Messages

1

Employment / Re: So...I want to go on tour

« on: Jun 25, 2006, 10:55 pm »

If you want to start touring I would suggest VEE Corporation (Sesame Street Live, etc...) [www.vee.com]
They tend to have a mixture of new/young people that just finished school, as well as people that have been with the company a few years. If you have the right attitude/personality, are a good worker/employee, and if you can accept to live with what they offer payscale-wise (it's not a lot, but the experience can be quite good). It's good for someone just starting out; especially since any "big" tour is usually looking for someone with touring experience (they don't want to take chances when they're paying people full-scale!)

Another good place to look is Feld Entertainment, which does the ice shows, and some Disney Live shows.

The same applies for VEE and Feld; people leave with a great experience or they hate them (because they got fired, or just couldn't conform with the company "system"). These companies can be much more "Corporate" than most theatre people are comfortable with.

Both VEE and Feld post on Playbill every now and then. VEE also has an online submission form. Good luck.

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Employment / Re: Websites

« on: Jun 25, 2006, 10:38 pm »

Having a website certainly doesn't replace sending a resume in response to an ad posting; but it does give you a presence online if someone where to search for a stage manager. I've had a few calls though never landed anything. One was actually a headhunter in London looking to recruit someone for the Asian Games!

It doesn't take the place of being pro-active in your job searches, just having a website is a latent thing. Realistically a producer/manager isn't going to waste their time searching the internet to find a stage manager, at least not one that's going to pay you. They will hire someone they know, or someone that was recommended, or they'll post an ad and interview the people that respond.

Having a website is more useful as a backup for situations as I mentioned earlier, or if you meet someone at a gathering. It's a way to say "Hey check out my resume online". Because I have a few other things of interest to some people, like photos, I hope that people that I've worked with will remember the resume is there too and then pass it along if they hear of something.

A website is something that you need to keep updated as you start or finish shows, but, depending on the complexity of the site/page, it can be quite easy and take only a few moments. Some sites can be free, or you can pay for a hosting service and write it off!!! I would agree with MShiner and avoid a MySpace page or blog page to promote yourself. You want something that is going to be professional and you should invest some creativity into it. (I'll spare a rant about how juvenile MySpace is).

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Employment / Re: Websites

« on: Jun 23, 2006, 12:21 pm »

You can check out http://kyleh.net for an example as well.

I've had some good luck with having a resume available online (if I get a call while walking down the street or something I can direct them to the website rather than make them wait until I get to my computer). I even discovered someone who stole and plagiarized my entire resume (not only the layout, but some of the names and shows)! So be careful what you put out there. [Since then I've taken the Word document down, and kept only a PDF up for downloading. Lesson learned.]

Mr Shiner has a very nice clean site. In fact I discovered we are both alumni of SRT; though from different times I think. We even know some of the same people, all SRT folk of course.