Messages

106

Employment / Re: Season Contract?

« on: Sep 12, 2012, 07:45 pm »

I guess the first question is whether they included an out clause in the contract that outlines the expectations for giving notice?  Mainly, have they said a specific time frame (two weeks, four weeks, etc) and are there any blackout dates (i.e. not within seven days of the first public performance, etc).

I'm hesitant to give any actual legal advice here (not being a lawyer after all), but I did have my brother (who is a lawyer) look over a contract I once had to break.  In that case there was no out clause outlined in the contract, so his advice was that a standard two week notice was sufficient and the company could not challenge that, which they had initially threatened to do when I gave the notice (which was three weeks before rehearsals were scheduled to start).  Again, this is just anecdotal and if you are truly concerned I would suggest consulting a lawyer in your area, as laws can differ from state to state (my situation was in Ohio, for the record).

107

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for suggestions

« on: Sep 12, 2012, 04:38 pm »

Personally, I feel that if I did have a desktop at home then going with just a tablet would be possible for rehearsals.  If you are going with an iPad, what kind of desktop do you have at home?  I've found that the Pages and Numbers apps for the iPad integrate fairly well with their desktop versions, but still far from perfect.  The couple of apps I've used as Microsoft Office replacements (there is still no native app for the iPad) were very unsatisfactory in the ways in which they worked with the desktop versions of the Office suite when sending files back and forth.  There are rumors that Microsoft may finally be releasing iPad versions of the Office programs this fall, but so far it's just rumors. 

108

The Hardline / Re: LORT-LOA Tech Hours- Creative Suggestions More Than Welcome!

« on: Sep 10, 2012, 03:30 am »

I also find those extra two hours by doing the 10 out of 12s back to back can mean the difference between getting through the show in two days, as opposed to coming back on your third day and still having the last portion of the show to tech.  I've been in many situations where if we were doing an 8 out of 10, or 7 out of 9 as we see on this schedule, we would not have made it through the show by the end of the second day, which I find to be more straining psychologically on everybody.

109

The Hardline / Re: LORT-LOA Tech Hours- Creative Suggestions More Than Welcome!

« on: Sep 09, 2012, 12:38 am »

The only time I've ever encountered split 10 out of 12s was when there was a day off in between them.  Personally, I would rather get them over and done, kind of like just pulling the band-aid off quickly rather than trying to ease it off slowly, which only prolongs the pain.

110

The Green Room / Re: NYTIMES: Actor Housing

« on: Sep 03, 2012, 07:54 pm »

The worst housing I've been in was at a summer theatre where we were housed in an apartment complex used primarily by students during the year.  I was in a ground floor apartment that continually felt damp and reeked of cigarette smoke.  In hindsight I should have complained much more vocally, but at the time I was young and afraid of making waves.  I have since learned my lesson and am not afraid to pipe up when there are severe problems with housing.  For instance, later in my career I was put into an apartment that was owned by one of the board members.  It had been repainted the day before I arrived, and then since the bathroom was not ventilated the paint in there started to bubble and peel from the steam as I took my first shower.  That one I was not afraid to speak up about, since the paint smell was unbearable and the company quickly moved me somewhere else.

Good housing is such an important part of keeping up company morale.  It doesn't help anyone if their out of town company members dread the place where they need to sleep.

111

Employment / Re: Grad school or professional work?

« on: Sep 02, 2012, 02:40 pm »

I agree that some time in the real world between undergrad and grad school should be a must.  I could see the difference in my own program between the people who went right into it and those (like myself) who took the time off to see what is outside the walls of academia.  Those who did not wait tended to come across as still treating it much like undergrad, waiting to be spoon fed what they wanted to hear, and not really knowing what they wanted to get out of the program and what areas they needed to work on.

112

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: CALLING: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Aug 29, 2012, 12:17 am »

I'm much the same way in regards to those types of sequences, Matthew.  For my final show in grad school I had one sequence where I had four different cue lights on for the rail, two different ones on for the deck, and one that was buried in the set for an actor entrance, on top of a bunch of sound and light cues.  I think the standby instructions for that sequence took me almost a minute to get out.  I sometimes joked that I worried that the guys on the rail for the first two moves would forget what they were supposed to be doing by the time I finished the standby and got to the top of the sequence.

Add to that a rotating crew and eight actresses doing quick changes right by the rail because one of the set pieces coming off would block them into the quick change booth (the crew didn't have time to clear it until after the sequence) and it was a harrowing little sequence.  I'm just glad I didn't have to add projections in to that one.

113

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: CALLING: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Aug 28, 2012, 08:56 pm »

I've even had a few spots (such as in The Will Rogers Follies) where there wasn't even time to say anything other than "GO" in a sequence and just hope the board op kept up.  Luckily no other departments had any cues during those sequences so I didn't have to worry about multiple ops keeping up with a string of "GOs"

114

Tools of the Trade / Re: This stuff looks so promising

« on: Aug 24, 2012, 07:51 pm »

The biggest challenge for any suction cup device is it must be applied to a clean surface. Theater's are notoriously not clean places.

Not to mention that suction cups also work best on smooth surfaces, which theaters are also not always big on.

115

Tools of the Trade / Re: This stuff looks so promising

« on: Aug 24, 2012, 10:59 am »

I got a bit lost in that site looking at some of the stuff.

I'd be more curious to see how this is being utilized.

https://www.inventables.com/technologies/rubber-glass

I wonder if it would "shatter" on impact (such as a wine glass or bottle that needs to be thrown) or it only breaks up by being crumbled (as noted in the product description).

116

The Green Room / Re: Show me your mugs! (Or water bottles)

« on: Aug 23, 2012, 11:44 pm »

I don't have a pic, but I picked up a stainless steel tumbler from the original Starbucks in Seattle back in May with the original logo and stating that it's from the "First Starbucks Store - Pike Place Market."  I haven't used it yet, since I rarely drink hot coffee in the summer, but I'm very excited (maybe more so than I should be?) to break it out come fall here in NYC.

117

Self-Promotion / Re: Ballet San Jose

« on: Aug 17, 2012, 10:14 am »

Those are stunning!  A good dance (or theatre, for that matter) photographer is indeed very hard to come by.  Glad you guys found somebody with such a good final product.

118

Tools of the Trade / Re: Style Question

« on: Aug 16, 2012, 10:17 am »

I also try not to out dress the director.

I did a regional production of Doubt with a director who wore exclusively Tommy Bahama shirts and old faded jeans.  It would have been very hard to not out dress him.  Great guy, though, definitely ranks amongst one of the nicest directors I have worked with regionally.

119

Self-Promotion / Re: Coriolanus-Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

« on: Aug 15, 2012, 11:50 am »

Now that sounds exciting.  I've only had animals sneak on stage while doing outdoor theatre.  For a production of Streetcar we had a bat land onstage right at the top of Act II, very close to our Stella, who was deathly afraid of bats, giving us a few extra lines of "Stanley, there's a bat in the bedroom, get rid of it!"  At another performance we had a raccoon sneak along the extreme side of house left (nobody was seated in that section during a sparsely attended, and very hot, Tuesday night) and crawl right under the bed during Blanche's "I want magic" scene with Mitch.  I don't know what happened to it.  Luckily it snuck out before Stanley came back for the big scene between him and Blanche, because I was ready to stop the show before that if it was still under there for that scene (I didn't want to find out what a raccoon would do when people were suddenly getting thrown down on top of the bed it was hiding under).

120

Tools of the Trade / Re: The ultimate binder

« on: Aug 13, 2012, 06:46 pm »

Thanks, Ruth and Becca.  I'm moving soon (though not far, just into the front, and bigger, bedroom in my apartment) and I'm sure there will be some junk to be gotten rid of, including older binders.