Messages

31

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: cell phones onstage

« on: Jun 21, 2011, 03:52 pm »

Yeah, I don't like doing it either but sometimes I feel like I have no other viable choice due to the layout/setup of the theatre and the inability to communicate with backstage and/or the pit.  When I do this, we always test beforehand to make sure we have signal, texts arrive in a timely fashion, etc.  Otherwise I am sending an ASM or board op on what could be a five to ten minute journey to get the communication across.  For the outdoor venue, I have contemplated using some kind of signal flags....  

32

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Harmful line-throughs?

« on: Jun 21, 2011, 03:46 pm »

I work with a variety of different houses, but the one I'm talking about here has no passage from the booth to backstage without going through first the lobby and then either outside the theatre or through the house.  There is no way to get backstage without going outside or through the house.  And since obviously breaking curtain is bad once the house has opened, if I wanted to go back and forth I'd have to go outside.  Sometimes this isn't so bad, other times it is a nightmare (heavy rain, snow/ice, etc).

I am also always on headset from half hour on because I am giving my ASM calls to go give to the actors backstage.  I guess if I hung out backstage I could just make my ASM do the calls themselves and go up to the booth later (there is no intercomm system so ASM must physcially walk from wing to green room and then into each dressing room).  But then there is no way for the house manager to communicate with me... unless they break curtain or go outside.  And house managers are volunteers, and some are elderly, so that's not a good idea either.

On smaller shows I think sitting backstage wouldn't be an issue, but on larger shows we are often cramming 30, 40, or even 50 actors back there and it can become very tight.  The one time I ASM'd on a children's show I said Never Again because it involved literally climbing over small children who were sitting on the floor every time I went to give a call. 

I do think you have a point with the actors associating my prescense with "oops, what did we do now, here's the SM!".  Definitely a reason to try and build up a stronger prescence backstage.  But with the communication issues and the physical layout of this theatre, I have often found it to be much more convenient for everyone if I just report to the booth and stay there to act as a central hub of communication between the lobby (house manager) and backstage.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Harmful line-throughs?

« on: Jun 20, 2011, 09:56 am »

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the guidance/advice. 

I don't send the performance report to the actors, I just send it to "tech" staff - designers, director, theatre staff, my SM team, etc.  That's why I felt a little weird putting actor notes in there like the lines were sloppy - I guess because it feels like "tattling" on the actors behind their backs.  I'd rather just tell the actors directly that hey, the lines need a little work, please look at scene 2 especially around page 21 or whatever.  But when I went to do that, the director prevented me, so I guess into the performance report it goes.

I have never been able to check in with actors after a performance.  Usually by the time I get backstage from the booth half the cast is gone and the other half will be leaving as soon as they are done getting out of costume.  If we have a weird call time for the next performance, I might tell my ASM to make an announcement after curtain call to the cast to help remind them, but there is no way I could hold everyone and prevent them from leaving before I got back there.  However, I have had actors repeatedly tell me that they don't like not seeing me when we are in performance (vs. seeing me all the time in rehearsal).  I will often hang out backstage until maybe 45 minutes before the top of the show, but at that point I usually relocate to the booth (I am often the one turning all the equipment on, running test sound cues, doing a light check, etc and we open the house at 20 till so I want to have time to troubleshoot if necessary).  Checking in with them after the show would be a nice way to re-establish that connection but again I don't think I could make everyone stay that long.  Then again, tying in from the cell phone thread, if we did start checking valuables etc they would have to stay for me to get their stuff back.  Hmm....

I do believe the managing director of the theatre will be following up with the director as to why the line notes were prevented.  I would totally buy that there may be issues I don't know about.

Thanks everyone!

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: cell phones onstage

« on: Jun 20, 2011, 09:38 am »

I've never had a problem with actors taking phones on stage (knock on wood!) or with cell phones interacting badly with the sound system.  I have used text messaging to communicate with my conductor in the Pit when running musicals - there is no Clear Comm down there, and so the only other way to reach them is to send an ASM down two flights of stairs and back up a third to reach the Pit and then return to their headset - a journey that can take 5 to 10 minutes depending on the number of cast members that may stop them on the way. 

I've also used them at an outdoor venue I work with occasionally because they have *no* way to communicate with backstage from the booth.  They bought some walkie-talkies a few years ago but frankly they are pretty crappy and only work half the time.  In that space, texting my ASM backstage that we are ready to start is much more reliable - and also silent, as the booth is open to the audience (though covered) and I have had audience members "shush" me while I called the show.   

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Harmful line-throughs?

« on: Jun 18, 2011, 12:20 pm »

I am doing a nightly performance report but I had not mentioned the line issues in the report, just things like run time, house count, etc.  I have never really gotten a complete list from this theatre of who should get what reports, so I sort of just create two distribution lists - one "tech" list with all the theatre staff, the director, all the designers, the TD, my ASM, etc, and a second "cast" list with the cast, the director, my ASM, and the managing director of the theatre.  If I have a big announcement I'll send it to both lists at once, but I always feel a little odd putting specific actor notes in the performance report when it's going to the LD, the SD, etc who haven't been there since opening night anyway (since I send the performance report to the "tech" list).  But I also feel odd adding the actors to the distribution list for the performance report when it includes notes about problematic lighting cues, etc (these actors would definitely read the report and bombard me with questions about things that did not apply to them).  For previous shows with this theatre I had asked if they had a preferred format for reports, and they gave me one, but it was incompatable with my Gmail account, which is what I use to send the reports out.  So I just created my own format that included the info they wanted and no one ever said anything.

The director did not raise the issue with me last night, but made it pretty clear via email that there was to be no line through and I was not to give the actors line notes.  I ceded to him but also forwarded my response to the managing director, who told me prior to the show that she agreed with me and did not understand why he didn't want me to give line notes.  So there was no line through and I took no notes.  Lines were better last night though, so who knows. 

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Onstage as an SM

« on: Jun 18, 2011, 12:07 pm »

BlueRidgeSM - The idea of having to call cues from the grid sounds like a unique and intriguing experience!  Did you enjoy it?

Yes!  Although it was literally probably the 2nd time I had ever stage managed, I had never been an ASM or had any formal training, so I really had no clue what I was doing.  But it was an original work of a fellow student and was obviously experimental since we sat the audience onstage.  The actors entered from the actual house (which was more like backstage in this case) or they entered from the backstage entrances behind the audience (this particular theatre had all the dressing rooms etc downstairs, so aside from the wings it was just a load-in door upstage center and then a door USR going down a stairwell to the dressing rooms on the lower level).

I just sort of had to find a spot on the catwalk on the upstage wall where I could see most everything (though I could not see actors entering from the dressing rooms as they were entering  pretty much directly below me).  We ran a clearcom cable from the SR ASM post up to the grid so I could communicate with the booth.  I think the hardest part about that show was the fact that my board ops could see absolutely nothing, just the back of the set and the empty house.  We had a terrible time setting levels for music (and this was a play about a music venue, so there was A LOT of music) because from the sound board the volume would be great but onstage it wasn't so good because the set blocked a lot of the music that was playing into the house.  At this point I also had no formal sound training and was pretty much just guessing about what all those knobs did... ah, college.   

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Onstage as an SM

« on: Jun 17, 2011, 02:30 pm »

Ditto on the communication with backstage and having someone back there you can trust to run things.  Does the director realize that even if the role is non-speaking you will need to talk to call cues and also possibly to resolve issues backstage? 

One time I did a show (in college) in a proscenium theatre where we reversed the set - the set was built on the downstage part of the stage, and the audience was seated upstage facing downstage.  My board ops were in the booth and could only see the back of the set and the empty house.  I ended up calling the show from the grid (not a true grid as there were no flies) but had to be very quiet because I was only 20-25 feet over the heads of the audience.  Not really onstage but still a tricky situation!

I will say that the playwright in me (I took a playwrighting class in college and also wrote several episodes for our student television channel) has always found the idea of having a stage manager onstage calling the show intriguing.  Plays like Noises Off always both delight and frustrate me, as there is a character of a stage manager, but for obvious reasons with a show like NO the person onstage is not the REAL stage manager, and that always seemed like a cheat to me.  But how can you call a show that you are in and therefore can't see, unless you also have a monitor onstage with you?  And if so, that limits your mobility unless you always returned to the monitor to call cues?  It's just something I find interesting.  Maybe someday I'll figure out how to work it right and have the SM call the show from onstage... I just think that'd be cool. 

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Harmful line-throughs?

« on: Jun 17, 2011, 11:40 am »

Wow, I have never given notes like that in sealed envelopes prior to a show.  I've never heard of anyone doing it that way either.  Interesting!  That definitely cuts down on the time factor (I can type it all up beforehand) and also the icky confrontation part.   

The line messups aren't really impacting my ability to call the show at all; this show is mainly lights up/lights down with four scenes total and I am running the sound cues myself (tiny booth).  I always like to think I am not tooooo nitpicky about lines but the line have just gotten steadily worse as we progressed through the run.  There is also a large monologue in act two that has *never* been right which is a shame as it always gets lots of applause/laughter and there are three entire sentences that have never been in it since somewhere in tech week.  I know I can cite that as a specific error but I'm not sure about others.

I think I will offer to be on book for their next linethrough and see if that will work - my ASM tells me they often run lines while getting ready for the show and I usually report to the booth as early as possible once I have confirmed everyone (cast and crew) is present.  And if we do that, I will stop them every single time.  But if that doesn't work out timewise I can take line notes during tonight's performance and pass them out tomorrow.

Thanks!   
Post Merge: Jun 17, 2011, 02:21 pmSo I sent out an email to my cast letting them know I would like to sit in on their next linethrough and be on book for them, and if that doesn't work (this is community theatre, so minimal staff to do preshow duties plus many people are coming from day jobs etc) I can take line notes on tonight's performance.  Now my director has emailed me wanting to know why he wasn't aware of this issue before now??? Sigh.  At least the managing director of the theatre has been supportive.  We'll see what happens next!

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / RUNNING: Harmful line-throughs?

« on: Jun 17, 2011, 09:07 am »

So I am stage managing a straight play right now with a small cast (5 actors).  I was on book for them pretty much up until tech week, but they had the lines down very well and I only gave line notes once or twice because they really did not need them and my director was sort of indifferent. 

The show has been open for a week now, and the lines have gone steadily downhill.  I was confused by this, because my ASM was telling me that the cast frequently does line-throughs in the dressing room prior to the show.  Well, on Wednesday night we had a photo call and afterwards they said they wanted to stay and run lines.  I had to stay too, so I set myself up in the dressing room with the ladies (cast of all women) and my knitting and let them run lines.  I did not have my book with me as I leave it in the booth after the show opens and I wasn't aware we were doing a linethrough until I got all the way backstage to the dressing rooms.

Well, sitting in on that linethrough I now know exactly why the lines are all over the place.  I realize I am not an actor and thus can't really speak to one method vs. the other when it comes to helping remember lines, but to me as a SM there is a difference between running lines with the intent to remember them and just running them haphazardly, going through the scene as fast as possible with no tone or inflection or even throwing in phrases that aren't in the script with the intent to be funny.  I realize it can be harder to run lines than running the scene because there are no visual cues, and whenever they would get to a point like that they would all jump in at once, only to sort out who had the first line after whatever the visual cue was.  No one was referring to their script at all.

So... we have three performances left.  Has anyone dealt with something like this before, and if so, how do you stop it?  I mean, on the face of things running lines is a good thing, right?  But it seems to me that the type of linethrough they are doing is damaging to the performance, especially since apparently they are doing more linethroughs than they are actually doing the scene onstage and so what is coming through in performance is the haphazard linethrough.

I will fully admit that my weakest facet as a SM is the ability to put my foot down, so I'd be interested to get other SM's take on this and a course of action.  It might be too late to fix the damage for this show, but it's something I'd like to know how to handle in the future.

Edit to subject line-Rebbe

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Re: PROMPT BOOK: Gratuitious Paperwork

« on: Jun 13, 2011, 08:48 pm »

Thanks BayAreaSM!  I was just in SF last month visiting some friends that had moved out there...

I guess most of the things I've worked on have had a lot of these duties split up to other personel.  The director usually creates the rehearsal schedule and therefore they also create french scene lists (I think that's what it is called?) and/or a character/scene breakdown if necessary.  The TD tapes out the set on the stage prior to it being built; if we are not on stage we are using the lobby or green room or even someone's living room so not really any taping out or prepwork I can do there.  Costume change plot I leave up to the costumers. 

Oh - I guess I do create actor conflict calendars, though my go-to method for that is to print out a blank page from Google calendar and then write on the dates "no Susan, Mike late" etc. 

I also create sign-in sheets but only for the larger shows (i.e. musicals).  There is no need for the one I am doing right now with only 5 actors and 7 crew members (counting myself).  I just count noses and I know we're all there.  And I guess I also do a preshow checklist for myself (test sound system, make sure work lights are off, etc). Maybe I do more paperwork than I think I do!

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Blocking Script vs Calling Script

« on: Jun 13, 2011, 10:31 am »

I have never split my blocking script and my calling script - I always write blocking in the left-hand margin and write cues in the right-hand margin.  I also draw boxes around the actual cues "LQ 27" and my stand-bys so I know that is only what I am saying on headset, and then may put additional notes next to the box just to help me out (next to "LQ 27" I might write "BO" outside the cue box so I know that cue is a blackout). 

I avoid highlighting my script in any way, shape or fashion because it is always a mistake and I always have to make changes and it's very annoying.  I think the only time I ever did it was after a show had opened, I did different colors for light, sound, and deck crew cues just to help me sort through it all. 

It is true that I rarely use the blocking notes once the show has opened, but if I can fit them both in one script I'd rather do that than ask the theatre for two one-sided copies of the script just for me (almost everyone gets double-sided copies but I prefer one-sided copies so I have extra room to make more notes if necessary). 

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / What is SM Paperwork?

« on: Jun 13, 2011, 10:14 am »

Mod Note:  This topic split from thread SM: P&M:  Gratuitous Paperwork-Rebbe

Paperwork is one of those things I think I missed out on, never having had a formal education in stage management (I have a degree in theatre but there was no SM class at my university so I am pretty much self-taught).  I often wonder what people mean when they talk about all this "paperwork".   

For every show, I create a contact sheet with actor's info and another one with the contact info for the tech crew.  I email out rehearsal reports and performance reports (one theatre I currently work with had never had a SM do this before and they were floored when I sent daily emails - and now they require all SMs to do this!).  But that's really about it as far as things I create for every single show I do.

If we have a strong props person/crew, I usually let them handle props paperwork.  If not, I might create a preliminary prop chart and let them embellish/edit as needed.  Ditto for running crew re: set changes.  If there is no running crew (yes, I have done shows where it's me, the actors, and a director - I run lights/sound and there is no technical staff backstage) I will often create a set change list for the actors and post backstage.  If the show is long/complicated/with a lot of scenes, I will also post a scene list backstage for the actors.  Other shows I've found this isn't necessary (like the one I'm doing now, with five actors and four scenes and they are all onstage the majority of the time) and so I skip the scene list.

Obviously I get cue sheets/channel listings etc from my designers and store those in my book, but there is very little I create for every single show. Soo..... what is all this paperwork that everyone else is creating?   

43

Employment / Re: What (not?) to wear

« on: Jun 09, 2011, 09:13 am »

It has been a while since I have interviewed as a SM, but if it did happen I'd probably wear some black slacks, a nice top, and some slightly-heeled sandals I have.  I do have a sparkly necklace that I like to wear, not sure I'd call it "statement jewelry" but it's still sparkly.   

I will admit I often feel like I am clueless when it comes to tech staff wardrobe - sure, wear all black, but I'm in the booth and no one will see me anyway.  I usually wear all black or at least dark colors - black pants and a dark colored shirt - but I will admit in the summer I do occasionally wear sandals in the booth.  There is no way whatsoever that I would have to be backstage during the run and our booth isn't even connected with the backstage. 

A lot of the time I'm coming to the theatre straight from my day job anyway, so business casual in dark colors.  No one's made a comment one way or the other so I'm thinking it's okay? 

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Employment / Re: Fired from an SM Job

« on: Jun 08, 2011, 08:50 am »

I have never been fired from a show.  I have been an ASM and been told I might possibly have to take over a show in the event the SM was fired, but that never actually went through.  That was probably more stressful for me than being the SM of a difficult show.  Knowing I might have to call a technically complex show I have never seen from the front on a preview night with an audience.... yikes.  I was ready and it didn't happen and it was nerve-wracking.

Re: donors backstage - that's never happened to me either, but actually I was ASM on a show where the running crew consisted of volunteer parents and after the show closed I found out one of them was very highly placed in the local government.  That one just served as a reminder that you never really know who you're working with and everyone is a possible future connection/contact. 

And as far as being "too professional" - I also pride myself on the ability to remain calm under fire, keep the peace and even make peace between various parties, and keeping the lines of communication open.  This has served me well in theatre but backfired on me in my generic office day job.  Apparently it translates in office-world to not being "passionate" and "invested" enough.  It's a source of constant frustration for me.   

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The Hardline / Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"

« on: Jun 07, 2011, 12:59 pm »

North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point, NC has cancelled their fall Shakespeare productions.  They will still be doing their camps, classes, etc but no Shakespeare this fall.  http://www.ncshakes.org/ - there is a PDF press release under "Important Announcement From NCShakes Regarding This Year's Season".