Messages

166

Stage Management: Other / Re: Dance First Aid

« on: Jan 13, 2013, 09:22 pm »

Great topic, Chris!

Here are some items that I have on hand at the ballet:

While it won't fit in a kit, have a set of crutches on hand, if at all possible. Advil is a must, or the caffeine laced Pain-Aid.

Also, you need to have some training to use it, as we have a staff Physical Therapist who applies it: Kinesio Tape (brand name: Rock Tape). You can get connected to some via rocktape.com

It comes in a variety of colors, so it should be easy to find something that matches the dancer's skin tone, or at least something light enough to not show through tights/leggings. A lot of my dancers are using it lately and it really helps (men & women). Be aware that it can be pricey. We were able to get ours donated. It's worth a shot to ask a local doctor/distributor if they'd be willing to do that for you.

You've listed ice packs: it is helpful to have something to tie the ice pack to the dancer's body. Many of my dancers just use a spare legwarmer, but if you can have a few washable ace wraps on hand, that would be great. And it is generally better to use real ice in a ziploc instead of those instant ice packs or gel packs. (Though they are great to have in case of emergency.) You should not apply the ice pack directly to the skin - so have some scrap muslin or other cheap fabric in your kit, to use as a barrier between the ice and the dancer.

I'd also recommend all of the other basic items you'd carry in a regular SM Medical kit. To pare it down to what my dancers use most: other forms of pain pills, (in case any of your dancers have allergies to Ibuprofen), antacids, eye drops, and cough drops.

And have gloves for yourself and alcohol wipes, as you may be helping clean up blood. Many male dancers, when landing, tend to either bleed from the knee or the top of their feet.

Merde!

167

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: WORK/LIFE BALANCE: The breastfeeding/pumping stage manager

« on: Dec 22, 2012, 02:41 am »

Awesome costume!

Yes, I have learned that by distracting myself and calming down, the milk production does come faster. As I have moved from tech into performances, I also learned that pumping during half hour doesn't work for me - but oddly enough, intermission does.

I pump anywhere from 90 minutes to 1 hour to curtain. I am completely relaxed and not worried about the show, as my Intern and PA are dealing with students (yeah Nutcracker!) and my ASM is fielding anything else. I then take care of all of my half hour calls and get us to the top of intermission. Once I call the House Up, I hand off to my PA who calls 15, 10 and 5. Once I hear his 5, I stop pumping, get everything into the fridge and make it back to my console 2.5 minutes later. I've found that by letting go and not rushing - (during intermission I just use his calls as my timer) - my milk expression at work has increased. Once the show is down, we generally have a backstage tour. I stay for 15 minutes of that, then I go back to our office and pump again. When that's done I lock up and head home - and pump again.

I have used a double expression hospital grade pump from the start and would never use anything else. Kudos to you for hand expressing! I definitely would not have the patience for that. And it is so important to take care of your body and drink tons of water during tech and performances. Keeping yourself hydrated, well fed and well rested (as much as humanly possible) will help with your milk production. My family still brings my son to me on dinner breaks, and we time it so that I feed him after my matinee, but I still pump before my evening show. It's hard, but it is possible.

I hope we hear from our soon-to-be SM Moms soon and hear how it's going for them!

168

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier

« on: Dec 17, 2012, 05:05 pm »

/Off Topic

This board has made my day off the Best Ever!

/On Topic

I've recovered copier jams many-a-time and never once had to use a multi-tool to do it. Just my own two hands.

COPIER!

169

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Community, Round 5: Gaff Tape vs Spike Tape

« on: Dec 17, 2012, 04:57 pm »

For my professional ballet world, Gaff is king. My dancers hate vinyl tape, so I tape my seams with Shurtape P-628 Gaff. I provide the same Gaff to my Master Electrician, Head Carpenter, Sound Engineer and Prop Master. Spike is used, but not as much.

Gaff!

170

Stage Management: Other / New Choreographer / Old Set

« on: Dec 17, 2012, 04:44 pm »

This year my ballet company is producing a new production of The Nutcracker. However, we're using borrowed sets and costumes from another ballet company. We've made adjustments to fit the sets into our venue, as it was built for a theater with 100 linesets and a much larger stage. However, there were several questions as to how to make this set work how we wanted it to work for our new ballet scenario. While we had the drawings, we had no information as far as assembly or function. Many pieces were broken and, as it sometimes happens, dimensions and design don't always match the drawn plans.

A first for me in ballet, I spent a lot of time helping the choreographer figure out how to attain her vision for the production (and this was also her first large-scale ballet). I broke it down to her like this, "Tell me your dream - and we'll do what we can to attain it. If we can't make it work exactly how you want it, we'll figure out what will work. Give me a starting point." From then on, she spoke "in my dream" - and it made it easier for her to convey her technical wants and needs.

Has anyone else worked on a ballet or other new work that used someone else's "blueprints" (for lack of a better word)? What was your process and how did you achieve a successful show?

171

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TERMS YOU NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE

« on: Dec 17, 2012, 03:36 am »

I created something like this once, but it was because my ballet company went on tour to China and we wanted everyone on tour to know who was actually "with" us, meaning massage therapists, dancers, department heads, special family guests, etc.

I haven't made one since.

172

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: WORK/LIFE BALANCE: The breastfeeding/pumping stage manager

« on: Dec 07, 2012, 04:09 am »

Well, ladies, I thought I would come back to this discussion as I am in the midst of an incredibly heavy tech and a 3 week run. Here's what I am doing, and what I recommend, come tech time.

I work in ballet, so without being in tech I'm working Monday-Friday 9a-6p. I feed my son in the morning, then at least 1 or 2 times before bed. I get to bring him to work 2 days a week and I'm with him all day long on the weekends. I get to pump anywhere from 3-4 times a day. Now with shifting to a tech schedule, I'm working 6 days a week, 11:30am-11:30pm, and can't manage him and tech like I could working in my office on rehearsal days. This is a major shift for my body and for my son.

For tech, here's what I've figured out: arrive half an hour before your personal early call. For me, I have to be making calls to class by 11:30am, so I plan to arrive by 11:15am, so for my pumping, I aim to arrive by 10:45am. I arrive, answer questions, then close myself in my office at the theater and pump for about 20 minutes. After that I'm set until half hour. I personally make the half hour call, then I hand off my stopwatch to an assistant and immediately begin pumping for 12-15 minutes. Then I check in with my team and get to the tech table.

Now that my son is 6 months old, his feedings are spaced out, so I space out my pumps. I then sit through tech from 1:30pm-5pm without pumping. I have a wonderful benefit of my parents being in town for tech (we planned this months ago) so it's their job to bring him to me at the theater just before my dinner break starts. My son is highly distracted at this age, so I immediately try to feed him, then I end up feeding him a little more around 6pm. At 6:30pm my parents take him home and I do another pump at my next half hour call, 7pm. I then sit through tech from 7:30pm-11pm, get home around 12:15am and immediately pump again.

What this experience has taught me: I'm personally not making enough milk for my son to eat when he's not with me on tech days (stress can effect how much milk you produce). We've resorted to thawing frozen breast milk for him to have in addition to what I pumped the day before. I highly recommend in the 2 weeks before tech, pump after you put your child to bed and freeze it. It's recommend to freeze your milk in 2oz - 5oz servings, depending on how much your child is eating. It will really help you out in the long run - and relieve a bit of the stress of thinking you can't provide for your child.

My assistants are really great and both like my son - so I'm very lucky that they are comfortable with my pumping, feeding and helping make the calls for me while I'm pumping. You definitely want to work out a plan in advance with your team members and figure out the best times for you to pump during your tech. (And bring a nursing cover for pumping - it's the easy way to pump and sit in an office that resembles Grand Central Station without feeling totally exposed - and people just think you're wearing a really weird shirt.)

And note that getting ready to pump and cleaning up from pumping is not a 1 minute experience. Practice, make a plan, and get very familiar with your equipment. AND! Very important for speed: buy gallon ziplocs - after you remove your full milk storage bottles from your pumping horns - attach a clean bottle to each horn, toss it all in the ziploc and put it in the fridge with your milk bottles right away. You won't need to wash the pumping equipment after each use, as long as you refrigerate immediately after pumping.  Then wash it all after your final pump for the night.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm just coming off of day 2 of a brand new Nutcracker tech and I wanted to share this information as I was learning it.

Best of luck, ladies!

173

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Community, Round 1: Gaff Tape Vs. Staples/Paperclips

« on: Dec 04, 2012, 02:15 am »

I love Gaff - and all the pretty colors! It's my dancer's choice for taping marley seams, as dance floor tape is too slick for them. I have a steady supply of 2" Olive Drab, Black, White and Gray (not counting my rainbow of spike). And when it's not on the dance floor, I'm using it to repair set pieces/cracked paint in a jiff, covering flower stems (because every ballet has a bouquet in it somewhere...) and more!

GAFF for the win!!

174

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: BLOCKING: Blocking notation and stage spikes for 2-level set

« on: Nov 23, 2012, 09:28 pm »

Glad to hear that you found a solution that also worked for your space! Numbering can always help - especially with multiple entrance points like that. And as you can see, Actors can pick it up quickly, if they are introduced to the numbering early on and everyone uses it consistently.

Hope you had a great run!

175

The Green Room / Re: What are you thankful for?

« on: Nov 22, 2012, 01:57 am »

I am thankful for my ASM and my PA, without which, I would be going more crazy than I am now, with a brand new Nutcracker with 41 different kid roles, on top of 40 professional dancers looming on me in 2 weeks.

176

Tools of the Trade / Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?

« on: Nov 16, 2012, 02:06 am »

How do you do your calling scripts in Excel?

For Ballet I write up my Calling Scripts in Excel.

First column: time stamp
Second column: cue number
Third column: choreography related to cue/cue motivation
Fourth column: Notes related to the cue [What rail is moving, what activities are part of the deck shift cue, what the LX is doing]

177

The Green Room / Re: Inside the SM Office

« on: Nov 14, 2012, 02:44 pm »

1. What is your favorite word?
Beautiful

2. What is your least favorite word?
Why

3. What turns you on?
Talent  (and my husband)

4. What turns you off?
People who are too lazy to read

5. What sound do you love?
My son's laughter

6. What sound do you hate?
Fingernails on paper

7. What is your favorite curse word?
F me in the A (I prefer a phrase)

8. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
Event Management

9. What profession would you not like to do?
Child Care provider/baby sitter

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
The reviews are fantastic and it's an open-ended run. Here's your headset.

178

Tools of the Trade / Re: Do you prefer Word or Excel?

« on: Nov 09, 2012, 04:55 am »

I used to use Access when I was on my old Windows machine, however I had to stop because the printer available at the theater couldn't print my Access files. I switched to Mac shortly thereafter and have always been an Excel person. I seem to have a harder time getting formatting right in a Word document. Just a few column adjustments and I have perfect formatting every time with Excel. And I'm always learning little tricks to make my Excel life easier, so it makes sense to stick with it. From Deck Sheets to Spot Cue Sheets to Calling Scripts, Contact Sheets, Resumes and even Cover Letters - I'm all about Excel.

179

The Hardline / Re: straight-six on LORT musicals?

« on: Oct 28, 2012, 07:18 pm »

Definitely contact LA.

From what little I've done with a LORT-C at TW with the musical staged readings, we never did the straight 6 because it counted as 8 hours towards our 42 max. At least that's what I recall from a convo with Bethany.

180

The Green Room / Re: Relief from insomnia

« on: Oct 10, 2012, 01:09 am »

For me it's a combo - my 4 month old is in a bassinet in our room, and we have a white noise machine running while he sleeps. That sound, along with a bingo game on my iPad, helps make my eyes heavy enough to fall asleep within 10 minutes.