241
The Green Room / Re: Picture Wars!
« on: Jan 22, 2012, 08:58 pm »
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242
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Experienced ASM with inexperienced SM?
« on: Jan 11, 2012, 01:56 am »
When I first meet with my assistants, whether we've worked together or not, I express to them that we are a team and I appreciate new ideas, trains of thought, paperwork, etc. If my assistant has an idea that will help me or help the team as a whole, I embrace it. Granted, your SM may or may not have said this during your prep time, or at your first rehearsal, but perhaps you can broach the subject with her in a gentle manner. Personally, I love learning new things from my assistants, whether they are seasoned veterans or they are fresh out of school. Everyone's ideas should always be considered - and who knows, it may be something I'd tried before but just couldn't get right on paper, but the assistant knows just how to do it. Or they've got an idea for a task and it's something I've done before, and together we find the perfect way to make that task the exact fit for our show.
If you guys have time before a rehearsal, maybe suggest getting together, before you do your preset, and ask how she feels about sharing ideas on different aspects of Stage Management. Tell her that you learned a few things from your assistant on a previous show you SM'd and you think the idea may be helpful for her. I wouldn't bring up the number of shows or whether they were professional or not, or the fact that you feel she is undereducated on the subject. Ask if there are things you and the other ASMs can do to help her out, or mention that you feel you are bearing a lot of the ASM responsibility and were wondering if you could try a particular task in a new way, that will allow the other ASMs to help you and share the work evenly.
At the end of my regular seasons, I have my ASM work as the SM for our ballet school's show. The shows she called were ones I'd done before, and I offered her my cue sheets and experiences, but I told her she should change it all to meet her needs. I was there to field her questions and help her along, but ultimately, it was her show and she was in charge. Granted, you don't have this relationship with your SM, but it can't hurt to ask if you can help. Obviously someone on your school's staff felt she could do the task, and perhaps her method is very different from yours and how you've been trained. I always feel that Stage Management Teams are just that - teams, and team members help each other out to achieve the goal we all have: a good show.
Final point: she can learn from you, and you are going to learn from her. Be a team and help each other.
If you guys have time before a rehearsal, maybe suggest getting together, before you do your preset, and ask how she feels about sharing ideas on different aspects of Stage Management. Tell her that you learned a few things from your assistant on a previous show you SM'd and you think the idea may be helpful for her. I wouldn't bring up the number of shows or whether they were professional or not, or the fact that you feel she is undereducated on the subject. Ask if there are things you and the other ASMs can do to help her out, or mention that you feel you are bearing a lot of the ASM responsibility and were wondering if you could try a particular task in a new way, that will allow the other ASMs to help you and share the work evenly.
At the end of my regular seasons, I have my ASM work as the SM for our ballet school's show. The shows she called were ones I'd done before, and I offered her my cue sheets and experiences, but I told her she should change it all to meet her needs. I was there to field her questions and help her along, but ultimately, it was her show and she was in charge. Granted, you don't have this relationship with your SM, but it can't hurt to ask if you can help. Obviously someone on your school's staff felt she could do the task, and perhaps her method is very different from yours and how you've been trained. I always feel that Stage Management Teams are just that - teams, and team members help each other out to achieve the goal we all have: a good show.
Final point: she can learn from you, and you are going to learn from her. Be a team and help each other.
243
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SHOWS: Little Shop of Horrors - Puppeteers/Training
« on: Jan 10, 2012, 01:15 am »
Heath - Was that the AMTSJ Little Shop? If so, I thought Gregg did a great job!
244
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PEOPLE: Walk-Ons; How do you handle them?
« on: Jan 08, 2012, 11:31 pm »
I've experienced Walk-Ons in outdoor Shakespeare and in ballet. Normally it's someone who paid money at a company gala/silent auction for the honor, and sometimes it's a favor your AD owes to a former Chairman of the Board to get their 4 year old granddaughter onstage while they happen to be in town for Grammy's birthday.
Have you SM'd or ASM'd a show that had a Walk-On? How did your company handle it? Were there rehearsals? Costume Fittings? Were you the one responsible for said person? Did your show get modified for said person's appearance?
I'd like to hear about other people's experiences with this not-so-common occurrence.
Edit to subject line-Rebbe
Have you SM'd or ASM'd a show that had a Walk-On? How did your company handle it? Were there rehearsals? Costume Fittings? Were you the one responsible for said person? Did your show get modified for said person's appearance?
I'd like to hear about other people's experiences with this not-so-common occurrence.
Edit to subject line-Rebbe
246
The Green Room / Re: Thread to vent about / Actors behaving badly / As haiku only
« on: Dec 08, 2011, 01:42 am »
I always start tech
in the house with cue light box.
No box? I'm backstage.
First tech and tiny
monitor - I can't see all.
Deal, or supply box.
in the house with cue light box.
No box? I'm backstage.
First tech and tiny
monitor - I can't see all.
Deal, or supply box.
247
The Green Room / Re: Pavlovian Response ?
« on: Dec 04, 2011, 12:26 am »
Going WAY back to the 90's - in college I was on wardrobe crew for A Lie of the Mind. There was a fair amount of preshow music, but the final song that got us into the show was the Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight". That song has a specific drumming section that took us into a bump blackout and the music stopped. To this day, if I hear the song, I'm transported back into our black box theater, peering in from a crack in the side door, admiring how my friend Libby called the cue. Still gives me chills.
248
Tools of the Trade / Re: An iphone app specifically for SMs!
« on: Nov 22, 2011, 01:22 am »
I still find it pointless. Though I love lists, to me, it's just a bunch of lists - and - well, pretty useless lists. (IMHO)
I can make lists faster and better with Excel.
I can make lists faster and better with Excel.
249
Stage Management: Other / Re: iPhone Stage Manager
« on: Nov 16, 2011, 04:13 pm »
Make sure you're searching for "The Show Must Go On" - not "iPhone Stage Manager" when trying to buy the app.
250
Stage Management: Other / Re: iPhone Stage Manager
« on: Nov 12, 2011, 11:35 pm »
I will say, my only gripe about the game is that when you're working on a specific show, they play music from the others during the mini games. It kind of bugs me. I'd rather hear highlights from Marriage of Figaro while "working that show" instead of Swan Lake's cygnets, Carmen, or Nutcracker. (Funny, I did all of those ballets last season.)
251
Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: call times
« on: Nov 02, 2011, 12:24 am »
I've never heard the Ten being called!
C
Well, I guess according to SMNet I'm the odd ball, but it seems, aside from that one SM I met, every other SM in the San Francisco Bay Area (that I've worked with or known) gives a 10 minute call.
Guess we're just special in the Bay.
252
Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: call times
« on: Nov 01, 2011, 12:15 am »
I guess I feel like the odd little duck here, though perhaps it was just how I was trained - since I ASM'd for 5 years at the company I now PSM at (going on my 4th year).
I call Half, 15, 10, 5 and Places (2). For all shows with our symphony, I still call half at 30 minutes prior to the advertised curtain time (which is really 35), though I was taught to say "Half Hour til Top of Show" - meaning that I was never calling the time til places. Perhaps ballet is different...they need every call, and I even give those same calls to our pre-show warm up. I do tend to adjust to the proper call time after we pass the 15 minute call, so that I more properly align with the real top of show. Sounds odd but works every time - I have a symphony in the pit and dancers onstage by the time we get the house. I also walkie-talkie every call to my house managers, as they like to keep in sync for the bells. Yes, 30-15-10-5-and a Double Check at Places.
I carried that call time style into every company I work for (expect for the crazy adjustment per symphony contract). I took over calling a show once for another SM who had to leave, and when I shadowed her, she didn't call 10. I asked her about that and she said it wasn't necessary. When I took the show over, the actors requested that I give them a 10 minute call as well.
So I suppose it depends on the company, and perhaps even the actors. For the show I took over, it was a 2 man show - so I was happy to give them whatever they needed, call-wise. Though in my experience, I've only met that one SM in the last 9 years of my career that didn't call 10.
I call Half, 15, 10, 5 and Places (2). For all shows with our symphony, I still call half at 30 minutes prior to the advertised curtain time (which is really 35), though I was taught to say "Half Hour til Top of Show" - meaning that I was never calling the time til places. Perhaps ballet is different...they need every call, and I even give those same calls to our pre-show warm up. I do tend to adjust to the proper call time after we pass the 15 minute call, so that I more properly align with the real top of show. Sounds odd but works every time - I have a symphony in the pit and dancers onstage by the time we get the house. I also walkie-talkie every call to my house managers, as they like to keep in sync for the bells. Yes, 30-15-10-5-and a Double Check at Places.
I carried that call time style into every company I work for (expect for the crazy adjustment per symphony contract). I took over calling a show once for another SM who had to leave, and when I shadowed her, she didn't call 10. I asked her about that and she said it wasn't necessary. When I took the show over, the actors requested that I give them a 10 minute call as well.
So I suppose it depends on the company, and perhaps even the actors. For the show I took over, it was a 2 man show - so I was happy to give them whatever they needed, call-wise. Though in my experience, I've only met that one SM in the last 9 years of my career that didn't call 10.
253
Stage Management: Other / Re: Spiking a Dance Floor
« on: Oct 21, 2011, 10:50 pm »
I say, I must work for the strangest company ever. While we do use plain old spike tape for our marks, if we try to cover them with vinyl dance floor tape, our ballet dancers complain that it makes the floor slick. Though we also use gaffers tape to tape our marley seams - as our dancers claim that the vinyl dance floor tape is also too slick.
Guess my ballet dancers are just different.
Guess my ballet dancers are just different.
254
Stage Management: Other / Re: My first ballet gig!
« on: Oct 18, 2011, 10:42 pm »Quote
A side note that I find amusing - casting supers in opera often comes down to who fits the costume.
This is entirely true for ballet as well. While there may be a budget to design or alter costumes for the company, there is NO budget to alter costumes for supernumerary roles. I go through this in ballet constantly. Our biggest challenge was the ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, which had been created in the 80's - the era of body builders. It was required to have buff, built, V-shaped men. The auditions for that were very unfortunate.
I spend my Saturdays rehearsing the Supers, and come performance time, my ASM will count them in for all their entrances, make sure they do all of their costume changes and keep them out of trouble. THAT is a ballet ASM track in and of itself.
255
Stage Management: Other / Re: My first ballet gig!
« on: Oct 17, 2011, 11:54 pm »
Chris,
When changing to a different venue, there will be some technical/shift changes. When we took our Nutcracker back to the company's original home in 2007, when it thought it left for good in 2000, a lot of the hang changed, even though the set had not. Made for some very strange scene shifts, especially with different wing space compared to our main home theater. So some items will have to be adjusted in the space.
Supernumerary is the term used in US Opera and Ballet as "one who enhances a scene" and that "does not perform functions that would normally be done by an Opera Singer or Ballet Dancer" (aka - cannot sing or dance). Nicknamed "Supers" - my men are usually guards in Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, and The Nutcracker, and play Courtiers (who walk into a scene and react to the action) in Giselle. You could consider it "acting" - but in a very loose way. Basically, if you have a small enough company, but need basic background roles filled, as long as they don't have to dance, you can hire a Super. A lot of times in Opera, a Super will also act as a costumed scene shifter.
For my company, anyone I hire has to have a background check, as our company is affiliated with our ballet school, and a majority of the time, our shows have children. Could be a bit of a benefit to you - one less thing you need to worry about. Hope you have a great time.
Merde!
When changing to a different venue, there will be some technical/shift changes. When we took our Nutcracker back to the company's original home in 2007, when it thought it left for good in 2000, a lot of the hang changed, even though the set had not. Made for some very strange scene shifts, especially with different wing space compared to our main home theater. So some items will have to be adjusted in the space.
Supernumerary is the term used in US Opera and Ballet as "one who enhances a scene" and that "does not perform functions that would normally be done by an Opera Singer or Ballet Dancer" (aka - cannot sing or dance). Nicknamed "Supers" - my men are usually guards in Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, and The Nutcracker, and play Courtiers (who walk into a scene and react to the action) in Giselle. You could consider it "acting" - but in a very loose way. Basically, if you have a small enough company, but need basic background roles filled, as long as they don't have to dance, you can hire a Super. A lot of times in Opera, a Super will also act as a costumed scene shifter.
For my company, anyone I hire has to have a background check, as our company is affiliated with our ballet school, and a majority of the time, our shows have children. Could be a bit of a benefit to you - one less thing you need to worry about. Hope you have a great time.
Merde!