Messages

31

The Green Room / Re: Broadway Opening with Major scenic issue

« on: Jan 18, 2014, 05:58 pm »

I'm pleased to say that the last two shows I did on turntables only had issues during tech - none during performances!  But we never said that aloud or commented on our luck until closing.

32

Tools of the Trade / Re: POLL: Paperwork Ownership

« on: Jan 16, 2014, 10:48 am »

I have many thoughts on this subject, both as a stage manager and as a teacher of young stage managers.

Teaching thoughts first:
I teach at a school where students work alongside a variety of professional stage managers.  Inevitably, after they do a show as a PA observing a new SM I will see them use or mimic a piece of paperwork that they encounter when they next work a school show. Sometimes that means just a minor tweak to layout, wording or format and my response is 'Great, this is what's supposed to happen, we see something we like, we adapt it to suit our style and our needs.'  Sometimes it's a major change and I have a conversation with a student about why they are using a form that is totally inappropriate for what they are doing, it overly complicates or overly simplifies what they need for a show.  Primarily this involved daily calls or reports.  There is one daily call form in particular my students try to use without really understanding when it is useful and when it isn't.

Personal thoughts about my own paperwork:
I'm generally happy if my format works for someone else and they take it and adapt it after working with me.  My paperwork is a result of working with many different people and different theaters.  When it comes to layout and design choices that are clearly recognizable, I start to hesitate.  I worked with someone years ago and liked their header so I asked if I could use it on my next show.  They said yes, they showed me how they made it so I could recreate it as I liked.  I used that for years, then switched to something else.  I was sitting in a meeting and from across the table saw a props list for a show I wasn't involved with that had the same header I had used, but all of the alignment had been screwed up and it just looked...messy, unintentional, lazy.  And I was not happy.  I don't like it when my work is borrowed poorly.  Use it, but understand why I made the choices I did and how things are supposed to relate to each other.  And, like Matthew, there are personal workflow reminders and lists that I try to avoid leaving on servers for other people to access because they are so specific to how I sort through information and work with a team.

To go back to part of the original question, the theater owns the work I create for their show, which I interoperate as the way I present the accumulated information.  I leave pdf documents and hard copies when I go.  If a theater remounts a show the next SM can have my paperwork as a resource and a starting point but will likely need to adapt to a new surrounding anyway, they possibly have their own formats that work best for their crew.  Sometimes, if the show has a set future the SM will ask nicely if I wouldn't mind sending along editable things and most of the time I do - when approached by a fellow SM I'm generally happy to help but ask that if they change things at all they take my name off of it.  But I've also been involved in and witness to some vicious fights with Production Managers about them wanting SMs to leave only editable documents on company servers.  Sometimes I hold my ground and don't, sometimes I'm too tired and it isn't worth the fight.

33

The Green Room / ARTICLE:The Flea theatre payment to actors

« on: Jan 10, 2014, 04:56 pm »

http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2014/01/when-is-a-job-not-a-job-when-its-in-the-arts-apparently/

34

The Hardline / Re: Understudies for AEA theatres

« on: Jan 06, 2014, 09:37 pm »

Many years ago I was a summer intern at the Old Globe in San Diego which is affiliated with one of the local colleges.  The grad students were the understudies and they frequently went on.  There was a box of Lucky Charms cereal that rotated among them, signed by folks who had gone on unexpectedly.  I thought it was a charming tradition.

35

The Hardline / Re: Understudies for AEA theatres

« on: Jan 06, 2014, 08:08 am »

The LORT house I work at most frequently stopped hiring understudies a few seasons ago unless they were doing a show with planned outs.  For years they had been hiring folks, frequently non-AEA, but if push came to shove they would almost never put them onstage.  You created an uproar if you tried to schedule a costume fitting for understudies.  They weighed the odds and decided they'd rather risk canceling a single show a season due to lacking a performer.

36

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: RUNNING: ASMs running off a script

« on: Dec 30, 2013, 10:28 am »

I second Maribeth's comments.  For most plays if I'm the one backstage I use only my paperwork so that I can see a string of actions and the pertinent crew info, rather than limiting myself to a page of text.  I typically keep a copy of the script backstage if anyone needs to pursue it mid-show.  For operas I rely on my score and keep crew paperwork handy.

I'm curious why you asked and what methods you've tried before.  Are you looking ahead to your next project or just wondering in general?

37

The Hardline / Re: How did you get your card?

« on: Dec 02, 2013, 02:13 pm »

I joined the EMC program doing a summer internship at The Old Globe in San Diego in 2004.

I got my AGMA card from Boston Lyric Opera to be their full season ASM my senior year of college, 2005 - a long year of balancing morning classes and full day rehearsals.  The shows were Lucie de Lammermoor, La traviata and Thais.

I worked strictly opera for a little while, then got my AEA card in 2008 for How Shakespeare Won The West but joined through the 4A sister union agreement, rather than through EMC.

38

Tools of the Trade / Re: Ergonomics and the Tech Table

« on: Nov 25, 2013, 02:12 pm »

In rehearsal rooms I'm always at a music stand or I have an inexpensive plastic stand that tilts at various angles, replicating the slant of a music stand.

A few years ago I was teching a show with a folding chair and a table set on a very steep audience rake so I was constantly leaning downwards - I mentioned to the TD that it was giving me back problems and headaches and when I came in the next day he had built a little counter rake for my chair so it was like sitting at a normal theater.  It was great and made for a much improved tech.

I mentioned this to the next theater I was at and the Deck Carp got a little offended, said that they'd be happy to build me something to make teching easier (to replace the board they sat over the audience seats).  I gave them dimensions for a box that slips in an audience seat, basically a booster seat so that the tech table is the proper height for me to easily see my book, and reach my buttons.  Again, it made a huge difference, and went into storage with the rest of the tech benches so I used it for years.

For help calling shows more comfortably I once asked the theater to buy an anti-fatigue mat for me to stand on - the existing call desk had a piece of plywood over metal grate and was brutal to stand on even for a short show.  What I actually said to the company manager was 'can we get some kind of carpet or pad or mat to make this better?' and they did the research and found a perfect product used frequently in industrial settings and kitchens.

39

The Green Room / Re: Stage Managers have legs?!

« on: Nov 07, 2013, 01:25 am »

As others have said, function comes first, for clothing that means being able to move quickly, quietly, safely without causing a distraction.  Some of my skirts and dresses I can do that in, others I can't.  I wear skirts frequently in the summer because I'm tall and they are more modest than most of my shorts.  But I think with most things attitude and intention count - I'm not wearing things to get noticed, I'm wearing them because being comfortable and looking decent help me to do my job better and garner more respect in the room. 

There is an older French opera director I work with frequently who was thrilled the first time I wore a skirt to rehearsal, I'll never forget it, it was actually the turning point in our working relationship.  He's gay, wasn't interested in me, but it restored some kind of odd familiarity to him in terms of cultural gender roles.

40

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Tech Vocabulary for Students

« on: Nov 01, 2013, 12:41 am »

Two years ago I started doing a crash course for freshmen, about 25% design/production folks and 75% performance folks.  I take two hours to cover what I think they need to know going into their first college production.  Some have never heard the term stage manager before, some have heard it used for a number of different roles.  Because knowing your audience is everything, my talks focus on two things - the things a design/production person who is going to be a production assistant on a show needs to know, and the things that the performers need to know, for the next three semesters they will be working as crew so they will be working closely with SMs during tech and performances. 

Stage directions, safety, dress codes, spiking things, comm etiquette, line notes, break times, communication basics, organizational chart overview, are all included but far more important than all of that detail work is the why of stage management - why do we create paperwork for run crew?  why do we ask them to do things a specific way?  why do we show up first and leave last? why do we send reports and give notes?  I've found that sticks much more than vocabulary and is far more useful because it covers a greater variety of situations, as well as opening up the possibility of connecting to other things they have more experiance in.

41

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Taping glass props - advice needed

« on: Oct 20, 2013, 12:38 am »

I've had props people dip/brush/somehow coat bottles and glass items in shellac or glue, but always in houses where the audience was a nice distance away.  Fortunately for me, none of them ever broke, so I can't say if that helped at all in terms of either containing damage or making shards less hazardous.  I've worked with beer and wine bottles where we poured wax into them to give a little substance- to make it less brittle if dropped, and that did actually seem to help limit breakage, but I can't give anything more scientific than that.  The hazard level also depends a lot on what your floor type is, some are more forgiving than others.  Good luck!

42

Self-Promotion / Boston Area - Rancho Mirage

« on: Oct 13, 2013, 04:58 pm »

I'm working on a wonderful new play right now and we open tomorrow, Monday, Oct 13.
Rancho Mirage at New Rep, located in Watertown
Written by Steven Dietz - part of National New Play Network's rolling world premiere - opened at the Olney two weeks ago
3 couples, each at a crossroads in their lives and relationships, meet for a dinner party that goes badly and the unspoken truths are spoken.

We play through Nov. 3rd - come see us!

43

The Hardline / Re: Employee-Handbook Required Preshow Calls (and more)

« on: Oct 11, 2013, 10:09 am »

From the NEAT (New England Area Theatres) Contract:
(N)  Lateness.  In the event an Actor is late for rehearsal during the course of a
production, without good and sufficient cause, the Actor shall be issued a written
warning by the Theatre with copy to Equity.  In the event the Actor is absent from or
late from rehearsal without good or sufficient cause on more then one occasion
during the course of the production, the Actor shall be issued a written warning with
copy to Equity and the Actor’s salary will be reduced by the applicable portion of the
Actor’s salary for the time missed.  The dollar amount of the reduction shall be
based on the Actor’s contractual salary and the total number of working hours
contracted for the Actor in the week.  The reduction will be assessed in no less than
quarter hour increments.

I've worked operas where my preshow calls were specified to me to be sure the musicians got the same calls they were used to in other venues at the festival.  It felt like a lot of confusing repetition to me - I seem to remember saying something ridiculous like "Singers, this is your five minute call; Musicians, this is your places call to the pit, 2 minutes until the tune"

44

The Hardline / Re: Dear Abby

« on: Oct 04, 2013, 10:06 am »

Agreed - I don't think you gain anything by being listed as EMC, I think it really only matters to you as a way of indicating future aspirations to be AEA.

45

Employment / Re: Thinking through a Bad Fit

« on: Sep 25, 2013, 11:44 pm »

These are exactly the kind of things I'm processing, thanks for helping me think through them. 

I've wondered about Matthew's point of simply adjusting to a new place and while I think thats absolutely a part of it I don't think it's all of it.  Bottom line for me is if I had known what I was walking into I don't think I would have taken the job.

Mac Calder's last point is the biggest reason I was uncomfortable there.  I could see my dissatisfaction begin to creep into the quality of work I was doing.  It's one thing for me to be unhappy at work.  It's another for me to lower the standards I hold for myself.

On the positive side, today was my first rehearsal at another theater and I feel so incredibly blessed to be there, it's exactly what I needed on the heels of this previous gig.