Author Topic: Washington Stage Manager!  (Read 4151 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

paige.pedersen

  • Tourist
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: Eastern Washington University Theatre
  • Experience: College/Graduate
Washington Stage Manager!
« on: Feb 18, 2020, 09:14 pm »
Hi everyone!

My name is Paige and I am currently a student SM at Eastern Washington University. I am so exited to finally be joining this community online after many years of SM experience. This week I am currently at KCACTF Region 7 showing my most recent work which is very exiting and I am learning a lot. If anyone has been to and has any tips about KCACTF I would love to hear them!

I thought I would share a little story for all of you that I laugh about now, but didn't in the moment.

This year I was the stage manager for my university's production of Urinetown, and it was a great experience. Unfortunately on opening night there was a strange smell that started filling the theater right after intermission. At first we couldn't make it out so I had one of my available ASM's look around the entire building, but couldn't find anything. After a while it became clear, it was the sewer. We talked to our set designer, who is the professor that oversees the theatre and shop, and found out that sometimes the sewer tends to back up and smell. It didn't help that there are two vents in the shop that is directly backstage essentially pumping out the odor.

When we started the run for our second night there was no smell until we started Act 1. We were told the only way to try and calm it was to pour hot water down the drains in the shop. Unfortunately one of them was under our drum set (because our pit was backstage) so we had to wait until there was time between musical numbers to do so. This happened a few more times throughout the next few performances before we eventually got someone from university maintenance to fix it.

Thankfully it was during a show that is about bathrooms so we could somewhat pull if off and make it seem like an intentional aspect. But in the moment I was very stressed!

Maribeth

  • Superstar!
  • *****
  • Posts: 1056
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: AEA
  • Experience: Former SM
Re: Washington Stage Manager!
« Reply #1 on: Aug 17, 2020, 04:42 pm »
Welcome, Paige! We'd love to hear about your experience at KCACTF - there are a couple of threads about it over on the College and Graduate Studies board.

Rough business with the sewage smell! A theater that I worked at years ago had this same problem - when the sewers dried out in the winter months, they became very pungent. It became part of the preshow to pour water down all of the basement drains. Glad you guys figured out a solution!