Messages

316

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Do you have a preferred type of show?

« on: Dec 03, 2007, 09:38 pm »

Something I can sing along to in the car. Then, about two months into said show, something that I can sing along to whilst bashing my head in with a beer bottle to try and get the shows songs out of my head.

Musicals all the way.

317

Tools of the Trade / Re: What Type Of Drill Is Best?

« on: Nov 30, 2007, 08:50 am »

Nothing says "I love you" like powertools

318

Tools of the Trade / Re: What Type Of Drill Is Best?

« on: Nov 28, 2007, 08:32 pm »

Dewalt - hands down. I have had my dewalt for close to 10 years now (yes, I got my first drill at a very young age) -and by following a proper battery maintenance regime, I am still on the original batteries.

319

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Absences

« on: Nov 28, 2007, 08:08 am »

You need to get out. Seriously - if things are that bad - bad to the point where you no longer care, you need to get out. Either that, your you really need to clamp down. You need to drag the faculty into a meeting room and basically rip them a new one about how their undermining of your authority within the rehearsal space, and their allowing of the diva attitude MUST stop, because all it succeeds in doing is creating second rate talent who will find themselves waiting tables, unless they get a pretty decent reality check.

320

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Onstage Hangings

« on: Nov 21, 2007, 08:00 pm »

Fact: In many countries, a noose is considered a lethal weapon.

Do you really want to have a noose on your stage? What you can do in place of a real noose is to wrap one piece of rope around your 'noose', leaving enough at the bottom to make the loop - then, using a needle and thread, use one stitch to create the loop.

When I was taught this trick by a props master, he called it a "Stagemans Noose" (as opposed to a hangmans noose)

This ensures that if the noose ever gets caught on something, it will not entrap the wearers neck, and also only result in a slight bruise.

As for the hanging part, well I can only echo what others have said "DON'T!" - two reasons, a dummy and scrim look more realistic - the whole "short, sharp drop" as opposed to the "controlled lower and stop.", and the other - well it is a task that requires great skill and risk assessment.

321

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Report on SM's role in industrial and fashion shows

« on: Nov 18, 2007, 06:41 pm »

Not answering your post, however a bit of advice when asking homework questions.

Don't just say "this is my topic, this is the question, help me!" - most of us are really interested in Stage Management, and we like to discuss it (that's why we are here). So the best way to actually get answers to questions which are obviously homework questions, would be to start a discussion. To start a discussion, you need to put something on the table. Tell us what you think an SM would do in this sort of environment (we won't laugh if it is way left of field, and totally incorrect) and what their responsibilities are. Tell us what you have found out so far. etc.

Basically, throw us a bone, and chances are, a few people will run with it.

Mac

322

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Preshow (turn off your cellphone) announcements

« on: Nov 16, 2007, 07:20 pm »

Toughen up your rules.

"Goodevening Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to tonights performance of XYZ. Please note that any recording of this performance, either through video or photograph is strictly prohibited. A reminder that Mobile phones should also be turned off, and not to silent. Should you be required to be contactable during tonights performance, please talk to our front of house staff, who will gladly mind your phone, and retreive you in the case of a call. Thankyou, and we hope you enjoy tonights performance"

Then put signs up about your policy, then it is simple - their phones should be off, and as such, you can confiscate them as well, without the "What if someone needs to contact me!?!" excuse.

323

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Reports during technicals

« on: Nov 12, 2007, 06:40 pm »

My votes in with kmc307. It is also good to go to a designer "Here is a list of issues that arrose which need fixing asap" because they have also been there 14 hours and have probably forgotten (and most don't carry notebooks with them to make their own notes). Shouldn't have to do it, but *shrug*

324

Stage Management: Other / Re: Running lights from front of house?

« on: Nov 11, 2007, 04:54 am »

There is a reason that sound people sit in the audience. The mix sounds quite different from the audience compared to the sound in the bio box - so if they were to mix an orchestra in a booth (without the aid of an expensive, well designed monitor system) the sound in the audience would be quite different (and probably quite bad). Hence - Sound guy in the back row.

325

Tools of the Trade / Re: [FAQ] What goes inside a SM Kit?

« on: Nov 04, 2007, 04:17 pm »

Samuel:

Why do you need a kit? Well when you enter a venue - say I hire out the local theatre - I hire the rooms, I pay for a technician on duty, and that is about it (sometimes I pay for a few extra venue crew, but IME that is a rareity, unless the company is short on crew).

Venue hire only includes the room and certain equiptment, depending on the contract of hire.

Sometimes the TOD will loan you some tools, or help you out if you need something that they have lying arround, but in most cases, they are not obliged to. Hence the kit.

Same deal with rehearsal rooms. Often companies hire a rehearsal room at a venue. Chances are you will be given an empty room. Nothing else.

The kit is the SM's desk/office/toolkit/other all in one.

326

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Furniture

« on: Nov 01, 2007, 05:45 am »

It depends on the circumstances - that is my intial thought. The sets and props are two parts of a whole as I see it, so I believe that the two should work as closely with each other as possible - even so far as to say that Props Master should work almost as a subordinate to the set designer.

327

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Calling attention

« on: Oct 29, 2007, 06:07 am »

Novelty whistles are always great (IMO) - I have 3, one is a 'loony toons' whoooping whistle (which is my pride and joy - cost $100, and was bought specifically for a pantomine), one is a duck whistle, and the other is a ramped whistle.

I would take a few "toys" along to rehearsals that make a few weird and whacky sounds, and hold a vote. I had a rubber duck for one show, and he quickly became the show mascot (called Geoff). I had another show that had the vibraslap (90% of the votes due to its name I would say), and another that I used a small bell tree.

The key is to indicate that you want to make it a little bit more fun, and less demeaning than blowing a whistle like you would for a dog. The fact that what you are doing is the same thing, only with a different instrument should be left out of the conversation.

328

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Snappy SM

« on: Oct 18, 2007, 01:34 pm »

I am also tending to side a bit with the SM here.

I tend to get snappy when process is not followed too - although I don't tend to yell and scream over comms (that is inappropriate).

From what it sounds like, the entire 'thing' with the turntable took some time - and hopefully a fair bit of planning went into it as well. That means things like this trip hazard etc should be known of well in advance, and the SM notified before the notes session even started. That said, there may have been some other factors in effect, in which case the golden rule comes into play.

The rule is simple - if something happens that will effect the show, the SM needs to know in a timely manner.

Timely in this case would be right after they came out of notes and into the space. I don't buy the "they were running late so they went straight into rehearsals" - sorry, but there is always time for OH&S. The ASM should have stopped people from going onto stage until the trip hazard was explained, and if the director or SM countermanded them, then the ASM should have asked the director and SM to talk to one side, told the cast to wait off stage, and informed the SM and director.

The entire situation could have been handled much better, by all parties concerned, however I can certainly see why the SM would snap.

329

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Looking for Stage Management workshop ideas

« on: Oct 18, 2007, 09:21 am »

Roleplay, Roleplay, Roleplay. Make up some "conflict resolution scripts", grab some pages out of a script, run a 'production meeting'. Practical experiance is far better than talking about it, so get them to call the script, get them to take blocking notation for the script, get them to put together a mini prompt-book etc.

If you don't have a few actors hanging arround, then just get half of the group to be your actors, whilst half do the exercise, then swap.

If you are catering for a wide range of experiance, try to encourage dialogue instead of taking a lecture position. Walk through the entire process. Start with "You have just been approached to work on show X (whatever script you have)" hand it out, "What is the first thing you think we need to do?" and just keep going from there.

Have paperwork from each step in the process to give out as examples.

Make sure any of your "No experiance" SM's keep involved. Don't let the experianced ones steam roll them.

Other than that, good luck :-)

330

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Tech or Church?

« on: Oct 17, 2007, 09:24 am »

I guess that Australia's culture (spiritually) is a lot different to the US. 99.9% of church goers I know would drop church for other engagements with little applomb. Seems like the US is far more devoted to their religion.

That said, less than 24hrs is not cool. And at first glance it seems a rather arbitary one hour shift (I cannot think of many engagements that crop up after 11pm) - ie not really a "15 people won't be able to show up as they have to collect their kids from school" type shifts (and yes, I have had 12 hour techs starting at 3am so that the parents in the group could pick up their kids)