Author Topic: Lowering your expectations  (Read 4926 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

PSMKay

  • Site Founder
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1357
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • http://www.smnetwork.org
  • Affiliations: None.
  • Current Gig: SMNetwork *is* my production.
  • Experience: Former SM
Lowering your expectations
« on: Jun 28, 2009, 07:25 pm »
As the economy struggles onwards, many SMs are having to take a step down in terms of production quality.  Whether it means taking contracts with newer or less organized companies, taking smaller contracts, or in the case of AGMA members, taking non-union contracts for the first time in many years, there is a common thread of having to readjust to environments that may not be up to our normal standards. 

When you've grown accustomed to the niceties of a "professional" environment - production offices, relatively modern equipment, board ops, established communication channels and/or working relationships - it can be pretty frustrating to go without them.  Likewise, students who have been working in well-equipped university theatre departments can get a bit of culture shock when they're thrown into a show with no budget, no rehearsal hall and no dressing rooms.

What tricks have you learned to keep yourself from getting too annoyed with this kind of a move?  How have you learned to cope?  Have you managed to "encourage" your new company to step up?  Have you just grinned and bore it?

missliz

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 569
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • Personal Site
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Lowering your expectations
« Reply #1 on: Jun 29, 2009, 12:41 am »
Funny, I just dealt with a situation like this. I was asked to SM a showcase that was being produced/directed by...a group of bankers. They all enjoyed theater and wanted to work with a certain playwright on developing a new show.

I have to say, it was pretty valuable for me because it was a lot of problem solving. Because I was working with a lot of people who really enjoyed theater and wanted to learn more, but didn't know a whole lot, I had to step up and really use a lot of things I had learned on other shows, as opposed to having someone else who could take care of it for me. I also had the pleasure of training an ASM- a bank employee who was 15 yrs my senior! He had a great sense of humor, and I realized how much I knew because I was teaching him.

I really just took it like a test...I became aware of how much I knew (confidence!) and really became a refresher as I went back and thought about basic things that had become second nature. I had to slow down and really think about them because I was teaching them to someone else.
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

loebtmc

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1574
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA, SAG, AFTRA, SMA
  • Current Gig: Caroling, caroling now we go — and looking for my next gig!
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Lowering your expectations
« Reply #2 on: Jun 29, 2009, 02:46 am »
I had to laugh when I saw the topic. Most of my work is out in the regions and in LA, in spaces where compromise is the name of the game. There was perhaps one theater that had even close to up-to-date equipment, a production office (off site, abt a mile away), and established relations. My first LORT contract (many years ago) had even older and sadder equipment than many of LA's 99-seat houses. Even the most recent house, a very nice modern theater with some decent bells and whistles, has no SM office or internet access anywhere near the theater, the booth is makeshift at best, there is a standing light board op only because he doubles as the house babysitter for the center. Most smaller theaters refuse to acknowledge the SM getting more pay for boards in hopes we will simply do it all and not mention the rulebook - along w maintaining props, doing quick costume repairs and doing perishable runs. I have been in houses with no TD  and where the circuitry was a joke, so when a lamp blows they assume it will be repaired by magic... or the SM under the table; houses where I had to schlep all props daily to various rehearsal spaces since we had nothing ongoing or permanent, etc etc etc.

I do not bemoan my fate - I found that I actually enjoy the challenge of being creative with limited resources and limited support, I know where I draw the line - what I will and won't do - and I certainly appreciate the health weeks since most of the time the pay sucks, but all those lovely perks you mention? I dream of working in a situation where I get to do the SMs job. And just the SMs job. With a production office. Using the theater's office supplies. Having a phone besides my cell as the company line. And so forth...

PSMKay

  • Site Founder
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1357
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • http://www.smnetwork.org
  • Affiliations: None.
  • Current Gig: SMNetwork *is* my production.
  • Experience: Former SM
Re: Lowering your expectations
« Reply #3 on: Jun 29, 2009, 06:12 pm »
I cannot offer any solutions here, which is one of the reasons why I started the topic.  I can definitely contribute a history and series of decisions that did NOT work for me.

My situation is far different than loebtmc's.  The need for adaptability that was not stressed enough during my education.  I never got over the culture shock of going from the big houses that I trained in down to the little piddly companies that I ended with years later.  By 2003 the inability to adjust to life without job descriptions ... and the sheer contrast of that life with what I had been trained to expect ... was what led me to leave SM altogether. 

In my new job (outside of theatre) I wear four hats, have no direct report, no set hours and no set paycheck, but I am happy because it has been like this all along since the day I was hired.  I had no expectations of anything else.

I trained at a college with three dedicated stages plus a student black box, a well-appointed scene shop, at least two assistants on every show. I only had to tape out a set twice in four years.  I never needed to pull rehearsal props because we were working with the real things within 2 days of the request appearing on the reports.  Every instrument was grounded and every house had permanent catwalks.  I was ripped a new one if I either tried to do someone else's job or didn't do exactly every single detail that was included in my job description. 

I did do two summers at "stock" theatre. I had been warned that stock was about pushing yourself as far as you could rather than about production values, so I wrote off the quality of the environment figuring that it was atypically poor.  I absolutely loathed stock, but figured that it was a rite of passage and things would never be that bad again.  It turned out that the rest of my career was in houses far more like the stock environment.

My first gig after college was a year spent interning at a company with even MORE support and established systems than the university had.  I was an intern and I was treated like chattel.  I accepted that as "paying dues."

By the time I started freelancing in 1999 and had the squishy mat of financial endowment pulled out from under me, I was 22 and had done 25 massive productions in VERY elaborate environments.  From that point forward I never again had an effective assistant, I never again had a rehearsal space that even approached the size of the actual stage, and I never again did a show where I was the stage manager and ONLY the stage manager.  After four years of trying to adjust I never really did.

In some ways my personal beliefs contributed to this inglorious end.  I saw how union contracts affected decision-making in the larger companies and opted not to join.  I am not the kind of person who asks for help - if I see a problem, I'll certainly try and fix it but I generally assume that nobody else is interested in trying to fix it along with me.  Collaboration is not one of my better skills.  I am more competitive than cooperative.  I am selfish.  All of these traits serve me very well working as a solo real estate agent.  They did not blend well with stage management.

While I did draw the line in certain places I probably didn't draw it in the right places.  I did quit shows for racial harassment and sexual harassment, but I had no problem doing laundry alone at a laundromat six blocks away (without a car) for casts of 20 without extra pay.  I threatened to quit (but didn't) when ASMing for a supervisor who regularly called me a "useless piece of !@$#" and threw props at me, but had no problem doing preset for a 3 story tall set on two sprained ankles.  I have numerous physical problems now that trace back to the theatre years and may never heal.  I am no longer able to run, jump, dance or climb ladders because of 18 sprains between 1998 and 2003.  I cannot sit in the same position for more than 20 minutes at a time because I shattered my tailbone during a load-in while trying to lift and preset a couch alone.  Some of you will read this and laugh and call me a baby.  Others will be horrified.  In retrospect after several years back in the real world I certainly am.  I drew the line at the wrong place - perhaps I adapted too far or expected too little by the end?

So yeah, windy as usual.  But what you see above should be an abject lesson in how NOT to do it.  I don't know what I should have expected, but it wasn't what I got.  I don't know how I should have adapted, but I didn't.  I don't know if I had the right personality to be a stage manager or if it was just the wrong choice all along.

SMrose

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 228
  • Gender: Female
  • all the world's a stage
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA, IATSE
  • Current Gig: Technical Support Services @ Lenoir-Rhyne University
  • Experience: Former SM
Re: Lowering your expectations
« Reply #4 on: Jun 29, 2009, 06:36 pm »
Lowering my expectations…hmmm…having started out in small SF Bay Area theatres, it never occurred to me that I had lowered my expectations. These theatres had little resources. As a non-union SM, I learned enough about the different departments in theatre to be able to fix something and not hurt myself at the same time.  As a union SM (and on larger non union shows), I had crew so I was able to delegate.  I can’t think of a time I had my own office.  That didn’t come till I was production manager for a large event facility.  Even then, the senior staff and I learned to make do with the minimum (supplies and personnel).  As far as lowering my expectations…well…maybe because I’ve worked with so little for so long it never really bothered me.


sievep

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 204
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AGMA
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Lowering your expectations
« Reply #5 on: Jul 18, 2009, 06:18 pm »
A couple of things got me through this current stage  . . .

The first of which was comment that was made in Chat, which was to only apply for the gigs that I really WANTED, and something would come out of it . . .it did.

In the meantime, I did take a job that was frustrating, but It also gave me the opportunity to try new things, test myself in different ways, switch things up.  For instance, for the last opera I did there was no lighting designer.  In the absence of a contracted LD, I just did it (and it was a lot more complex than "here's the house rep plot, have fun" . . .), so I ended up calling cues for my own design and for the first time in eight years I called an opera from the house because I had to watch the light cues run.  One more thing for the resume.

I know plenty of people who revel in the opportunity to take charge at a smaller company.  Maybe it's more about changing expectations than lowering them?
"This lovely light, it lights not me" - Orson Welles

Tigerrr

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 52
    • View Profile
Re: Lowering your expectations
« Reply #6 on: Jul 19, 2009, 06:29 pm »
Maybe it's more about changing expectations than lowering them?

Good point.

Personally I come from a Fringe/Co-op/Independent production type background where I had to wear whatever hat wasn't being worn by someone else. I've built costumes and props, done the lighting and sound design while SMing shows, built and sourced set materials, and the like. Usually for no or very little pay. It was after 6 years of doing this that I decided to go to school for my BFA. Now, even though I still sometimes use my home as my office, I've also had the opportunity to work at larger theatres with up-to-date equipment and the infrastructure to support multiple seasons (English, French, Dance, Opera & Orchestra - all under one roof!).

My expectations, both for rate of pay and infrastructure/environment vary depending on the company I'm working for. I think that my background has made me extremely flexible. And, while my personal standards are extremely high (aren't they for all of us?) I've learned to accept my own limitations and, frankly, the standards also change depending on the company. Small company, no office, no ASM's? My scene plot will probably be done by hand on a photocopy of the ground plan. On a team with a PSM, SM and another ASM? You betcha those pictures are gonna be colour-coded and done in Acrobat!

All this to say that sometimes I take the gig because it'll fill in a hole in my season, sometimes I take tech calls, sometimes I waitress. I do what I have to do. But I also have a landlord who doesn't mind if the rent is a few days late, a boss at a pub who will give me months off on end, then ask for me when I get back, don't have any dependents (except my cat) and live a generally free and easy lifestyle. It's not for everyone, but I can get by for a couple months on very little.