Messages

241

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: NEW WORKS: Script Changes with Colored Paper?

« on: Mar 03, 2014, 04:05 pm »

I would suggest a document numbering scheme as opposed to colored paper for simplicity's sake.

I work in a slightly different facet of the entertainment industry, but we have a very specific document numbering scheme for large-scale jobs that goes a long way in keeping things organized.  There's an image below which is a capture of how the legend looks in excel.  This could definitely be tailored for stage management.  You could revise this to a smaller format specifically for script revisions or use it as a numbering convention for show-wide documentation that includes script revisions.

If this is of interest to you I'm happy to get a bit more detailed either here or via PM.

242

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Dear Abby: Gay students in the dressing room

« on: Mar 03, 2014, 03:45 pm »

What do you do?

I mean you can really make this point about anything, but most of us, us theatre folk, advocate all kinds of acceptance but when are we "forcing our ideas on someone else" just like we accuse others of.

I was thinking this to myself earlier in the thread.  Often times those that are the strongest advocates of "tolerance" are the least tolerant of any viewpoint that isn't their own.  I've found this to be pretty universal across the political spectrum.  It's quite interesting, but maybe best left for another topic.

243

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Summer Stock Prompt Books

« on: Feb 27, 2014, 08:14 am »

That's true. And since they're not in rep, why would I want to carry a huge binder of extra shows in August that closed in June.

Also, depending on your schedule you may have shows in rehearsal and performance on the same day at the same time (or very close to each other).  Better to have a book for each show. 

244

The Green Room / Re: Movies to musicals

« on: Feb 24, 2014, 08:34 am »

Your argument certainly has merit and I agree with the principle of what you're saying, I just question if incendiary comments towards potential employers and customers are the best way to affect change. 

245

The Green Room / Re: Movies to musicals

« on: Feb 23, 2014, 09:31 pm »

Honestly, I'm prepared to tolerate these movie-musicals, if only because I despise jukeboxes. (Some jukeboxes aren't bad--American Idiot comes to mind--but for every good one there are easily 5-6 dreadful, insulting cash grabs.)

That being said, my city's major commercial producer just announced their next season, and it includes... drumroll please... a production framed entirely around the achievements and accomplishments of the Baby Boomer generation. A multimedia extravaganza celebrating the best people, songs, incidents of this amazing, super, mint-scented demographic.

And, at that point, I'm left to wonder why they don't just dispense with the show altogether and have the ushers give the audience handjobs instead.

I think many of us understand and sympathize with the lack of new and emerging works on the commercial level, but why would you ever insult paying customers with such a broad stroke?

I hope the producer where you work doesn't frequent these boards; if I saw this from an employee I'd fire them.

246

Employment / Re: Websites

« on: Feb 20, 2014, 08:58 am »

Welcome to SMNetwork - head over to the Intro's board and tell us a bit about yourself.

The site works just fine on my computer and all the information I'd want to see is there and easily accessible in a logical layout.  I think the "Philosophy" section is a bit hokey and unnecessary, but that is my opinion. 

One major issue I noticed is that there is no alternative to flash when viewing your site.  This means it can't be viewed from an iDevice.  If you give your card to someone you meet and they decide to check out your website on their iPhone during a bit of downtime during the day, they're not going to see anything.  Not a great first impression - I'd recommend you look into that. 

www.tareenadwimbish.com

While still a work in progress, I am continuously finessing the welcome message, my website has served as a great source of traffic for job opportunities and as a teaching tool for students.

I've added a link to the page via Facebook and listed it on business cards that reflect the same design formatting as the webpage.

I've had the page for two years and only pay $10/month for the domain name.

If you have the time to invest in creating a page, the upkeep is quite easy and certainly worth taking a stab at!

247

The Green Room / Re: Movies to musicals

« on: Feb 19, 2014, 04:35 pm »

Huh? Why?

$

And I don't mean that in a bad way.  If people are going to buy tickets that's good news for everyone in the business.

248

Employment / Re: Cutting the Cord

« on: Feb 17, 2014, 02:45 pm »

I'm at the stage in life where my close friends have or are starting families.  I don't have kids myself, but in conversations I've had with friends of mine that are parents - once you become a parent every fear you have ever worried about in life is surpassed with:

1) Your children suffering death or some great tragedy.
2) Failure to provide for your family.
3) Your children failing.

Though it's frustrating, know it's coming from a good place.

It'd be interesting to have some of the SMs around here who are parents chime in on this.

249

The Green Room / Re: Personal Budgeting

« on: Feb 17, 2014, 02:36 pm »

It's a personal preference, really.  Mint does certainly present a desirable target for cybercriminals, but so do your banks, online retailers, etc...

It's part of the age we live in. 

250

The Green Room / Re: Personal Budgeting

« on: Feb 17, 2014, 01:18 pm »

I use Mint and I would recommend it.

I just dont feel all that comfortable giving a third party access to my accounts.

I take some comfort that Mint is owned by Intuit and they have a robust security apparatus on par with what banks and financial institutions are using, though this is certainly a valid concern.

I will say that Mint is really, really easy to use and requires little effort to maintain once it's set up.  I used to do budgeting by spreadsheet but manually entering each transaction into a line item was tedious - Mint does that all for you.

251

Tools of the Trade / Re: Useful iPhone apps?

« on: Feb 17, 2014, 01:06 pm »

Just checking out "Flipboard" now - it combines any manner of news feeds, categories, social networks, etc. into one app with a simple and attractive display.  Nice way to consolidate everything I read on a daily basis.

Free on iOS and Android.

252

Tools of the Trade / Re: The Curse of Drop Box

« on: Feb 17, 2014, 08:41 am »

As discussed in threads like this over the years, it's easy to convert almost any pdf into an editable document, if you have the correct tools. Your pdfs are not as protected, as you think they are.

I suppose, as already mentioned, a dedicated plagiarist could reconstruct a template from a PDF, content even, but it at least offers some protection.

This is good advice, and it really doesn't even take any special tools.  A full copy of Adobe Acrobat is all you need in most cases. 

253

Tools of the Trade / Re: Marking up on carpet

« on: Feb 09, 2014, 09:25 am »

Topic has been locked. Thanks Heath for the redirect.

254

Employment / Re: WHAT NOT TO PUT ON YOUR RESUME . . .

« on: Feb 09, 2014, 12:35 am »

Should I not have done that?  Whoops...

255

The Green Room / Re: ARTICLE: Why not to put your address on your resume

« on: Feb 07, 2014, 04:36 pm »

...another reason I don't write my address in is that it shows how much you make...

I understand the logic here but I don't agree with the conclusion.  It certainly shows what kind of area you live in, but it doesn't show what you make.  I could live in a less-desirable neighborhood on my own paying $1,500/mo in rent or I could live in an upscale urban neighborhood with three roommates and pay $1,000/mo for my share of the rent. 

By the logic of my address showing my income I make a higher salary in the more desirable location when actually my spend is lower.


Bottom line though, don't disclose anything you're not comfortable with during the interview process.  In my eyes if a potential employer is pushing you hard for things like salary history or your exact address it's a major red flag.  If the approach is to gain leverage in negotiating and beat me into a lower salary rather than an a mutual interview process to see if it's a good fit for both parties then, to me at least, that's an opportunity I'd rather not pursue.  Of course, these comments are easy to make in that I'm employed.  My opinion may change slightly if I'm hard up for employment, though I'd like to think my principles would win out...