136
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: COMMUNICATION: Ignoring line notes, improvising
« on: Apr 08, 2015, 02:58 pm »
Is it possible to invite the playwright to opening?
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14 Jan 2021: Happy 21st birthday, SMNetwork! I replaced the old broken mobile theme. -K
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137
Employment / Re: Everyone's favorite topic: Networking
« on: Apr 04, 2015, 10:27 pm »
Actually it's the other way around. Gen Xers tend to react negatively to the hard sell. We grew up in an era when advertisements had to be plainly announced, TV and radio stations had to offer airtime to opposing viewpoints, and corporate financing of political campaigns were not permitted.
There is an enormous generation gap that can be seen when it comes to embracing/rejecting promotional activity. In general we want to use self-promotional techniques that we would respond well to ourselves. However, if we want to network successfully we need to tailor our marketing to the recipients.
Boomers respond best to promotion in properly allocated venues for advertising - ad breaks in TV shows - but the promotions must demonstrate proof of worth.
Gen X wants subtlety - think product placement - and responds best to subtle introduction of brand awareness. They are absolutely turned off by blatant advertisement and are the most likely to use anonymous user handles online and adblocking software to protect their privacy. Xers concept of marketing was affected by the idea that propaganda was a tool of Big Brother & the Soviet regime. Think of the "1984" Apple commercial to get an idea of how Gen X likes their advertising, and how their concepts of commerce were formed. The web for them when they were kids was a web of free communication and innovation, anonymous and cross-borders.
Millennials grew up with TV shows that were created entirely to sell products, from top to bottom. (Think Pokemon, Power Rangers, My Little Pony.) They carry devices that are pocket shopping malls, with features a secondary concern. They grew up in a world where marketing is omnipresent and communication is handled through advertising sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Everything is self-promotional because that's what they see all around them. Their internet is now and has always been a consumerist tool, meant to sell things, with communication backburnered and innovation restricted to high-ROI areas.
I'm currently developing a business that targets millennials. I am having to engage in networking and marketing practices that I personally find really distasteful, but my target generation really appreciates. It's an ongoing morass of likes and shares and retweets and cheerleading. However, as my company's business model progresses I will also have to target the *parents* of those millennials, which means I will also have to develop an extreme hard sell approach that will also make me uncomfortable.
Jmenass, you mentioned that it was the business world that brought this up with you, and that the theater world hadn't made it seem a significant need. I think we also need to remember that opportunities for exposure to others are considerably scarcer in corporate life. Theater people tend to have cast parties and move between social groups every few months. Their assorted creative interests will naturally bring them into contact with an enormous number of people. Attending shows and reading playbills will keep us in each others minds. Our business is performance. We're always putting ourselves in front of new people.
For a corporate person, it's very common that you will go for 12 months with one company party at Christmas, and other than that you'll never see or interact with anyone outside of your department (unless you're in sales). Corporate folk need contrived excuses to go and "network".
If you were working in an arts management corporate setting, you got a double whammy of "OMG we need to network" because of the totally whacko nature of performing arts fundraising. You've got corporate people trying to raise money from other corporate people who expect to be courted by theatre companies with, well, theatre. Everything becomes an "event" and networking becomes a tracked metric because that's what marketing people do. It's their job. How many people have you touched today? How many referrals can you get? How many eyeballs saw this promotion? How did they respond to the red banner vs blue? Their concerns are not your concerns. If you don't bring the product, they don't have a job.
Yes there's things we can learn from big business but I think theatre folk need to bear in mind that we're dealing with other theatre folk in our networking. Most of us made a deliberate choice to avoid corporate life so we could get away from all that nonsense.
There is an enormous generation gap that can be seen when it comes to embracing/rejecting promotional activity. In general we want to use self-promotional techniques that we would respond well to ourselves. However, if we want to network successfully we need to tailor our marketing to the recipients.
Boomers respond best to promotion in properly allocated venues for advertising - ad breaks in TV shows - but the promotions must demonstrate proof of worth.
Gen X wants subtlety - think product placement - and responds best to subtle introduction of brand awareness. They are absolutely turned off by blatant advertisement and are the most likely to use anonymous user handles online and adblocking software to protect their privacy. Xers concept of marketing was affected by the idea that propaganda was a tool of Big Brother & the Soviet regime. Think of the "1984" Apple commercial to get an idea of how Gen X likes their advertising, and how their concepts of commerce were formed. The web for them when they were kids was a web of free communication and innovation, anonymous and cross-borders.
Millennials grew up with TV shows that were created entirely to sell products, from top to bottom. (Think Pokemon, Power Rangers, My Little Pony.) They carry devices that are pocket shopping malls, with features a secondary concern. They grew up in a world where marketing is omnipresent and communication is handled through advertising sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Everything is self-promotional because that's what they see all around them. Their internet is now and has always been a consumerist tool, meant to sell things, with communication backburnered and innovation restricted to high-ROI areas.
I'm currently developing a business that targets millennials. I am having to engage in networking and marketing practices that I personally find really distasteful, but my target generation really appreciates. It's an ongoing morass of likes and shares and retweets and cheerleading. However, as my company's business model progresses I will also have to target the *parents* of those millennials, which means I will also have to develop an extreme hard sell approach that will also make me uncomfortable.
Jmenass, you mentioned that it was the business world that brought this up with you, and that the theater world hadn't made it seem a significant need. I think we also need to remember that opportunities for exposure to others are considerably scarcer in corporate life. Theater people tend to have cast parties and move between social groups every few months. Their assorted creative interests will naturally bring them into contact with an enormous number of people. Attending shows and reading playbills will keep us in each others minds. Our business is performance. We're always putting ourselves in front of new people.
For a corporate person, it's very common that you will go for 12 months with one company party at Christmas, and other than that you'll never see or interact with anyone outside of your department (unless you're in sales). Corporate folk need contrived excuses to go and "network".
If you were working in an arts management corporate setting, you got a double whammy of "OMG we need to network" because of the totally whacko nature of performing arts fundraising. You've got corporate people trying to raise money from other corporate people who expect to be courted by theatre companies with, well, theatre. Everything becomes an "event" and networking becomes a tracked metric because that's what marketing people do. It's their job. How many people have you touched today? How many referrals can you get? How many eyeballs saw this promotion? How did they respond to the red banner vs blue? Their concerns are not your concerns. If you don't bring the product, they don't have a job.
Yes there's things we can learn from big business but I think theatre folk need to bear in mind that we're dealing with other theatre folk in our networking. Most of us made a deliberate choice to avoid corporate life so we could get away from all that nonsense.
138
The Green Room / Re: Facebook Group for SMNet members
« on: Apr 04, 2015, 06:06 pm »
As of today the SMNetwork Members group on FB will no longer be accepting join requests from people who are not actually SMNetwork Members. Until now, I had also been accepting requests from other stage managers, but it's time for that to end.
I'm requiring all new membership requests over there to let me know their SMNet username. Additionally, they must have a post count here to be approved over there. I'm going to grandfather in any non-members who've already snuck in, mostly because I cannot cross index all 346 members, but additional outsider join requests will not be approved.
Going forward I will also be taking steps to filter wayward general SM discussion that pops up on the FB group to resurrect over here.
The FB group was started so that our valued SMNetwork contributors could find each other on FB. The idea was that you check the FB Group's memberlist to find your friends and occasionally get warning if this site will be down. It was never intended as a general stage management discussion group, but folks who play Pokemon (gotta catch 'em all) with every stage management group on FB have been joining ours to complete their "collections" and missing the point.
I'm fully aware that this decision will probably halve the FB group's membership and I'm fine with that.
I'm requiring all new membership requests over there to let me know their SMNet username. Additionally, they must have a post count here to be approved over there. I'm going to grandfather in any non-members who've already snuck in, mostly because I cannot cross index all 346 members, but additional outsider join requests will not be approved.
Going forward I will also be taking steps to filter wayward general SM discussion that pops up on the FB group to resurrect over here.
The FB group was started so that our valued SMNetwork contributors could find each other on FB. The idea was that you check the FB Group's memberlist to find your friends and occasionally get warning if this site will be down. It was never intended as a general stage management discussion group, but folks who play Pokemon (gotta catch 'em all) with every stage management group on FB have been joining ours to complete their "collections" and missing the point.
I'm fully aware that this decision will probably halve the FB group's membership and I'm fine with that.
139
Employment / Re: Everyone's favorite topic: Networking
« on: Apr 03, 2015, 07:55 pm »
Related to this, it's important to consider the networking profiles of the people you're talking to. What and who do they see in a day? Who do they normally talk to? How are they likely to react to a hard sell vs a soft sell?
Long term SMNet members and mods/former-mods will know that I take the resistance to hard-selling that is so common among Gen X-ers to a complete extreme. I'm a buy-nothing. I have lost money year after year on a site with over 5000 members because I find advertising to be an insult to my intelligence and refuse to disrespect you guys in that way. If I recommend someone to someone else, it's always with the caveat that "I know a guy who does X, don't know if they're any good, but it's worth a shot." To successfully network with me the best route is to give me a name, a mnemonic and a way to contact you, then shut the heck up and quit while you're ahead.
For example, we've got a relatively low-traffic Facebook group for SMNetwork. There's maybe a post a week over there and it's really not for discussion. I should state up front that I'm totally cool with folks posting there occasionally for quick questions that need rapid answers and job postings, etc. Little stuff that FB does well to amplify. Fine. However, the group was conceived as a contact sheet exclusive to SMNetwork members. Discussions that happen on the FB group are actually harmful to SMNetwork, as they lower the direct traffic to this site. The group's description clearly states that a) people need to identify themselves to me if they want to join so I know they're not a spammer, and b) they should keep discussion in the group to a minimum and post here instead, using the group only to find each other on FB.
We have a member of that group who is totally oblivious to the purpose and activity level of our group. He never identified himself to me, but kept requesting permission to join, so I had to spend about an hour trying to hunt down his very common name throughout the web to confirm that he was a stage manager. He's posted 5 times in the past year - more than anyone other than me - and his posts mostly consist of "anybody know of any jobs?" or "anybody have any connections at any High Level Theatre Companies that I can talk to about employment?" I've never seen him post here. I don't even know if he's a member. I've never seen him comment on anyone else's posts. He sent me a private message saying he'd seen me post frequently in the "SMA group" and asking him if I could hook him up with SMA swag.
I recognize him every time he posts now, so that aspect of his networking efforts have succeeded. However, I remember him as a rude, self-centered jerk who's always out of work, can't read directions, and keeps doing something that could harm a project I've been working on for a decade and a half.
All this is to say, please pay attention to the environment and orient yourself a bit before you start networking at people.
Long term SMNet members and mods/former-mods will know that I take the resistance to hard-selling that is so common among Gen X-ers to a complete extreme. I'm a buy-nothing. I have lost money year after year on a site with over 5000 members because I find advertising to be an insult to my intelligence and refuse to disrespect you guys in that way. If I recommend someone to someone else, it's always with the caveat that "I know a guy who does X, don't know if they're any good, but it's worth a shot." To successfully network with me the best route is to give me a name, a mnemonic and a way to contact you, then shut the heck up and quit while you're ahead.
For example, we've got a relatively low-traffic Facebook group for SMNetwork. There's maybe a post a week over there and it's really not for discussion. I should state up front that I'm totally cool with folks posting there occasionally for quick questions that need rapid answers and job postings, etc. Little stuff that FB does well to amplify. Fine. However, the group was conceived as a contact sheet exclusive to SMNetwork members. Discussions that happen on the FB group are actually harmful to SMNetwork, as they lower the direct traffic to this site. The group's description clearly states that a) people need to identify themselves to me if they want to join so I know they're not a spammer, and b) they should keep discussion in the group to a minimum and post here instead, using the group only to find each other on FB.
We have a member of that group who is totally oblivious to the purpose and activity level of our group. He never identified himself to me, but kept requesting permission to join, so I had to spend about an hour trying to hunt down his very common name throughout the web to confirm that he was a stage manager. He's posted 5 times in the past year - more than anyone other than me - and his posts mostly consist of "anybody know of any jobs?" or "anybody have any connections at any High Level Theatre Companies that I can talk to about employment?" I've never seen him post here. I don't even know if he's a member. I've never seen him comment on anyone else's posts. He sent me a private message saying he'd seen me post frequently in the "SMA group" and asking him if I could hook him up with SMA swag.
I recognize him every time he posts now, so that aspect of his networking efforts have succeeded. However, I remember him as a rude, self-centered jerk who's always out of work, can't read directions, and keeps doing something that could harm a project I've been working on for a decade and a half.
All this is to say, please pay attention to the environment and orient yourself a bit before you start networking at people.
140
The Green Room / Milestone - 40 years of Stern's "Stage Management"
« on: Mar 26, 2015, 09:41 pm »
I have the privilege to occasionally hear from Lawrence Stern via email. As you probably know, Stern is the author of one of the most seminal textbooks on stage management. He's now 80 years old and has been in ill health for the past several years, but he's still in the world and promoting stage management as he is able. He has included SMNetwork in the past several editions of "Stage Management" and has always been very supportive of what we do here.
Today I received the following story from him about how "Stage Management" came to be published, and its history since then. I thought you guys might find it interesting and got his permission to print it here.
Do you have any stories about your first encounter with Stern's book? Have you used it in class? Out of class? Which was the first version you owned? (I have a 2nd ed. version from 1982 that I found second hand back in the late 90's, and the 9th and 10th eds that were sent to me gratis as thanks for SMNetwork. I had an 8th ed as well, but gave it away to a student in need.)
Today I received the following story from him about how "Stage Management" came to be published, and its history since then. I thought you guys might find it interesting and got his permission to print it here.
Quote
April of 2015 is the 40th anniversary of the publication of Stage Management, a college textbook, written by Lawrence Stern.
Here’s the story:
In the late 60’s, after working as a stage manager in the Los Angeles area and in Sacramento, I started to direct in little theaters. I found that the stage managers assigned to help me did not know what to do. Not finding an instruction manual in the library, I assembled a crude manual made up of examples of my past work. When the manual had been “tested” by a few novice stage managers, I sent a feeler letter to 18 publishers of theater books. Two responded favorably with requests for an outline and two chapters.
While negotiating with Allyn & Bacon, Inc., I ran into Ray Bradbury in the lobby of the Coronet Theatre on La Cienega in Los Angeles, where Ray’s one act plays were being staged. I had met Ray years before when I stage managed his first produced one-act, The Anthem Sprinters, at Actors Studio West in Los Angeles. I told Ray that I had a manual going on stage management and Ray asked to see it.
Ray’s office in Beverly Hills was very small, and seemed even smaller because visitors had to find their way around Ray’s bicycle to get to his desk. The visitor’s chair was covered with books, which Ray removed and added to the piles on his desk. Ray quickly turned the pages of the loose-leaf ms, and asked, “Do you have an agent?” I did not. Ray phoned his agent in New York City.
Ray’s agent did not want to represent me because, he said, my book would sell 100 copies at most and I would resent having to pay him 10% of my royalties. But he did offer some good advice about what to ask for as adjustments to any standard contract that I might be offered.
I asked Ray if he would write the preface. He did and I sent it to Allyn & Bacon. They sent me their standard contract and I asked for the adjustments that Ray’s agent had suggested. Got two out of three.
A&B asked for revisions of the ms, and I rewrote several chapters (in the days before word processing) on an IBM Selectric, using lots of white-out. The first hard-cover edition was well received. From a small parochial college in Florida, the head of the theater arts department wrote that henceforward Stage Management would be their SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), their “backstage bible.”
A&B was pleased after the second edition in soft cover, to see Stage Management become the best seller on their theater list. Every three or four years A&B asked for a new edition. With every new edition, A&B jacked up the price of the book. After the first few editions, I was amazed that sales continued to be good when books on the same subject were now competing at one third the price.
A&B was purchased by Esquire, Inc., in 1981. In 1983, Esquire was sold to Gulf+Western (Paramount Studios), and A&B became part of Simon & Schuster's education division. Pearson purchased the education and reference divisions of Simon & Schuster in 1998. These changes brought no changes to continued requests for new editions or to the continuing royalty checks, now from Pearson.
(On March 23, 2015, I received word that Pearson had sold my title to Taylor & Francis. Is this the end of a 40 year run?)
In 2009, Stage Management was printed in Chinese by Peking University Press.
In 2008, I was hit with chronic fatigue and asked friend Alice O’Grady to help me with the 9th (2009) and 10th (2013) editions. Alice had used my book to stage manage at a little theatre in Boerne, Texas.
There have been many rewards over forty years, like hearing from college instructors that they studied my book when they were students and now recommend it to their students. For recent editions, I have contacted many Broadway stage managers to ask if they will share their expertise with the next generations. Several said they studied my book in college and are happy to contribute.
A few years ago, I stopped at a gas station in Pollock Pines (population 6,400), CA. The clerk took a look at my credit card and asked, “Are you the Lawrence Stern who wrote Stage Management?” He told me that he was taking an acting class when his instructor asked him to stage manage a show and handed him my book. “Your book saved my butt.” Wow! Recognized in Pollock Pines!
Do you have any stories about your first encounter with Stern's book? Have you used it in class? Out of class? Which was the first version you owned? (I have a 2nd ed. version from 1982 that I found second hand back in the late 90's, and the 9th and 10th eds that were sent to me gratis as thanks for SMNetwork. I had an 8th ed as well, but gave it away to a student in need.)
141
Introductions / Re: Who Runs the World? Us !
« on: Mar 20, 2015, 07:28 pm »
Thanks for putting a ring on it and finally joining us!
142
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: What to say when they're late...
« on: Mar 05, 2015, 05:35 pm »
It may also be the nervous laughter of relief if they were expecting either abuse or a firing.
143
Job Postings / Re: Cirque du Soleil internships - Vegas
« on: Feb 21, 2015, 04:12 pm »
I have been alerted that new Cirque du Soleil positions have been recently posted, including Vegas internships for summer 2015: https://cirquedusoleil.taleo.net/careersection/2/moresearch.ftl?lang=en
144
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: not needed until tech week?
« on: Feb 16, 2015, 02:34 am »
I've heard of this happening in opera, dance, and very low level community theatre shows.
145
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: CALLING: Articulation marks in SM calling script
« on: Feb 06, 2015, 01:42 am »
Wind musicians will mark breaths with little ticks and string musicians have bowings. A hefty call can be also considered a 3 hour monologue - it's quite practical to have some clues as to how to do it without giving yourself the hiccups.
146
Homework Help / Re: (Homework [Help) Me!]
« on: Jan 31, 2015, 01:00 am »
There's a series on the Students & Novices board called "Student SM Challenges." You can find them all catalogued under the "Student Challenge" tag: http://smnetwork.org/forum/tags/?tagid=191
They may be of assistance to you and you are welcome to use/modify them for classroom exercises.
They may be of assistance to you and you are welcome to use/modify them for classroom exercises.
147
Self-Promotion / Re: Latest Project - starting a company - need your help!
« on: Jan 21, 2015, 11:37 pm »
Thanks! Starting a company is a big scary thing!
148
Self-Promotion / Latest Project - starting a company - need your help!
« on: Jan 20, 2015, 11:15 pm »
I don't normally like to cross-pollinate between my normal life and SMNetwork, but I figured you guys might be able to help out, especially since it has roots in things I've learned from building this website.
So remember back when I made the Internship Survey? And designed a survey to help objectively rate internships? So that's still running. It's doing well, although slowly, mostly due to lack of promotion, but hey, that's how it goes.
After leaving stage management I was an apartment leasing agent for five years, and then a Realtor, and then I quit outright in October to start my own company. It's focused on apartment rentals, it's web based, and it uses a lot of what I learned from the SMNetwork internship project.
RentConfident is the new company. We're a web-based research company that is trying to be the Carfax of apartments. Customers give us addresses of places they're thinking of renting, and we make details reports about the landlord, building, condo association, neighborhood, property manager, and make a risk assessment. We're in beta testing right now and hope to launch to the Chicago market this spring. Other locations may follow, depending on demand and data availability.
It's a neat idea and I'm very happy with how things are progressing, but we're having some trouble getting market data. We've got a survey put together and we've received just shy of 70 responses so far, but in order to have a decent sample size that reflects even the Chicago rental market we need closer to 400 responses. This is where you guys come in.
If you've rented before and feel so inclined, or have friends who have rented before, could you please take our market research survey and spread the word about it? They don't have to have rented in Chicago, or even in the US. We'd like to hear from anyone who's rented an apartment before.
Here's the survey link: https://rentconfident.com/survey/index.php/422893/lang-en
Of course, if you like the idea and happen to live in Chicago, I'd love it if you could spread the word about the company to your friends and fam. But for now the market research is the crucial thing so we can make a business plan that's got some basis in reality.
Thanks!
So remember back when I made the Internship Survey? And designed a survey to help objectively rate internships? So that's still running. It's doing well, although slowly, mostly due to lack of promotion, but hey, that's how it goes.
After leaving stage management I was an apartment leasing agent for five years, and then a Realtor, and then I quit outright in October to start my own company. It's focused on apartment rentals, it's web based, and it uses a lot of what I learned from the SMNetwork internship project.
RentConfident is the new company. We're a web-based research company that is trying to be the Carfax of apartments. Customers give us addresses of places they're thinking of renting, and we make details reports about the landlord, building, condo association, neighborhood, property manager, and make a risk assessment. We're in beta testing right now and hope to launch to the Chicago market this spring. Other locations may follow, depending on demand and data availability.
It's a neat idea and I'm very happy with how things are progressing, but we're having some trouble getting market data. We've got a survey put together and we've received just shy of 70 responses so far, but in order to have a decent sample size that reflects even the Chicago rental market we need closer to 400 responses. This is where you guys come in.
If you've rented before and feel so inclined, or have friends who have rented before, could you please take our market research survey and spread the word about it? They don't have to have rented in Chicago, or even in the US. We'd like to hear from anyone who's rented an apartment before.
Here's the survey link: https://rentconfident.com/survey/index.php/422893/lang-en
Of course, if you like the idea and happen to live in Chicago, I'd love it if you could spread the word about the company to your friends and fam. But for now the market research is the crucial thing so we can make a business plan that's got some basis in reality.
Thanks!
149
Announcements / Re: Planned downtime: Jan 8-10 2015
« on: Jan 08, 2015, 04:28 am »
... and it wound up taking about 4 hours instead of 48. We're back.
150
December Madness 2 / Re: December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)
« on: Jan 08, 2015, 12:07 am »
And that's the whistle, folks! After 5 weeks of voting and intense competition, December Madness 2 is over!
The winner, at 21 votes to 10 against, in a surprise upset is...
WEBMAIL!
Webmail has been the quiet winner throughout the entire tournament. No discussion, no debate, no close matches. Although Excel had its strong proponents and survived battles against some very tough competition, stage managers voted in favor of communication instead of organization as the critical element of the job.
Thanks to all of you for voting and participating. This was definitely a quieter event than the first go around and I'm not sure if we'll do it again, but it's been fun nonetheless and an interesting snapshot of your views on technology and the job.
The winner, at 21 votes to 10 against, in a surprise upset is...
WEBMAIL!
Webmail has been the quiet winner throughout the entire tournament. No discussion, no debate, no close matches. Although Excel had its strong proponents and survived battles against some very tough competition, stage managers voted in favor of communication instead of organization as the critical element of the job.
Thanks to all of you for voting and participating. This was definitely a quieter event than the first go around and I'm not sure if we'll do it again, but it's been fun nonetheless and an interesting snapshot of your views on technology and the job.