Messages

196

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: Jun 09, 2012, 05:24 am »

All actors know their own names.

("Did you remember to sign in?" "Oops! Let met do that... say, where's my name?" "They're listed alphabetically by surname." "Oh!" and I swear it still takes them half an hour to find it, even if there are only 10 names on the list...)

197

The Green Room / Re: Creative help: Peter Pan crew T-shirts

« on: Jun 07, 2012, 04:27 pm »

"Yeah, I'm a fairy."


"Clap if you believe in flight crew."

ETA: "My wings are on my other harness."

198

The Green Room / Re: Hell in a Handbag (A Game for Stage Managers)

« on: Jun 06, 2012, 02:59 am »

What sort of disappearance effect is desired?

Are we aiming for inter-dimensional transportation? (Has the production office approved the budget necessary to replace the set at every performance? Have the denizens of these alternate universes been warned of the impending deluge of bedroom sets? [We don't want a repeat of the King in Yellow incident: Equity is still hopping mad about the performance where we had to give all of the actors flamethrowers to hold the temporal ravagers at bay for long enough to make it through the matinee. Besides, the production office would never approve the danger pay.])

Would time travel work better? (Do we have enough plutonium? Does our electric department have enough jiggawatts? What period is the furniture from? [International treaties on time travel will only permit us to make the furniture appear in an era-appropriate setting: ferns and plant stands must be sent to the Victorian era, shag carpet to the 70s, etc.] Have all running crew been given adequate training on how to contain a temporal loop event? Have all running crew been given adequate training on how to contain a temporal loop event?  Have all running crew been given adequate training on how to contain a temporal loop event? Have all running crew been given adequate training on how to contain a temporal loop event? Have all running crew been given adequate training on how to contain a temporal loop event? Have all running crew been given adequate training on how to contain a temporal loop event? Have all running crew been given ad

FORUM ERROR

TEMPORAL LOOP DETECTED

TRUNCATING POST

RESUMING POST

NEW NOTE: The Director has asked that, for the sake of authenticity, Scene XIIV be performed by actual cats.

199

The Green Room / Re: SM: WORST THINGS

« on: Jun 05, 2012, 12:18 am »

Heavy objects left in dark rooms between the door and the lightswitch.

And when my friends don't believe that THAT'S the reason I'm bruised from the knees down.

My stock answer: "You think my knees are bad, you should see the carpet in that elevator..."

200

The Green Room / Re: Hell in a Handbag (A Game for Stage Managers)

« on: Jun 04, 2012, 03:54 pm »

What sort of budget do we have for the blowing effect? Can we afford an electric fan? A paper fan? An intern standing in the wings blowing as hard as her lungs allow? (Does blowing in this manner raise any safety questions? Is additional training required? Are there any contract provisions concerning blowing? Can we get an Equity rep to sign off?)

What sort of billow are we seeking? Gale-force winds? (We may need more than one intern.) A summer breeze? A brisk, blustery day?

Do we need to add a Flag Call to the preshow in order to ensure the effect will work as desired? (Should we arrange for a Flag Specialist to join the production in order to maximize the potency of the effect?)

NEW NOTE: Please inform House Management that, when Monica vomits in scene two, this may create a "splash zone" in the first several rows.

201

The Green Room / Re: SM: WORST THINGS

« on: Jun 04, 2012, 03:49 pm »

Heavy objects left in dark rooms between the door and the lightswitch.

202

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: Jun 04, 2012, 03:47 pm »

Pencil Trees are available in the lobby, green room and stage management office. These trees produce a bountiful crop of HB/No. 2 pencils, require only occasional watering and no sunlight, and their fruit may be plucked daily.

203

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: May 31, 2012, 04:01 am »

Every company member has legible writing. Those who do not are sent on remedial penmanship courses until they master this basic skillset.

204

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: May 28, 2012, 11:57 pm »

The entire building (except for areas like catwalks and crawlspaces) is wheelchair-accessible and barrier-free, so that when you get the once-a-decade visitor who requires accessibility support, you don't spend half the tour apologizing, finding fixes, bumping them up steps, carrying them through doorways sideways, and otherwise making jackasses of yourselves while flagrantly violating disability legislation.

205

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Prop Recipe Exchange

« on: May 27, 2012, 05:48 pm »

How carbonated is it? Most actors I've worked with hate drinking pop onstage

About as much as a Sprite or Coke. We aren't talking champagne, but there's a definite fizz.

206

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Prop Recipe Exchange

« on: May 25, 2012, 07:18 pm »

Beer: there's a product on the market in North America called Kola Champagne. It's a soft drink of Puerto Rican origin, and it looks exactly like beer. (Same colour, it fizzes and bubbles when poured, it comes in bottles and cans...) It doesn't give you a lovely thick head like you would with real beer, but one must make do. The taste is rather sweet (sort of like cream soda), but the look is spot-on perfect.

I've been using a brand called Grace, which seems to be stocked at most supermarkets.

207

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: May 24, 2012, 12:07 am »

All company e-mail addresses are checked regularly.

All company spam filters are functional, and never--ever--sort useful items into the spam folder.

All company members use their e-mail accounts (and, in particular, the Reply All function) responsibly.

208

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Need Help Narrowing Down!

« on: May 23, 2012, 02:54 am »

Realistically, though, your best bet in all cases is to go to school in the city where you aspire to work. The worst thing to do to yourself, especially early in your career, is to move to a new city with no leads, contacts, job offers or insight into how you might obtain these things. Of course, no matter where you go, if you never leave campus and refuse to involve yourself in the local scene, you aren't going to get very far--but someone at, say, DePaul can easily work on a few Chicago-area productions, while someone at Duke is never going to get a chance to make contacts for their future career in San Francisco until after graduation.

There are some exceptions (If you get an offer for a really really really prestigious program, it doesn't matter if you've always had your heart set on working in Peoria: go to NTS or wherever accepted you. Similarly, if you've always wanted to work somewhere where the local programs aren't known to be especially strong [Las Vegas sticks out in my own mind here], going elsewhere for your degree might be helpful), but in general, given the choice between several more-or-less equivalent programs, take the program which gets you geographically and culturally closest to the area where you hope to work someday.

(I'm a Canadian myself, and I definitely agree that our schools are underrated, but given the choice between, say, Ryerson or NYU for an aspiring actor who hopes to work in NYC... go to NYU. Ryerson would be way cheaper, but NYU would be an infinitely smarter move career-wise.)

209

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: May 23, 2012, 12:21 am »

Every lock in the building works, without needing massages, hip-pops, extra force or handle-jiggling.

There are sufficient keys in circulation that you never have to hunt one down, but so few keys in circulation that the locks are actually useful.

210

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: May 22, 2012, 09:01 pm »

Interns are paid, do intern-appropriate work, are adequately fed, housed and watered, and have enough background knowledge when they join the company that they don't end up creating more work than they actually do.