Messages

16

The Green Room / thank you notes

« on: Apr 15, 2006, 06:20 pm »

I do nice(personal) thanks you notes for everybody...

my last show it took a solid 2 days with every single moment of free time (as well as skipping classes for those 2 days) to finish them
cast=30
orchestra=14
crew=6 (this is highschool so our crew isn't very big)

I just print business card sized break a leg cards and write my notes on the back. I have extra small handwriting tho, and I try to fill each one up..it forces me to get a sense of closure with each person, and it's a great way to improve peer relationships (cause at about that point all the older kids hate you for "bossing them around" and the younger kids hate you for stopping them from killing eachother...lol)
it's gotten harder and harder to do as my casts increase in size....
-isha

17

The Green Room / SMs in media?

« on: Apr 15, 2006, 06:08 pm »

this isn't "theatre theatre", but it's definetly media..

http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/st/beauty.htm

it quotes the ASM!!!!!
-isha

18

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Production, or no Production. That is the question.

« on: Mar 26, 2006, 10:37 pm »

source 4 what?

"Source Four" is a brand name of ETC lighting intruments.  They're the most popular main-stream lighting instrument that you'll find around the US.  I'm guessing that you might be in an old Strand house to not have any Source 4's there?

They're nice instruments - ellipsoidals with removable barrels - so that you can swap what degree instrument you want.

-Centaura

no,  I know what a source four is.....what I meant to say is what type of source four? like a source 4 zoom, or source 4 ellipse...cause I think the source 4 ellipse and the source 4 zoom have different gel frame sizes don't they?

at our highschool we have 6 source-4 junior zooms, and 2 source-4 ellipses.....
-isha

19

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Production, or no Production. That is the question.

« on: Mar 26, 2006, 03:13 am »

source 4 what? (are the ellipses and zooms the same size for gel frames? I don't think they are...)

fresnel is how you spell it : )

and this is how you spell traveller...(a drama class has got to be good for something aye? ...lol)

I'm really sorry, it's too bad everything is going so miserable for you right now..I know how that feels, just remember to forget all that and do the show. Put it all out of your head and focus on what you've got to do....(it'll be over in 5 days?) there is always a beginning a middle and an end. and remeber that no matter how awful things are goin, it will be over....and if you are still having trouble, pull support from this group. We are all here doing the exact same thing you are doing...

break a leg.
-isha

20

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Production, or no Production. That is the question.

« on: Mar 23, 2006, 02:58 pm »

well and what I am doing at my school is this...

I SM-ed the music...

but all year I have been in charge of the auditorium (I tech for anybody that does anything in there, I am in the space everytime something happens (not only to insure that nothing is broken but also that they don't steal our equibtment) and then I am in charge of making sure activities/productions clean up their stuff and get the stage ready for the next activity that happens in there.
So I've spent a lot of hours in cleaning and moving and re-hanging washes...that sort of thing..but it's been a great experience for me..I can now hang a decent wash, I can operate the PA system, I can operate and do a good job at sound op-ing (like I know how to mess with EQ and levels and all that fun stuff.) I know how to use a CD recording and set-up a good recording of a concert, I can run and program a lightboard (with occasional help from the manual), I have learned a ton of butt-kissing smarming techniques and have also learned how to play the system to get stuff for our space. And did I mention that I've done a lot of cleaning? and organizing..and cleaning....and more cleaning...but it's really been fun. The school is granting me my technology credit for doing this, and I've been tracking my hours and am somewhere near the 350 hours mark.  8O

but I call that the GENERAL MANAGER position....(I'm assuming you are doing something close to the same thing? you are trying to build up the program, and trainging other kids, and you know how to run most everything in your space?)

-isha

21

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Be quiet!

« on: Mar 23, 2006, 02:48 pm »

I do! with a cast that big I would run out of money to pay for lollipops in an hour...

for the on-time thing I started baking cookies or bringing stickers if you were on time...that worked great for a while....until the director got into a habit of starting half an hour late....( I always prodded and pushed, but it would always take 30 min. for him to finish whatever he was doing...grrrr...)

I don't know..sometimes you just have to give up and wait for the director to get mad enough to do something (again this is highschool) sometimes no matter how hard you try the cast will purposely ignore you, because your not an adult.

22

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / a musical

« on: Mar 23, 2006, 02:40 pm »

yeah we usually have 30-ish in a cast...my last play I had 32 cast, 5 techies and an orchestra of 14, the orchestra is pretty self sufficient tho......we would cast more but I don't think we have that many people that can act and halfway sing at my school  
-isha

23

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Be quiet!

« on: Mar 21, 2006, 09:58 pm »

Wow....my last show absolutely nothing worked...it got to a point where even when I yelled it several times in a row they wouldn't stop...sometimes you run up against a group (highschool) that are blatantly talking, and won't stop(as in, they know they are talking, they hear me, and then keep talking because they don't want to listen to what a junior has to say..)..

it could have been in part because my director wasn't strong enough (personality wise) to enforce a lot of things, and if he excused things away I wasn't able to enforce them.

Oh well....I think sometimes you just have to mesh to the directors style..and if he/she isn't going to enforce it, and if they won't help you enforce it, there's nothing you can do...

24

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / a musical

« on: Mar 21, 2006, 09:37 pm »

1: Get help!!!! you can't do a large scale musical without 2 asms.....(in my opinion)

2: Find a way to integrate your music into your blocking script. With the show I just closed it was very frustrating when the choreo or director would use measure numbers or letters as they were giving blocking... and it's just too hard to follow a page that looks like this

Altos  _________ Basses: ______Tenors: ____albert:____ sop.:
goin steady ____  yeah you ___do do dum____ oh- ______mmmmmm..
goin steady! ____ know _______deeee______  -     ______mmmm...
steady _________it maaannn           dooo____HONEY ____ooooooo...

even if you are not very good at reading music, with songs that have 3 or 4 different things going on at the same time it is easier to read from the music (even if you are only following the words)

(I finally copied the music and did a cool fold-ing thing to integrate the music into my script but made it in such a way that I could instantly skip to the next page, or only use the script if for that day my purposes were such that I needed to see the words printed instead of music.)

3: Also, I think musicals are just harder in general: more elements to fit in, more set changes, more light/sound cues, 100 times more mic cues, bigger cast, more directors/management to deal with (you have the md, choreo, director, etc.) it just seems like there is MORE of everything....

hope it helps...
-isha

25

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Bye Bye Birdie Script!!!!!!!!!!! HELP!

« on: Mar 10, 2006, 02:25 am »

HAH! The set easy!!! This show is VERY different from how you must have done it

our set designer went a little nuts (he's the director..)

I have my Q-to-Q on sat. and I have no idea how I'm going to make this work, 200 light q's (roughly), 16 mics going on and off constantly, and these massive rolling set pieces that turn or twist or combine to form different locations...all with no crew backstage crew. I have to use the actors which is definetly not something I WANT, but it's a necessity because 1) it's highschool theatre and we don't have anybody interested in technical theatre besides myself 2) there's hardly enough room backstage for the set pieces and actors, without even thinking about adding 2 more people much less the 7 it takes to move the rolling set piece.

I'm really nervous. I don't really feel up to this right now, I'm burnt out from schoolwork, and my last show (which really broke my spirit, everything about it was awful and nothing I did made the experience any better). I'm just so tired and the play has suffered because I haven't been on top of things as much as I would have liked...

DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FEEL BURNT OUT? I'M JUST SOOOOO TIRED. I love stage managing, I'm just so....I don't know. Tired of something. Not in the sick-of-it way but in the burnt out, I-have-no-emotion-left-in-my-body way. I haven't even really cried at all.
Comfort?
-isha

26

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Need Sound Help!!!!

« on: Feb 25, 2006, 01:07 am »

mc..I looked at the page you suggested, and I didn't understand a word. what is it trying to say?

27

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / SOUND: Need Sound Help!!!!

« on: Feb 24, 2006, 02:04 am »

I'm working on Bye Bye Birdie, and the director want live phone effects (instead of a recorded ones.) My director knows what he wants, the thing that we need help with is knowing how to make it.
(I think you can actually buy this sort of thing, but we wanted to make it instead of paying a ton of money for it.)

he wants a live ringer, with a push button. We have an old bell from a rotary phone. What do we need to do to make it ring when you push a button? has anybody had to make one of these before? how do you wire it/ does anybody have any plans or directions?

HELP?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-isha

28

Tools of the Trade / What goes inside a SM Kit?

« on: Feb 11, 2006, 08:04 pm »

Iknow..it's a pain to take up.....but when I have no money..and when I have to order any other sort of tape (we live in po dunk town..we don't even have an official "building store".)...... I use masking tape...

I make the kids that are late peel up making tape anyways, so I never actually have to deal with it...it's the tardy punishment...

29

Tools of the Trade / What goes inside a SM Kit?

« on: Feb 11, 2006, 02:03 pm »

I'm also a highschool SM...yeah!!!But one thing you should know about this site and highschool theatre is that all the advice you get you really have to fit to highschool theatre, just because it's so different.

but as for a kit...I would say the most important thing (for highschool) is colored bandaids....you wouldn't believe how many of my actors cut themselves on things that shouldn't be able to cut them, and then they "can't function"...but whip out a bright pink bandaid and they stop complaining(especially if it's bright pink...) and the world is able to go back to normal...

another big thing I use it extra pencils..I finally made 2 stashes of pencils..one for my use (or the directors..) and a bundle of cheap actors pencils, since they never get back to me.

I also use a lot of masking tape, safety pins, a pencil sharpener,  permeneant markers (I have a collection of mini sharpies that I use constantly), a label maker (it's actually the director's but he lets me use it), my swiss army knife (but I don't have that at the school *wink wink*), and a large collection of sticky notes and the flag sticky notes.....oh, and I have my yellow note pad that I rely on for everything...it stays in a plastic page cover in my binder so I have it at all times, in fact I'm almost through my first yellow pad...I'm going to need another one soon.

but really, just have whatever will help you do your job the best...^that helps me...but it's going to depend on what your job is in your highschool ( my director tends to let me have a lot of freedom in defining my job. He trusts me enough to know that whatever I do will help make his job better and easier....) Some highschools the job is totally defined for you and you have people who know what they are doing. (this isn't the case at my highschool, but it might be at yours.) Work with what you got.

hope that helps...
-isha

30

SMNetwork Archives / fake cigarettes for under-age actors

« on: Jan 16, 2006, 09:29 pm »

yes, it's for bye bye birdie, and Kim actually talks about smoking, so we can't exactly take it out. (the character is pretending to be street-smart and offers another character a smoke on her cigarette. It's a big chunk of text, just her talking about how she smokes and does other "older kid stuff".)

no we can't get away with not lighting a real cigarette because it's against school rules to have tobacco anywhere on the grounds...kinda stinks..but that's how highschool theater goes.

I don't know, we've really been looking, we just can't find anything...any suggestions would help...and I am going to look into seeing if we can light rolled up paper somehow
-isha