Messages

31

The Green Room / Re: set design extending into the house -

« on: Jan 05, 2011, 09:25 pm »

One of the performing spaces at the theatre I work at is a 3/4 thrust with stadium seating, so the actors are on the same deck as the first row of seats. There are two voms splitting the audience into thirds that are the primary entrance/exits, and the actors are often close enough to the front row that you can reach out and touch them (which almost never happens).

This past fall we did a production of The Woman in Black (a classic, gore-less, scare-the-crap-out-of-you ghost story), which did some amazing things with the unique layout of the theatre. The actress playing the Woman was able to sneak up directly next to audience members, and they wouldn't notice her until an actor looked at her. The actress wore a specific perfume, and the run-crew was given a spare bottle to spray so people would smell her but not see her. They were also given feathers, to brush exposed ankles of the audience. The maze of backstage passageways (and a costumed run crew member) allowed the ghost to appear in one corner of the theatre, disappear, and reappear immediately on the other side of the stage. The neatest thing about the experience was two people sitting right next to each other could have completely different experiences. Needless to say, we were able to scare lots of people.

32

The Green Room / Re: Happy New Years!! My Resolution is....

« on: Jan 01, 2011, 04:32 pm »

After watching a couple of spectacular mental implosions at the theatre I work at, I've decided to create and implement a plan to prevent physical, mental, and emotional burn-out in a high-stress career field. Starting with water and yoga.

33

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Enforcing Punctuality in Community Theater

« on: Aug 21, 2009, 05:24 pm »

I'm SMing for a small community theater, and am having a little problem with punctuality - people are showing up a little bit late, asking if they can miss rehearsal to hang out with friends, sometimes just not showing up. I'm used to working in schools and professional theaters where something is at stake if you're late - course credit, or your stipend. These actors aren't getting payed and we don't have a large pool we can pull replacements from, so I don't want to make empty threats about recasting or anything like that. In the past my director made people pay a dollar for each minute they were late, but I'm not sure if that's appropriate for a theater company who's mission statement is all about community. I'm not sure an inspiring "do it for the love of the art" speech will help, either.

How do you guys make sure people are timely in community theater?

Thanks.

34

Tools of the Trade / Creating unnumbered pages in a numbered script - Help!

« on: Jun 27, 2009, 07:09 pm »

I am using Word 2007 to maintain an electronic copy of the Master Script of a production of Julius Caesar. Designers are using print-outs of the original script for referencing cues, but some large chunks of text that we cut from the original print-out has since been added back in. I want to keep the page numbers of the print-out and the e-script the same by having the "run-off" pages use letters (ex: A speech that ended on page 16 has been expanded, and now goes onto a new page of the electronic script. I want this new page to be 16a, so that page 17 in the e-script is still the same as page 17 in the original print-out.) There are already section breaks throughout the script for each new act and scene, and several of these "new" pages are in the middle of scenes - if I add a section break in the middle, it messes up the act/scene headings for the rest of the document.

To sum up, is there anyway I can make the automatic numbering SKIP a page in the middle of the document without creating a section break?

Thanks!

35

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS Archive June 09-Dec. 10

« on: Jun 21, 2009, 05:46 pm »

Hi everybody!

Does anyone have an e-script of the stage version of The Sound of Music?

Thanks so much!

36

Employment / Crossroads in Life - where to live?

« on: Jun 20, 2009, 10:34 pm »

Hokay so. I am a recent college grad who will be pursuing a career in stage management. This summer I am interning with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and in the fall will be stage managing The Sound of Music for a local community theater. My tentative plan is to get a day job where I can actually earn money while bolstering my resume working for community theaters for the next year while staying with my mom to maximize money-saving potential, and then move. My request for advice is: where do I move?

I'm looking for a place that has a lot of community and regional/professional theatre, so that I can gain experience and move up in my career and such, but also isn't over-saturated with people so that I can still find a day job. Huge cities (NYC, Chicago) intimidate me (in a public safety realm, not in my abilities as an SM). San Francisco is too pricey for me. In brainstorming, I've come up with Seattle, Minneapolis, Miami, San Diego, and DC. I was wondering if people had other suggestions?

Thank you so much!
Caitlin