr. Classical Theater - but I am working very hard on shaking that up, but I find that most of the stuff I am considered for is Straight Theater, and mostly classical - but breaking out the mold - worked on one new musical and one new re-think of a musical. 

I am trying very hard to shake things up for more professionally, without losing the ability to do classical theater that I have grown to love.

[nick_tochelli]

is it a cop out to say I wasn't really a type cast by a theatrical style? For a while I thought I was in a rut of classical theater, but that was always counter balanced by more modern pieces with Godlight Theatre. I feel like I had a healthy mix of everything per year: Usually one or two musicals, classic piece, couple modern things, and then something strange like a dance show.

I suppose if anything, I'd be pigeon holed into the SM of new works as that was the most common thread between my shows.

[Maribeth]

I don't think I can say that I've been typecast, but I do end up working on a lot of new plays. I think that's just been the luck of the draw though. I would like to work on more musicals and large cast plays- I would be really interested in doing more classical plays.

[dallas10086]

Would any of you consider changing up your resume in order to seem less stereotyped? Downplay the classics in order to showcase your experience with musicals, for example.

[BLee]

Would any of you consider changing up your resume in order to seem less stereotyped? Downplay the classics in order to showcase your experience with musicals, for example.

The advice I've always received is to tailor your resume to the job you are applying to at that moment. If you are  applying for a musical you would highlight your musical theatre credits and vice versus for a classic show. I'm just now getting enough credits to dump my educational credits, so all my professional stuff is listed no matter what the genre, but I am already organizing a master credits lists so I can edit my resume for future positions. Not sure if I would consider this an attempt to avoid typecasting, but certainly good job hunting technique, right?

[MatthewShiner]

I think it might be wise to down play, but suck out the classics from my resume, what do you get . . .

I use it as a spring board to start a conversation that my work in the classics means I work well with concept pieces, large casts (up to 50), up to 18 points of automation, work with fights, dance, choreography, vocal and dialect coaches, running multiple rooms, working on shows with long running time, paying attention to detail in the text, dealing with older and more established actors and actresses, and a host of other things working on the classics gets you.

Know, in a cover letter, I may highlight different things ("Like, although you can see I have a extensive experience in Classic theater, you can see that in the past two years I have Production Stage Managed two high profile musicals, working with a two Tony Awarding winning artists on the new work.")  Enough to get the dialogue moving.

Although, although I do still my resume out, it's basically a calling card now - I have enough of a name, at least regionally, I usually get an interview if there is any chance at me getting the job.

[PSMKay]

I do think there's a difference between detrimental typecasting and doing a particular genre really well. I made some close friendships with directors who enjoyed certain types of scripts, and therefore I wound up working on those scripts consistently as those directors kept asking for me as they traveled around. It did not prevent me from getting other work. Rather, since those directors overlapped the Venn diagram of really "difficult" directors at the time, it meant that among PMs I got a rep for handling fussy directors well.

I think to a certain extent that the same annoying "stage managers are not creative" meme that needles us so much also works in our favor when it comes to typecasting. Designers and directors become known for their visual styles. We get known by the mental muscles we exercise more and our proverbial "rising sign" - dramaturg, director, musician, actor, dancer.

[missliz]

I was having this conversation with another SM recently, because I find I tend to do more left-of-center sorts of plays. Cabarets, nudity, gore, dance breaks, moving the audience halfway through, etc etc. I love the weird stuff. Recently, I've had a run of rock musicals, which I've really enjoyed because even though I'm not much of a traditional musical theater gal, rock concerts are something I've always enjoyed. I really just put out there that I wanted to do more musical projects, and they appeared! I'm glad to add that to my repertoire.

I try to keep my resume with a good variety of projects, to show that for every, say, All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret there's a Twelfth Night, but I think I get recommended for the same types of projects to other directors who are stylistically similar. However, I think my experience with these challenging pieces showcase skills that transfer to any production- the ability to problem solve, to adapt, and to keep things running smoothly.

[BayAreaSM]

In college, I was pigeonholed (instead of typecast) into straight plays. Others were dance or musical/opera. We rarely crossed over, if at all.

Once I landed my gig at the ballet, I was always put on large cast Shakespeare (what isn't?) with musical/dance numbers or New Works Musicals. Though I think some truth is there with PMs/directors discovering you in one arena and continuing with you in the same vein. With the ballet on my resume, a New Works Festival always put me on their staged reading musicals, because I was good with music. With my staged reading experience, I was put on a staged reading with another company that sent their show from SF Bay to Washington DC. One of the actors in that show liked how I worked with the particular reading style of the production and has since hired me 4 times to do her company's staged readings.

Would any of you consider changing up your resume in order to seem less stereotyped? Downplay the classics in order to showcase your experience with musicals, for example.

Due to my shared professional life between being a season long PSM for ballet and spending my summers/random weekends working for "regular" theaters, my resume is half and half. When applying to "regular" theaters, I put those Shakespeare/straight play gigs at the top, with the dance at the bottom - and vise versa. Everything is still there, it just varies what I put on top.