Messages

16

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Daily rehearsal report notes

« on: Dec 06, 2008, 12:09 pm »

What I'm wondering is, how did they know that you had done it? Is it possible that your costumes and props people balked at receiving the note and contacted your director?

It sounds absolutely disasterous to not have everyone involved in the production getting your reports... and if your designers are agreeing with it then that points to an even bigger problem, especially come 1st tech/1st dress.

17

Employment / Re: CV help

« on: Dec 04, 2008, 12:38 pm »

I had my name and title the top (no photo); then contact details and personal details (birthday, marrital status, etc), no hair color or eye color.

Are you supposed to put personal details like that in a CV? I've never applied for anything that required it but something about putting my exact age, marital status, etc. would make me uncomfortable.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Creating a Calling Script

« on: Dec 02, 2008, 11:06 am »

Best piece of advice....write lightly for the first few tech rehearsals and have a big eraser on hand.  Also, try to stay flexible, it's not uncommon for designers to be changing cues the day before opening (I've had them grab be and want to make changes at half-hour on opening night).

YES! Having a clean copy of the script ready to transfer to can be helpful too, especially if a huge section gets changed-- you can just copy onto a new set of pages once the changes are "finalized" (though they're rarely REALLY final.)

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

« on: Dec 01, 2008, 01:12 pm »

Spent a week of music rehearsals trying to figure out the best way to fold a paper airplane so that it would do one loop then death-dive into the floor (and not the audience). I'd fold something, throw it, and my director would lean over and tell me how close it was to what he wanted. Never disturbed the actors at all.

(If anyone ever does Smoke on the Mountain: Homecoming, I got your planes covered.)

20

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: KCACTF Region II

« on: Dec 01, 2008, 11:52 am »

I used to go to KCACTF when I was at my community college, but I don't think we ever made it to Regionals...

Have fun!

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Creating a Calling Script

« on: Dec 01, 2008, 11:52 am »

I do mine about the same as kiwitechgirl, but with the cues often in the margin of the script page-- just in case there's several cues on a page, I'd be afraid I'd get muddled on which line corresponded to which.

After tech is over I often highlight my cues in various colors (green for sound, pink for lights, etc.) just to make everything clearer and easier to see.

The most important thing when writing in your cues is to be sure that everything is crystal clear, legible, and easily read in the dark/almost dark! You have to be able to look at it and say "if I were hit by a bus, someone else could call the show from this book." (That was actually in the SM handbook of the last company I worked for, btw.)

22

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Great Community College Theatre?

« on: Dec 01, 2008, 11:47 am »

I know it's out of state, but Lonestar College North Harris has a pretty amazing tech program. Not so much on the acting, but the tech is amazing.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: What to do with too much help!?!?

« on: Nov 23, 2008, 10:18 pm »

Split them into a preshow team and a postshow team, one set handles sweep and mop before the show and the other set handles cleanup? Or split this between performances? Depends on how many performances you're doing, though-- if it's only one weekend, that might still leave too many.

You should talk to the proff and let him know you've got too many, otherwise it's just going to lead to a backstage full of people sitting around doing nothing, and, worse, chit-chatting out of boredom.

24

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Let's Talk "Places, Please"

« on: Nov 21, 2008, 05:24 pm »

Here's kind of a side thought:

I've had a lot of actors look at me like I'm crazy when "Places" comes 2-3 minutes after a "5" (or less than ten minutes after a "10," etc.)

Because of this, I've tended to adjust my other calls to all be in relation to when "places" happens. Anyone else get this reaction?

25

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Fill in the BLANK...

« on: Nov 21, 2008, 05:19 pm »

This is actually during previews... found out that I was expected to not only shut down our (ie backstage) portion of the theatre, but that I was also expected to wait until House Management was finished, and then check down their checklist, since they were all volunteers and I was the only employee expected to stay after the show more than 5 minutes.

I've only seen that particular PM angry once, and it was the next morning when she came in at 6AM and since I hadn't checked, the coffee maker in the lobby was still on. (Understandably, though... the week or so beforehand our scene shop had burned down so everyone was a little jumpy about fire...)

26

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Let's Talk "Places, Please"

« on: Nov 20, 2008, 02:44 pm »

At my last company, I was blessed with several very responsible and attentive actresses who would always know, starting at about 5 til, who wasn't backstage yet, and would tell me so when I made my calls. (Backstage was basically just a dressing room leading onto the stage right wing, no crossovers and no other way to get out.) Because of the way everything was built, I was able to start at the men's dressing room on the other side of the building, and walk the only audience-free path to the stage.

If possible/plausible, I try to not just do a headcount but get a quick "is everyone OK?" Too many close calls of people being in place, but oh-by-the-way-my-costume-just-broke, or better yet my personal favorite I'm-in-place-but-throwing-up.

I'll never understand how the actors at my last company had managed, in some cases, 20+ years in the profession without realising that I can't let the shops know about problems or pause the show if they don't tell me there's an issue...

27

Tools of the Trade / Re: foggers gassing actors.

« on: Nov 19, 2008, 03:30 pm »

Bronchitis/inflammation just making airways more sensitive?

Maybe switch to dry ice? That's always been kinder in shows I've worked on that used them...

28

Employment / Overhire?

« on: Nov 17, 2008, 04:27 pm »

So I'm sure this is the wrong place to post this but I couldn't figure out where it would be most appropriate.

I just accepted an overhire position for a lighting load-in for next week, and I'm more than a little scared of it. My secondary emphasis in college was in lighting, but in the 2 years since college I haven't really touched a lighting instrument, and everything I heard in college about professional lighting (usually screamed by angry lighting professors during slow-moving focuses) was that pro hangs are very fast paced and no-nonsense. The logical part of my head says that I'll be fine (and that my credit card bills need me to be working more) but the rest of me is going "oh crud what have I done?" since it's at the biggest place in town, where I do NOT want to be summed up as an idiot!

I'm sure people on here have done these before, can anyone give me some pointers on what to expect? Should I bring my own wrench? Etc. (Or feel free to calm down/shut up, too! For being a generally calm SM I freak out about my own stuff way too easily...)

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The Hardline / Re: Actor Notes - After opening

« on: Nov 11, 2008, 10:12 am »

The one problem I've had giving acting notes (which I try to do very sparingly, MAYBE once or twice a run per actor, if that) is when it's a resident company that the director is a resident with... some of the resident directors I've worked with are more than happy to hand over the production to me, while I've been chewed out by other directors for giving notes they deemed "unnecessary" (despite their having said specifically not to do it in rehearsal.) So you have to know your director, esp. if they're sticking around and watching the show.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: At A Cross Roads

« on: Aug 23, 2008, 07:22 pm »

Depending on the state you're in, etc., you might be able to major in Stage Management, take some theater ed. courses to satisfy theatre elective requirements, and still get a teaching certification-- you generally don't need to major in XYZ education to get a certificate. (At least in Texas, where I am, I know this is the case.)

I second what everyone else said, though. Take at least this first year to just get into the whole college thing, get your basics out of the way, etc. You're already way ahead of most college freshmen-- as far as I can tell most don't even know what their major's going to be.