Messages

136

The Green Room / Re: Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark

« on: Dec 23, 2010, 11:07 am »

Kay's probably right about the PR folks.  "Any press is good press."  Right?
In that vein, one thing the "Spider-Man Debacle" (as it's been dubbed at my theatre) has done is get your average Joe talking about live theatre.  At least live theatre is popping up on the publics' collective radars, again.
I may be an irrepresable optimist, but I'd like to think this whole thing can still turn out well for the whole field!

137

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS Archive June 09-Dec. 10

« on: Dec 22, 2010, 03:41 pm »

Just signed up for a new season.  Does anyone have Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts?  Thanks a ton!

138

The Green Room / Re: Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark

« on: Dec 21, 2010, 01:02 pm »

No kidding, about stressful lives.  What I find most peculiar, however, is that most of the attached article was culled from Twitter reports.  News reporting in the modern age is getting stranger and stranger.

139

The Green Room / Re: Spiderman's Stage Managers

« on: Dec 19, 2010, 01:23 pm »

Purvis recalls the first time she saw the flying, and the sets and lighting: "It made me giddy like a child," she says."I don't think any (musical stage managers) do this for the money, because the hours don't get holidays or weekends or evenings off," she says. "We do it because you get cool toys. And this is the coolest toys in town."

That was my favorite bit.  While nothing like the scale of Spider Man, that's exactly how I felt when I saw the complexity of the Magic Flute production I ASMed, this spring.

140

Stage Management: Other / Re: Backstage at the Nutcracker

« on: Dec 17, 2010, 12:29 pm »

Fun.  I particularly liked the Lord of the Flies reference.  My adult show is in rep with Madeline's Christmas (12 little girls), and we had a power outage/blackout the other night.  I acutally told my cast, after the show, "Thank goodness it was us.  If that had happened during the kids show, it would have been Lord of the Flies in 2.5 seconds!"

I also like the bit about "tails in hands!"  Oh, small children!

141

The Green Room / Re: Did he REALLY ask me that?

« on: Dec 16, 2010, 12:32 pm »

This is less than funny and a more sweet (with overtones of, "Why don't you do that yourself?")
Currently working a three person show, and the weather was ABYSMAL, last night: ice, freezing rain, wind, and the associated stupid drivers.  One of my cast members arrived and recounted 14 accidents he passed en route.
Five minutes to call, both my male actors are in, but my female actor hasn't arrived yet.  The two men come up to me as I'm conversing with the House Manager, give me puppy dog eyes and say, "We're worried about Megan."
"Do you want me to call her?  She's not late, yet."
"Pleeeeease?"

They were very sweet, I called her, she was pulling in right that moment.  But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Are your phones broken?"

142

The Green Room / Re: Did he REALLY ask me that?

« on: Dec 15, 2010, 01:36 pm »

"Hey on_headset, can I talk to you? See, I was wondering if we could get some condoms for the green room..."

DON'T WANT TO KNOW
DON'T WANT TO KNOW
STICK YOUR BITS INTO WHOEVER YOU LIKE
BUT I DON'T WANT TO KNOW

*snort* reminds me of the overheard conversation as two people walked toward me a theatre department party, back in college.  (Dear Goddess, that's getting way back at this point.  Who said I could get old?)
"Ask tempest_gypsy, she's always prepared."
"She doesn't sleep around, there's no way she has any."
"She keeps them in her kit, just ask her!"
"Her kit isn't here, she just has that tiny purse, I'm not asking her!"
By this time they were practically in front of me.
"ASK HER!"  *shove*

I looked at the red faced cast member standing in front of me, pulled the needed item out of my purse without him saying a word (packed precisely because I knew the tendancies and general preparedness level of the other folks who were going to be at the party, and if your SM doesn't look out for you, who will), handed him two without a word and stalked off in search of another beer.

On the plus side, that particular actor (my problem child) continued to be so mortified the rest of the run that he became the most well behaved, if somewhat distant, performer I worked with in college!

143

The Green Room / Re: Funnest Tech Run Ever

« on: Dec 08, 2010, 11:37 am »

Oooo, congratulations, yomanda!

144

The Green Room / Re: audience callbacks- the ones you want, the ones you don't

« on: Dec 04, 2010, 12:22 pm »

I know it's an old topic, but I had one last night I just HAD to share. 
A grown man, in the 4th row, kept making squalling cat, and very loud bird calls.  Through the whole show. 
It's a show in which there is no such thing as a fourth wall,  and a few sections of ad-lib lines.  During one of them (rife with the squalling cat noises) my lead said, "Someone is starting to wear on my nerves."  At which point the offender yelled back, "Isn't that what they pay you for?!"  We just ignored the man the rest of the show, and eventually his companion got him to calm down.
Unfortunately, he wasn't in a place where the house manager could get to him without making an even larger disrution than he was making.  Though if he kept it up at his initial intensity I WAS going to use the God-mic.  It's the sort of show where I could have gotten away with it, and been pretty scathing, too.  (My cast would have adored it) 
Dr. Dolittle, over there, was also the only one who did not stand in the standing ovation.  Jerk.

145

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS Archive June 09-Dec. 10

« on: Dec 04, 2010, 12:11 pm »

Does anyone have "Avenue Q?"  Thanks muchly.

146

The Green Room / Re: Funny definitions

« on: Dec 03, 2010, 03:02 pm »

Remount Redux - the sickening feeling of, "Haven't I done this, many times, before?" that begins to occur the third...fourth...fifth time you've done a show

And Phantom-Q (like Phantom Limbs) the instinctive attempt to call a Q that does not exist in the current version of the production you are doing for the third...fourth...fifth time.

147

The Green Room / Re: Best one-liner from a performance report

« on: Nov 28, 2010, 09:55 pm »

We're doing a version of The Santaland Diaries and our actor playing David has a "volunteer" from the audience help him get into his Crumpet costume, each night.  As you never know what you're going to get with audience "volunteers," this section contains a lot of ad lib.  Last night's volunteer was named Roger.  Leading to this note:

"Roger?  You know 'roger' is a verb in England, right?"  Harold, you're an effin' genius; how on Earth do you think so fast?

148

The Hardline / Re: SPT SM Overtime Tech Week

« on: Nov 19, 2010, 07:24 pm »

The theatre I work in most is under SPT.  If I'm in the theatre, working, I report it as hours.  Including prep, breakdown, notes with director, meetings with designers, etc.  Thus far, they've always paid me the overtime I've put in, in tech week, or otherwise.
However, if I'm in the theatre, napping up in the back of the house, I don't count it.   

149

The Green Room / Re: Funny definitions

« on: Nov 14, 2010, 12:40 pm »

Remount Redux - the sickening feeling of, "Haven't I done this, many times, before?" that begins to occur the third...fourth...fifth time you've done a show

150

The Green Room / Re: I can't believe I just had to do that...

« on: Nov 10, 2010, 11:53 am »

This one was so weird that I acutally put in the report "No, I can't beleive I just asked for that, either."

PROPS: Can we please have a piece of foam core, hinged in the middle so it will fold up to about 8.5" X 11" with a Rorschach style ink-blot image on it that is, pretty obviously, two reindeer "doing it."  Director says, "Reindeer porn, with blots."