Messages

1

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Surprise Load In

« on: Jun 21, 2012, 11:29 am »

Before you do anything else, a key question:

Is this what the company has always done? Has a load-in always been done on more or less this schedule, with more or less this level of attention to detail, with more or less the same notice given and expectations concerning use of cast members?

If so, this isn't actually a problem. The director should still have told you and clearly has some issues about communicating with key personnel, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with community theatre load-ins happening under the circumstances you describe. (Heads would roll on a union show, but this isn't Equity.)

I can't tell you how much I disagree with this. People working for free or for token payment deserve AT LEAST as good working conditions as those who are making their living. If this is an example of standard practice with this company, it makes a strong argument for never working with them again.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: POLICIES: Standard policies for a SM's authority?

« on: May 24, 2012, 09:56 am »

I once said to a visiting LA-based professional director "get the hell off headset NOW." In retrospect, I wish I had said it more calmly and without "the hell", but it had been a VERY stressful show with a company who had no clear policies. He gave me a really nice apology before getting on the plane back to California.

Everyone is really correct here that it goes back to the rules that are written down. Pros have your Equity contracts and rulebooks, community theatres (who probably have a higher proportion of prima donna directors) tend not to be so formal. In the company I work with most often, we finally developed a set of "Production Guidelines." We distilled every pro rulebook we could lay our hands on down to a terse four-page document, which was adopted as policy by our board of directors. I think the clause that would most relate to this thread is "All artists and staff members involved in the actual running of a performance shall comply immediately with all instructions and cues given by the Stage Manager or an Assistant acting under the Stage Manager's direction."

I would urge any community theatre to put in the work to develop such guidelines. You are welcome to look at ours at http://www.oshponline.org/prodguide.pdf.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: How to keep kids *quietly* busy at rehearsal when they're not needed onstage?

« on: May 24, 2012, 09:35 am »

My 1st Community theatre experience was a production of Annie. One hundred & fifty  auditionees later- we had a cast of 12 kids aged 5-13. We required as a condition of auditioning/casting- a commitment by the parents to sign up as BSP's- Backstage Parents. As this was community theatre- we had the parents sign the agreement at auditions- it layed out what we were requiring from the parents. It worked very well. Most parents were more than willing to be involved. They were the BSP's. They reported to the ASM. I think giving them a 'title' helped.
We used books, video games, 'homework', cards and 'quiet games' such as chess & checkers. However- we still needed to have an occasions 'chat' to remind the cast (as a whole) about the 'quiet during rehearsal & backstage' etiquette.

I love this title! "Kid wrangler" has always seemed just a little demeaning to me.

My experience agrees with others' that cards can end up creating an even bigger problem. The games can get very competitive and therefore loud. Solitaire maybe?

4

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: MUSIC: How much should I be able to read?

« on: May 23, 2012, 08:59 am »

I have a lot of music training - I was originally a music education major (voice, piano, and french horn) in college. The most beneficial thing I've found about my musical knowledge is being able to communicate with the music director, musicians, singers, etc in their musical language.
It's along the same line as taking an acting class - so you can understand the basics of the process actors go through.

This is the really big point. Communication! We keep thinking that stage management is all about calling the show, when there is really so much more coordination and facilitation in the job. That said, however, learn to read music. It's not that difficult. It makes you much more employable. And while you may be able to call Dolly with only a base knowledge, I'd hate to think of calling the West Side Story ballet that way. And which is the more satisfying gig?