Messages

271

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROMPT BOOKS - using both script and libretto

« on: Feb 17, 2011, 02:28 am »

Do you have a condensed score? It's worth asking your librarian/conductor if they have one. (A condensed score for a musical contains the major elements from the score condensed into 2-3 staves, with the libretto included. It's meant to be used by conductors, but it can certainly be called from, or used in reconciling the various departmental notes before you transfer it all into one format or another.)

You might also try and snag a rehearsal score. Not quite as helpful, but if the piano part is complete enough, you should be able to call from it, and it should have lyrics included.

272

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: 'Billy Elliot' musical sued for $4 million

« on: Feb 16, 2011, 03:02 pm »

When you pursue punitive damages, you aren't arguing you've actually been injured in that amount. You're arguing instead that a message needs to be sent, and that the best way to send this message involves punitive damages.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: 'Billy Elliot' musical sued for $4 million

« on: Feb 16, 2011, 05:19 am »

Having worked on Billy Elliot, I'm spooling thru the show in my head, and I'm guessing that they were hit by nerf balls that shoot out of a cannon...  (That's the ONLY think I can think of that gets anywhere NEAR the audience).  But still, being hit by a nerf ball = 2 mil$???  Unless on of the Billy's dropped the chair and it fell into the house?   I'd be curious to hear more.

Both of the audience members had to go to the hospital, one required stitches to close a bleeding gash on her forehead, the other had a concussion with possible brain damage. This is a little more serious than nerf balls.

274

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: 'Billy Elliot' musical sued for $4 million

« on: Feb 15, 2011, 04:11 pm »

The 4 million dollars is meant to be punitive, not proportionate. It actually makes a good deal of sense as a legal principle. (Disclaimer: not a lawyer, just have an interest in this stuff. Ask me about the famous McDonalds hot coffee lady sometime!)

Let's say you get injured while riding a rollercoaster, and the amusement park is definitely liable. You have $15 000 in medical bills, $20 000 in lost wages due to medical treatment and convalescence, and you expect to spend $5000 on the lawsuit. So you sue for $40 000, right?

Okay, fine--but the amusement park is earning more than a million a week in profit. Your $40 000 award will barely make a dent in that $50 000 000+ annual take. When courts award punitive damages, they're saying that the defendant needs to feel the full force and impact of the lawsuit: the judgment isn't meant to be a slap on the wrist, it's meant to be a serious charge of major wrongdoing which must not ignored. Beefing up the award has been a good way of sending that message. We might also consider that, in these situations, it is likely that other people were also exposed to potential injury: you just had the misfortune of being the one actually injured. In this case, the problem isn't the injury itself: the problem is the carelessness on the part of the defendant which led to your injury, and may have led to others. As such, those potential injuries get rolled into your lawsuit, since identifying every potential victim and including them in the mix would be an onerous and in many cases impossible process.

That's where you get 4 million in damages base on $40 000 in actual injuries. It's about sending a message, not necessarily about the actual damages.

275

Stage Management: Other / Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...

« on: Feb 15, 2011, 03:43 pm »

The most important thing is that you're on the same page as your conductor, dancers and musicians. The worst possible outcome is for nothing to happen. (The conductor thinks you're going to fix it, you think the conductor's going to fix it, the musicians and dancers are completely lost...)

One tactic is to sit down with the conductor and agree on designated "reset points" within the score. (The start of a verse, etc.) If you need to stop and restart during a song, you always go to the previous reset point and run from there. The musicians will need to mark these points in their scores, the singers just need to remain aware of where the verses join. This keeps everyone on the same page, and so long as someone takes the initiative to halt the number, you can get things moving quickly without stage whispers or pauses for discussion.

Something to bear in mind is that if your company blows a number the first time, odds are pretty good they'll blow it on subsequent passes as well. This can be a tricky judgment to make, but stopping and restarting a number only to have it break down again is a very, very bad outcome. You may do better to halt, skip the rest of the number, and move on. (Or you might halt, skip the number, move on, and run the number as an encore.)

276

Stage Management: Other / Re: Hundreds evacuated in fire at NW Indiana theater

« on: Feb 10, 2011, 11:58 pm »

Fun fact: one of the main reasons that all buildings have extensive safety equipment these days (backlit exit signs, crash bars, external fire escapes, etc.) is because of all the people who died in theatre fires and stampedes. It used to happen on a fairly regular basis, thousands of lives were lost, and it actually gave theatres quite a bad reputation. So this:

No injuries were reported.

is much more of a blessing than it may seem.

277

The Green Room / Re: \"Have you thought about accounting . . . ?\"

« on: Feb 08, 2011, 06:33 pm »

What's the alternative, though?

If BA/BFA programs need to become more selective, then the bottom line is that we need substantially fewer BA/BFA programs. (Considering the sheer volume of graduates who can't even get a foot on the professional ladder, you might even be able to cut the number by 50% and still have a critical mass of emerging artists.)

If schools need to be more aggressive about telling people "Sorry, you're just not suited to this field. Yes, you've just wasted two years of your life and your parents' money. Move on already.", okay--but I put it to you that the programs most likely to have these conversations (and to make them stick) are those who are already the most selective, and therefore the least likely to have large numbers of students who aren't up to snuff.

It's a wicked problem to try and solve.

278

The Green Room / Re: \"Have you thought about accounting . . . ?\"

« on: Feb 08, 2011, 12:30 pm »

Theatre BFA/BA programs tend to accept based on audition and portfolio components, but don't always stream students directly into a specialized program. (The program I attended required you do a common first year, then applied for specialization.) I noticed a weird push-pull effect going on.

The students who were straight-out-of-the-box well-suited to SM work were forced, by hook or by crook, into stage management roles. One or two professors actually specialized in the "I know you want to be an actor, but..." speech.

At the same time, the students who nobody was really sure what to do with (those who were not especially good actors, had no particular interest in playwriting, no talent for design or construction, not enough self-direction to do production management, not smart enough to keep up with academic cultural studies...) were also foisted off as ASMs and running crew in the hopes that this would at the very least keep them out of trouble.

The alternative would probably have been kicking them out of the program, which is unthinkable for any number of reasons. (Nobody wants to have the conversation ["I'm sorry, you're just not good enough."], nobody wants to admit they were wrong to accept someone into the program to begin with, it sucks to exit a program with half a degree and no prospect of doing anything with it, some people make surprising improvements in their upper years and it's unfair to prejudge everyone, etc.)

But an awful lot of these people, having spent 4 years as running crew and ASMs (and maybe gotten to "SM" a ten-minute fringe show), would be left without the skillset to do anything else with their degrees. It's kind of cruel, to think back on it.

279

The Green Room / Re: thoughts on sharing

« on: Feb 07, 2011, 01:53 am »

I also imagine that, for those of you who are more open about your real names, locations, activities, and so on, having that profile on SMNet can be a useful networking tool unto itself. (And perhaps doubly useful if you're looking at teaching opportunities: frame it as mentorship, take the credit you deserve.)

280

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Should it be curtains for "Curtains!" actress?

« on: Feb 06, 2011, 11:31 pm »

One, you'd be surprised who crawls out of the woodwork when word gets around that you desperately need to replace a lead role. It's true that it's a bit of a crapshoot, but it's been my experience that, in community theatre (for which school theatre is a rough analogue), almost invariably someone has a friend, or someone goes to church with someone, or someone's cousin knows someone, and things have a way of working themselves out in that fashion.

Two, when you accept a role in a show, you make a commitment to invest enough time to do a good job. She hasn't been able to follow through on that commitment. It sounds as though she has good reasons, but that's kind of immaterial: while community and student theatre often have the personal development and fulfillment of performers as high priorities, this needs to be balanced against the need to... you know, do theatre. The rest of your company has been doing theatre, without fail, for several weeks now. You've told us it feels like "punshing" her to replace her at this stage--but what about the rest of the company? Isn't it "punishing" them by letting her go on under-rehearsed and under-prepared even though they've spent weeks on this project?

281

The Green Room / Re: Funny definitions

« on: Feb 06, 2011, 04:05 pm »

Blindering

The ability go about your day as if wearing horse blinders. A necessary skill for SMs to develop. Examples:
- Opening the broom closet to find Mercutio sucking face with an ensemble member, and--without missing a beat--reminding them that they're going to be late for the company exercises, taking a broom, and closing the door behind you.
- Crossing a dressing room full of mostly-naked people of your chosen gender, stopping only to grab Marat's puffer, remind a [naked] actor to hit his mark ("It's a tricky lighting cue, and if you're off by even just a foot or so, the audience can't see you..."), and walk right back out again without even noticing the nudity.


Shuttupping (shut-tupping)

What SMs do when forced to have a conversation for which they don't have time, but the other person's standing/stature/emotional state prevents them from abruptly ending it. Lots of one-word answers, lots of sentenceswhereallthewordsruntogether, lots of emphatic nodding...

Producer: "...so, anyway, how are you doing?"
SM: "Fine."
Producer: "That's great. Say, did you get the e-mail I sent you about the request from FoH to add another late call after intermission?"
SM: "Yes."
Producer: "Fantastic! I hope I'm not keeping you from anything important, but between you and me, do you think you'll be able to help them out? Stacey from facilities had a real jerk of a patron last night who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, so we had to scramble up the security guard, and we'd really like to avoid that situation in the future. It's not the first time, either, and I wouldn't be talking to you about this if it wasn't important, because I know you're a busy person, and we really do value the work you do for us here. Do you think you can help us out?"
SM: "Probably."
Producer: "That's great. That's really great. You know, you're really a valued member of our team..."


Shouldering

When a blessed soul rescues someone else from a conversation they don't have time to have.

Producer: "...and I really wanted to make sure you understand just how much we value your input into our operations. We're even thinking of bringing you in on staff meetings! You've contributed so much to our organization..."
Production Manager: "Oh! Hello, [Producer]! Hi, [SM]! Say, [Producer], if you're not too busy can I speak with you in my office? Is now good? [*wink at SM*]"

282

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Food allergies in rehearsal

« on: Feb 04, 2011, 06:01 pm »

I have to say, I've never had a a problem with people having peanut allergies triggered by airborne causes. I think it's ok to eat peanut m&ms in public - if one of the actors or designers has a peanut allergy, I'm sure they won't eat them. If they can't be anywhere near peanut butter for fear of airborne allergies, they should inform people themselves.

Just my 2 cents.

We might consider that, of the common allergens, peanuts and shellfish are probably the two "worst" in terms of causing an immediate reaction. (Some people only have to get a whiff of peanuts from several feet away and they start showing symptoms.) Shellfish is "easier" insofar as, f'ristance, you never sit down on a bus and have the person next to you whip out a bucket of mussels and start shucking away, but peanut allergies are actually pretty serious business. (So much so that, by the time the person is in a position to inform you themselves, you might already need to be rooting around for an epi-pen.)

The obvious solution is to include allergen information on your contact cards. (Name, Address, Home Number, Cell Number, Emergency Contact, Allergens.)

283

The Green Room / Re: Two Dopey, But Obvious, Questions

« on: Feb 04, 2011, 04:48 pm »

I had an answer all typed up last night. Harrumph.

1) Last summer, I saw a production of A Winter's Tale which really, really blew me away. Winter's Tale is a bear of a play, and it was mounted in a wonky space, and while the acting was solid, what really surprised me was... hrm.

I'd never seen a production of Winter's Tale that successfully navigated the Tragedy-Tragedy-Comedy-Comedy-Pathos structure in any sort of coherent way. I've never seen a production that did a great job with "Exit, pursued by a bear". I've never seen a production which didn't make me wish those damn Bohemian shepherds would shut up and get on with the play already. This production hit all of those buttons, and everything gelled beautifully. (And, truth be told, I liked the space it was mounted in, I just realize it must have been rough.)

2) The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I would honestly move cross-country if someone offered me the gig. I haven't even seen the show (except for trailers and YouTube) and I'm madly in love with every aspect of it. (Particularly its simplicity on the production end. Designed and written for off-broadway, so it's a lo-fi show, and the actors do most of the heavy lifting...)

284

The Green Room / Two Dopey, But Obvious, Questions

« on: Feb 04, 2011, 02:58 am »

1) I'm sure you've seen a production and wished it was yours. Care to tease out one or two especially good examples? What effects do you wish you'd been able to contribute to? Which productions do you wish you had a seat on? Which experiences would you have liked to help create?

2) And, at the opposite end, what's your dream show? Is there a show you'd jump at the opportunity to work on? One you're just itching to involve yourself with? One you desperately want to get your mitts on, just for the pleasure of saying you'd worked it?

285

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Recording blocking

« on: Feb 02, 2011, 02:57 pm »

Is there a procedure that you do when blocking musicals, mostly when it comes to the music numbers

It depends on any number of things. Two of the basic questions:

How complex are the sequences? Are we talking tightly-choreographed sections with flying and automation, or comparatively simple stuff?

How reliable is your dance captain? (Do you have a dance captain?) Do you need to take some responsibility for the blocking itself and for maintaining consistency in the movement, or is the blocking more for your own notes and purposes?

If you're just taking notes for your own purposes, what I'm inclined to do is run a separate "dance book" which is full of scribbly football-style diagrams. Don't call from it, just take down the blocking so you can correspond with the various departments.

If you're doing something more intensive, or if you need to call from movement, things get more complicated. There is formal dance notation, although the only people I know of who use it in calling are former dancers and dance students themselves. I don't have much background here.