Messages

196

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Stop The Show!

« on: Oct 02, 2006, 05:35 am »

It seems extraordinary really but in 15 years of fulltime stage management I have never stopped a show. I've cancelled a few, one right on curtain, but never had that mid show disaster (fingers crossed and touch wood) - but have any of you noticed how cancelling a show, or presumably stopping a show, make the evening just as long if not longer than normal?  The night I cancelled right just before the show started I got home later than usual and absolutely exhausted! I think when I first decided we couldn't do the performance I had visisons of getting home early and enjoying a good book. How mistaken was I!!

ChaCha

197

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Who's Job???

« on: Sep 14, 2006, 10:47 am »

While it is true that the stage manager often has something of a teaching role for the asm, being an asm is a distinct role that just happens to be supervised by the sm. I would expect the asm to get on with it on their own, and to ask questions or request assistance as required, just as I do my job and request advice or assistance from my collegues or production manager if i need extra help.
Personally it is quite likely that I might give the asm a hand with setting up for rehearsal  or with doing a scene change in the rehearsal room if I happened to have time/needed to talk them about other things/wanted to move about instead of sitting at a desk for a minute, but there does come a time (as your asm said) when it isnt hepful anymore. The more the asm 'owns' the floor, the less you have to think about it, the happier you'll be. In short, your actor has no idea what's what!!

ChaCha

198

Stage Management: Other / Re: Newbie! SM for a Circus performance

« on: Sep 14, 2006, 10:21 am »

Hi Alex, and welcome to SM Network,

I am by no means a circus expert but I have worked a couple of circus shows in the last few years - they were shows by students at a circus school attached to a university, but the creative team were all industry professionals brought in on contracts, so they had ambitious production values. Coming to circus without any background I found a few differences from stage managing say opera or  theatre which I list here in no particular order;

1. there are a lot of hours required of 'training', which is completely different to 'rehearsing' - even if they are training a performance sequence they are concentrating on achieving the 'tricks' (technical achievements in their area for example : juggling 12 clubs whilst skipping, etc) and their trainer rather than the director is in charge (in fact the director probably wont be there and you probably dont need to be either though its interesting and a good way to start to learn the act/understand circus). Its a bit like the difference between a conductor and the director in the rehearsal room of an opera or musical.

2. even after the show opens they may need a training schedule ON THE SET. It is also likely that there will be an extensive warm up schedule before every show, which means negotiating set up times/setting up around 25 people standing on their heads

3. there may also be a warm down scheduled after each show, and again, depending on what spaces you have available, it might need to be onstage. (lots of warm up activities need mats, which need space)

4. you need to have a great relationship with the trainers as  they are bad people to have as enemies! They may have very close relationships with the students they train and it will make your life easier if you can rely on them to back you up in your dealings with the students. Also, they can explain many circus mysteries to you! Help with scheduling training, tell you when the students are asking for unreasonable or unnecessary things, etc, etc

5. RIGGERS are another key to getting on in circus. Obviously safety is a huge issue with lots of circus acts and the riggers may be the ones with overall responsibility in this area. So they may well be entitled to overule you on lots of backstage matters. Again, I'd suggest going to your head rigger on day one and saying you know nothing about circus processes but you are keen to work closely with the riggers to make it all happen in the most safe and efficient fashion. He or she will probably love it that you aren't just trying to be the big boss who knows all and will give you lots of helpful information.

6. During tech week you have some extra things to fit in - especially the Safeties or safety rehearsals. These come after LX plotting but before the tech. The rehearsal is really controlled by the riggers and/or trainers but it can be very useful for stage management as a chance to see each act and check through placement of props etc . However the purpose of the rehearsal is to make sure each performer is secure with every movement/light/item of equipment they use. So normally they would walk through the routine for spacing/equipment, then see each LX cue and check that the lights dont interfere with the routine (LX in the eyes do not help juggling or cloudswing, etc etc). Once they are happy you move on to the next act. It can be extremely slow. If you use recorded music it unlikely that it will be used at all during safeties, though occasionally its needed.

7. Lots of extra terminology to grasp - (ring)mats (and how to roll them and store them),spanish web, german wheel, russian bar, adagio(the one where they stand on one anothers heads, and hold the partner up with one foot, etc - looks like a recipe for injury)  and so on. Just ask questions....

8. If you want REHEARSAL to start at 10am make sure you have specified that people have to be WARMED UP ready to go, otherwise expect to start with warm up

9. Expect performers to be much more interested in things you may consider props than say actors. To them a set of metal bowls for bowl kicking are vital personal equipment. It is likely that they will personally own such items and you may have to negotiate if you want to pack them for touring or keep them in  the building during the run of the show. It is possible they might want to take them home to practise during the day. Take comfort in the fact that they are equally much more likely to remember to bring them back than an actor would be....

10. the performers will quite possibly expect to help with scene changes etc. Do expect to direct them and write up  scene change lists etc for them. If you dont have time, tell them early on  to write up their own runnning list and keep on top of changes...make it their responsibility and remind them often. Its also good to post a list of the acts in running order on walls everywhere once the director starts shaping the show (like a list of 'numbers' in a musical)

11. My experience is that even circus shows with some sort of narrative thread are essentially made up of a series of acts (" cloudswing, spinning bowls, double trapeze, chinese poles, ensemble juggling" ) possibly with linking sequences devised by the director. This means that it is eay to rehearse segments. It also means that the ORDER of the acts can CHANGE. For example if someone has an injury you might not do trapeze at all one night! So the stage manager has to be ready for constant changes and have a good grip on what they will mean for scene changes, cue sequences, etc. There are some sound software programmes for circus which make it possible to just  shift whole acts about in the sequence...

12. You also need to know the house policy on missed tricks - does the performer try again if they knock over the hoops whilst diving through them - how many times? - what will happen with the music? is there plenty of spare music on the track? What if they fall off the cloudswing? Will they go back up or is there special music to cover the abrupt end to the act? etc etc etc

12a. They will want to video everything, all the time, so they can review their work. (I believe this happens even at Cirque de Soleil level - they record every performance)

13. Depending on the emphasis the school places on performance versus skills training they they may not have much performance experience. The trainers may not think its important. You may have to do a lot of educating people about your expectations for people to arrive for a 'half hour call' or to listen to the stage manager. But don't worry, if they didn't value you at the beginning they will by the end.

14. Think of it more as a dance show when you start putting a prompt copy together.

Hope it helps a bit. And have fun, i did (mostly!!)

ChaCha

199

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Essential Theatre Books

« on: Sep 11, 2006, 12:00 pm »

This was recommended to me by my stage management lecturer, and I finally tripped over a copy some years after graduating. I found it to be a great read and a wonderful insight into the mind and process of an actor and of a big institutional theatre company (RSC) -The book?  The Year of the King by Antony Sher. First published in the UK in 1985 by Methuen. Five Stars!

200

Tools of the Trade / Re: What is Gaffer Tape?

« on: Sep 09, 2006, 12:18 pm »

The black gold?
Let me count the ways....


ChaCha

201

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: What do you want to tell Actors???

« on: Sep 09, 2006, 03:46 am »

if you know the prop is broken let me know too

though "just take the note" is definately right up there!!!

ChaCha

202

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Happy Stage Management Memories?

« on: Sep 08, 2006, 07:08 am »

I love the idea of recounting happy SMT memories - nice idea Kay. we do spend a lot of time on the horror stories (though of course behind every horror story is a stage management success story)

I was the stage manager for a 1000 voice choir which had been put together specifically to sing at the opening ceremony of an international arts festival. Really, everything about the gig was great, except possibly the 20 seconds I had when I could have maybe stopped them singing Amazing Grace as a completely undiscussed and unrehearsed encore (you can imagine the amount of thought and time devoted to deciding their repetoire for the event - amazing grace REALLY wasn't on the list!)...

they were to sing on a specially constructed series of scaffolding steps outside the concert hall and be accompanied by a series of slides projected onto the neighbouring wall...
So there we are at the start of the tech/dress rehearsal and the three conductors look at me and say " so, can you please arrange the choir onto the stands in vocal groups?" and passed me the radio mic...

I looked around at the milling masses and took a deep breath...

The next 20 minutes are a slight blur but I am told I was a woman  possessed...and the festival's publicist (ex special armed services) told me later ( as I danced all alone on the festival club dance floor all night) that I looked like I had been mainlining adreneline! It was amazing experience.

the next day we had the choir in the concert hall stalls and and the conductors and I stood on the stage as they warmed up. It was an incredible sound. Then I made a small speech thanking all these volunteers for putting in the time and reaching such an incredibly high standard, they all went beserk applauding themselves and the festival for making it happen. Just waves of sound...

then we went out there and the scissor lift refused to work for the conductors (we had a back up luckily), etc, etc, etc... but they sang like angels.

three years later  I still have people coming  up to me in public places and  telling me what a fantastic experience they had in the 1000 voice choir - definately a career highlight.

And it IS great to take the time to reflect on the highlights.

Cheers
ChaCha

203

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: dramaturg

« on: Sep 08, 2006, 06:19 am »

well, it may or may not be true, but I have actually used this technique to get through an opera in a regional venue with no show relay or paging mics to the dressing rooms...

to call places and give cast members' calls to the stage, the stage manager used a call boy. At relevant places in the prompt copy there were slips of card/paper with the names/calls written on. The stage manager handed them to the call boy standing next to them and they ran off and gave the calls. Then the stage manager could just replace the slips for the next performance.

I had to make a few compromises as we only had one 'call girl' in our case(!?!)available the night I did this, but it worked incredibly well!

Happy researching
ChaCha

204

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: What DO we Do?

« on: Aug 27, 2006, 01:39 am »

Imagine you are doing an opera - it is quite common for the AD to take the blocking and schedule rehearsals, etc in opera. It was a shock the first time it happened to me, but I quickly realised that if someone else had ultimate responsibility for tracking 30 chorus members I could get a handle on props/entrances/quick changes/fly Qs/ etc, etc that much more quickly... just enjoy the opportunity to focus more on other parts of the job for once. And don't worry, the cast will still look to 'their' stage manager for support...

Enjoy!

ChaCha

205

Employment / Re: Do circuses have Stage Managers?

« on: Aug 07, 2006, 09:57 am »

I was lucky enough to sit with the stage manager of a cirque show touring australia last year. It was absolutely fascinating! He had a sort of laminated card with some cue information on for the mechanics of the flying system, but he almost never looked at it...He told me he had called the show more than 2000 times! Not that he called lighting - the LX op sat on my other side and he took all his own cues (also from memory). I think there were 2 stage managers or ASM types backstage running the floor/props etc. The show was fine, but watching the stage manager and listening to the crew was much more interesting!

I have stage managed a couple of circus shows for the National Institute of Circus Arts here in Australia - no circus background so steep learning curve regarding circus terms and protocols, but by staying calm amid the chaos and applying all the normal stage management techniques I got on just fine. If you get the chance to try it, don't hesitate. Its fun working with people who stand on on someone else's head as a matter of course!

Cheers
ChaCha

206

SMNetwork Archives / Website suggestion!

« on: May 17, 2006, 12:32 pm »

what's a wiki?

207

Employment / stage management college degrees

« on: May 06, 2006, 01:22 pm »

Hi all,
 I did a 3 year SMT course which - as Matthew also mentioned as a plus of formal training- gave me an unusual range of experience in different genres as we worked on everything from musicals and modern dance to opera, film and multimedia performance, as well as loads of regular theatre. The school had performance streams in all these areas and we did classes every morning for 4 weeks; week 5 was production week; and week 6 we did classes in the morning and shows at night. So each student worked on at least 6 shows a year.

This diversity of 'hands on' experience has allowed me to have an enormously satisfying career in a range of disciplines. 10 years after I graduated I had a strange year where I called my first professional ballet for the state company, as well as my first ever circus...but I knew I would be able to cope not only because of my years of professional practice but because 10 years before we talked about how to do this/did this in training.

Another plus for me of doing the course was that the connections I made there enabled me to get my first job (opera - I hadn't ever called one but we studied score reading), which of course led to other things...

Personally I always prefer to have ASMs who have a similar training to mine as I KNOW what they are going to know how to do, and that expectations of the job should be similar to mine.

A downside is that because my institution allowed specialisation (SMT, LX, SD, design, Set construction, costume, etc) from day 1, as an SM student i didnt get hands on experience in a production context in the various tech areas. We did CLASSES in all of them, but it didnt leave me particularly capable of going on tour and relighting a show as well as stage managing (for example). Though maybe that was just cause Im not that technically minded!

The experience was very intense and really weeded out people who wouldnt have the temperament /desire to last in the industry. It was also just good training in people skills/time management/life management.

Having said all that if you can get yourself a job without the training, more power to you! I from an academic family who automatically look around for the right course to achieve anything... I'm currently fighting off the notion that I should be doing an arts management course to help me move on after my wonderful years of roaming stage management fun.

BTW -MC

There is no Stage Management 'course' in AU, and I do not only do SMing)

.

 Actually, in Australia you can do a 3 year course majoring in Stage Management from day 1 of first year at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts attached to Edith Cowan University.

ChaCha

208

The Hardline / HAVE I EVER READ THE RULE BOOK?

« on: Oct 12, 2005, 10:00 am »

I've always found this 'hardline' section fascinating but largely unfathomable...now i am sure that your US union rules would require a lifetime of study!

ChaCha the Chook

209

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Where do you draw the line? (Producer rant)

« on: Sep 28, 2005, 11:38 am »

sounds like it was a tough decison, but we're all there for you.

210

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Drop Count

« on: Sep 28, 2005, 11:29 am »

I once had to do a 'mango drop' onto a 'tin roof', actually several per peformance...mangos are an odd shape and tend to drop with noteworthy style so it became a regular item on the show report "mango narrowly missed actor/prop/audience/drowned out lines" etc. most exciting  highlight of the night backstage...except the night we nearly burned down the theatre -but that's another story!