Messages

1111

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Question about - "No Sex Please, We're British"

« on: Mar 14, 2008, 12:26 am »

I'd start by presuming the bouquet is pre-rigged - prob artificial stems that are held together by a little tape or a sliver of thread or some such -

as for the hatch - I have seen several plays that used gags like that, but I haven't so defer to those folks

1112

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Lanterns

« on: Mar 12, 2008, 12:05 am »

we have always taken standard lanterns and rigged them for use - rebuilt with the appropriate lamps and power source for the lantern's use - and this always fell under our LD's jurisdiction

what is it for, what does it need to do - maybe we can offer specifics based on the show. (Flicker llght on a battery for a candle? Hardwired and sitting on a cask to shed directional scene light w specific chiaroscura? or...)

1113

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Number Markers for dance?

« on: Mar 03, 2008, 03:17 am »

Love the rope lights - no idea where to buy it but a great thing for a theater to have

it's a rope light with center and every 2 ft marked with colored lights - and it can even live there during a show if your stage has a lip

OR

spike or painters tape make great numbers too...quick, easy, comes up - you could mark at the wall on your downstage side and prob just leave it there...

1114

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PROPS: Cabaret Prairie Oysters - thoughts and ideas?

« on: Jan 19, 2008, 11:58 pm »

I am doing a production of Cabaret in a small space with a thrust stage surrounded on three sides by audience in tables. Our Sally isn't thrilled by the health aspects of eating raw eggs in the prairie oysters that she is supposed to make onstage and I told her I'd see if anyone here had some brilliant ideas -

Has anyone successfully dealt with an alternative that looks like but isn't raw egg and Worcestershire sauce?

We have chatted abt some high maintenance stuff like blowing out the eggs and re-filling with pasteurized egg whites, etc, but surely there is an option (for Sallys who are allergic to eggs, for ex) that aren't quite so labor intensive?

OR, how did you convince your Sallys and Cliffs to swallow the stuff?

Thanks

1115

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Actors' agents and managers

« on: Jan 06, 2008, 05:56 pm »

Interesting, cuz I work w stars a lot, and I call them directly. Once they are in my show and I need to reach them, I never ever go thru the agent/ manager (unless there is a prob w that star and I think the agent/manager can help). Curiously, I also have had a couple of agent/managers call me when they need to reach stars while we are in rehearsal (or pre-show) and don't pick up their calls or messages.

1116

The Hardline / Re: COST Contract questions

« on: Oct 22, 2007, 12:55 pm »

I have never been on a contract where housing or per diem for OOT folks was not required (unless you presented as a local) - but keep in mind, a microwave and a minifridge count as a kitchen. If you have these, they don't need to give you per diem.

1117

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Stop The Show!

« on: Oct 22, 2007, 12:52 pm »

Had to laugh - cuz while the cast was blithely doing the show, we behind the scenes were dealing with:
- an acrid, burnt smell drifting up into the booth, source unknown - was something on fire someplace?
- the light board decided it wasn't happy on its electrical power source and flipped to emergency back-up battery, which has a 10-minute window before going to black, so crew is standing by the emergency overheads
- 2 blocks away a pipe bomb has gone off, so we don't know if we are going to have to evacuate the bldg and if so, where they will go
- someone onstage has cut himself (minor) but clearly doesn't know, since he is touching everything and every one, but because the blood is in odd places on people's costumes we can't figure out who it is (until intermission, when we do a quick rinse/dry on the worst blood spots and send them back onstage)

isn't theater fun!

Actually, this is why we do live shows - you just never know what can happen and what skills you will pull our solving these things before halting the show. I love it!

1118

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Tech Haiku

« on: Oct 12, 2007, 10:55 am »

(not quite a haiku but)

actors are ready, set is not
dry tech tomorrow?
what color is it our LD moans

1119

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: The Most Qs Ever

« on: Sep 29, 2007, 11:24 am »

I regularly work w LDs who program upwards of 300-500 Qs per show (one guy basically adds a Q pretty much any time an actor moves...) - along with Q lights, then adding in rail, sound, media etc - always fun.....but a lot more fun than shows where it's 20 minutes between Qs

Did a show with around 20 Qs per page, spread between slides, video, lights, sound and rail plus the cue lights which I ran - more wild was a show where something like that happened all in very tight sequence of something like 6 lines and 7 minutes of business. that's where I learned to come in early for complex shows and rehearse calling (voice and hands) every day until opening, since that was a combo of voice calls (S/B and go), toggles and cue lights

1120

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: I feel I have been cheated....am I really over my head...

« on: Sep 28, 2007, 02:55 am »

My favorite biochem professor used to remind us, the important thing wasn't so much what we carried in our brains but the ability to know where to go to get that info, whether looking it up or asking the right person. Don't worry abt what you don't know - right now, be willing to ask questions and suss out where to get answers.

1121

The Hardline / Re: List of equity theatres

« on: Sep 28, 2007, 02:51 am »

Yes - contact your local AEA office for the list

1122

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Word Use

« on: Sep 15, 2007, 08:14 pm »

You say you want to work with this producer again. Well, depending on how much you really want that contract, you can be proactive. Yes, ownership of a show is a delicate subject, and everyone I know has been called on the "my show" word use at one point or another. So if you can be truly dispassionate and/or feel truly appreciative (who says SMs can't act), find a way to deliberately thank that producer - tell her simply and clearly (without elaborating)  that you learned from her note, maybe even mentioning some of the thoughts raised on this board (altho, don't mention throwing it our way). If you can do this very very simply, with as much truth as possible and with a humble spirit, you will gain an ally. And it sounds like you need her to feel like your ally to get anything done.

On the other hand, your description of her as someone who stops rehearsal to put in her two cents, who gives notes directly to performers and designers rather than through the director, who berates you in public, who doesn't listen when you pass along notes from the directors etc., well, she is clearly someone with power trip issues and without any practical skill sets for theater. If she is so needy, so desperate to be the center of attention and as such has no concept of theater protocol, you have no way to win here. Therefore, you may want to rethink your desire to continue with this company. If you have tried to explain nicely, stood up to her professionally, or had someone she actually listens to explain about lines of communication and how rehearsals are run and she still acts this way, why would you want to stay and put up with her disruptive and destructive behavior? Just cuz she is a producer? You can let those you respect know that you would love to work with them in future (again, without elaborating...don't shoot yourself in the foot and get branded as a complainer) but start looking for your next gig without waiting for this show to close. That way, you do the honorable thing and stay till it's done, but you will be prepared to move on and not wait for them to decide your fate for you.

and, well, good luck

1123

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Stage Management: A Nutshell in 3 minutes.

« on: Sep 06, 2007, 06:45 pm »

I like Celeste_SM's description - I tell people this is the one job where I get to use everything I've ever learned - I always add in two basic things: 1) we are the pin between the creative team (director/actor) and the technical team (designers/crew) - cuz altho both sides have creative and technical aspects, our job is to help the two sides work together, meaning we have the best of both worlds because we get to use all our creativity and all our technical skills (and, everything we've ever learned) to make it all mesh in the best possible way; and 2) kinda a cross between mom and a benevolent dictator.

My joke refers back to my first experience w union SMs. My college theater was the out-of-town pre-Bway house for Joe Papp's Shakespeare Festival (among others). His SM and crew wore t-shirts thru tech week that read "Chief Scapegoat," "Asst to Chief Scapegoat" etc - and once the show opened, the t-shirts were inverted to read "God," Asst to God" etc. Because once the show opened and they were in charge, the SMs had to know everything, who had to fix it when it went wrong - whether it was an acting beat or a blown lamp - and how to make sure it got handled.

Have fun -

1124

Employment / Re: Unemployment

« on: Sep 03, 2007, 11:37 am »

This is a state-by-state question and must be answered by your local unemployment office. For ex, (and these numbers are rough, since I can't recall specifically) in CA, they take the highest quarter but not based on your most recent job - it cycles back to something like 18 months prior, so your last 6 months (or more) are not eligible for consideration.

Try checking your state's requirements online, and then be ready to patiently wait on the phone to speak to a human being, but once you get through, the people are mostly nice and quite helpful, esp if you are pleasant to them (since almost no one is).

1125

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Stopwatch Use

« on: Sep 01, 2007, 02:46 am »

FWIW the stopwatch I used in the (ahem) 80s is still my favorite....an old black sports stopwatch with NO SOUNDS - no beeps of any kind -

love it