Messages

256

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Blocking Pages in Prompt Book

« on: Oct 15, 2008, 07:27 pm »

Come on! I mean I don't want to sound grumpy, however things like the size of the diagram etc can only be set by you. And you can work that sort of thing out REALLY quickly. If, after the first day of blocking, it does not work, you make a new one. Your style should not be set by what you read in a book, or what you read on a forum, it should be set by what works for you, and the challenges you face whilst working the show...

257

Stage Management: Other / Re: Your most interesting "Other" Project

« on: Oct 11, 2008, 03:04 pm »

My most bizarre show:

Toured a small 4 person show into 34 Woolworth/Safeway stores - did the 25 minute show 5 times a day, packed up, moved to the next store, so on an so forth.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Overly Involved Playwright

« on: Sep 30, 2008, 03:21 am »

Put both the director and the playwright into a small room with two bricks, the victor gets to give notes.


Seriously though, since the playwright owns the work, they do have the right to give notes - ie if ALW walked into a rehearsal of Cats being performed by an Amdram society, he is well within his rights to pull the rights to the play should he not be happy with the directorial direction. So if the PW is being difficult, then it is the director who needs to step up to the plate, sit down with the PW and discuss the issues - it is a directorial issue, not a stage management one.

259

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Tech Rehearsal

« on: Sep 28, 2008, 02:20 pm »

It all depends on your production schedule - you see idealy there will have been lighting plot sessions and time enough for the LD to have programmed everything - in an ideal world. That said, I would say that with close to two thirds of the small/medium sector, lighting plots are not anywhere near final. This sort of issue applies across the board - set pieces are not quite finished, audio nargles not sorted yet and the like. Now if these things are not final, there is absolutely no need to spend ages rehashing issues only for it to change when the programming/designing is complete.

You really have to talk to the production team about tech - the director will have their idea about how tech will run which you need to take into consideration, you have your methods which you want to include, and other departments will have certain things they need to see during tech. Some shows don't work well with a Cue-2-Cue rehearsal - some shows will only need a C2C.

I usually stress the following: Keep it moving, keep it relevant and keep it sane. Unless it is necessary for the tech to go forth, try not to dwell on a single issue. If it takes more than 10 minutes to fix and can be done at a later time, try to note the issue and move on. Don't go let things go off on tangents. Finally, keep it sane - don't let tempers get high.

All of tech depends on your production schedule - if you have the time after the main tech to fix issues and you have the ability to schedule just the core staff for the time required, grasp it. The less people in the room whilst working on what can turn into long and arduos tasks the better. Scenery changes for example are often best done this way - where you can work through difficult changes with only the techs, first slowly, then start speeding up, then, when all is up to speed, bring in the turns. Sometimes you don't have that luxury.

260

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: any jobs out there

« on: Sep 24, 2008, 09:52 pm »

One small word of advice - think about how you put forth your posts like this - many of the people here (and many other forums like this) may well be prospective employers.

Also - where are you located?

261

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Spiking on tour

« on: Sep 18, 2008, 05:23 pm »

For getting the angle, use the clock - 12 o'clock is down stage, 6 o'clock up stage, or vice versa.

Positions give relative to the center point.

262

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Do you have an actor code of conduct contract?

« on: Sep 12, 2008, 04:15 pm »

I have never really used a specific code of conduct, except to insert the following clauses into the regular contract (basic morality clause and drug and alcohol clauses):

Employees are expected to uphold a high moral standard whilst in the employ of the company, inline with the view of the board of directors. Failure to uphold this standard will result in a single warning, followed by immediate dismissal, should these breaches continue.

Employees are expected to remain sober with a blood alcohol of 0 during all rehearsals, performances and special calls. Should the employer suspect the use of alcohol they are within their right to obtain Blood Alcohol measurements, and should a breach be discovered a hearing of the board will be held to determine whether immediate dismissal is to occur. Should their be visible signs of drunkenness, any member of management shall suspend staff from duty immediately until such time as a hearing can be held.

Employees are not permitted to use illicit drugs whilst in the employ of the company. Should evidence of illicit drugs be found, immediate dismissal and the notification of the correct authorities will occur.

263

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Alley Staging

« on: Aug 31, 2008, 11:39 am »

It depends on the venue. If you have a proper studio grid, then your main problem will be sight lines - ie the actors will have their backs to large percentages of the audience at certain times.

As far as technical wise:

Lighting is not 'difficult' but a fair bit of thought is required - back lighting, cross lighting etc are essential, as there is no true "front" and "back" of the stage.

Sound is where it gets a bit more technical if vocal reinforcement is required. In a standard theatre, you essentially have a point source (the stage), in an alley configuration, you have a source that runs the entire length of the venue. It feels really odd if you have a mono sound rig in this sort of environment, for best effect, the sound needs to pan across the space as actors walk - and there are 'issues' when it comes to speaker placement - as a single PA will not really work, you really need 2 PA's (one for each side).

There are plenty of challenges, but none are 'difficult' to solve, they just require a bit of thought.

264

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Question about entrance and exit flow charts....

« on: Aug 13, 2008, 07:25 pm »

A circle and square are just two shapes I used to indicate entrances and exits.

That is not a real chart of anything - I made it up in 3 minutes in turbocad, because that is what I had open at the time - square and circle are the only two shapes that only require two clicks to draw on the grid. I have done proper ones before, where the line extends before the entrance for things like getting actors into special locations (ie inside a prop piece), so I have always indicated the moment the actor actually appears as well as the time when they are 'needed'. As for labels, names written down the side, and times down the bottom. I divide by act/scene/10 - so 10 cells within a scene (so I can easily offset the actors entrances). If I need to write anything, I would just put text over the line (ie if an actor plays multiple characters, I may put a label over the line).

You could just use excel and shade rows of cells, whatever works for you.

265

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Question about entrance and exit flow charts....

« on: Aug 13, 2008, 05:01 pm »

Well, I guess it would look something like this - cast along the side, time (subdivisions of scenes) along the bottom.

266

Tools of the Trade / Re: Black Light and Fog

« on: Aug 06, 2008, 06:42 pm »

What do you mean by react - the small amount of visible light will tint the fog slightly, but that is it really. So your white looks slightly blue. Not the fluorescing that you tend to get with white clothing though

267

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Pumping up actors

« on: Jul 26, 2008, 07:06 pm »

If it is a professional show, and their performance is lacking, you need to start having meetings with the underperformers, "counseling" as it is often called - ie a step before a 'proper' warning. Ask them what THEY can do to bring their performance back up to par. Also do a group "Counseling" session. You (as SM or ASM) have lots of other things to worry about without worrying about their warm-ups. Talk to the director, get him/her in to talk to the cast.

Ultimately, if they are getting paid to do a job, and their performance is not up to the required standards, then they are the ones that need to think about the issue.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Taping the Prop Table

« on: Jul 26, 2008, 09:07 am »

I like boxes. When SMing was my bread and butter, I spent a fair bit of money on boxes.

I tape my props table into squares with lables for individual props, I have a whole bunch of palstic boxes with lids that I stack under the props table (for the props where there are lots of the same thing or for props that all go in the same place when setting a scene, ie for dressing a beauro) and I put a lable on the top with the contents of the box.

As far as organisation goes - large items at the back, small items at the front, organised in columns based on the scene.

If there is a really prop-intesive show, I have some large plastic boxes on wheels, and I will separate the props into 'sections' (usually acts), draw up a table for each section on plastic tablecloth (the cheap white stuff that comes on rolls that you cut to length) and an entire section goes into a box. The ASM for each side basically collects all props, when they are done, they go into the box for that section, when the table is clear, the ASM folds up the cloth, puts it in the box and lays out the next set of props. I had a show with over 1500 props once, and this system worked remarkably well.

The added benefit is that I can pack up all of the props into boxes at the end of the night, stack them up and wheel them into a locker.

I also lable everything with the prop name, the show name, the point used in the show etc.

Slightly obsessive compulsive, but it works.

That said, if there are decent ASM's, I let them figure out what works best for them.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Tips for Packing?

« on: Jul 16, 2008, 11:25 am »

I only have a couple of tips:

1: Roll your clothes. Fold them up as you would have them on a shelf, then TIGHTLY roll it up. I found that I can fit about twice as many clothes if I roll, instead of just having them folded.

2: Avoid hard cases, unless they are really necessary (ie to protect something). By using soft cases, you gain valuable "wiggle room".

3: Pack the heavy stuff down the wheeled end of the case. That way when you stand your bag up (whilst waiting in a que for example) it will not be top heavy and topple over. It will also prevent "squashage"

As for books, what we used to do was put all our books together on day one, and we would write our names in pencil on the inside of the back cover if we wanted to read it. After you finished the book, you looked inside the back cover and passed it onto the next person on the list (and so on and so forth). At the end of the tour, the owner of the book collected it, erased the inside back cover and it was ready for the next tour.

270

Tools of the Trade / Re: Things that went wrong with your technical equipment?

« on: Jul 07, 2008, 01:58 pm »

Okay, I have sort of been against this thread a little from the beginning as I can smell a thread that has the potential to turn into a p!ss!ng contest from a mile away – and as such, I am going to suggest we slightly redirect this thread – so that it is a useful thread, instead of one of those threads with “Well we had a cable short on our coms and had to use tin cans connected to pieces of string to talk to each other” as every second thread.

So this is my “proposal” (and I use the term loosely) – from hence forth could the discussion be aimed further towards “What can we do to prevent 'show stopping' issues relating to the increasingly technical aspect of modern theatre?” - basically a “How to I plan for the worst, even though I hope for the best?” discussion. Draw from personal experience, sure, but try and stay away from “Lighting desk crashed, op got it up within three cues”.