Messages

16

The Green Room / Re: New web site about stage managers?

« on: Dec 08, 2009, 12:11 pm »

I run two websites for two bonsai groups, and I get requests on an infrequent basis about exchanging links with someone else.  Sometimes they are real bonsai sites that want to exchange links, but there are other times that its weird and strange sites asking for the exchange.  I always investigate, since I'm very picky about who I'll list as a link.

-Centaura

17

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Sharing Paperwork or Copying Paperwork, where is the line?

« on: Nov 09, 2009, 03:23 pm »

When I've stepped in as a replacement, my policy was to try to keep things as much the same as before - even if it was contrary to my own, personal policies.  There was a line, of course, of things that I would not compromise on - but using established paperwork was something that I would do until the show ended or season changed and I could start implementing my own style.

In some cases I've been flattered to go back some places and see them still using a form I developed, I considered it flattery that they considered what I did efficient enough to make it their standard.  But then I was taking a page from Matthew's book - I felt that most forms that I created for a theatre were then the property of that theatre, to be used in the future as they needed.

-Centaura

18

Stage Management: Other / Re: Technical Riders

« on: Nov 06, 2009, 01:57 pm »

With 4 techs instead of a group of church volunteers (no slight against volunteers intended), we had them packed and out the door in 45 minutes flat.

I agree, I have nothing against volunteers, having had to work with them on tour.  But no matter how good some of them were, there were still places that they showed up for load-in and not for load-out.  I dealt with a lot of student crews at college PACs.  They were fine when class wasn't in session, but if they had class that's were they were, and you were without.

-Centaura

19

Stage Management: Other / Re: Technical Riders

« on: Nov 06, 2009, 10:21 am »

The main thing in a rider is to make sure that your every need, that you don't carry yourself, is listed out - but with variations to accommodate the types of houses you'll play.  Like your crew needs - list the basic, but put add-in lines like "additional riggers, if required to be separate by local contract".  Truck loaders especially are often separate in local contracts.  I always get a chuckle out of the christian band riders, since they play a lot of churches and other non-traditional venues.  They'll actually have two crew lists - one for professional crews, and one if the crews are volunteers.  The volunteer crew list typically has twice the number of hands listed, and goes into very specific details about age, dress, etc. etc.  But their riders are written for the types of venues that they'll play, and the situation that they come across at those venues, so its appropriate.

Dividing your rider into sections is also appropriate - i.e. a proscenium theatre section, an arena section, indoor venue section or outdoor venue section, etc.  I read a lot of stuff about arenas and outdoor set-ups in the riders that cross my desk, since they have to cover all their needs in all the environments that they'll be called to play in.

Listing your typical day is helpful (if you have one), what you're traveling with, etc.  Very important is number of vehicles in your party.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but I can't tell you how many tours come here and can't tell me how many vehicles they have.  Or they forget to mention pertinent things like "oh, yeah, our bus has a 20' trailer on it" or  "Oh, didn't we mentioned the opening act?  They have their own bus and truck - you can park them with no advance notice, right? And unload their truck at no extra expense, even though the truck loaders were dismissed earlier?"  Parking is an issue almost everywhere and the venue needs to know what you're bringing.

Current and correct contact information for venue questions is a must; you never know what odd thing a particular venue has to deal with that they'll willingly call you in advance to sort out.  I have a manual pit - it takes 5 guys an hour to drop it.  So, a rider might causally mention that they want the pit down, but its not something that can be done in advance here unless a promoter gives the authorization for a separate crew call to do it.

Please also go over your rider for typos.  I recently had a rider cross my desk that said in the crew needs section: 

2 house spot ops
house electrician
2 spotlight operators

And then in the lighting section:  We need two (3) spot lights.  [exact wording]

I sat for several minutes scratching my head - do they need two, three or four spot ops?

The main thing to think about when writing a rider is to take nothing for granted.  Do not assume a single thing - about available weight, ability to lag into a floor, parking, lighting availability, dressing rooms, sound, loading docks, power, etc..  I had a promoter assume once that I had a full concert lighting and sound set-up.  He got a shock when I said "No, I'm a road house - I got 40 parcans in the basement, but that's it"  Heck, one time when I was working with a small touring company I showed up somewhere and they had lied about even having a stage!

-Centaura

20

Stage Management: Other / Re: Technical Riders

« on: Nov 05, 2009, 11:50 am »

Ditto here - I work in a road house, and used to tour (and had to make my own rider), so feel free to send me a copy of your rider and I'll go over it.  I might also have an old rider that I had made for a small-scale tour sitting around that I can send off to you.

-Centaura

21

The Green Room / Re: Best one-liner from a performance report

« on: Nov 03, 2009, 11:51 am »

Well, it wasn't in a performance report - but there was one time when I had to instruct a local in what he'd be doing for the show, and the line was "You're helping the pink poodle with the big hat".  He looked at me weird, and then asked me if I was speaking in code.

-Centaura

22

Tools of the Trade / Re: Google Websites

« on: Oct 21, 2009, 04:47 pm »

Looks interesting, useful as a tool - so long as everyone is agreeable to using computers.  I have to throw that caveat in there since I'm about to be named president to a board of directors where one person doesn't have email/internet access at all (and nothing you do or say will change his mind), and others say "Goo-what?" when I talk about our group's Google account. 

I do have to question your putting copies of the script and libretto online for others to download.  Do you have permission from the copyright holder to distribute electronic versions?  No problems if you do - but just checking.  I don't think that comes with the purchase of the rights for a show.

-Centaura

23

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Require cast to have an email?

« on: Oct 21, 2009, 04:33 pm »

Maybe I am beginning to show my age, but isn't a physical callboard still part of standard operating procedure?  Or is it beginning to go the way of the Dodos as well...

In most non-educational settings you'll still find a physical call board, but I can see in educational situations, where everyone is near the same age and near the same level of technical sophistication, where there might be a trend towards electronic notifications verses physical notifications.  Its in the current young mindset that everything is done by computer.  I think we're a while away from seeing that as the norm, though.  Once you leave the "artificial" environment of a college campus, many more variables are thrown into the mix and not everything can be done electronically.

We're heading in that direction slowly - at my road house ten years ago, the tours wanted phone lines and many of them.  We've still got a dozen that can be patched into offices.  Now its all internet.  I patch one DSL line and they have their own wireless routers that everyone feeds off of.  I've had tours that haven't even wanted one phone line patched in for them.  Just the internet.  But, the shows still all have physical callboards that the actors must check upon arrival at the venue.

-Centaura

24

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Too many sick days on Broadway.....

« on: Oct 20, 2009, 12:22 pm »

I also note that young actors tend to push themselves a little more outside of rehearsal, less willing to scale back their non-work life to deal with the pressure  and demands of a 8-show week on  a open-ended run.  Yes, this is difficult . . . but it is the contract they signed.

I had a run-in with this in London, when I saw RENT on the Westend.  One of the leading ladies had a strained voice, and should not have been performing at all.  But (according to the rumors I heard after the fact) she had strained her voice doing other commitments, so was not allowed to skip any performances (or any more performances - don't remember).  Anyway, it was painful to hear her open her mouth and whatever voice she had was gone by the second act, she went from hoarse to total laryngitis.  Before I got to ask the rumor mill why she was even onstage, I left the theatre not understanding why they had let her go onstage.  The quality of her performance was non-existent.  When I found out later that she had strained her voice doing things outside her RENT contract, that then affected her ability to fulfull her RENT contract - I wasn't sure what to think. 

When and how to you deal with someone who's not respecting their contract that way?  I know that working 6 days a week with only one day off sucks, and that most folks feel that they should take whatever work they can get - when you life is either feast or famine, most want to take advantage of any feasts that come up.

-Centaura

25

Tools of the Trade / Re: Fog/Haze that wont set off a very sensitive smoke alarm

« on: Oct 19, 2009, 09:18 pm »

In my venue we are able to bypass individual units through our fire alarm panel, which we are able to do during performances.  Another thing is that we're able to put the whole system into test mode if necessary.  The caveat to putting the whole system into test is that, if that were needed during a show, we would need a "fire watch" - one or more fire-fighters or fire marshalls who are on hand backstage during the performance.

Other than that, dry ice is a substitute though it does have a different look/effect.  Dry ice can be obtained at dry ice companies - look it up in your phone book.  I order tons of the stuff for shows every year, pellet and block.

Another option is CO2 - a lot of tours use that for effects onstage.  Again, its a different look than a hazer - but I believe its less sensitive for particle detectors.

Or, one last idea - seeing if you can get permission to change out the problematic detectors for heat detectors.  They did that at my venue after the renovation, when they realized that the particle detectors were causing issues.  Now I'm just down to my three main level dressing rooms having particle detectors, which as long as I keep the door to the stage closed I don't typically have issues with.

-Centaura

26

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Broadway SM arrested

« on: Oct 19, 2009, 12:32 pm »

Before that last post was put up, I was going to say that questioning the stage manager would be the most logical thing to do if anyone had any questions, but that doesn't mean that the stage manager would be inherently guilty.  Even being fired - that could just be the theatre reacting to the bad publicity.  It'd be sad if it turned out to be true.

-Centaura

27

Tools of the Trade / Re: Twitter.

« on: Oct 13, 2009, 03:57 pm »

I'm late to this discussion, but you can pretty much copy all of Mac Calder's post and call it my opinion.  Though, there was a funny story from this weekend's broadway tour that was at my roadhouse.  An actress dropped a prop for the first time ever on the tour and in rehearsal, she came backstage and texted an apology to the stage manager (during the show), to which he replied "what are you doing on your cell phone?".  While not a "tweet" story per-se - as it was all text messages - but I think it illustrates how much we can get caught up in our technology, to the detriment of paying attention to the world around us - i.e which was she more mortified by?  Dropping her prop, or being text-reprimanded by her SM that she was on her cell phone during the show?

I was recently pressured into opening a Facebook account - and it was an eye-opening experience.  I have to say that I don't spend that much time in my day thinking about myself.  And if Facebook is a mind-boggling experience in too much useless information (one of my friends' status updates was on how her cookie turned her tongue blue), I can't imagine signing up for twitter.

-Centaura

28

Tools of the Trade / Re: Google Wave

« on: Oct 13, 2009, 03:37 pm »

I read this thread out of pure curiosity, and frankly, still can't quite picture what it is that you all are talking about.  Which leads me to the question that this all sounds nice, but can anyone here guarantee that everyone on their production staff is at the same level of technological advancement?

y boss is still trying to figure out email attachments.

I send out meeting minutes by snail mail to someone, because he doesn't have email.  I personally only have high speed internet access at work, and have dial-up at home.  On tour, while I did everything that I could do via emails - some venues didn't have email, sometimes I didn't have access to internet service (albeit that's less and less frequent nowadays).  When the current IATSE BA got elected, I had to have coaching sessions with her to show her how to turn on the computer, start up Excel, save a file, etc. so she could do invoices.

Now, that was my "con" list, I'll have to do some research to figure out what you're talking about before I can come up with a "pro" list.

I will ask the question - for those who do understand what this is, do you think that while it might not be practical now, would it be the basis of something that might be used 50 years from now?  When a majority of the population has grown up with computers?

-Centaura

29

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Are you always completely honest?

« on: Oct 10, 2009, 01:46 pm »

It's interesting you brought this up, because I'm ASMing a show, and the SM doesn't put many things in the performance report that I would. She doesn't tend to watch the stage (granted, it's a cue-heavy show, but I was surprised!) and ends up missing things that happen onstage and doesn't put them in the report. Boggles my mind.

You might be able to help the situation by offering to tell her things after each performance, that you noticed and thought might be important to put into a show report.  You can approach her with the comment that you've noticed that during periods of heavy cueing, she's not always able to watch the stage and might miss thing that you could help her notice.  I've had some heavy cued shows, and have had points of the show that I never got to watch because following my script was too time consuming.  Once I became familiar with a show and could call some of it from memory, things would improve - but then I've also had shows where I ran a board as well as called cues.  There were definite points that the board had the attention and not the stage.

-Centaura

30

The Green Room / Re: audience callbacks- the ones you want, the ones you don't

« on: Oct 02, 2009, 02:55 pm »

audience callbacks- the ones you want, the ones you don't

This falls under the "ones you don't" category:

It was a Bonnie Raitte concert, and suddenly security is calling over the radios that there's someone with their pants down in the third balcony.  That was funny in and of itself - they were having a hard time hearing each other, so the call was repeated over half a dozen times.  So, those of us who could hear, heard it over and over again.  He was standing by the ladder to the spot booth being, um, entertained by his girlfriend.  When the police got up there and asked him why he had his pants down - he said that he was "checking his hemorrhoids"  (you can't make this stuff up).  Bonnie's production manager told her about it, and according to the runner (who was driving them back to their hotel) - she burst out into "Lets give them something to talk about".

-Centaura