Messages

136

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Sep 26, 2007, 11:48 pm »

Not...letting...this...topic..die...too...much...to...do...at...the...top...of...the...season...more following opening night. Here's some fun stuff to chew on until then...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Obviously, there are major problems with this thesis, but it intrigues me nonetheless. During our chat session on Monday night, I was struck by a thought that reminded me of this study. When I flesh that thought out, then I'll post more on the idea. I think it has something to do with the above nonsense and Mac's friend's comment that:

I can tell you everything you need to know, but I cannot make you listen.

Like the above jumbled sentence, you need to work a little to get at understanding. This is not a new idea to humankind.

137

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Tech Haiku

« on: Sep 26, 2007, 11:28 pm »

Brava I say! Cheers!
A masterpiece of poesy
Well writ, this ballad.

138

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Tech Haiku

« on: Sep 26, 2007, 08:07 pm »

I know there's more tech tension out there waiting to blossom into a perfect, succint flower of poesy...

139

SMNetwork Archives / Tech Haiku

« on: Sep 22, 2007, 09:29 pm »

A 10 out of 12:
"Here is..." Stand By LX80
"...for thy pains." Hold please!

140

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Emergency Contact/Medical Info forms for Students

« on: Sep 10, 2007, 04:07 pm »

I do the same; I collect the emergency/medical information that production personnel are willing to offer and keep it in a sealed envelope; if it's a small show, I use one envelope per person, but for a huge show I put them all together. I shred all the forms when the show is closed.

141

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PSMing vs. ASMing

« on: Sep 03, 2007, 12:03 am »

Maybe its just my bad luck with ASMs in the shows I've done, but I like PSMing for calling the show, though in some ads for ASMs I've read that they call the show.

I spent two seasons as a calling ASM; both myself and the PSM (I despise the term "Production Stage Manager," but that's another topic) entered rehearsals, the PSM would tech and open the show and I'd start calling the following Tuesday, which typically was prep week for the next show. I would then be in rehearsals and performance, while the PSM remained in rehearsal. I would say this was "harder" but only because of the time I was required to be at the theatre. I hope I never have to do that again. I love both positions, but, as many have remarked, if you are doing your job correctly, then both positions should be challenging. I hold the opinion, though, that ASMing is "easier" because, in a lot of ways, the ASM knows more about the show as an entity, because the ASMs are often put in charge of the backstage area and are privy to the machina...As sievep points out:

ASMs are the ones on deck who have to deal with a problem when something goes wrong, which requires a great amount of maturity, ability to remain calm under high stress, and a high level of decision making.  The PSM can't deal with everything, . . .

142

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Sep 02, 2007, 11:46 pm »

Okay, I’m not ready to let this thread die yet, and, for some reason, I seem to be obsessed with something at the center of our ideas; that something is still too vague to be determined.  Also, we seemed to have veered off topic a bit. Alas, I did also begin rehearsals for two shows this past week so I’ve been a bit busy and have not been able to keep an eye on the thread.

If you will permit me the analogy, last week, while watching Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (the movie), I was struck by a thought.  It is the scene when Aragorn (Mmmmm…Viggo Mortensen) sees the pyre of Rohan burning and makes haste to Theoden screaming “The beacons of Minas Tirith! Gondor calls for aid.”

The beacons have been lit; these flaming signals of hope or entreaty carry the only message that gets through…it’s a lovely wide, sweeping shot…over snow covered mountains and into green valleys, into darkness and finally into the light of day in Rohan, but Aragorn still sees the flame. This flame is essentially a death knell for the inhabitants of Middle Earth, yet they rally and go to war. This was the most efficient method of communication.

Here are a few questions that bubbled up from my oddly programmed subconscious that I humbly submit to the venerable SM Network:

How do we, as stage mangers, achieve this sort of purity in our communications while making the determination of when X needs to know Y?

Aside from reading the rehearsal report to an uninterested designer, how do we make sure X knows Y? This seems to bite many folks in the booty at inopportune times.

On average, how long does it take you to create the average rehearsal/performance report? How much time do you spend in thought, if any, on how you word your notes? This question is in part derived from Mac’s comment that:

…I think we spend too much time on the medium we use to deliver information, rather than looking at the information we are delivering.

What do you think?

143

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Aug 22, 2007, 07:59 pm »

Mac said:

It is more the ethical issues of the appropriateness of instant/near instant communication that I worry about.

Mac's comment hints towards the core of this topic, and I think it would be great to begin an examination in that direction. BalletPSM's story about the designer who needed notes delivered to her house is a fascinating piece of the puzzle, too. Face-to-face communication time is necessary to the vitality of the production process, IMHO, and though some of us may have scratched our heads with wonder, as did I, at the method of delivery, the right information got to the right person.

Online callboards are also fantastic tools for disseminating a lot of varied information to a lot of people, and aside from any issue with security, the responsibility of retrieving information is evenly displaced among those needing to be "in-the-know." Who needs to be in-the-know is a topic that could generate many different threads.

The question then becomes, really, "How fast does X need to know Y?" When multi-billion dollar budgets are on the line, well, I'd imagine the speed of Y approaches warp 10. But in most of our theatres, I'm guessing, we can amble along and occasionally smell the flowers on the way to the P.O. What does the SMNetwork think?

144

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Aug 21, 2007, 11:24 am »

Believe me -- I didn't LIKE doing this at all!  But when the designer doesn't have email or a home phone, how else are you supposed to communicate? I was fully embracing the technology at my fingertips -- my designer wasn't...

I understand your situation completely; of course we do what we need, to get the information out. It just floors me that this particular designer is able to successfully insulate herself from the electron, when I find them (electrons) an indispensable part of my tool kit, and indeed, life. It's almost post-modernist backlash, in the critical sense. But I digress...and I'm still trying to digest the fact that gasoline and geography are part of your communicative process.

145

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Aug 20, 2007, 11:48 pm »

I love communication. I love to be in the know, and I like for everyone else to be in the know as well. I love thinking up new ideas for getting information to people, and I like to try and get people to use these methods (or even their own methods).

I think this is one of the primary reasons I am a stage manager.

However...

I think that in our quest to know anything and everything connected with a show, we sometimes assume that everybody else does too.  They really don't. [...] More time consuming for me, I guess, but my job is not to make my job the easiest thing in the world - it's to make the show run smoothly, and if this means I have to send 4 emails instead of 1 and make 2 phone calls and 1 house call, then so be it.  Yeah, okay, that can suck sometimes, but that's what I get paid for.  That's why I do this.  =) 

A designer can choose not to read all of the rehearsal report or meeting minutes but, if everyone on the design team remains on the distro list, at least said designer remains in the information loop and the onus of specificity is removed from the SM's shoulders.

The house call scenario is a great example of an SM required to spend an inordinate amount of time on the medium of communication versus what's being communicated. I'm not saying it's bad or wrong or this or that approach would be better, or that the SM shouldn't do such a thing. I think, though, that SMs should also reap the benefits of ease from contemporary communication systems. Actually, I'm not sure what I'm saying at the moment, but I'm going off to figure it out...

146

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Aug 19, 2007, 03:25 pm »

I was hoping the benevolent moderator would determine that this topic merited another thread! 

we're using 11 projectors on 5 different screens, 2 of which are movable to create 4 different arrangements of screen in the center, plus live video feed...it's intense!

Crikey! I don't think "intense" accurately qualifies the situation...that's a lot of AV! I agree, though, that keeping your designer informed and feeling supported by you is the way to go. It makes me wonder why he feels like he's just a "helper" and, might it have to do with the way he chooses to receive his information regarding the production. Curious.

Kevin, I couldn't make it to Phoenix or Louisville...I'd really love to see your Power Point sessions, if you can find them. I tried to work a few days off for USITT into my contract this year, but, alas...it didn't work out as USITT falls the week before I tech Amadeus. Bleh. Maybe we can use this forum, with the creator's permission, as a starting point to build a future session for USITT.

In our PM conversation, Meg also pointed out that:

How fascinating, also, that this very informal seminar on SM and tech is taking place online...

There are so many layers to this topic that I think a good starting point is the question that prompted our moderator to split the thread: What is the true nature of efficient communication and how does technology help or hinder the exchange of information in the SM's world? My first response concerns Meg's observation that we can communicate about how we use technology to communicate through technology! Ogres are like onions!

147

Employment / Re: First Aid/Fire Guard

« on: Aug 17, 2007, 12:27 am »

What the heck is "Fire Guard"? My company offers First Aid/CPR, but I've never heard of Fire Guard....unless it's basic fire safety stuff...the Fire Department comes to us and teaches about basic fire safety and the different types of fire extinguishers, ABC...and whatnot....P.A.S.S....Pull, Aim, Shoot and Sweep. That's what most major companies I've worked for have offered. And believe me, it comes in handy when we have live flame onstage...

148

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Effective communication as it relates to today's technology

« on: Aug 16, 2007, 11:06 am »

This particular show, I have one designer who says that because of the large volume of emails they receive every day, they don't want daily reports, they only want the reports when something pertains to them.  So now I have to set up two mailing lists, one with their email and one without, and make sure that I figure out which report has to go to which one...eek.

I think this is definitely tethered to the topic of efficient communication and technology, but it would certainly merit its own thread. I understand the potential problem with the "large volume of e-mail" but to me, this speaks of a designer who is not engaged with the total process, but, maybe I'm taking too idealistic an approach here. Playing the devil's advocate for a moment, this is one situation where technologies that SMs employ might serve to breed autonomy instead of collaboration.

149

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Good Rep Daily Call Form

« on: Aug 16, 2007, 10:51 am »

Matthew, you're definitely on the right track; especially with the column for the actors' first call. Then, they really have no excuse for "not seeing that."

150

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Good Rep Daily Call Form

« on: Aug 15, 2007, 07:25 pm »

What's the point of having two shows on one schedule? Are you running out of call board space? Or trying to cut down on attachments...lots of company members in different shows? I'm intrigued...