Messages

16

The Hardline / Re: OFF-BROADWAY - Actors being the musicians and issues

« on: Jun 18, 2013, 03:54 am »

I'm currently working on a production of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. Where we only have actor/musicians, and our MD sometimes plays pit piano (backstage, rather than a pit) and onstage for the final concert.

Some things that have come up. We have a few musicians who are not apart of equity, that were cast as actors (2 of the Crickets), one is part of the musicians union. Now, I'm not sure if any of you have worked with a Musicians Union, but they are very strict, which is fantastic for musicians. But, one of the rules is that only other members of the Union can play with them. We received a lot of concessions from them for having these musicians, especially since we're not using a pit at all. Now, they originally said that it was going to give them provisional status, but when one of the actors went to sign the forms, they forced him to become a full member. And wanted our lead (Buddy) to become a full member, but he refused, he would not join the union at all. Thankfully they only pushed for those two, but they technically could've got everyone (minus 3 actors) to join (only 1 if you count claves and guillero as instruments [we consider them props]).

Also, another issue has come up (not from the actors themselves, but a friend of the company who is involved with CAEA brought it up). Should Actor/Musicians get a premium for using a special skill like that (especially with the salary that musicians make). Also, should there be clauses that makes CAEA (or AEA) and whatever musicians union work together to create rules and standards for Actor/Musicians who are apart of Equity, but not the musicians union?

To answer the OP (even though it's been over a year). We have an Assistant Deck Sound guy and he is in charge of all the instruments, and he tunes them all up (the 6 guitars and 3 basses), the drummer, fiddlest, saxophone players and trumpet player tune their own instruments. The  guitars all have the clip on tuners incase something happens, and we have a backup guitar incase one string breaks (because this model, is not able to be played if any string breaks at all).

17

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Acting maintenance notes in the Performance Report

« on: Jun 18, 2013, 03:31 am »

Are you asking if we would include those in a performance report?

-A Child actor mugging too much

depends on what the company wants. I worked on a show with a child, where all notes went through the child wrangler to him. So sometimes it didn't get through, or to the extremity some things needed to be done. But I don't think I would put it in the report unless it became an issue. I'm not good with children, so I like deferring whatever I can to someone else, but I can fake my way through a conversation with a child.

-An actor skipping a line

I would never put line notes like this in the report, the only thing I would put in is if it became an issue where it turned into subordination, then the director, company manager, production manager and general manager (and anyone in those roles) should know about it.

-An actor skipping an entire page

I would definitely put this in the notes because it could cause issues with technical cues, or entrances/exits.

-An actor adding a bit of business

If it looked really good/added to the scene/generally a positive thing, I would detail it in the notes, mostly to let the director nix it if he doesn't like it.

If it's something that did nothing, or was not good, or whatever, I would give the actor the note in person first, and again with the possible subordination thing

-Changes to choreographed combate

I would 100% put it in the notes, it could be an issue of Actor safety at that point.

18

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: Personal reasons NOT to do a show?

« on: May 08, 2013, 03:39 am »

(Hair and both Angels in America come to mind)

Try doing both Angels in America at a theatre where the audience is Primarily elderly orthodox jews. Currently doing Part 2: Perestroika. We get some walk outs every intermission, which affects the actors. Sometimes the walkouts are because the play is minimum 3 1/2 hours, most of the time it's the offended elderly people.

I understand reasons not to do a show. Personally, I would not be able to do a show that promotes a homophobic view point. And by promotes, I mean what the audience would take away is that homophobia is ok. That or any sort of extremely discriminative view point. I don't know how many plays like that exist, and I doubt theatres in my area would do shows like that, but that's just an example.

The first university show I worked on, we had a girl drop out before rehearsals even started. She actually ended up dropping out of university, because she realized that with her beliefs, she couldn't be a successful actor, and she had no idea what else she wanted to do with her life. The show was Blue Room, and she was extremely religious. Thankfully, her role was double cast.

19

The Green Room / Re: On Reviews

« on: May 07, 2013, 03:57 pm »

I generally do, but I will not show them to actors, or bring them up to actors, unless they start the conversation first.

I was actually named by name in a review for the show I'm doing right now, I've never seen an apprentice stage manager, or even the SM named in a review, and our SM team got a great amount of praise!

20

Employment / Re: Telephone Interviews

« on: Apr 19, 2013, 10:21 pm »

I had a skype interview setup (with only 1 hour notice) this past week. Well, I was in a place with shoddy wifi reception, so I wasn't able to connect with the SM and the Artistic Director. So what happened is that the SM called me, and had me on speaker phone, while he had the artistic director on skype, because we were all three in different cities. It was awful, I was not in the right frame of mind (near the end of a rehearsal day for another show, and lost focus because of the whole ordeal. I also had the ask the Artistic Director to repeat himself a few times.

However, almost as soon as I got home that day, I got the call for the job, so I guess it wasn't as bad as I assumed.

21

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!

« on: Mar 15, 2013, 09:54 pm »

I am looking for Angels In America Part 1: Millenium Strikes by Tony Kushner in PDF or Words format. PM me for email!

Thank you!

22

The Green Room / Re: Show me your mugs! (Or water bottles)

« on: Mar 15, 2013, 01:50 am »

Closing night gifts from one of my Cast Members for Into The Woods :3

23

Employment / Re: Day jobs that are related, but also work with SM scheduling

« on: Mar 14, 2013, 09:05 pm »

A very busy stage manager in my area works at Ticketmaster every so often, when he has time off.

24

Tools of the Trade / Re: SM Kit *for students*

« on: Mar 12, 2013, 07:54 pm »

I don't know how it is in the states, but I know that in Canada, if you indirectly give someone the OtC medicine, it's fine. Either putting it on a table, giving it to someone else, who then gives it to the other person. I have a small satchel that has a bunch of medicine, but I also keep sunglasses and a book in their, and if someone needs some aspirin or Ibuprofen I just hand them the bag.

25

The Green Room / Re: Sleeping in your theatre

« on: Mar 11, 2013, 05:43 pm »

I had a show in univeristy where there was a love seat, two beds and a mattress, I would usually sleep on the love seat between scene changes. I had a really long break, and the other ASM would come wake me up, being tall the love seat wasn't the best, but it was extremely comfortable, and the only furniture on my side of the stage.

Obviously I wasn't fully asleep, in case of an emergency I was able to react quickly.

26

The Green Room / Re: Regrets

« on: Mar 08, 2013, 04:14 pm »

Interestingly enough, the same apprenticeship just posted that they are looking for people for this year, so I sure as hell am not making the same mistake!

27

The Green Room / Re: SMNetwork fundraising drive 2013

« on: Mar 07, 2013, 07:42 pm »

I'll see what I can afford tomorrow, when I get paid

28

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: BLOCKING: Looking for Examples of Blocking Pages

« on: Mar 06, 2013, 02:41 am »

For me it depends on the show.

If it's a small festival show and the company doesn't want to book, I will do entrances and exits, and major blocking.

However, if I have to hand in the book, I wil do every detail.

I have my script, and I also print off (this is not on the backside of the script pages, they are separate sheets) with a diagram on the upper right corner (fairly big) and a smaller one halfway down the page. Sometimes I will add a third at the bottom if I assume that there will be a lot of blocking. The reason they are separate pages is so I can remove them for some reason and replace them. I also correspond them with the page number of the script, in case they get out of order (I cut the bottom right corner off so that I can easily flip just the script pages.

I have seen SMs put markers for timings the first there's about 6 lines she put, labeled: first read-thru, first run-thru, 2nd run-thru, 3rd run-thru, tech/dress, dress. And she would put the time after every page. And then she had a separate sheet for the performances, but the performances were only scenes.

ETA: I have also heard of SMs who use Double Width pages for their blocking notation, if it's for a large scale musical, or opera, and they either had one of those much wider binders, or they had folded their blocking notation. Now I would never dream to do that, but I have never been in a situation where I needed to do that.

29

The Green Room / Re: Regrets

« on: Mar 06, 2013, 02:25 am »

It was partly because I was planning on going back to school (but alas, all the SM gigs I got this year made it so I couldn't afford to) and partly fear of rejection. However, in the year since the application was not sent, I've realized that it's ok to not get the jobs you really want, because there will be other, sometimes better, sometimes just as good, sometimes worse jobs in the future.

But I am applying for everything (that fits in my schedule) now (upset but understanding that I didn't get BotB), and I will be starting my apprenticeships in april, and continuing my theme of doing (not-so) queer theatre.

30

The Green Room / Regrets

« on: Mar 05, 2013, 09:07 pm »

I was talking about this with a friend of mine, if there have been any jobs that you regret not applying for in that moment, yet you had reasons for not applying for in that moment.

There was a company in Canada that was doing a co-op with a theatre in Italy, it was an apprenticeship, the rehearsals were in Italy, and the shows opened there, then came to Canada. The company was going to pay for you to learn Italian for two weeks before the prep week started. Obviously they would house you and all that.

At the time, I had many small non important reasons not to apply. But now that it's passed, I definitely regret it, even though there's a good chance I wouldn't have gotten it, since it would've been my first apprenticeship, but I still regret not even trying.