Messages

121

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Commercial Mobile Alert System

« on: Mar 23, 2013, 12:26 pm »

Is that actually true?  Do you have any statements from the FCC's website to support that?  Knowing our lovely federal government I don't doubt it for a bit, just curious.  If this is indeed true, that is an incredible invasion of privacy.

I copied those quotes from the link that tempest_gypsy posted.

As far as I can see from the website, you do not have an option. From what I read, if the model of your phone & your phone company both support the plan, you have no choice.

122

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Stage Management Colleges

« on: Mar 22, 2013, 01:27 am »

Who did you work with? Have we already had this discussion?

I worked with Kelsey Rudiger at a summerstock in 2010. I don't remember if we've had this discussion or not, but I think I know you know her. So either we have had this discussion, or I'm a creeper. Equally viable options.

123

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Commercial Mobile Alert System

« on: Mar 21, 2013, 09:29 pm »

From the FCC website:

Customers of participating carriers are automatically signed up.

Participating wireless carriers may offer subscribers with CMAS-capable handsets the ability to block alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life and/or AMBER Alerts; however, consumers cannot block emergency alerts issued by the President.

This happened to my roommate- he now gets the messages, which he was not aware of until we were under a flood warning and his phone started screeching. You can't turn them off or opt out of them (which personally I have a problem with but that's another issue entirely).

In your situation, I would leave it on- they happen so infrequently that I would rather have the audience hear the sound (which they may not hear anyway, or might mistake for someone's ringtone or whatever) and be prepared than have to 1- turn off my phone and 2- depend on someone else who may or may not be on top of the weather situation.

Can you put your phone in airplane mode? You won't be able to get any emergency calls/texts from other staff, but getting out of airplane mode to send a call is much faster than booting up your phone.

124

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Is college a necessity?

« on: Mar 21, 2013, 04:43 pm »

Similar to what Matthew said-

I don't think that I learned the nuts and bolts of how to stage manage in a class in college. I learned how to make a run sheet, how to take good blocking notes, when to speak up in rehearsal vs when to keep my mouth shut, how to deal with an actor having a melt down, all of that by actually being a stage manager. That's not to say that my stage management class didn't help with those things, but I would say that 80-90% of it was learned by SMing shows in college, and interning at various theaters. I'm still learning things with every show I work on now.

HOWEVER.

What I DID learn in college was all of the stuff that seemed at the time to be a waste of time. Why do I have to take Advanced Acting? Directing- do I really need that class? UGH SCRIPT ANALYSIS WHYYYYYYY?! One theater history class wasn't enough??
It was those classes that I didn't enjoy at the time that taught me things I would have found more difficult to learn "on the job." The most invaluable, for me at least, was all of those darn acting classes- I HATE acting, but having to take it and do it and read about it gave me not only an appreciation and respect for actors, but also makes me better able to communicate with them, to give them notes, to understand what the director means when s/he is giving notes, to be able to tell when an actor's preferred process isn't going to mesh well with the way the director is working. The director wants things "more Brechtian," that actor studied Meisner technique, blah blah blah. Yes, I get better at that by doing it, but not having that baseline vocabulary to start out with would be killer.

Same with theater history- yeah, you could SM a commedia piece without knowing anything about it, but how much better would you be if you know the difference between the Dottore & Arlecchino starting out? If you already know what to expect in terms of physicality, blocking, combat?  It'll be a lot easier to SM a Shakespeare piece if you've studied how to analyse the language already.

125

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Stage Management Colleges

« on: Mar 20, 2013, 02:12 pm »

I worked with a SM from VCU who was FANTASTIC, and what she told me about the program made a very good impression on me. I also know that JMU has a large & active theater department, but I don't really know anything about the SM program there.

126

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!

« on: Mar 14, 2013, 01:59 pm »

Hey folks- if anybody has a copy of Boeing Boeing, any format, I would be eternally grateful. Thanks!

127

The Green Room / Re: Sleeping in your theatre

« on: Mar 13, 2013, 03:06 pm »

But my favorite spot is the double papasan chair in the living room of our actor housing/admin offices.

That double papasan is THE. BEST.

128

Tools of the Trade / Re: Slapstick scenes involving water gags on stage

« on: Mar 13, 2013, 01:17 am »

Agreed with EJSmith3130 with the upkeep.
A couple of plays to think about, off the top of my head:
The Flea In Her Ear is an old French farce with a great spit gag (possibly more than one? It's been a while since I worked on it)
Drowsy Chaperone has a whole scene with multiple (like, 5 or 6) spit takes in quick succession right into another actor's face, and that is definitely one to be worried about mic safety & makeup touch-ups. The actor might even need a new shirt or jacket, there's so much water.

129

The Green Room / Re: Sleeping in your theatre

« on: Mar 11, 2013, 06:50 pm »

Nobody's mentioned the Equity cot yet? 

Of course not....have you tried to wrestle the Equity cot out of the hands of a diva?

We have 2 equity cots, and the actors pretty much schedule themselves in shifts. "I'll go to dinner now, then when I come back at 6 you can go to dinner and I'll take a nap." Leaves no room for us poor SMs.

130

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SCENERY: Sand Onstage

« on: Feb 27, 2013, 01:53 am »

I also did a show with 350lbs of rubber mulch- the kind that looks like bark mulch but is made of recycled tires.

350lbs doesn't sound like that much, until you have to shovel it all into a hole in the stage at intermission with a snow shovel. I had audience members walk up to the edge of the stage and offer to help me. More often though they would just grab a handful, say "Look honey, it's made of rubber!" and then toss it back onto the stage. That always amazed me- the rubber smell was so strong I thought it was obvious we weren't using real mulch, but we actually had a patron complain that it set off her cedar allergies and we should have used the rubber kind. Lady, is your nose broken? Because it smells like the bicycle aisle at Walmart in this theater right now.

I'm sure they're still finding it in that theater, because I'm still finding it in jacket pockets, bags, my tool belt, you name it.

ETA: Rubber mulch is also EXTREMELY difficult to sweep up. Use the stiffest bristle brooms you can find.

131

Tools of the Trade / Re: SM Kit *for students*

« on: Feb 26, 2013, 06:49 pm »

Really? I think, as you grow as a stage manager, you work for more and more companies who supply everything you need, and don't expect the SM to act as a supply closet, funded by personal money. I haven't used or added to my kit, in years. I supply only my personal stopwatch, automatic pencil, leads, and stick erasers. Anything else, I expect the producing organization to supply it.

(And yes, I see the thread title is *for students*.... My statement, in relationship to the quote below, still stands.)

But as you grow as a stage manager, so will your kit.

First of all, I agree with Ruth- the more I work, the less I provide.

Secondly- as you are student, I would urge you to speak with your TD or whoever is in charge of the stage managers at your school and see if they would consider providing kits for the stage managers. When I was a student, my fellow SMs and I approached our advisor with a breakdown of how much our kits cost, and the department agreed to provide them for us. They bought 6 toolboxes & the SM and ASMs signed them out for the duration of the show.

We already had first aid kits in the green room, shop, booth, and backstage, so we just had bandaids and hand sanitizer.
Pencils, erasers, hiliters, post its, white out, hole punch, scale rule, stapler.
Sewing kit, bobby pins, hair ties, tictacs, stopwatch.
Tape measures and other tools were available in the shop.
Anything beyond that we provided for ourselves.

I realize that is not standard for most departments, but it's worth a shot!

132

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SCENERY: Sand Onstage

« on: Feb 25, 2013, 06:50 pm »

Just did a show with sand- I second Kay's suggestion to spritz pre-show, even if it's just water- sand in an HVAC controlled space gets really dry really fast, and dry = DUST.

We also laid down carpet backstage around the exits (there were limited entrance/exit points to the sand area from backstage) to minimize the sand getting tracked everywhere, which worked pretty well. We vacuumed the carpets before every show.

We didn't have a very high rate of attrition, surprisingly- we were expecting to have to refill at least once in the 3-week run, but we ended up not needing to at all.

However, as I am now running the next show of the season in that space, there is still sand EV.ERY.WHERE. Lots of sweeping, lots of vacuuming, still a lil bit dusty backstage.

133

The Green Room / Re: Weird Dreams

« on: Feb 25, 2013, 12:27 pm »

I had a recurring nightmare in college that I would have to go on for an actor in performance. Haven't had that one for a while, thank the lord.

Recently I've had a recurring nightmare relating to the last show I was on, which had a fairly extensive and extremely detailed/specific preset (fold the shirts exactly like this, put the blue one on top, the towel goes underneath but sticking out a little on the right side, you know the drill).
In the dream, for some reason I didn't do the preset myself, I just showed up at my call and it was already done, but it was wrong, everything was horribly wrong, and I didn't realize until the show had started. We had to stop the show in the middle of the first scene and send me onstage to fix it, which included opening up a wall to set props behind it and ruining the big act 2 reveal for the audience. Had that dream 4 times- twice during the run and twice after it closed.

Another fun one- dreamed that there was a huge snake shedding its skin in the middle of the green room, and when I told the production manager she said "Calm down, Becky! It's ok, it's not poisonous!"

134

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TECH: Thoughts on paper tech

« on: Feb 18, 2013, 05:21 pm »

I have found that experienced directors almost never want to cue to cue, but the last couple newer directors I've worked with were worried for me when I expressed that I didn't need a papertech unless they did.

I recently SMed a college show (local college without much of a tech program to have student SMs or designers) and in the first production meeting, going over the tech schedule, the TD said "so then Friday afternoon, we'll do a paper tech for Becky-" and when I tried to tell them that I didn't need a paper tech it created a whole huge issue! I was very clear that since all of the designers and I were professionals, that a paper tech was only necessary if the director or one of the designers felt it was necessary, but if the only reason was for me to get cues in my book then we didn't need to have one. It was like I suggested cancelling tech altogether. I kept saying "I'm happy to be there if you need it, but I don't need one just for me," and it turned the whole production meeting into a big argument. I was SHOCKED. Eventually I discovered that the reason everyone was freaking out because they were saying paper tech but really were talking about a cue to cue (which was a whole nother can of worms).

135

Self-Promotion / David Mamet's Race at Theater J

« on: Feb 15, 2013, 03:24 pm »

Hey folks-

I'm currently ASMing David Mamet's Race at Theater J! It's a powerful production, directed by John Vreeke, with some really great (and highly unexpected, for Mamet) design elements by a host of fantastic DC designers.  The cast is fabulous to watch and work with, as well.

For more info, go here: http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j/on-stage/12-13-season/race/

And I have to say, after the last few shows I've run, I'm pretty glad to have a breather on this one. Normally I love those shows where I don't sit down unless it's written on my run sheet, but every now and then, an 80-minute, no intermission, no scene shifts, no costume changes, 5 props go on/off stage kind of show is what you need...