Messages

226

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Short Form ans Symbols

« on: Apr 11, 2012, 09:31 pm »

I have a ton of shorthand when taking notes on ballet. When I get to typing up my notes, I actually type out the full words, since, well, I'm typing up my script and there's no reason for it to be shorthand anymore.

Sh sit = Shoulder Sit Lift

Piro, Dbl Tour, Prom, Bour, Chain, arab = Pirouette, Double tour, Promenade, Bourree, Chaines, arabesque

PDD = Pas de Deux

Cpl = Couple

Diag = Diagonal

DC-->UR = moves DC to UR

XX = 2 Opposite lines of dancers cross the stage, crossing each other

hh = hold hands

Ent and Ex are my favorites.

And the one I still use shorthand, even when I type

FC FBB = Full Company Forward, Bow, Back

I got my ASM so used to it, that we actually say only the letters when giving bow notes to each other. We're slowly getting our Principal Ballet Master to accept the short hand and understand just the letters. Now he's using it in his bow notes!


When working on a ballet with a set, we create our own ground plans then number chairs and letter tables, so it's easy when referring to 3 at A, means to us: chair 3 at table A. We make a point to be consistent within each scene, so we never have to refer to chair 1, just 1.

I find when working a staged reading, I do the same thing with music stands and stools. I tend to assign whatever mic is nearest the music stand the same number (I then letter my stools) as the stand. Then it's easy for me to communicate to the sound engineer with regards to what mic # needs to come up at a certain time.

227

Tools of the Trade / Re: Running sound cues in rehearsal

« on: Apr 06, 2012, 11:16 am »

I too am a fan of QLab. A few years back, I worked on The Triumph of Love, a new adaptation by the director of the show. There were a lot of gags in the show, including a fountain of Eros that peed. As others have mentioned, the Sound Designer would give me CDs of new cues, and sometimes during production meetings, he would actually load the cues up into my laptop (there wasn't a house sound computer at the time) for me. Then I would run sound, as it was easier for me to hit the space bar than to ask my PA (no ASM required in Lort-C non rep) to do it, since she was busy tracking props.

For some reason, I've really never had trouble taking blocking and running sound during rehearsal. I think my training during my internship of taking line notes really helped me with having my hands, eyes and mind being several places at once. I wasn't one to keep my eyes in the book constantly: I would spot memorize, look up at my actors and be prepared to feed the line up to them, instead of burying my face in my script. Coming from years of working with actors who don't always say "line", it's been really important for me to look up at them for visual cues for them wanting me to give them line. And, after spot memorizing, feeding the line, I would immediately begin to write the line note down for them, while reading ahead and watching the next person for their potential line call. For me, this "3 places at once" feel has made it easy for me to read the script, watch the actors to take blocking, and have my other hand poised on the space bar to hit the next sound cue.

When it comes to editing the sound, I did as others have said: take notes into the rehearsal report for the designer. It was understood that I couldn't do everything the director wanted right away, and that hopefully tomorrow we would have what the director wanted. Though I will say, if the director told me "have this song start 20 seconds into the track" or "have this fade out after 20 seconds" I always opted to punch that into QLab right away, and then take the note for the designer in the report. For me having done that right then, I didn't have to take my eyes away from rehearsal, or watch the counter. QLab had it taken care of for me, and I could continue with rehearsal as usual.

I will say, going back to TOL, I had the most difficult time with my director regarding sound. We had worked together before, but this peeing fountain had become a rift between us. She required the sound of the fountain to only come out of the speaker on SL of the rehearsal hall. There was a back and forth play between the peeing fountain and Arelcchino who "played" the guitar on SR (actually a sound cue). She wanted it working now - so the best I could do "right now" was run the cues, but switch the faders on the sound board with my other hand. It wasn't the cleanest, and it broke up my ability to write blocking notes with my right hand. In an effort to make my own life easier for comedic moments like these (as there were plenty in the show) I had to spend my dinner break that day figuring out how to make the pee sound come out from just one speaker, while the guitar cue came out of another speaker, and then repeat what I'd figured out on all of the other fountain peeing cues.

Yes, I feel that particular situation should fall in the "I'm sorry, I don't know how to do that" category, but I am a sucker for making the director happy - and generally, in my personal experience, if the director is happy, my life is easier. Granted, I could've run the sound as it was, and switched the faders for that scene, but then I would've had blocking holes in my script, and that wasn't going to be acceptable. The show was moving to another theater after a month-long run at my theater, and I would be handing it off to a new SM team. And for comedic moments like this, there were full pages of hand written blocking that did not correspond to any text, and had to be inserted into the script as a new page, for a series of cues to be taken off of. I had to be precise and not miss a thing, so that the blocking for these moments could be as exact as possible.

Years later, I've found myself helping out a small theater company who has leaned heavily on my knowledge of QLab and treated me as the SM/Sound Designer. Granted, these are staged readings with 8-20 hours of rehearsal, a tech, one show and we're out of there. The pay is low, but the expectations aren't as high as a Lort theater. I will admit, I'm not a fan of doing it for a theater that is well-equipped and funded, but for the short gigs where it really is about the love of the book, I don't mind doing a little extra to make a reading extra special.

228

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Teaching someone to call the show

« on: Apr 03, 2012, 01:11 am »

I've been a replacement SM for a show I didn't know, and I moved from ASM to PSM within my current company - so I've called a lot of the shows I used to ASM.

As loebtmc points out, the "1-2 show shadow, then 1-2 shows observed calling" was what I went through. I watched the show once from the house to actually see it and understand it. Then I sat next to the SM the next night and watched her call. Then I took over for her, having her watch me. I then took over for the rest of the run. It was actually my first AEA calling experience, and it wasn't that bad. Granted, it was a fixed set with 2 actors, but walls moved, there were sound and lighting cues, so there was stuff for me to do.

For the ballet company I work for, on our more complex shows, we make what LizzG refers to - we call it our Cue Track. We pick one performance, and while you have the video and audio of the show, you also get ALL headset chatter for one channel. For our large shows that include pyro, rail, deck, spots, fog, and symphony - it's helpful to hear all of the communication. It can get confusing at times, but that's why only the Electrics channel is selected to be recorded, as the PSM always talks on that channel and adds the Carpentry channel when necessary. Back in the early days of our company, the ASM would call spots while the PSM would call Deck and LX, which is why you'd want to hear all of the electrics channel vs. just one person.

For myself, I've ASM'd and PSM'd Swan Lake, Giselle, Pirates of Penzance! the Ballet, and several years of The Nutcracker. There have been times when I can still hear the cadence of the previous PSM calling the cues - especially in Nut. I will say it is a completely different way of thinking (at least for me) when moving from ASM and the deck-minded ways to PSM and the big picture calling on the same show. Granted I had some of the calling sequences engrained in me from 5 years of listening to the PSM call the show, but there were some sequences that I was not familiar with, because I had several other things going on deck-side so I didn't have the opportunity to mentally memorize what the PSM was saying.

Yes, I think it's beneficial to move from ASM to PSM on the same show, but it really derails you as it's a completely different way of thinking (at least in my ballet world). I honestly think it's easier to pick up someone elses show as an outsider, because you don't have a track stuck in your body and mind. There are still times when I hear certain musical cues or see black outs that make me think of my ASM track and what I'd be doing right then, and I have to remember to forget about that - there's a new ASM doing it now - and I focus in on my PSM track.

229

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: How to deal with a very unpleasant pit orchestra?

« on: Mar 31, 2012, 12:35 pm »

I had a similar experience recently: Facebook and commenting on the show. Granted, this was not involving an orchestra, but it involved one of our rail guys against my stage management team.

We were in tech, and while a extremely heavy wall was coming in, the chain motor broke, which caused the chain in it to come loudly crashing to the deck. The wall stopped in it's place, but all anyone who was backstage could do was listen to the horrific noise, not know where it was coming from - and run. Since we had no idea where the noise was coming from (and we didn't know it was the chain motor that failed) we worked to get out of the backstage area. Once we could see the chain start to pile on the deck, we stopped running.

Now, not one of my better choices in life, as we all make mistakes, I commented on facebook during dinner that "I learned something today: 200 feet of chain is extremely loud when it falls from the grid and you really can't tell where it's coming from." I did not lay blame on anyone, I didn't say anyone got hurt, I didn't say where I was or what show I was doing. However, in retrospect, I shouldn't have posted about something dangerous happening at work. Word got around during the half hour call that I had posted, what I felt, was a harmless statement. The house Head Carpenter was upset and confronted me about my post. He had only heard of the post from another crew member, since he was not on facebook. We discussed it, and I agreed to take the post off of my wall. In the end, both he and I came away from the situation having come to a mutual understanding and were back to our usual friendly relationship.

Later that night, our Master Electrician told me about a rather rude and insulting facebook post our railman for that show had made. I could not see the post, since I was not friends with the railman, but I was told that it was really mean and rude towards me and my entire stage management team. She then told me of others who had commented on the post, agreeing with the railman. I felt I had probably started the problem by commenting on the chain, but I thought it would go away since I had taken my post down. The ME went to the railman and told him I had taken the post down, but he did not care. I did my best to ignore the situation and remain positive.

The next day a complaint was lodged against me with the local head of IATSE (the stagehand union). The complaint was that I said a very specific profane phrase during tech and that the crew should not be subject to such language. The IA head contacted my Technical Director who then called me just before tech the next morning and said I should not curse on headset. I was literally blown away - I knew that I had not cursed (and definitely not the specific phrase in the complaint) during the entire tech process. I may have said the "S word" when one of my principal men almost dropped my star ballerina the night before, but I remember saying it very low and that my headset may not have even been live at the time.

I went to my ASM and PA, along with the Master Electrician (all close friends of mine), and asked them to rack their brains to try to remember if I said that phrase, or if I had even cursed at all the night before. They were all at a loss. The ME and I went through the entire crew list thinking of who could've made the complaint, crossing off the members of the crew that were regular cursers, as that would be a case of the "glass house" that you mentioned happening below. We ended up with one person: the railman that made the negative facebook post. I told my TD that we were all certain that we had not said that phrase, and I really hadn't cursed at all (though I had in previous years when major catastrophes had happened - oddly enough all had involved the rail...) during this tech process. I then brought up the negative facebook post from the railman, and I told him of my own post which may have provoked him, but that I took it down.

My TD went back to the IA head with this information. The railman was reprimanded for writing on facebook horrible things against my SM team and the company I work for, it was revealed that the profane phrase was actually from a show that took place 2.5 years ago (which I admitted to - it was a horrible rail/supernumerary screw up that was obvious to the audience) and the railman was then removed from all future productions that my company will ever perform.

Hindsight: never post anything negative about your show on social media.

Granted, in your situation it sounds as if you did not post anything to start the ball rolling, but you have seen how these things get out of control and people's feelings get hurt. There's the "6 block rule" - but that can't hold water in social media. The best thing you can do is ignore the post, and recommend to your crew that they don't fuel the fire of the orchestra by commenting back and forth on the topic.  In my situation, there were managers over each area, and complaints about the other party were lodged with those managers. If you were acting as the SM for your show, perhaps you could've gone to your TD (if they are school staff) or Department Head and let them know what happened - your crew person made a mistake and the orchestra is upset, but now it has escalated into an uncomfortable situation. Hopefully your TD or Department Head could talk to the Pit Director, and from there the Pit Director could talk to the orchestra about professional show courtesies. You're experiencing this in high school, and I'm experiencing the same thing 10 years into my professional career. Take this opportunity to learn this lesson now, instead of being like me and learning it far too late into your career.

230

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Orchestras moving out of the pit

« on: Mar 27, 2012, 01:37 am »

This was not a show I was involved in, but rather one that I played patron. It was in Paris for Opera en l'air. We saw Rigoletto - and I was blown away by the set.

It had two parallel platforms, with stairs between them. Between the two platforms (basically under the top platform but recessed a bit below the lower one) was the orchestra. There were two monitors - one DR and on DL - that showed the maestra. When the opera singers were on the top platform, they could either look down at her, or they could watch a monitor. When the singers moved to the lower level, they watched the monitors - but the best part when they went to the lower level: the maestra would turn her head to look at the singers, or sometimes even turn around or turn sideways to see them, all while still conducting.

It was the most amazing non-stop night of opera I'd ever experienced. And all the while I was mesmerized by maestra and how she kept the orchestra together while twisting and turning to see her singers. (We ran into her after the show at a local coffee house - quite a lovely person!)

231

Stage Management: Other / Re: My first ballet gig!

« on: Mar 21, 2012, 11:53 pm »

Chris,

I know it's been a while since you posted - but how did your Nutcracker experience go? Did you discover something in your rehearsals/performances that you wished you'd learned from the boards before going into the show?

I'd love to hear how your first foray into ballet worked out! Are you hooked yet?

232

The Green Room / Re: Article: Actor slits his own throat as knife switch turns fiction into reality

« on: Mar 18, 2012, 07:37 pm »

I thought this all sounded familiar...

Thanks, Kay.

233

Employment / Re: BALL STATE: Contract Faculty Position, Production Stage Manager and Teacher, De

« on: Mar 15, 2012, 01:19 am »

Wild. I think someone else (maybe Ruth) already posted this back in January? It still hasn't been filled? So sad. My alma mater. They didn't even have that position when I was there 10+ years ago.

234

The Green Room / Re: Meals!

« on: Mar 15, 2012, 01:13 am »

My husband came across this article on LifeHacker:

http://lifehacker.com/mason-jar/

Granted, it does require refrigeration, but it works! If you can discipline yourself to go to the grocery, grab a bunch of fresh veggies and fruit - then get home, clean, and disperse them between your mason jars and seal them up, they will be good for over a week. I've done this with salads, cut up carrots, bell peppers, etc and even made my own little fruit salads. The hard part is keeping up with it. And, of course, your fridge will be rather full of jars - but it's great to know you can grab a few jars and you're set on food for the day. And, of course, you can do this with your crock pot cooking items (just be careful of the hot glass). We tend to do canning with soups.

Granted, the purchase price of a vacuum sealer and the jars are an investment up front. We already had the vacuum sealer from years ago, we just needed to buy the mason jars. However, I will say, when we are on it, it really does save money from veggies going bad and keeps you from running out for fast food on dinner break.

235

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Mentorship Program

« on: Mar 15, 2012, 01:05 am »

The US SMA has a Mentoring committee but mentoring is not mentioned at all in the US SMA's recruitment materials. This tells me it isn't a very robust program. If the paid-membership based associations with committees and dues can't pull it off, how can we do so with no budget and no real world contingent?

The US SMA does have a mentorship scholarship program, which gives 2 young SMs a 1 year paid membership to the SMA, as well as a mentor to contact via phone and/or email for that year. I participated as a mentor this year and it was completely pointless. The person running it was very disorganized (my name and contact info was continually mangled in drafts and final emails), the student I was assigned was not interested in having a mentor, and the group calls/monthly check ins just fell apart after month 1.

I have personally found more success as a mentor working in person than over the internet. I will say, if we do take this on SMNet, the person in charge of the project has to devote a LOT of time to getting this puppy to run properly - and continue to work on it, after it is started. I volunteered at a local arts high school this year with the drama department run by a local AEA actor. He had a well-written contract, informational letter, etc for the student mentorship period, which would only last 2 weeks. It was supposed to start on January 16 and run through the 27 (according to the contract). I have yet to receive my first email from my mentee. Each week I would email the actor in charge and he would tell me they'd been delayed, and the project would be starting soon. Soon just never happened - and his project was well thought out, planned and organized. But he didn't keep on it.

In my opinion, the biggest part of making a mentorship project work is for the mentee to be the one pushing for the mentoring. I can only offer myself so many times. If the young SM has questions, wants feedback, needs to vent - I don't know any of that until they come to me.

Kay, perhaps a new poll can be started to ask what mentees want out of the project - and if those are what we as group can deem as reasonable requests (sans the magic fairy dust), then a contract needs to be written up for the mentees. They need to guarantee that they want this mentorship, that they will be available, that they will check in with their mentor and the coordinator, and that they will state up front what kind of mentoring they are needing with their career. Personally, if I had my digital mentees sign the contract that I did, stating a dedication to the program and what's expected, then perhaps success could've been possible.

236

The Hardline / Re: AEA Set Moves

« on: Mar 12, 2012, 12:54 pm »

All of my experiences have been with "AS the actor enters or exits" - for anything else the non-eq's are used to move set pieces. Though while I was working for a Shakespeare Company, they felt that listing actors on their contracts as

Role: William, As Cast

..the "As Cast" note led them to feel that AEA actors could be used to shift scenery in a scene that was not their specific scene. I always made a point to find an available non-eq to do the shift instead, or a costumed crew member, to avoid any conflict.

237

Employment / Re: Networking in new city

« on: Mar 01, 2012, 02:25 pm »

I moved from Indiana to the San Francisco area with only one thing - an internship.

I did make a point to fly to SF to see a show at the theater I was applying at and scheduled a meeting with that show's PSM (even though an in-person interview wasn't required). I met with the PSM the day after the performance I saw (so we had something to talk about besides me), then walked around the foreign city dropping my resumes off at surrounding theaters, during the rest of my stay.

I was notified that I got the internship 2 months later, and I rushed to put together a wedding and plan my new husband's and my move to SF. From that internship I landed 2 jobs, and from there I have been gainfully employed in an area where I had zero connections for the past 9 (will be 10 in August) years.

It can't hurt to find some places you want to work, pay the money and fly out there, see their shows and schedule meetings/interviews within the same time frame. And, if they know you made the effort to do all that, then they know you're really serious. My internship wasn't scheduled to start until October, and even though the PSM had met me only once, she knew I was moving to SF by August 1 - and she recommended me to Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme pre-broadway run in SF. THAT was actually my first job in SF, which had to end due to the internship I had moved out there for. I could've gone with the show to Broadway, but I stayed with my internship and made further connections that got me where I am today - in the middle of my 4th season as a resident PSM with a ballet company.

I came here with absolutely nothing - anything is possible.

238

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: POLICIES: Responsibility breakdown

« on: Feb 21, 2012, 02:13 am »

Personally, I have a running list. Every time I come into a situation, regardless of where I'm working, and there's a question of "who is really responsible for this?" I add it to my list. At the top of every new job, I sit with the PM (or other person in that general job-title-area as discussed above) and go over my entire list. At one job I actually had separate sit downs with the PM, the Company Manager and the Casting Director - just so I could get all of my answers.

After I finished my gig at that company, I updated my question list to be "my task list" for that company. I then generalized the question list to prepare for the next theater - I asked all my questions, updated the list even more, then saved again. It's been extremely helpful for me to always have this long list of questions to be prepared with.

And now, after you've gone through this experience, your list can really start to take shape. Write down all questions you've had and their particular answers for this show. For the next show, sit with the TD again and review the questions for that particular show - responsibilities may have changed. And granted, depending on the job-title mix that the theater has at any particular time, responsibilities may shift show to show. (How about working without a Company Manager and an Artistic Director? Going through that myself right now, and responsibilities are shifting to lots of people, while new jobs are created. I've been with my company for 9 seasons and we're still figuring it out. We just ask a lot of questions of each other to figure out who really does what.)

While the handbook sounds great, you never know when a company may decide to reorganize, or companies may discover than an assistant handles a task better than the boss, and responsibilities are constantly shifted. Go show by show, keep your list of "what it was last time" and always ask questions. If you don't ask, you're never going to know.

239

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SAFETY: 7 ft. Fall onto Crash Pad in Show

« on: Feb 04, 2012, 01:36 am »

From my two experiences in ballet with crash pads, (Swan Lake and The Firebird), my crash pads have been incredibly large. My Swan Lake fall was much higher than yours - roughly 13', and the pad used was at least 4' thick, roughly 8' long and 5' wide - a pad designed for a straight backwards fall (a foam material with canvas covering with a comforter on top to reduce the noise of the impact). When my company went on tour with The Firebird, we used an inflatable crash pad (very noisy) for a sideways fall that was only 4' off the ground. The pad, when fully inflated, came to at about 3' high. I can't recall the rest of the dimensions of that pad, since we had to cram it where we could, based on the theater we were performing in.

Assuming you mean the stunt person will teach the actor how to fall - that is a great asset. Unfortunately my ballet company does not employ stunt people or weapons experts. The dancers are just expected to do it, which is why I try to talk my dancers through any falls to help prevent injury. So assuming you have someone with knowledge of stunts/falling, they should be your first resource for what kind of crash pad is needed for your particular fall. If they are unable to give you recommendations on size/thickness/material - then I would strongly reconsider your choice in the stunt person.

240

The Green Room / Re: Things Stage Managers Say

« on: Jan 30, 2012, 11:25 pm »

"Can you make sure you wear underwear for your fittings?"

I cannot even count the number of times I've had to say that to supernumeraries. That's really something I never thought I'd ever have to say.