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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: RUNNING: How do you decide when to cancel a performance?
« on: Mar 20, 2011, 05:04 pm »
Interesting replies from everyone 
(sorry I'm late to reply, I just got back from the last performance and teardown)
Mostly I was interested in what drives or what the decision guideline is to cancel a show based on attendance, rather then weather or medical issues with actors or crew. In this case the show is small enough that I ended up defacto SM due to being the only one left. I had been called in to fix sound and lighting issues and run sound and lights, but since the director was also 50% of the cast for one weekend, I had to handle the rest of theatre-related duties.
Ultimately the director made the call to cancel last night, though he did talk to me about it first- more because we are friends then because I was SMing.
I guess a lot of it comes down to scale. This performance 'space' is a storefront in our small downtown, half of a former resturant in fact. "Intimate" doesn't begin to describe it. We often put on shows with just a few audience members, although of course we always want to pack the house!
The main thing I think we were looking to avoid was a situation like hbelden experienced. The director approached the couple much same way On_Headset did, offering a refund, comp tickets, etc. Everything worked out okay and the couple -did- come to today's performance.
err... sorry if this seems scatttered, i'm pretty tired from the last few weeks but i wanted to reply. also, the text box for replies keeps bouncing up and down which is maing data input quite... challenging. unf.
(sorry I'm late to reply, I just got back from the last performance and teardown)Mostly I was interested in what drives or what the decision guideline is to cancel a show based on attendance, rather then weather or medical issues with actors or crew. In this case the show is small enough that I ended up defacto SM due to being the only one left. I had been called in to fix sound and lighting issues and run sound and lights, but since the director was also 50% of the cast for one weekend, I had to handle the rest of theatre-related duties.
Ultimately the director made the call to cancel last night, though he did talk to me about it first- more because we are friends then because I was SMing.
I guess a lot of it comes down to scale. This performance 'space' is a storefront in our small downtown, half of a former resturant in fact. "Intimate" doesn't begin to describe it. We often put on shows with just a few audience members, although of course we always want to pack the house!
The main thing I think we were looking to avoid was a situation like hbelden experienced. The director approached the couple much same way On_Headset did, offering a refund, comp tickets, etc. Everything worked out okay and the couple -did- come to today's performance.
err... sorry if this seems scatttered, i'm pretty tired from the last few weeks but i wanted to reply. also, the text box for replies keeps bouncing up and down which is maing data input quite... challenging. unf.