Messages

151

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: No Smoking in Denver

« on: Jul 09, 2008, 10:57 am »

And Jersey Boys will be playing Denver in December...wonder if they'll go for the "Chicago version" while on tour.

152

Employment / Re: Stepping In

« on: Apr 13, 2008, 01:08 pm »

I have mine listed as "Cover Stage Manager" and instead of the director's name in the last column (as I usually have it - but often I don't actually work with the director), I write things like "Called final two weeks", "one week of rehearsals" or "covered extension week".

153

Tools of the Trade / Re: Headset Side

« on: Apr 07, 2008, 08:37 pm »

Slightly off-topic, but the following article was also interesting:
http://www.dyslexia.org/el.shtml

Evidently using the same concept, they pump music through the left ear, and phonics/words through the right ear to combat dyslexia.  Makes me even more, though, agree on why I like right ear...especially for a musical or opera!

Erin

154

Tools of the Trade / Re: Headset Side

« on: Apr 07, 2008, 09:48 am »

a while back I read some study that decide there were differences in which ear processed which kind of thing

Ah, it has to do with left hemisphere of the brain versus right (opposite the corresponding ear).  I just found at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_6_100/ai_76800059:
 Research has shown that the left hemisphere of the brain is associated with analytical thinking and logic and controls speech, mathematical ability and reading. The right side of the brain is said to be more visually oriented and more associated with emotion and creativity.  (The same article says if you want to whisper sweet nothings to someone, you should do it in their left ear!)

155

Tools of the Trade / Re: Headset Side

« on: Apr 07, 2008, 09:34 am »

One of the many reasons I have my own headset is because many "standard" headsets at theatres are on the left side, and I can basically only stand it on my right.  That and I love my lightweight.  (And I have a small head, evidently, compared to many.)  However, a while back I read some study that decide there were differences in which ear processed which kind of thing...I can't find it quickly...but it basically confirmed how I felt:  technical issues were more of a right-eared thing and noticing nuances and mood changes were left-eared.  In my mind that matched with listening to production folks through my right ear and changes in the acting or a "pin drop" change in my left ear.  'Course I was biased to begin with.

I'll keep looking for that study.

Erin

156

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Number Markers for dance?

« on: Mar 05, 2008, 02:49 pm »

We used to just use 3 lights on our number line.  White at center, and red at 8 feet each side.

Erin

157

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Cast/Crew Gifts for a Musical

« on: Mar 03, 2008, 09:20 pm »

My first crazy thought...

Kazoos with "What's the Buzz?" written on them.

Erin

158

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Number Markers for dance?

« on: Mar 02, 2008, 05:19 pm »

If you want a discussion where money isn't necessarily an object, see http://smnetwork.org/forum/index.php/topic,966.0.html

If you can put them down and keep down for several weeks, we used to do it with the hardware store type numbers...but see if you can get ones that have every number the same width...especially when you get to double digits, the "center" of the number becomes harder to define.  And if your stage is very wide, of course check how many of each number is in the pack, as you may have to buy quite a few packs to get the right number of 2s, etc.

Erin

159

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Calling from a moniter

« on: Mar 02, 2008, 12:15 pm »

It really does depend on the quality of the camera and the monitor.  I've had some monitors be of little help, either washing out, or being incredibly blurry, others fairly good.  I haven't ever noticed a lag.  I also have mixed feelings on infrared cameras.  For the most part I love them, being able to see blackouts, etc, but they have a tendency to switch to infrared at inopportune times, especially if you happen to have a DISCO BALL in your show.  That was a pain.

If you have lots of tech available (which is rare), it's great to have several channel choices, so you could have a closeup on something you specifically need, on channel 2, or a shot of the conductor for a musical, etc.

Erin

160

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: No Smoking in Denver

« on: Mar 02, 2008, 12:11 pm »

Also, I can find no record of it online, but the word around town is that there can't be ANYTHING that LOOKS like smoke, not even those "blow-out" types of cigarettes - that the rationale is any kind of particle in the air could affect asthmatics, etc.  My boyfriend thought he'd heard you couldn't even hold one in your hand, lit or unlit.  Still trying to track all that down.

Okay, so the law is about not actually LIGHTING anything with intent to smoke.  You CAN walk around with a cigar or cigarette, unlit.  Or you could use the kind that blow out rather than are sucked in.

Hal Holbrook changed some of his show to include more of Mark Twain's thoughts on smoking, etc, and all got great response from the audience.  And at the top of act two, just before he entered there was a puff of smoke from theatrical fogger (through a paper bag "pounce" at the right height) and then he entered.  To GREAT applause.

Erin

161

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: USITT in Houston

« on: Mar 02, 2008, 02:26 am »

I'll be manning the table for the Stage Managers' Association....and going on the NASA tour.  Can't wait!

Erin

162

The Hardline / Re: Equity SMs: Running LX?

« on: Feb 28, 2008, 12:41 pm »

I ran lights for my very first Equity contract, and haven't done it since.  Though I have had Assistant Stage Managers (and often Equity) assigned to be either lights or sound...I tend to try to swap them to being backstage if at all possible.  But if you're running lights as an Equity member, there's a separate rider to the contract.  I think the hardest thing is if you're also calling cues to someone else, so you have to say GO then hit the button yourself a split-second later so that you two match.

Erin

163

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: No Smoking in Denver

« on: Feb 24, 2008, 06:26 pm »

By the way, here's what was in Sunday's paper:

Theatres take ban back to court
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8267018

Assistant attorney general Lisa Brenner Freimann bordered on condescension as she mocked the theaters' argument that smoking on a stage is an inherently expressive act protected by the First Amendment.

"You simply cannot make unprotected conduct protected by dumping it into a theater context," Freimann said.

There you have it. Theater, to the state: dumping ground for all manner of illicit and immoral behavior.

Freimann actually predicted a performance exception for smoking would inevitably lead to exceptions for underage drinking and firing real guns. Among the many flaws in her logic: If a play calls for underage (or of-age) drinking, the actor drinks colored water. If a character fires a gun, it fires blanks. And if a character lights up, it's not a real cigarette.

Because you know, all my actors love to get tanked on the prop alcohol...

Also, I can find no record of it online, but the word around town is that there can't be ANYTHING that LOOKS like smoke, not even those "blow-out" types of cigarettes - that the rationale is any kind of particle in the air could affect asthmatics, etc.  My boyfriend thought he'd heard you couldn't even hold one in your hand, lit or unlit.  Still trying to track all that down. 

Erin

164

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: No Smoking in Denver

« on: Feb 24, 2008, 02:27 am »

And meanwhile, next weekend in Denver, Hal Holbrook has to do Mark Twain Tonight WITHOUT a cigar.

Erin

165

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Meeting Minutes [part venting]

« on: Feb 20, 2008, 09:58 pm »

Reminds me of the Unmotivational Posters: http://despair.com/meetings.html

Meetings:  None of us is as dumb as all of us.