Messages

196

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Calling/teching your first show, your experiences.

« on: Jan 07, 2007, 08:46 pm »

I don't remember the first show I SMed....I do remember my first professional show though - it was a huge in-house production of The Wizard of Ozat the theatre where I was house crew.  The LX operator (who was also house crew) hated me, didn't think I could do the job, and so pretty much ignored a lot of my calls and took the cues where SHE thought they should go, which did not often coincide with where I thought they should go.  Needless to say, this did not last long before the director went mad and told her to stop being such an unprofessional child.  The rest of the crew were brilliant and the cast was all lovely, so generally it was a positive experience once we'd had the row about lighting cues!

197

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Merged Topics - "Left or Right" and "Your book Left or right"

« on: Jan 07, 2007, 06:12 pm »

Mac Calder - no, I haven't ever found myself having problems tracing cues over the gap between pages; I use a two-ring lever arch file, so there's not that much of a gap between the pages anyway.  I rule a line from under the cue word (putting brackets around the word) across the gap in the pages and write the cue on the line.  I've worked with my books arranged in a few different ways, and this is the way that I personally find easiest.  Very occasionally, if the script copy I have is not full A4 size, I'll put the blocking underneath the script on the LHS, but that's only if it's not a complex show cue-wise; if it is a complex show I like to have the text bigger rather than smaller!

198

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Dressing For The Part?

« on: Jan 07, 2007, 03:04 am »

During rehearsals I usually wear jeans and a tidy top; during performance, when I'm dealing with the public, it's always semi-formal blacks - nice trousers and a shirt, or sometimes a skirt or dress shorts, usually with either boots or ballet flats - heels only very occasionally (while I can run silently in them, I prefer not to!).

199

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Merged Topics - "Left or Right" and "Your book Left or right"

« on: Jan 07, 2007, 02:54 am »

Script/score on the left, cues and blocking on the right - right hand page is divided into 3 columns; the left-han column is cues, the centre column is info about cues (what they do etc etc) and the right hand column is blocking.