Messages

226

Self-Promotion / Re: Theatres That Have Opened - Easing the Emergency

« on: Aug 06, 2014, 01:22 am »

Exceptional Arts Drama, Mobile, AL. 2013 (All actors have special needs - see blog article here)
Epstein Theatre, Liverpool, England. 2013

227

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Sharing Paperwork with ASMs

« on: Aug 04, 2014, 01:24 pm »

Note: the original "OpenOffice.org" suite has been forked into two different software packages. Most of the original developers have moved over to a fork called LibreOffice  while the original software changed owners several times and fell behind a bit, eventually becoming Apache OpenOffice. The two suites are mostly the same right now as the split is recent, but different licensing means that LibreOffice is more likely to get new and interesting features first. (Basically, LibreOffice can steal code from AOO, but not the other way around.)

228

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Deputy?

« on: Aug 02, 2014, 01:46 pm »

It's a union specific position. Each union production will have one or more elected deputies from among the union cast members to serve as the union's eyes and ears.

There's not much point to have a deputy in an educational setting as there's no union rules to follow and no enforcement or "tattling to mom" if rules are broken.

Vest you can do yo approach it us to become familiar with common elements among equity contracts and point out where your process is deviating from the union rules without implying that the deviation is necessarily a bad thing. That way at least the students will know some of what to expect in a pro house later in their careers.

229

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Rehearsals: Giving line notes - a real novice question

« on: Jul 30, 2014, 07:07 pm »

You got Project Scorpion? Lucky.  I'm stuck working on Project Short Ribs.

(back to topic ... go.)

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Rehearsals: Giving line notes - a real novice question

« on: Jul 30, 2014, 03:22 pm »

The coder in me is screaming internally here.

So one of the current trends in web development is to separate the different pieces of code into 3 different layers.
Lowest layer - Provides all the information. (In this case, the script)
Middle layer - Interacts with the Lowest layer, and outputs results to the top layer (In this case, you.)
Top layer - Receives input from visitors, formats output into a readable version.

(For those of you other coders out there you'll know this as MVC.)

What I'm seeing here is a conflation of the Middle & Top layers. I'm thinking ideally that you'd set up a fast method that allows you to easily flag line notes (Middle Layer) and then output them in any format desired by the talent, be it flash cards, page-per-actor, or everybody on one page. (Top Layer)

Matthew, if you wanted to try a database, this would be your chance.

231

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Learning how to read music

« on: Jul 28, 2014, 02:43 pm »

Remember when looking at systems that they won't necessarily have just two staves tied together. Even some piano parts can go to 4 clefs or more.

For example, view this page from Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor for Piano, which has 5 systems. The lowermost system is meant to be played simultaneously by a single pianist, but is spread out across four staves instead of the standard 2 to make it more easily legible. (I should note that this is the piece that my high school piano instructor pulled out when I started getting cocky about my sight reading skills.)

EDIT: Can't deep link to the individual page. Go here, view PDF, I was referring to pg. 3.

232

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Giving Notes Advice?

« on: Jul 28, 2014, 02:36 pm »

In general when giving notes to anyone - especially young folks who haven't had time to develop thick skin - it's important to remember how it feels to them to be told that they did something wrong. They will be embarrassed, they will be angry, they will feel shame. Peers who thrive on finger-pointing will never let the others forget their moments at fault. If you're in a school with a competitive"cut" system, publicly posted notes like this might even be photographed with cell phones and saved as evidence for later.

Now extrapolate that to a situation where you're in a commercial production environment with paparazzi snooping around and paying chorus members to provide dirt on the better known "stars."

Notes should be given in private to the persons affected.
If you don't have time to give individual notes to everyone in your crew, meet with your deck chief and have them give the notes...  in private to the persons affected.

233

Tools of the Trade / Re: Dropbox account full

« on: Jul 27, 2014, 11:25 pm »

If you've got some tech skill and a private server with a web connection you can roll your own cloud storage with ownCloud. You'd probably want a domain for it but it is technically an option.

234

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Rehearsals: Giving line notes - a real novice question

« on: Jul 27, 2014, 12:36 pm »

I think it's important for whoever will be doing the majority of the calling to spend at least some time on line notes. Makes it easier to predict when real time flubs are likely to happen and plan accordingly.

235

Self-Promotion / Re: Theatres That Have Opened - Easing the Emergency

« on: Jul 18, 2014, 02:42 am »

YUFFA Fringe, Toronto, ON, Canada. 2014

236

The Green Room / Re: Mini-rant: This Voicemail Box Is Full

« on: Jul 14, 2014, 11:40 pm »

Some carriers will play that message when service is suspended to save the account holder some embarrassment.

237

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Pre Production: Devised Theatre

« on: Jul 13, 2014, 02:42 pm »

We've covered this a bit before. See the links in the "Related Links" section below. Also search on "improv" as similar concerns face stage managers of improv shows.

Also see this one which you might not have found in your searches:

http://smnetwork.org/forum/stage-management-plays-musicals/new-works-making-a-prompt-book-when-there-is-no-script-at-all

238

Tools of the Trade / Re: Scheduling Software

« on: Jul 12, 2014, 10:18 pm »

Another thought is to talk with FOH. They may have something for tracking ushers.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Scheduling Software

« on: Jul 12, 2014, 05:48 pm »

my husband is a data base manager . . . it's his answer for everything

My dad is the same way. I kind of am as well.

At my first day of lighting design class the prof said, "I am giving you fair warning. From this day forward you when you attend a show you will never be able to pay attention to what's happening on stage. You will always be looking up. If you wish to still enjoy acting, plot and character development, you may leave now."

I think when it comes to information organization databases have the same effect. Everything else pales in comparison. However, there's times when simpler things are enough. In general - if the information needs to be *read* by others in a multitude of different formats, but the nature of those formats should be controlled one person, use a database. If the information needs to be *manipulated* by others in many different formats that are not yet known, use a spreadsheet.

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Self-Promotion / Re: Theatres That Have Opened - Easing the Emergency

« on: Jul 08, 2014, 07:08 pm »

Troublehouse Theatre, Manchester, England, 2014