Messages

16

Tools of the Trade / Re: latest toyes...

« on: Oct 01, 2006, 01:00 pm »

I understand the frustration of looking for the perfect binder, so I finally made my own. Made my own clipboard too! My super-binder is a standard D-Ring, with all the usual bells and whistles, plus: On the inside front cover I gaff taped two flat, side loading CD cases. Now my show CDs travel right inside the binder, it still opens flat, and the thing looks like a transformer now; COOL!  But my clipboard is even better. Took a plain wooden legal size clipboard. Binder clipped a clamp binder to it, by cutting two slits in the binder near the spine for the binderclips to slip thru. Then marley-taped a slash jacket to the inside of the front cover of the clamp binder. Then added a standard yellow pad to the clipboard and I am in business! The cover of the clamp binder can flip all the way to the back out of the way, or it can close over the top of the whole thing to protect my notepad. Plus the clamped documents can be flipped to the front or the back of the notepad if I need them, and the slash jacket can hold handy papers. I know it's really hard to describe how great this creation is, but I think it rocks. I'll try to post a pic of it someday or something.  Oh, and I love getting my office supplies from http://www.discountofficesupplies.com

Also, while we've been talking mostly about office supplies in this thread, I wanted to comment on my new work gloves i bought last night. Hot dog! You know how hard it is to find good work gloves and once you do, the Home Depot or whatever stops selling that style. I finally stopped in my local army/navy surplus store and found Carhart's gloves!  http://www.goldmanbros.com/gc/customer/product.php?productid=19113&cat=100063
These things feel way tougher, (thicker leather,) than the cheapy Home Depot or Craftsmans. I can't wait to get to work with 'em! And that gel padded palm makes all the difference in the world! OOo baby!

17

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Book and Tabs

« on: Sep 30, 2006, 11:52 am »

I personally have 20 dividers in my book, as follows: 

• Contacts
• Reh. Schedules
• Perf. Schedules
• Calendar(s)
• Prompt Script
• Blocking Script
• Score
• Scene Breakdowns
• Dramaturgy
• Electrics
• Props
• Sets
• Sound
• Wardrobe/Wigs
• Prod. Mtg. Notes
• Reh. Reports
• Perf. Reports
• Run Sheets
• Cast/AEA Info
• Notes

Wow dramachic. Great minds think alike. This is me:

Contacts
Schedules
Scene Breakdowns
Script
-Act 1
-Act 2
-Score
Scenery
Props
Lighting
Sound
Costumes
Reports
Misc. & Company

 
I keep my tabbed dividers in the same binder from show to show and just put the new script and documents in, so I have the exact same format each time, and can be that much more facile with it. Plus, the book takes on a life of it's own that way, as little notes and stickers from past shows find themselves taking up permanent residence in my book.

18

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: ASMs vs SMs

« on: Sep 30, 2006, 11:30 am »

I'll concur with ASMs taking blocking in ADDITION to the PSM. Also, if you do anticipate you're going to have your ASM be taking some blocking at some point, especially of big groups of people such as the chorus or ensemble, be sure you provide opportunity for them early on to begin learning peoples names and roles, (especially if they have several roles!) so they are prepared to track blocking for these large groups of people! There's nothing worse than being asked as an ASM to suddenly take blocking of a huge ensemble scene when you've spent the last week dealing with scene changes and you don't know anyone's name!

Also, be sure you make it clear to your ASMs that all their information should flow up the chain to you, the PSM. Even though most of their information will just be stuff that they will continue to deal with on their own, you need to at least be made aware of everything that's going on so YOU'RE not caught off guard when a director or a designer mentions something to you that they had previously only discussed with the ASM. It's a good idea to check in at least at the end of every day, and at periodic breaks during the day as well when you can.

One thing I did once when we had an SM team of SIX was have one of the ASMs generate the Rehearsal Report all day long. We'd leave a blank report form on the SM table which any SM team member could jot down notes on that they'd observed and then the one ASM would constantly transcribe these notes all day long into the computer. That way we didn't have to spend an hour or more giving one person all our notes from the entire day. Very useful!

19

The Green Room / Re: Snacks

« on: Sep 29, 2006, 11:24 am »

I often like to bring a bag of baby carrots to rehearsal or tech.

For opening, (if I like my boothies & crew), I tend to buy them chocolates- bag of chocolate covered espresso beans in the booth helps keeps those cues spot on!

20

SMNetwork Archives / Drinking Games

« on: Sep 18, 2006, 10:39 am »

8c. If they can't find a scenic piece larger then a bed, drink three times.

HA!!!

I chuckled throughout reading the whole thing, but that one made me GUFFAW!!! Cheers, Matt. Did you make that list yourself? I've never seen that one before and it's some funny $#!t.   

(btw, can a mod grab these last few posts and move 'em to a new Drinking Games thread?)

21

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Juilliard Professional Internship

« on: Sep 08, 2006, 10:53 am »

To be clear, (as far as I know, anyway) : Juilliard only has performance students, (whether musicians, singers, dancers, or actors.) They have no technical production classes, nor are their performance students even required to do any shop hours. The school provides excellent performance training for its performance students, and it provides excellent technical training to an extremely limited number of individuals only through its technical internships, which have nothing to do with classes or the general student body. Juilliard's tech internships are geared towards recent or current undergraduates, (or occasionally recent high school grads,) who already have some sort of theatrical training. They have internships in Electrics, Props, Wardrobe, Stage Management, and I believe Carpentry and Marketing. Again, I am not a representative of the school, and this is all my own suppositions based on working there frequently, but I'm pretty sure my statements are rather accurate.

22

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Juilliard Professional Internship

« on: Sep 07, 2006, 06:14 pm »

I work at Juilliard as a freelance electrician, so I see the SM interns quite a bit, though I don't know much about their program. From what little I can gather, they do seem to get a good training, though it is more geared towards doing things the "Juilliard" way. (Their technical internships however are quite good and with great professional training and contacts.) The advantages to the Juilliard SM internship are that you get to work on a good variety of things, from Shakespeare to ballets to opera. The downside would be that they are all student productions, and you'd lack some more specific professional and AEA training.

23

Employment / Re: Resident SM

« on: Aug 25, 2006, 02:17 pm »

Matt, I'm curious. Do you request any sort of extra compensation for your extra duties? When I've been in similar situations, I've done pretty much the tasks that you detail, but the one thing I've been careful to draw the line on is extra meeting time. I've got no problem with an extra occasional staff meeting or some such, but every production meeting for not my shows could get out of control- esp during tech, with 2 or 3 shows in various stages of production.

(And say hi to Amber and Meg for me!)

24

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: prompt books

« on: Aug 12, 2006, 08:08 pm »

Thanks for the photos of the materials but I'd love to see a photo of a finished product. I'm still a bit vague on how it's used.

25

The Hardline / Re: Changing professions

« on: Aug 05, 2006, 08:25 pm »

Good point about the IA "tests" and such. Then what about the potential of having Equity make you declare a major, as it were? Doesn't IA do something similar for Sound, LX, Wardrobe, Carps, etc? At least that would do a lot to prevent Actors from taking valuable SM slots. Current members could even be grandfathered in as both Actors and SMs, just to be fair, but all new members would have to choose a side. Mind you, the SMs could still become Actors, and vice versa, but it should require a separate (but reduced,) fee or something.

26

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Happy Stage Management Memories?

« on: Aug 05, 2006, 10:59 am »

Bragging? I can do that!

Actually, it was a heinous show, a new, one-woman, work in progress, with a different script every night, which I would not receive till about 3 or 4 that afternoon. It was mostly all the scenes moved around,  (though with some edits too,) so I had to make my call script modular. So I created separate blocking pages which I also kept all my cues on. As soon as I'd receive that night's script, I'd begin an entire Prep-Week's worth of paperwork, plus a Tech Week's worth of cue sheets... to complete in just a few hours. I'd first churn out a quick scene order list with page numbers. Then I'd use that to put my blocking /cue pages in order. Then I'd insert the blocking pages in my new script for the evening. Then I'd use my scene order list to edit the page numbers on the scene-shift plot and sound-cue sheet. I'd resort both those spreadsheets by page number and go through each one manually to make any finer edits. I'd distribute those to the pertinent parties, as well as a scene order to the entire running crew. As if that weren't enough, the one-woman performer/producer/director/playwright insisted on re-teching each evening, which to her meant running through the entire show. No matter how I tried, she  could not understant that we didn't need to see her saying all the same words again, it was only the transitions which were new that mattered. So that process ate up tons of time. Then several times she'd send word to the booth at intermission that she wanted to make even further changes to scene orders- on the fly in the middle of the show! Crazy as it was, I held it together and kept the paperwork updated daily. I felt like a madman stage management machine. It was difficult, but strangely satisfying at the same time, to be utilizing my well-honed skills to their utmost speed and ability. And the best part was, after it all was over, I received several emails from the staff at the theatre thanking me for the work I did, and how I managed to hold it all together during a very trying experience, and their saying that I really demonstrated an impressive quality of stage management that they would do well to learn from. Moments like that are nice.

27

The Hardline / Re: HAVE I EVER READ THE RULE BOOK?

« on: Aug 04, 2006, 11:27 pm »

I don't like to ask my non-Eq ASMs to do work that I'm technically not allowed to do. Sometimes I will do so, but I try hard to limit it. I figure the rules are some standard to be striven for by everyone, not just those protected by the contract. Just like I won't call a break and then ask some non-Eq personnell in the room to do something. And I figure if I ask an ASM to lock up or something, then technically I'm overseeing that task, which is really the same as doing it, in my eyes.

28

The Hardline / Re: Changing professions

« on: Aug 04, 2006, 11:17 pm »

There are many actors who SM to get their Equity card because they find it an easier route for them than the acting one. 

Ugh. And how sad is this?! All this means is we get saddled with a bunch of pseudo-stage managers who don't even want the job taking valuable jobs away from the real stage managers. Plus, they're not as good stage managers, so it only perpetuates the belief in producers and others that SMs aren't that important, (especially in smaller companies where this is more common,) and therefore treat their SMs badly and don't respect them and their work. Am I the only one who wishes Equity had some sort of minimum qualifications that you had to meet in order to join, rather than just paying? Or at least if they DID make you "declare a major" this sort of lousy situation would be circumvented.

No offense to those of you who may have found your way into SMgt by way of starting as an actor. If you enjoy stage managing than that's great! But it stinks that there's others who don't even want to be a stage manager taking jobs away from the rest of us and lowering the level of work quality.

29

The Green Room / Re: Tech dinners

« on: Aug 04, 2006, 10:56 pm »

Yeah, I've enjoyed the tradition where Company Management arranges meals for those hard days. It's their job after all, not stage management's. One of my favorites was on 10/12 at Orlando Shakes for their spring show in the park. Company Mgt would throw a bbq, complete with grill and meat and the guild would always throw in some pasta salads and what not. Definitely a fun morale booster and deals efficiently with meals on a hard day for all. I've never been a fan of Shake&Co's ways of making the entire stage management department for many different shows be support for all of the stage managers. I sign a contract for one show, not 20. Yeah, I understand it's their idea of a morale booster, but I always found that the group stage management meals and meetings just cut into my free time. They would actually schedule meetings at midnight for this back in my day! I'd much rather see them boost morale by actually calling breaks on time, treating people's personal time with respect, and have COMPANY Mgt throw an occasional bbq.

30

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TECH - HELP!!!!!

« on: Aug 04, 2006, 10:42 pm »

As to your posting helpful paperwork backstage, I find that while we as stage managers want to know everything, other actors and crew generally only want to know their own information. And since charts are good at organizing lots of info, SMs tend to like them, but actors and crew tend to like ordered lists with only the most important information to them.

So my version of your paperwork would something more like this attached version. It's streamlined to eliminate as much blank space as possible. Why should your actors have to waste time scanning over your entire page for Area 4 if only one prop is ever brought on from there? Why should they have to waste any time reading about the transition into High School if no items are ever used in that scene? I eliminated the columns denoting Props/Costume; once the actor reads "Prom Dress" they know exactly what the item is. I eliminated the different pages for each area, and just included that with the listing: It's the info that will be least important to the actors, especially as time goes by and they learn where their items are. I listed the scenes going down the page because it's easy to understand and actors are used to scene order information being presented in that way: listed down the page. I made a separate single column so each actor can just quickly look down his/her own column to find their own items.

When I make cheat sheets like this, I usually post some backstage blown up real big on 11x17 paper, and also distribute individual ones, (just their own column,) to each actor. Hope some of these ideas help!