Messages

151

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Peter Pan

« on: Mar 11, 2008, 06:46 pm »

Also, with a permanent install, you're restricted to only flying people the way the system was set up for - which would quickly get pretty boring and I suspect you would end up flying people just because you can, rather than because the show really does call for it.  Much better to hire a flying rig that is spec'ed for the show you're doing and tailored to the needs of the show, rather than only being able to fly them in one way.

152

Tools of the Trade / Re: [FAQ] Electronic Prompt Copies

« on: Mar 04, 2008, 05:02 pm »

It turns out that TopOCR was perhaps not quite as good as I thought it was (see my previous post)...I got a fair amount of garbage out of it, rather than a page of script with only a few mistakes.  However, if I can find a decent OCR program, the theatre is probably prepared to buy it.  Can anyone recommend one, preferably not too expensive?

153

Tools of the Trade / Re: [FAQ] Electronic Prompt Copies

« on: Mar 03, 2008, 06:46 pm »

I've just found a pretty good free OCR program called TopOCR - I've yet to try it with a script but it's looking pretty good so far and I've been playing with it all morning.  Once our IT guy gets the photocopier sorted so that I can send scanned documents from it to my e-mail (which is do-able, it's just taking him a while to sort out!) I'll have a crack at a script and let you all know how I get on...

154

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

« on: Mar 02, 2008, 04:26 pm »

I almost always call from a monitor, given the nature of my prompt corner!  I've never noticed a lag, and although the quality of our camera and monitor isn't brilliant, it's certainly good enough - I've never had any issues with it.  In terms of infra-red, I think that you're actually better off with two separate cameras, rather than one which switches, because as smejs said, it'll switch at inopportune moments.  If you have two cameras, no problems.

155

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Ideas Sword Sheath

« on: Feb 10, 2008, 06:16 am »

It depends on whether you want the blade to be visible when the sword is sheathed.  If you don't mind seeing the blade then a loop of leather (wide enough for the blade but too narrow for the hilt to fall through) attached to a belt is easiest.  If you want the blade to be hidden then it gets more complex.  I did an Othello where we didn't even bother with scabbards - the boys just put the swords through their belts.

156

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?

« on: Jan 27, 2008, 02:52 am »

The SM never leaves the booth, he just takes off the headset and sits back and watches the show.  It's up to us to let him know when cues are coming up.  And no, management is never around when this happens; he's very careful about that.

If you have to let him know when cues are coming up, why is he even there?!  I'd definitely be taking this one higher - probably to the PSM.  He's not there to it back and watch the show - if he wants to do that, buy a ticket...

157

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?

« on: Jan 25, 2008, 08:04 pm »

Often times, the SM will take off the headset during the performance and ask us to watch the book while he "takes a break."  He missed a standby once because of that.

That's completely inexcusable.  The SM shouldn't be off headset during a show unless it's an emergency, or it's something that happens regularly every show for a good reason.  I very, very occasionally duck off headset to refill my water bottle or disentangle my cables, but I always make sure that I do it at a time when I have time and will be back on headset by the time I have to call any cues.  And I would never ask anybody else to "watch the book" for me!

158

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Dropping Cards?

« on: Jan 04, 2008, 06:40 pm »

It's not too difficult to do; get yourself a piece of reasonably narrow MDF which runs across the stage and use lighting safety bonds or sash cord along one long edge to attach it to the grid (or a flying bar, depending on your venue).  At the two corners of the other edge, attach sash cord or thin (but strong!) rope which then runs through pulleys on the grid/flying bar and down to a convenient operation point.  Put enough tension on the cord so that the MDF board sits level, and load with playing cards.  On cue, let the tension off the cord so that the board swings to the vertical (you may have to attach fishing weights to the edge to give it enough weight to fall) and the cards will drop!  Or, get an ordinary small domestic fan, mount it on a flat board, pointing at the board.  Put the cards on the board and with some experimentation, you should be able to make the fan blow the cards off the board.  I've done this successfully with snow, but haven't ever tried it with anything like playing cards, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work.  You can also use animation disc motors to turn other things around - my chief LX has just built me a glitter drop using a chicken wire "cage" holding a cup full of glitter on an animation disc motor, which works like a charm - but you'd need to be careful about how much weight you put on one.  Hope that helps!

159

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Question from an newbie!

« on: Dec 11, 2007, 05:16 pm »

I've had a go at attaching the file to this post, but unfortunately because I scanned the music in at a really high resolution, even a single page is more than 300kb which is all I can attach to the post.  Sorry to those who wanted to see it!

160

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Study Abroad

« on: Dec 11, 2007, 07:01 am »

There are loads in the UK - RADA, Rose Bruford, Mountview and Guildhall are four of the big ones, but there are heaps more - go to www.drama.ac.uk and click on "search for courses" and you'll find heaps of info.  Australia I'm not so sure about; I think NIDA in Sydney offers an SM course, and WAAPA in Perth may well do as well.

161

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Question from an newbie!

« on: Dec 11, 2007, 06:58 am »

I usually call musicals from the libretto, not the score.  Just make sure that any songs have all the verses in the libretto (oddly, I've often found that words are missing).  I just write notes like Justin if the Q falls on music instead of lines.  I find that when I'm trying to read my Qs a score is just too cluttered.

I'm completely the opposite - I always merge score and libretto for a calling script; as a trained musician, I find it so much easier to call from score.  My blocking script doesn't include the score, that just gets silly, but I can be far more exact in my calling if I have the score in front of me.  In the past I've used the old-fashioned copier, scissors, glue and tape method, but this year I got organised early and typed my script up, then inserted the score as pictures (I scanned them in).  I didn't include complete score pages - I just photocopied them and inserted them at the right place - but scanned in the beginnings and ends of songs - I put in as much as I needed to get the page breaks in the right place, by slightly reducing the size of the score so that four or five lines would fit on a page where in the original only 3 lines fitted.  It took a while - and the resulting Word file is about 135 megabytes - but it was so worth it.  If you want, I can save a small chunk of it (so the file isn't so huge!) and send it to you if you want to see how I did it (it's hard to explain!).

162

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: A tricky situation

« on: Dec 06, 2007, 06:24 pm »

The director is a woman, don't know if that made any difference to her ripping the guy to shreds or not!  You've all confirmed what I thought, in that I can't do anything, so thanks - I just wanted confirmation, really.  Hopefully it will die a natural death without causing meltdown.  Just to clarify, it's not the cast relationship thing that I'm bothered about - I'm well accustomed to dealing with that, and if the girl in question had hooked up with either of the two lovely (single!) 25 year old guys I have in the cast, I wouldn't be batting an eyelid.  It's just the predatory nature of this one that has me worried.

163

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PEOPLE: A tricky situation (backstage romance)

« on: Dec 06, 2007, 07:18 am »

I have a bit of a situation on my current show, and I'm slightly at a loss to know where to go next.  In a nutshell, I have an actor in his early to mid 40s who has developed a relationship with an actress who has just turned 21.  The fact that the actor in question is married doesn't really concern me - his relationship with his wife is entirely their business - but I am extremely worried about the girl, who is fresh out of drama school and is obviously completely under this guy's spell.  The whole thing feels to me like he has taken advantage of her - he's a very experienced actor with a lot of knowledge to impart, as well as being the worst flirt I have ever met, and is in a senior position to her with the company - and much as it's a horrible word, it seems predatory to me.  I'm worried that the whole thing will turn ugly and she'll have a complete meltdown, jeopardizing not only her sanity but the show - we have no understudies and 10 weeks left to run.  My problem is that I can't really step in until the show becomes affected, but I feel very uncomfortable standing on the sidelines and watching; my sister is the same age as the girl, and if it was her I would be out for blood.  The director is aware of the situation, and has already ripped the guy to shreds about it, but it's had no effect.  I've spoken to one other cast member about it - she's a girl who I trust completely - but she couldn't really say much except that there is definitely something going on, and that she doesn't like the attitude the actor has towards women, from what she's gathered in the dressing room.  I'm not a big fan of intra-cast relationships anyway, but this one just has the feeling about it that it could all turn very, very pear-shaped extremely quickly.  Anybody have any suggestions about what I could do to try and ease my mind?  

164

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Do you have a preferred type of show?

« on: Dec 04, 2007, 10:23 pm »

Musicals, closely followed by ballet.  In my current job we do one musical a year, which I usually get to do, as the other SM is non-musical and I'm a trained musician.  I haven't had a chance to work on a ballet for ages and probably won't until I change job...which I'm not planning to do in the near future.

165

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements

« on: Nov 24, 2007, 07:26 pm »

I've come across a couple of good ones; the first announcement ran something like "ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you that we are using a new entirely wireless sound system for this show, which gives us a superior sound quality.  Unfortunately it also has a side effect: if your cellphone rings, you will be electrocuted by it.  So please switch your phone off for your own safety.  Thank you."  It worked - I laughed a lot because I could see the wires running to the speakers, but 95% of the audience didn't know better!  The second was an announcement for a group called the Naked Samoans, and ran "ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you that we have a cellphone jamming device in place.  If your phone rings, a very large Samoan will come and jam your phone where the sun don't shine.  Switch them off!"  Worked like a charm...