Messages

121

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ASM Duties on very small show?

« on: Feb 28, 2009, 04:36 am »

I think I'd definitely be lending them to the props department!  Much better that they're busy than sitting in a corner waiting for something to do - I very rarely have an ASM in rehearsal, even on musicals, so when I do get one it takes me a couple of days to get into the swing of dividing jobs up, and until I get that balance right I always feel bad about boring my ASM.

122

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Creating a Calling Script

« on: Feb 23, 2009, 10:10 pm »

Do you usually use your blocking script or do you use a clean script for calling cues?

It depends on the show.  Musicals, always a clean script to call from, mainly because I integrate script and score into a calling script, but don't want the score in a blocking script as it makes for far too many page turns!  For a straight play, it varies.  I did The Country Wife a couple of years ago, and we cut it quite heavily and I typed it up so I had a clean calling script with no big black lines through sections which had been cut - but I used the original version in rehearsals so I had the same page numbers as the actors and director.  But if it's not a play which has had changes made to the script during rehearsal, then I'll just use one script.  My blocking notes get written as far away from the actual script as possible, and my cues as close to the script as possible, so I'm not usually worried about getting blocking notes and cues mixed up.

123

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Creating a Calling Script

« on: Feb 22, 2009, 09:36 pm »

I also group by type. So, if I have a sequence in the following order: LX 18 and SND 3 - GO, LX 19 - GO, LX 20 and SND 3a - GO, I say my standby as "LX 18 through 20 and SND 3 and 3a".

I only do this if I have separate operators; if I have one operator who is running both LX and sound (which is the norm for me), then I stand the cues by as they happen - so the above example I'd stand by as "standby LX18 with SQ3, LX 19, and LX 20 with SQ3a."  It's just a preference that I and the operators I normally work with have.  If I have a big chunk of cues happening within a short space of time (a musical number, usually) then I'll say "stand by for the Springtime for Hitler sequence" and write a list for the operator of what each standby sequence entails (and put it in my book) - this was an idea that an operator and I came up with between us, and it works well for us when I don't have time to call standbys in between cues.

124

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Requests for Electronic Scripts -- Post 'em here!

« on: Feb 22, 2009, 01:24 am »

Yeah, but you can always re-format.  I'm doing Heartbreak House shortly and managed to find the text online.  I copied and pasted into Word, and I don't like the formatting so I've re-formatted it - still a whole lot quicker than typing up the whole lot myself.  I've scanned and OCR'd a good few of my scripts over the past couple of years and do end up re-formatting most of them as sometimes the OCR goes a bit odd anyway and I like to check the whole thing through before printing it out, and it doesn't take me much time to re-format as I go.

125

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: What basics should actors know about tech?

« on: Feb 21, 2009, 09:26 pm »

I can't offer any advice in union terms, working as I do in a completely non-unionised country.  However, the things I expect my casts to know and do come tech week:
- No-one says "STOP" except the director or SM, unless it's an emergency.
- When someone does say "STOP", don't move from where you are.
- If you break something, don't try to hide it and pretend it wasn't you!  Tell the SM so they can get it fixed (you would not believe how many actors I have caught out doing this!); stuff does get broken in tech week!
- Just be prepared for a lot of sitting around and waiting, I guess...

126

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Plan B for everything?

« on: Feb 16, 2009, 07:29 pm »

If a "mission-critical" prop is breakable, then I always have spares on hand.  Crockery is one which is particularly prone to being broken onstage or off, so I always get Props to get more than we need.  If it's not "mission-critical" I'll still try to make sure spares are on hand, but it's not top of the priority list.

In terms of costume, there are always spares of things like pantyhose up in wardrobe, which I have a key for.  Anything else, not so much.  I've mended my fair share of costumes with safety pins and stuck up an awful lot of hems using gaffer tape!  If you're fairly handy with a needle and thread, it can be useful as well - that way you can sew up a rip roughly, but enough so that the actor can get on stage; get the wardrobe department to make you up an emergency repair kit - needles, different colours of thread and safety pins.  One of the funniest sights I've ever seen was a couple of years ago when I came backstage after finishing the interval reset on stage, to find one of the chorus girls standing in her (50s-style) underwear while the sound operator sewed up a hole in her dress (she'd trodden on it coming down the stairs, and torn the bodice away from the skirt), while the lighting operator assisted him by using his Maglite to light up the rip!  I've pinned and Nash taped up a cast member's fly when the zip broke (I would have sewn him into his trousers, but he had a quick change!), and gaffer taped people's shoes on when the buckles have broken.  Patch it up well enough to survive the show, and then get wardrobe to fix it properly the next day is the way I tend to work, and it hasn't let me down yet!

127

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Feb 10, 2009, 07:29 am »

Apparently I took 6827 seconds to complete today's quiz.  I'm not quite sure how that happened - fairly certain that it didn't take me nearly two hours to get through it....

128

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Sound cues: turning off actor's mic when they exit

« on: Feb 08, 2009, 05:05 am »

I've never called a mic cue on a musical.  I've also never worked with a sound operator who is on comms during the show; they always have comms, in case something goes wrong, but apart from coming on at the top of each half to tell me that all is well (or we need to hold while he checks that someone's mic is OK), they're never on comms during the show, because as someone said, you can't hear the show properly when you've got one ear covered.  Usually I keep out of mic plot discussions - I tend to leave that one to the sound operator/designer and the MD.  If you haven't got enough mics for everyone who has lines to have one, then no, don't mic the dialogue as it will sound very uneven.  My current sound operator got sent an electronic version of the script and a cast list about four weeks out from tech week; he came to a run, asked me a few questions (mostly about lines which have been slightly redistributed as we cut some minor characters), had a chat with the MD and turned up at tech ready to go.  He operated from script for the first little while, and has gradually made himself up cut versions over the run, until now, 11 weeks in (one week to go! woohoo!) has his script down to half a page - reminders for particularly tricky cues which have caught him out.  He certainly doesn't get cues to turn people's mics on and off; the cast know to keep quiet for the first 30 seconds that they're offstage after a scene but other than that, he's totally on his own.  To complicate matters, any cast members who are offstage in numbers are singing as well, so there are quite a few cues which are not in the script, as that particular person is not in the scene and so not mentioned.  Basically, I just leave him to it and he does a great job!

129

SMNetwork Archives / Re: I could have kissed them!

« on: Jan 23, 2009, 06:58 am »

I could have kissed one of my cast tonight; I had him in the show last summer, straight out of drama school, and he was a real problem child.  Nothing was ever his fault, he had an ego that far outstripped his position in the company and he had an attitude problem and a real issue with authority (particularly female authority).  He's been interning with the company for the last year (including a stint as an ASM), and I've seen changes in him, and tonight I had real evidence of it.  He was very late in opening a wall up as part of a scene change, and as he came past me on his way offstage he stopped to explain why - the cast pull their wigs off at the end of the number which immediately precedes the change, and when he'd pulled his wig off, his mic had gone with it (we're using the capsules on ear hangers) and was swinging around by its cable, bashing into stuff.  He realised he needed to sort that out first, so he dealt with that and then opened the wall in full light, perfectly calmly and as if it was meant to happen that way.  A year ago, he would have panicked, not opened the wall and then tried to blame someone else if I had asked him about it - there's no way he would have come to me to explain.  I'm so glad to see that he's turned into a member of the company who I like to have around!

130

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Dry Ice

« on: Jan 19, 2009, 04:47 am »

1. Don't keep it in an ordinary freezer - you'll stuff the freezer completely!  An old, already broken freezer is a good way to store dry ice as it's well insulated.
2. Obviously, make sure you're using/storing it in a well-ventilated area....
3. Again obviously, proper safety precautions when handling it - gloves and long sleeves, I had a classmate at drama school who managed to overbalance into some dry ice (he was under a bed where the ice had to appear from, it's a long story!) and he had some pretty nasty burns on his forearms.
4. Everyone else will want to play with it.  There are so many fun things you can do with dry ice - in a soft drink bottle with some warm water for a very loud bang, in the toilet with some dishwashing liquid, in a local park fountain - so be prepared for this!
5. Don't let anyone put it in their drink, the possibility of it all going wrong is a bit high for my liking....
6. The water doesn't actually need to be at 100 degrees (Celsius) for the dry ice to work; after much experimentation, we discovered that 60 degrees C was enough to give us really good dry ice coverage for the entirety of Javert's Suicide in Les Mis - which is quite a long ice drop, we were dropping about 15kg of ice for that scene.  If you need a really long drop then a higher temp is good, but it doesn't have to be boiling.  Do be aware that 60 degrees is the point where Legionnaire's Disease is killed off, so you want to go at least that high. 

If any of this is teaching you how to suck eggs, I apologize!

131

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Long Runs

« on: Dec 19, 2008, 07:14 pm »

I'm nearly 4 weeks into a 12-week run (this is the third year in a row I've done the long haul), although we're doing 6 shows a week rather than 8.  Up to this point it's not been difficult to keep myself or the cast motivated, as we've driving through to Christmas (all of three days off!  Woohoo!) but once Christmas and New Year (another three days off!  Woohoo!) are over it can be a bit more difficult.  Last year it wasn't too bad; one of my cast members lived in a huge amazing house with a swimming pool (yes, it's summer here) and we tended to spend our Sundays up there, lying around the pool, and despite the fact that we were spending our days off with the cast and crew, it recharged us all for the week ahead.  Unfortunately this summer he's not in the show I've found that something which helps all of us is that we have a different pianist/conductor a couple of times a week (we have live keys, bass and drums with everything else being recorded) and his different style keeps us all on our toes - he's not better or worse, just different.  Personally I don't find myself getting too worn down - I have a fantastic operator and we have some incredibly random comms conversations, which stops things getting boring!  We're always on the lookout for tiny adjustments (director and lighting designer have given us permission to tweak cues which don't feel right as the show's rhythm changes) so there'll often be discussions about whether that lighting cue should be a second shorter, or go a beat earlier, so that focuses my attention on the show pretty well.

132

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Costuming the Crew

« on: Dec 18, 2008, 10:03 pm »

I've been costumed a couple of times - we did Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination at drama school, and as the SM/operator I was very visible so was costumed up - and I loved it.  I was also in a maid's outfit as an ASM for A Little Night Music, and I hated it!  Currently I'm doing La Cage Aux Folles and my ASM is in drag and full drag makeup - he's very visible for a lot of scene changes which the cast are helping out with, so we figured it was better for him to look like one of them.  Luckily, he has no problem with it, and is able to walk silently in high heels!  It works extremely well for us, and people don't realise he's an ASM and not just another Cagelle.  I don't think it's necessary all the time, but sometimes it has to be done.

133

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Daily rehearsal report notes

« on: Dec 05, 2008, 07:26 pm »

I don't know that you overstepped your duties, although I don't necessarily think that a separate e-mail to the costume and prop people was strictly necessary - do they get the rehearsal report normally?  I would have noted on the rehearsal report that the knife needs to be able to be smoothly drawn, probably in both the wardrobe and props sections of the report, and made sure that the report was sent to props and wardrobe, but I wouldn't have gone any further than that.  Do the producer and the company president normally get rehearsal reports?  I only ask because my reports go to all production departments, production manager and the director, not the higher echelons of the company.

134

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Creating a Calling Script

« on: Nov 29, 2008, 09:11 pm »

There are as many methods of marking up a prompt book as there are stage managers!  Everyone develops their own style which works for them; personally, I have the script on the left-hand side of the binder, and a blank page (obviously, the back of the next page of the script) on the right.  Cue words are marked up as follows, with the cue word being "fox" in this case:

The quick brown ¦fox¦ jumped over the lazy dog__________________________

The line goes across the gap between pages (cues on the blank back of the page) where it looks like _____________LX98 GO

Standbys go about 30 seconds before the cue - you'll soon learn to judge how far up the page 30 seconds is!  Musicals I call from an amalgamation of script and score, using the same method except that cues are done by musical beat rather than by word, generally.  If you have multiple cues going off the same cue point, always call them in the same order (and give your standbys in the same order) so the different departments know what they're listening for.  In that kind of case it becomes LX98 SQB AV15 GO rather than an individual cue for each department.  Depending on your deck crew, you may find some sort of cue light system easier, because they may not be able to be on comms for scene changes unless you have wireless comms or someone stationed on comms and not actually running around the stage doing changes.

135

SMNetwork Archives / Re: I could have kissed them!

« on: Nov 27, 2008, 05:53 am »

I could have kissed the director on opening night when, after a seriously awful production week which we only got through due to everyone putting everything they had and then more into the show (the set designer managed to reduce me to tears during the tech, which NEVER happens, I never melt down!), in her opening night speech, after thanking the usual suspects (cast, theatre management, designers) she said "there is one person I really want to single out, and that is Anna, our stage manager.  She's the meat in the sandwich; she has me yelling at her, the cast obsessing, Richard (the MD) stressing and all the production staff asking her questions, and she deals with it all efficiently and effectively and makes it all happen."  This is the third time I've worked with this particular director, and only now am I feeling like she has any trust in me, so it's nice to know that she does appreciate me!  I could also have kissed the MD when, during the tech, he came backstage to find me in tears, hugged me, asked me what the problem was, listened to my garbled and tearful explanation, then proceeded to tell me that I was doing a great job and that it wasn't my fault.