Messages

316

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Student SM Challenge #15: Her Method is Madness

« on: Sep 28, 2011, 02:24 am »

I'll throw my two cents in re: TheSingingSm's solution.

It sounds like you are coming close to the right area of a solution, but perhaps not the right methods. You know what needs to happen and why, but confronting an actor or actress about their process is a dangerous game. Much like each of us has a style of stage managing, each actor has an amalgamation of acting styles they've converted into their own unique style that works for them. No two actors work exactly the same way. Just so happens that every once and a while you run into a difficult case.

This actress was cast long before anyone else was and is beloved by everyone on the front end of the production. Confronting her and it going poorly could result in her going to the producers and your being fired because you're a new commodity vs. the established one.

317

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Resume

« on: Sep 28, 2011, 02:07 am »

As I see you're in high school (or at least that's your level of experience listed) I would actually recommend the opposite of what BayArea suggested. For now.

Before I had enough credits as a stage manager switching from acting, I listed shows I had been cast in under a heading I called "related experience." I also included all manner of technical theater positions I held under that heading too. It shows you aren't just jumping into the theatrical pool randomly, and you did come from somewhere. After about a year of stage managing, I was able to drop acting from my resume, and after two years I dropped the "related experience" heading entirely.

It is a crap-shoot for the reasons BayAreaSM brings up, but if you literally have no credits, or only one or two credits to your resume, I feel like that is more of a turn off to employers than having a handful of acting credits below whatever SM credits you have.

318

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Student Assistant?

« on: Sep 25, 2011, 10:39 pm »

I agree with Matt.

You might be surprised to find yourself remembering things you might have forgotten over the course of time. Same thing happened to me when I was coaching hockey. I suddenly remembered all this stuff about the basics of what I had to coach that I had committed to muscle memory and no longer consciously thought about but had to impart to those not in the know.

The flip side is you might get someone who is emotionally immature who can't handle any amount of pressure and sandbags your production. Hopefully that's not the case and has only happened once or twice to me when dealing with high school kids.

319

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Sep 24, 2011, 02:05 pm »

I agree totally about asking the ops. On those rare occurrences when I'm not the only person running the show (...very rare occurrence but it does happen to me every once in a blue moon) I tell the ops which way I'll be calling it and as long as we go through tech together, they'll get used to it.

I've found when touring, you may have to change your calls if you find your op doesn't respond to your "electrics" call vs. "lights." Not worth the time or effort to try to make someone adjust to you if they aren't willing.

320

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Sep 21, 2011, 05:09 pm »

Historically, the first computer program that ran projections had you hit the TAB key to take the next cue.

That makes perfect sense. Cool! I learned somethin' new (yet not) today

321

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Sep 21, 2011, 04:10 pm »

Tab is definitely not something I had heard before.....I do like the short and sweet quality to it. And it certainly sounds like no other department.

I think i'mma give Tab a try for this run. I'll let you know how it works.

322

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Sep 21, 2011, 11:03 am »

I long for productions with pyro....that'd be fun.....I'm sure I'd also give myself a heart attack knowing I controlled a fireball....

I do use Electrics so maybe Slide could work. There shouldn't be any fly cues for this. We are using an empty stage for the most part.

323

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / CALLING: Projections...how do you call it?

« on: Sep 21, 2011, 10:28 am »

I am working on a production that is very heavy in the projections department, but is also a complex lights/sound show too so I'll have a lot of words in my mouth all at once. I've worked on a show like this before and I had the projections called as "AV." On occasion, this lead to issues with the projectionist missing his cues because he couldn't hear/understand his cues (I'm not exactly sure how much stock to put in this as a communication error on my end as he got fired before our two week run ended for incompetence). I am certainly willing to admit it might have been on my end in terms so I'm hoping to improve my calling on this production.

How do you guys and gals call your projection cues? What label do you give them? Is there a basic accepted industry standard that I don't know of?

Edit to subject line-Rebbe

324

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament III - 2.0.11

« on: Sep 15, 2011, 12:50 pm »

I dunno.....they are both pretty rough. The theater one is just demoralizing because it's obviously something we all know and love and.....ONLY 3 RIGHT???!!!! *slamming head into wall!*

325

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament III - 2.0.11

« on: Sep 15, 2011, 03:39 am »

Man....y'all gotta stop picking religion!! I hate that category! So hard!

326

Self-Promotion / Re: Fahrenheit 451

« on: Sep 08, 2011, 12:33 pm »

My theater company did the NYC premiere in 2006. Sadly, it was a year before my time. Have fun! It's a great piece!

327

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Les Mis

« on: Sep 07, 2011, 12:37 pm »

You'll have a 'script' to block off of. My wife produced Les Mis last year at her high school and she had the traditional MTI book with the script in the front and the score was actually a separate entity because of it's size.

Even though it has more dialogue, Sweeney Todd is similar to Les Mis in structure, and it also comes as a script. There will be sections that are confusing where there are multiple groups singing different lyrics where you may want to put the music into your blocking script to keep track of it easier, but you should be ok with what MTI provides to you.

328

Tools of the Trade / Re: Software-packing a truck

« on: Sep 03, 2011, 12:47 pm »

For the most part, yes. Most things are packed into road cases which makes part of the pack very simple. You make rows of road boxes, set a strap, make another row, set a strap etc. It's when you get to the set pieces things become more interesting. Especially if your set is curved....that was a fun pack to figure out.

But the set will usually provide cubby holes to hide things into. Like on my Tour of R+J we had a boat load of pipes that we originally threw under the initial rows of road boxes in the nose of the truck. We found that unloading the boxes with pipe under them was an annoyance so we ended up having them ride inside our stair units instead. Strapped strip lights on top of road boxes, flipped hampers upside down on top of road boxes, married stair units so they would stack on top of load bars.....You can lay out all the plans you want, but like BayAreaSM alluded to....you just never know where you can fill in space and what can fit where until you actually hit the road and start working with your pack.

329

Tools of the Trade / Re: Software-packing a truck

« on: Sep 02, 2011, 08:15 pm »

As far as I am aware nothing exists specifically for this application.

True. But if you draft your pack before hand you'll have a basis to go off of......that you'll throw out the window as soon as you try to pack the truck and discover your initial plan doesn't work for sh....well you know.

Tour I went on discovered really really late in the game that both of our sets weren't going to fit in the truck....during tech. Just before we hit the road. We had to cut 2/3 of one of the show's sets in order to travel.

330

Tools of the Trade / Re: Software-packing a truck

« on: Sep 02, 2011, 01:04 pm »

Our TD used Auto-CAD. Again, expensive.

Try any of the programs listed here. I can't sample about half of them because they are Windows based, but one of them might work.
http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm#2D3DCADSystems