Messages

1

Introductions / Re: Greetings

« on: Feb 13, 2014, 01:40 pm »

MandalynM,

I may be wrong, but it sounds like you're interested in being a professor of Stage Management somewhere? If that's right, what kind of university do you want to work at? But I don't think that sounds greedy! It seems pretty great, actually. It's not my main focus, but I love teaching other people. It's an amazingly rewarding task. It's probably also why I'm so interested in directing. Or maybe I just like the sound of my own voice 

2

Introductions / Re: Greetings

« on: Feb 05, 2014, 01:53 am »

Hey bkrst275! It's nice to meet another Illinois college student too! What school did you end up at, if you don't mind me asking?

I went to Central High School. We brought Sweeney Todd in 2010 and A Chorus Line in 2012. Both were on the main stage and there were two performances of both. Did you happen to see it?

Hey MandalynM! Educational theatre is an interesting brand to pick! Why did you end up there?
And I love knowing random things! So here's more trivia, Picasso mentioned his childhood once and said "[that at his birth] my mother said, 'You're magnificent. If you join the military you'd be a general. If you join the church, you'd be the pope.' But I became a painter and became Picasso."

3

Introductions / Re: Greetings

« on: Feb 02, 2014, 03:33 pm »

Thank you BARussell for the warm welcome! I'm very excited to learn a lot from you guys, but also to get to know you. I find stage managers to be the most entertaining and rewarding friends you can have. While you might not see each other for quite a while because of conflicting shows, there is no one more understanding, trustworthy, and honest than the stage managers I've met.

Actually, they did work on a production of Les Miserable later with a local theatre company! Unfortunately their talents weren't used to lift a massive cart. (Nice reference by the way! It took me longer then I would care to admit to realize what you meant.)

4

Introductions / Greetings

« on: Feb 01, 2014, 05:21 pm »

Greetings SM Network,

My name is Matthew Brooks and I'm a freshman stage management major pursing a BFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have lived in the area since I was two and that works out well because central Illinois has a surprisingly dedicated theatre scene. My high school theatre department was very good (the featured show at our high school theatre festival both times that we were eligible while I was a student there), and the University of Illinois has been all that I had hoped for and so much more.

I mainly love doing musicals and I've done several (my favorite is Urinetown and since I've done it twice now I pretty much have the show memorized line by line), but I also love the literary prowess of plays (Proof by David Auburn being my favorite play). I'm studying stage management, but I also love writing, directing, and set building. I kind of just love doing everything around a theatre and I figure that stage managing is the best way to be in touch with everyone.

I learned of your website from a fellow student here at the U of I who is another ASM with me on our production of O Beautiful by Theresa Rebeck which will start rehearsals in a couple of weeks and go through the performances in April.

As to little tips, I find that getting to know everyone working on a production (especially the people that generally won't talk to as much, such as assistant to assistants, etc) really helps cement your place as an essential aid to the production. This might seem pretty obvious, but I think people are a lot more willing to listen and try to help you if you've talked to them when you haven't needed something.

As to a story, my favorite one is during a production of Beauty and the Beast that I stage manged, we had a wagon where a wheel broke off entirely (our stage had a divot and the wheel got stuck in it), and we had to fix it in about four minutes before it needed to go out again. So we basically had two big guys our crew lift it up, had my asm sprawl across the floor, and we all tried to fix it as silently as we can. It ended up working out perfectly and we made it without anyone in the audience realizing that a major disaster was fixed. It was definitely my proudest moment.

Trivia time! I love trivia, so I have a lot of it. Some movie trivia: The Lion King was considered the "B" movie that the Disney Animation Studios were working on. It got the less experienced designers, animators, and other creative personnel. The movie that got the "A" list creative team? Pocahontas.

So I hope you learned a little about me (I feel like I just talked a lot) and I hope to get to know you guys in the future!