Messages

1

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Teamwork: How much time are you there?

« on: Oct 10, 2006, 02:21 pm »

Hiya,
I was just wondering on average you would normally spend working on a show??  More in terms of a percentage instead of hours, as in are you there for every set building session and anything related to the show, or just for the rehersals and performances. 
Basically, over the half-term at my school, I was planning on going up to london and also spending a couple of days in birmingham, (for a total of 5 days).  However I found out today, that a couple of other people on the tech crew (production manager, set designer)  were going to be spending the whole two weeks in the theatre building the set.  What I want to know, is if you were in my position, would you cancel you trip(s) and spend the time in the theatre, or just ignore the guys who are going to spend their time in the theatre and probably end up winding you up about it?

Thanks for your help

Diarmuid

2

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Actor Calls

« on: Oct 07, 2006, 11:09 am »

I wasn't actually ever taught by anyone as such, I just kinda picked it up off of the internet and learnt from my mistakes (namely not allowing the stage crew to try and work out how to moonwalk during shows.... )...

But yeah, at my school theatre, whenever we actually have pre-show calls, (for the last couple of shows, we have only had 7 cast members and they ended up changing backstage so no calls were needed) I will call them as follows:

35 minutes before 'curtain':  "Cast, this is your half hour call."
20 minutes before curtain:   "Cast, this is your 15 minutes call."
10 minutes before curtain:   "Cast, this is your 5 minute call, 5 minutes to beginners."
5 minutes before curtain:     "This is your beginners, call, begginers for act1(... etc.) please, thankyou."

Those are the normal calls I try and give, however as I am only at my school, some of the time, I am also running round checking set, actors, props, lights and a hundred other things, so I sometimes skip out calls, and also again cos we are a school, the director often keeps the actors warming up in the theatre until 10 minutes before curtain and so we often dont have a change to call many if any calls.

Diarmuid

P.S.
I've only just found this place, it looks pretty cool