Messages

241

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Italy and other countries

« on: Aug 20, 2006, 07:55 am »

I know that its nigh on impossible to get work in England if you're not a citizen - even if you've already been offered the job.  I was in London for an apprenticeship, and got offered a job by someone I had worked with.  We couldn't get it approved through the government as actual employment.  We had to work it out as a type of internship so we could keep it within my study visa, but I was only able to do that once.  I never did figure out what it would have taken if I had wanted to stay on and take other employment in the country.

If you're going to get EU citizenship, that will definitely get you started on the 'able to be employed' track.  To get your foot in the door, you might need to look up apprenticeship programs and work your way in that way.

-Centaura

242

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Chicago SMNetwork Meetup?

« on: Aug 02, 2006, 12:54 pm »

I live a short distance from Chicago, and don't mind the drive in.  I already go into the city once a month for another meeting.  I wouldn't mind meeting new folks,

-Centaura

243

Tools of the Trade / Re: Favorite Deck Flashlight?

« on: Aug 01, 2006, 08:01 pm »

Hmmm.. do you still get the adjustable beam on your mag after the conversion to the LED?  I've reached a point that I just wear my mini-mag constantly, no matter what, work day or day off.  I love the size, how it turns on and off (I've seen LED flashlights that you needed to hold the button down to keep them on) and the adjustable beam. 

Its gotten to be a joke around the theatre that my boss didn't hire me for me, but for my maglight.  We're constantly going to far corners of the theatre, and low and behold, we need a flashlight for something and I have my mag with.

Anyway, thanks for the tip on the LED conversion kit.  That would be worth looking into.  All the benefits of my familiar mag, but with the brighter light of a LED.

-Centaura

244

Stage Management: Other / Re: Odd venue, close quarters and blind op's

« on: Jul 14, 2006, 07:38 am »

I was on tour once where we did the show in an arena, on arena staging.  The rental lighting company set up the light board 'backstage' behind the curtain, and not close enough for me to even peek through the curtain.  I was both SM and light board operator for the tour.  So, without any time to try this set-up out, and no ability to move or change it, I had to call the show totally blind, going purely on lines and the sounds of the actors.  I was familiar enough with the show that I could imagine the scenes in my head, and the actors later said that I was pretty darn close on the cues that didn't come off of lines.

They've vetoed cameras (how strong a veto was that?), would they veto mics being placed around?  If you worked at it from the begining going off of lines and sounds, you might be able to do one or two rooms that way, if there are some rooms that you can't get close enough to to put your 'picture' in.  Or, would you might be able to put different ops in different locations around the house, each with a room or rooms they were assigned to 'view'?

Though I like the picture idea, if you can put your ops together in one space and have you follow the show around and call from adjacent rooms.  Even if you're not able to fully memorize, if you have different watching stations around, you could have the pertinent parts of the script at each watching station so that you're not lugging it around.

Have fun, sounds like an interesting challenge.  No problem with it being posted here, I see 'other' as other types of spaces as well as other types of shows.

-Centaura

245

Stage Management: Other / Re: schedule coordinator

« on: Jul 12, 2006, 07:33 am »

That's interesting, I'm not sure that I've ever heard of that being its own job before at a theatre.  But then I've never done large scale opera, so that might be why.  To me it would be part and parcel of either the stage manager or the production manager.  Lets see if anyone comes by who's done it and tells us what its like!

-Centaura

246

SMNetwork Archives / Re: The new SMnetwork

« on: Jul 11, 2006, 07:35 am »

There's one thing that I've been missing.  Its knowing where folks are - seeing their location when they post.  Right now there's a thread going where they're referencing some local slang, and I'm dieing of curiousity of where in the world that that slang is used in.  More seriously, I would think about what I was replying if I knew that the person who was posting was in a different country than myself.

Its not a big thing, just something that I enjoyed from the previous site.  I have no idea if other folks found it interesting.

-Centaura

247

Stage Management: Other / Re: schedule coordinator

« on: Jul 11, 2006, 07:25 am »

This seemed like a question worthy of its own thread, so I moved it from where it was originally posted.  That does sound like a job that stage managers would be good at.  Have you seen an ad for a job that you'd be specifically interested in, or are you just curious?

-Centaura

248

Stage Management: Other / Re: What's the most unusual job you've had?

« on: Jul 10, 2006, 07:34 am »

I crashed a wedding once and then stage managed it.  The last week of a tour I was on was canceled, so I was able to make a friend's wedding that I would otherwise have missed.  It was a small affair, and they didn't have anyone who was really in charge.  So I ended up running around cueing folks, arranging getting the bride's car and mother to the reception, taking care of all the props (personal items).  My friends appreciated it; I would have been in the wedding party had I known earlier that I could attend.  I considered it part of my wedding gift to them, though I hadn't know in advance that I was going to take control.

-Centaura

249

Tools of the Trade / Re: how essential is a kit?

« on: Jul 08, 2006, 09:40 am »

For me, since my kit is also the bag that I carry my prompt book in, it never looked out of place.  Its redundant, but I'll second the opinions that said bring it until you know what's available.  Then you might re-think what's in it depending on what's available. 

I've kept some odd things in my bag, but they've come in handy.  I always had a deck of cards - if there are young actors getting antsy in a corner I am able to come up with 'instant entertainment' - give them the cards.  I've always had the regular tape measure, but also a sewing tape measure.  Somedays I only pulled my own pencils or whatever out of my bag, but I always had it with.

-Centaura

250

Tools of the Trade / Re: Kit Container

« on: Jul 06, 2006, 06:58 pm »

I have always loved Lands End's softsided briefcase - its made of a very sturdy canvas and has a shoulder strap.  For tour it was great, as I could keep my prompt book in it as well as all my other kit stuff, and with the shoulder strap it was easy to carry around.  Before everything was banned from airplanes, it was my carry on as it fit perfectly under the seat in front of me.    It has nice little interior pockets for pens, pencils and small things, a divider for books, and a big open area.  The only downside is the big open area can sometimes get clogged up with things, but I was so familiar with my 'black bag' that I could stick my hand in and get anything that I wanted. 

I could get 6 or more years of out of one, even with hard, physical abuse like banging around the back of a tour truck, being put on as checked-in luggage while flying (after the ban of anything metal being on planes - waaaay too many knives, tools, wrenches, etc.), being dragged from hotel to hotel, venue to venue.  I did some of the same things that someone earlier posted, I would take things out of packaging and put them in baggies for ease of sorting and stuffing my bag.

-Centaura

251

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Summer Festivals/Unpaid work

« on: Jul 04, 2006, 09:22 am »

Have you heard of the SMA?  Stage Manager's Association?  Right now they're on a kick to try to get national, but they started as a NYC based group for stage managers, and that's still their strongest area.  They may be worth looking up.

-Centaura

252

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Summer Festivals/Unpaid work

« on: Jul 03, 2006, 10:11 am »

I sort of find that being in NYC is almost a disadvantage being unexperienced, because htere are just SO many people in this town trying to do the same thing I am trying to do, and I find so many INCREDIBLE jobs in other states or upstate, etc. I'm having a hard time even finding better jobs to apply for.

Have you ever lived outside of NYC?  I was just curious if you were a native, or someone who had moved to the City for their art.  If you were a native, and say, still living at home with the folks, I'd say stay and try for stuff in the City.  You'll probably end up working a lot more no pay/low pay jobs before you move up into better things, but you'd be able to afford it more.  If you've moved to NYC - I know that there are folks who will disagree with me on this - but I'd recommend applying for some of those nonNYC stuff.  Get some experience in a town that you can actually afford to live in (if you're a NYC city native, you might not realize how much cheaper it is to live outside of the city), and then come back to NYC later if that's your goal.  If just working is your goal, get out and around.  Living different places teaches you a lot, and broadens your perspective.  You'll also have a higher chance of getting paid for what you're doing.

I will say that this opinion is:

1) totally biased.  I have never wanted to live or work in NYC, the stories I hear of how people live there on low budgets makes me shake my head.  While there is art and culture there that there is no where else in the states, I think a lot of young folk move there and eventually loose their dream of theatre because they're not able to get work.

2) dependant on your situation.  If you're living at home with the folks, I think elsewhere you said you're saving for grad school, then you might be stuck with the location that your folks are living.  And I would fully understand that.  If where you're stuck is NYC, then I'll have to defer advice to an east-coaster.  Its such a saturated market I won't want to try to guess how to get a foothold into it.

That's my 2 cents on the subject.  I really don't want to set off the NYC or notNYC argument, I'm just offering my opinion.

-Centaura

253

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: The Ultimate Decision

« on: Jul 01, 2006, 09:33 pm »

I don't know whether to say that I was forced into it or that I fell into it.  Mine goes back to junior high, and my mother insisting that I go to summer school.  Well, typical pre-teen, didn't really want to attend more school, so tried to find something that would be semi-entertaining/not school work.  I knew someone who was involved with the summer musical put on by the summer school, so the summer after 7th grade I was onstage in the chorus of Hello Dolly.  Spent the summer looking at all the folks working backstage and wondering why the person who had gotten me into the summer musical hadn't told me about the fun stuff (verses the being onstage).  So, next summer I was on the crew and loved it.

Then we hit high school, and then again there's mother in the background saying that I had to do something for an afterschool activity.  The drama department at my high school had been dead for two years following the retirement of the previous director.  But that year there was a new director who was putting shows together; I found him and offered to work crew.  He began treating me like a stage manager, nick-named me 'management' and we spent 4 years happily building a theatre department from scractch.

That's how I fell into it.  When facing the decision of what to major in in college, it wasn't even a choice.  The only thing that I loved to do was theatre & stage management, even though I was officially on the record as 'undecided' in my freshman transcripts [argument with the parent], the very first official thing I did my first fall at college was attend a majors meeting at the theatre department.

-Centaura

254

Stage Management: Other / Re: What's the most unusual job you've had?

« on: Jul 01, 2006, 09:13 pm »

I think the one that takes the cake for me was the time when I was visiting friends when their tour came near me, and I was hanging out to watch the show and eat with them afterwards.  The company manager came to me before the show and asked if I'd run the sound board for the show.  The tour TD, who was suppsed to run sound and call lights didn't know anything about sound and usually asked a local to run it while he called the cues.  But there was no local to run it at this venue.  So here I was, up in the sound booth, tracking mics on 7 actors for a show I've never seen, with a guy who can't even tell me when they're coming on and offstage.  I've never paid so much attention to a show before in my life!  I had to try to guess when each actor was going to come and go so I could mute their mics accordingly.

And all I was was an audience member!  (well, I had toured with that company for several years, which is why the company manager even asked, but still....)

-Centaura

255

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Summer Festivals/Unpaid work

« on: Jul 01, 2006, 10:57 am »

I don't want to come across negatively, but I'd like to reccommend that if your end goal is directing, then I would focus your sights on that.  There is a grace period out of college, when a lot of folks can afford to work for next to nothing just for the experience.  Ten years from now, that won't be the case.  You'll have bills and expenses that will have crept up on you without you realizing it, which will limit you from taking those 'experience' jobs that don't pay.

Why I'm saying that is now would be an excellent time for you to try to find directing internships, with your end goal being getting an AD job.  If you can afford to do work for little pay for the experience, then I'd recommend getting the experience in your main interest.  Not that knowing how to stage manage is not helpful for a director, but if you SM too long, you could get branded as a SM. 

To try to answer your question, for whichever path you'd like to take, making a plan [for me] started by looking at job postings.  Every job posting.  What kind of experience did they ask for at the higher paying jobs?  What type of lower paying jobs could I work to get that experience?  Which companies take folks fresh out of college?  From there, where can I go where they just want some experience?  Five years from now, when I have five year's experience, what are those jobs [that require that much experience] like?

I also tracked things from year to year.  Who's always hiring fresh each year?  Why is that?  Is it a bad place to work, or do they hire lots of new folks who use it as a jumping point to better things?  Look around at the types of theatres near you.  Do you have a preference of a location to work?  A particular city?  Or would the job be more important than the city that its in?

Goals are helpful in setting your sights, but also be flexible for other possibilities that come along.  My goal out of college was to tour internationally.  I spent 8 years touring the states to get the experience to try for international, but never got that far.  A stationary job came up that was tempting enough to try for, and so while I have not achieved my goal from out of college, I have improved myself as a person from all the travel that I've done, got lots of valuable experience, and am thinking that being stationary is a new adventure to try.  I really like my new job, the pay is good and I have full benefits and a retirement plan.

Hopefully I have been of some help, for whichever path you chose to take.  My first job out of college was a season at a half-equity house where I was an ASM.  I was an apprentice and made around $200 a week.  From there I was able to step out and get 'real' jobs, because I had a year at a professional theatre on my resume.

-Centaura