Fired from an SM Job

[DeeCap]

I've had contracts end and did not renew them from theatres, but that was mutual between me and management.

I was fired from a film. I was hired for a job that was slightly out of my reach. My immediate supervisor liked me but for one reason or another a producer on the film did not like me.  She told my supervisor that she was changing the production department. I was going to get fired, and my supervisor was going to be demoted to my position. (My supervisor ended up quitting)

I had a feeling that I was going to be fired. It sucked, but I did learn that the film industry was not for me.

If you haven't already I would suggest that you read Larry Fazio's Stage Management: The Professional Experience. In my opinion I don't think the book is that good, however in the back he tells an epic tale of how a stage manager got fired from the show: after he and the lead actress got in a fist fight during a performance!

[plutosams]

I have been let go as an SM before and it was one of the best experiences of my life.  Let me clarify by saying that it was a horrible and embarrassing situation, but one that I have grown immensely from.  No need to go into details, but the director and I always seemed to be on different pages; despite efforts on both our parts.  In the middle of tech week I was let go and the producer ended up calling the show.

When I heard the news (thankfully the producers called me personally as opposed to hearing it down the grapevine as others have experienced), I was filled with embarrassment and a sense of relief.  This experience was one of the greatest moments of growth I think I have experienced.  I am now not only much better at communicating effectively with the production team, but I am also much better at listening.

I am shocked that I read a fired SM burned the book.  This seems highly unprofessional, even in a bad situation.  The book is still for the most part the property of the company.  Except in cases of broken contract and no payment for services it belongs to the company. 

If anyone finds themselves in an unfortunate situation of being fired (it can happen to the best of us) take some time to learn from the experience.  Even in cases where you feel you were right in all your actions, there is still room to grow from the experience.  Even though I wish this weren't a part of my history, it is something that has made be a better SM. 

[MusicTheatreSM]

I have never been fired from an SM job, but I have worked with an SM who was replaced. It was a strange situation too.

She had just graduated from college and she interned with an Equity house. The house needed an SM for their winter show, and she was gifted her card. I personally think it's a bad idea to gift a card from someone who has never stage managed outside of college. But the company did it. I was brought on as ASM for the show.

Once we got into previews and then into runs, she had made the mistake of missing sound cues on multiple occasions. The company decided they didn't want her to call the cues anymore. Being an Equity house, they had to have an Equity SM,  they didn't want to try and find another Equity SM, so they ended up changing her title to PSM and then bringing on a calling stage manager. Ironically, the calling stage manager was one of the people I had competed with for the ASM position. The whole scenario made the management team a bit uncomfortable. The actors weren't happy with the Equity SM, weren't told she wasn't calling the show anymore until half hour before the new calling SM called her first show, even worse, at the end of the production, our lovely actors brought gifts for the director, playwright, etc. I was the only one from management that was given a gift from them. It was just a bad and uncomfortable situation to be in.

Another situation I was in, I again, wasn't fired, but I wasn't re-hired either, even after a conversation with the PM about it.

I was working as an ASM and I had an ASM intern working with me. She was quite difficult to work with. She was consistently late, to the point that I had to do her pre-set work on top of mine. She would primp backstage during the show instead of taking care of situations that arose during the run. She was horrible at quick changes and made an actor late on stage every time she did the change versus me doing the change. 

I reported this to production management, it was getting out of hand and ridiculous when she started showing up 10 minutes before start of show. My production manager took it as me "tattling" on a member of the staff and said I shouldn't have done it. (This is after I has reported it to my SM and my SM did nothing either) I told her politely that being an intern, she needs to be told this stuff and it wasn't my place to do so, and it needed to come from above, but the above wasn't there to witness performance and I couldn't always do her work.

This conversation led to my contract not being renewed the next season. The ASM intern was hired, on though. Ironically, the PM was fired and replaced. The new PM not knowing the history, realized the intern, now SM had problems and fired her and I was contacted to replace. (I didn't, the company was a mess because of the firing) Then the intern moved onto another company as ASM, and then was replaced in tech week for that show also.

So, even though I wasn't renewed, I'm not upset about it!