Messages

196

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SOUND: Working with a sound op.

« on: Apr 20, 2011, 07:34 pm »

For me it will depend on the situation.  If it is a show where all the actors are on body mics then no, I will leave it up to the board op to take care of it all.  If we are talking about a small handful of mic cues (offstage or otherwise) in a show where the actors are not otherwise on mics then yes, I will include them as part of the calling.

For example, when I was in undergrad I did a production of The Magic Flute.  We only used two microphones in the pit, one to pick up and enhance the bells for the sequence at the end of Act I with Monstatos and his slaves being enchanted by the magic bells, and the other to pick up and enhance the piccolo that was playing Papageno's pan flute cues.  As these mics only needed to be on for very specific moments in the show I included them as called cues.

197

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 14, 2011, 08:16 pm »

That's the thing though, they could send it to Fox, but when was the last time Fox issued any sort of retraction?

198

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 14, 2011, 06:55 pm »

I just posted this on Facebook and was coming here to see if it had made it here yet.

Of course though they say how much they want to continue working with the unions and see them as vital to their success they are shutting down the Equity tour and allowing one of the non-Equity companies to take it over.

199

Employment / Re: To Break or Not to Break

« on: Apr 09, 2011, 02:45 pm »

For myself I tend to agree with Maribeth's last sentiment, it would have to be for something that would help my career in the long run.  I've broken contracts on several occasions now in my career and in each instance I strongly feel that it was the right thing for me to do.   I do believe that each of those productions that I chose over the others have brought me right here to where I am now in my career, which I feel pretty good about at the moment.

200

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SAFETY: Food allergies in rehearsal

« on: Apr 06, 2011, 06:13 pm »

I have had to ban nut products from a rehearsal in grad school as the guest director was highly allergic.  However, she made it well known going in that she had this allergy from the first day of pre-production.  Like Matthew said, I tend to believe that an adult with a severe allergy is well-versed in letting the people they work with know about it at the start of the process, as do the parents of children with any allergies.  There does reach a point where we have to expect that grown adults will take personal responsibility. 

201

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 02, 2011, 02:51 pm »

I'm also going to throw in my opinion that I strongly doubt that he, and other producers, would consider lowering ticket prices if they were able to pay smaller salaries.  Call me jaded, but the trend on the road with non-Equity tours does not point to that at all.  Those producers charge a guarantee to the local presenters that is perfectly in line with what Equity tours are charging, thus not allowing the local presenters to lower their ticket prices to match the fact that everyone on those tours is making far less, both in terms of salaries and benefits, than they would be if they were under a union contract.

202

Self-Promotion / Re: Next stop: dream job!

« on: Mar 02, 2011, 11:45 pm »

Echoing the congrats from everyone else!  I was in Oregon a couple years ago with a Theatreworks tour, beautiful area.  Enjoy!

203

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROMPT BOOKS - using both script and libretto

« on: Feb 17, 2011, 11:25 pm »

I'm just going to say that I assume when somebody says "score" on here they are talking about the piano/vocal score, not a full orchestral reference score.

204

Tools of the Trade / Re: Digital Prompt Books (Do you use them?)

« on: Feb 09, 2011, 02:06 pm »

I have to admit that I have a feeling that once I own and am familiar with the iPad that I may be running and calling shows off of that, provided that the run of the show is long enough to make it worth while to digitize my book (and that is also dependent on the complexity of the show, as I am still not super-speedy on doing all the callouts and whatnot).  For a simple show a run of three weeks or more makes it worth my time.  For something a bit more complex, such as a musical, I probably won't put in the time unless the show is running for four to five weeks (or more).  And in opera world, where we're looking at maybe six performances, it remains pencil and paper.

From just playing around with Pages on my parents' computer this weekend I'm not sure that I'll be dropping Word entirely for creating a calling script with cues.  Luckily I have found that the OpenOffice program (available free at openoffice.org) seems to be an almost exact duplicate of Word, so that when I do upgrade to a new laptop in the near future (fingers crossed), I won't have to drop the extra cash into Microsoft's coffers (since I have done the maximum amount of installs with the Office disk that I currently have).

205

The Green Room / Re: \"Have you thought about accounting . . . ?\"

« on: Feb 09, 2011, 02:05 pm »

What's the alternative, though?

If schools need to be more aggressive about telling people "Sorry, you're just not suited to this field. Yes, you've just wasted two years of your life and your parents' money. Move on already.", okay--but I put it to you that the programs most likely to have these conversations (and to make them stick) are those who are already the most selective, and therefore the least likely to have large numbers of students who aren't up to snuff.

It's a wicked problem to try and solve.

The thing to bear in mind though is that many acting programs do have the sophomore year cut.   Matthew pointed out that we don't bat an eye about not casting an actor.  The entrance exam for United Scenic Artists can be fairly brutal as well (I have a very talented friend who did not pass it the first time she applied for membership due to a simple mistake she had made on her paperwork, showing that they are not willing to just accept anyone who applies). 

And it's not just in theatre training programs.  Many other disciplines will not hesitate to let one of their students know if they are not up to par and may even be forced out of the program.  I have seen it happen from the visual arts into business and science programs and many others throughout.

206

Tools of the Trade / Re: Making prop red wine

« on: Jan 29, 2011, 02:23 pm »

If a director wants red wine  . . . and besides, the symbolism of red wine is just so much richer then white wine.

REMEMBER, once something is put on stage it ceases to be just something, it gains importance, and weight . . . now it's frame and 500 people are looking it . . . and can't just be any old glass of wine . . .

Ain't that the truth.  The last time I did A Little Night Music I remember we had a good hour or so long session with props just working out the proper shades for the various wines drunk throughout the show.  And of course it being more complicated than you think, since with food coloring you can easily have the proper color in a large quantity but when you pour it out into smaller glasses it is suddenly a lot lighter than it was in the pitcher you were mixing in.  I remember the director getting very nervous because one of the white wines looked positively orange while we were mixing it, but once portioned out was actually quite beautiful.

207

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: REHEARSAL: Have you ever NOT done daily rehearsal reports?

« on: Jan 24, 2011, 05:42 pm »

I didn't do any reports for the Fringe show I did back in 2008.  The playwright/composer/producer was in rehearsal every night.  We had no set designer (the director and I basically cobbled something together out of some pieces she located).  We didn't have a lighting designer until more than halfway through the process, and of course, being Fringe, he was working off of the basic rep plot.  Since up the point where he joined us everybody else involved in the production was in rehearsal every day it was much the same situation where a report was really just going to end up being busy-work.  The lighting designer was given the very few notes, which were basically just schedule things, through email, with the director and producer/playwright/composer CCed.

208

The Hardline / Re: "Equity Business"

« on: Jan 16, 2011, 09:09 am »

If you are rehearsing in NYC and under a full contract (i.e. not a showcase or staged reading) also plan on either your business and/or outside business rep coming in to go over health, pension, and all that other fun stuff.  They will also usually run your deputy election and voting on the meal breaks, archival videos, adjustment to span of day (if allowed in the contract, not all contracts allow the straight six anymore) etc.

209

The Green Room / Re: This one goes to Eleven!

« on: Jan 15, 2011, 03:03 pm »

I was returning from my last trip to NYC as a pure "tourist" (since then I have only been to the city for interviews, work, and now living here) and getting ready to start rehearsals for my first opera (Street Scene), as well as moving off-campus for the second semester of sophomore year (and never living in a dorm again, thus never again having to share a bathroom with more than two other people).

210

The Hardline / Re: Equity? In this economy?

« on: Jan 15, 2011, 02:57 pm »

I also hate to say it, but there are plenty of stories of non-Equity jobs that are claiming one thing and then entirely different once you interview, or even have trouble actually paying that salary.  Yes, you can run into payroll issues with an Equity contract as well, but at least then you have a union to turn to to help make sure that you indeed get what you are owed, or at least help you put up one hell of a fight.   Coming from a recent issue with a paycheck bouncing I can speak that there is a great comfort in knowing that Equity would have been behind me if my general managers were not willing to resolve the problem*.

*Side note - they did quite work with us quite beautifully to make things right, including cutting new checks as soon as the problems happened and reimbursing us for any fees our banks charged us.  The problem turned out to be bad settlement checks from the venue we were in, which snowballed into a deficit in our company's payroll account.  So though I did report the problem to our business rep, I was (thankfully) able to report it as a situation that was in the process of being fixed and with no need for action from Equity at the time.  However, our business rep assured me that they would keep track of the issue and to let him know if there was anything he would need to take care of for us. 

**Extra side note - that venue closed down a week after that show closed due to "disputes with the landlord" and I have since heard about other productions having issues with the former(?) management there.