Messages

376

The Green Room / Re: Food in the Green Room and Smoking in costume?

« on: May 18, 2010, 05:53 pm »

Two years ago I worked on a show where the production manager went a little overboard and banned food from the backstage areas altogether except for our (tiny!) staff kitchen. What wound up happening is that people smuggled food into their dressing rooms and ate it there instead, so we had no idea where food and food debris might have been left, and we also forfeited all control over what people were eating. We also had a few "Hey, where's XYZ?" incidents where someone had gone on a food run without telling anyone.

I persuaded her to change the policy so that we could set out some "dry snacks" in the green room: dry cereal, cheese and crackers, bananas and apples, etc. It greatly reduced the amount of eating that went on in dressing rooms and seemed to work as a compromise--of course, we had to raid the SM budget to do it. 

377

Tools of the Trade / PROPS: LED Throwies

« on: May 18, 2010, 03:57 am »

My current show is a series of five vignettes, and the director wants to use a different sort of practical lighting for each piece: one will have paper lanterns, another will use string lights, etc.

One piece takes place in a forest at night, and we're at a loss as to how to do it, but I've been looking into making a ton of LED throwies. The magnets would be omitted, and they'd be strewn across the set during a movement piece between vignettes. (Once the vignette in question is over, we'd probably sweep them up and store them for tomorrow night.)

Does anyone have any experience working with throwies? I'm looking for general advice, although I also have two specific questions:
1) How long should I expect a throwie to last, in terms of hours? I've heard everything from 12 hours to 2-3 weeks, although I imagine it will vary greatly depending on how much we can spend on batteries.
2) It's possible to use a piece of card or plastic to serve as an on-off switch in order to extend battery life. Is this worth the effort? (Will re-inserting a hundred on-off tabs be a horrible, thankless task every night? Is it relatively smooth and quick?)

378

Homework Help / Re: (Homework [Help) Me!]

« on: May 18, 2010, 03:43 am »

I live and work in a jurisdiction where anyone who is responsible for the safety and well-being of a child and who suspects any sort of child abuse is required by law to report their suspicions to the proper authorities or risk criminal prosecution if it later comes to light that you had these suspicions but did nothing. This doesn't involve calling the police: you go through social services and they take it from there. As a result, I have a rather clear-cut and simple answer, and would encourage you to research the laws in your area to see if you have a similar "out".

If you want a real answer, though, this is a matter where we can drill out several key priorities. Here's how I'd rank them, in order of descending importance:
1) My responsibility to the children in question. I have a duty of care as someone responsible for their well-being and as an interested adult to ensure nothing untoward happens to them.
2) My responsibility to the person who signs my paycheques and the organization which they represent.
3) My responsibility to the company and the personnel involved on this particular show.
4) My responsibility to attend to the happiness and well-being of volunteers.

It would be great if I could protect this man's ego. It would be super if I could minimize backstage drama. It would be awesome if I could avoid a lawsuit. But none of this would justify ignoring reports of what sound like child abuse.

However, it must also be acknowledged that I as a stage manager don't have the skills, resources, experience and standing needed to adequately investigate and assess this situation, particularly since it may become a matter of interest to the police. With this in mind, I'd discreetly meet with the producer and explain the situation: they have the attorneys on retainer and ultimate responsibility for the well-being of everyone involved in the production as well as the company itself, while I'm just some schmuck with a stopwatch. If I uncover evidence that child abuse seems likely to have occurred, then I'd skip the producer and go straight to children's services or the police, depending on the situation--and, likewise, if after speaking with the producer nothing seems to have changed and the reports continue coming in, at that point I'd escalate the issue to the authorities.

It may be tempting to come up with a please-everyone, just-get-the-guy-doing-something-else answer, but these are very serious allegations and must be handled as such. If someone misbehaves with a glue gun, you subtly move them onto ushering instead. Misbehaving with an underage cast member is a whole other kettle of fish.

379

The Green Room / Re: THOUGHT OF THE DAY: What's your day job?

« on: May 17, 2010, 07:16 pm »

I'm currently a contract PSM for my alma matter. When I'm not SMing, I have a very good friend who throws me contract HR work.

380

Employment / Re: Child Wrangling

« on: May 15, 2010, 06:22 am »

child wrangler n. (theatrical)
1) The only ASM who didn't get a written contract until it was too late.
2) An unfortunate parent who didn't realize they volunteered for this.
3) A fresh-faced college student who will soon learn that Peter Pan's Lost Boys eat only three things for breakfast: ravioli, hot dogs, and the good intentions of fresh-faced college students.
4) Someone who is actually good with children, who can motivate them to follow directions without use of force or bribery, who genuinely enjoys the job despite almost no compensation, and who never has any trouble finding a parking spot in the vicinity of the theatre for the magical unicorn which carries them from the fairy palace in the gumdrop kingdom every morning.

See also: "Hey, can you do me a small favour? Just a tiny one."

381

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Getting Started in Theatre

« on: May 12, 2010, 09:46 pm »

Degrees in theatre, particularly in production and administration, are always a bit of a mixed blessing: there are about as many people in the world who go "Oh, hey, she has a degree! " as there are who go "Pffft, he has a degree. " Being in the "wrong" major certainly isn't the end of the world, and don't think that it is.

I would suggest you get into volunteering for student and community theatre. This might not be the right time of the year (depending on your region, of course), but many community theatres are desperate for production and administrative support and will gladly train you for it. This allows you to build skills, develop a resume, network and begin feeling out how you might like theatre as a profession.

382

Tools of the Trade / Re: iPad: What do you think?

« on: May 03, 2010, 02:20 pm »

Also noteworthy: fully 51% of the lighting boards I work with still have floppy drives as the only means of backing up/exporting/importing data.

Related to the iPad, and the power wielded by Steve Jobs, I heard an interesting interview on NPR this weekend.  They were talking about how Apple has been extremely successful in not only bringing new technology to the forefront, but also in killing off technology that it deems unuseful and/or obsolete.  According to the interviewee Apple was responsible for truly popularizing the mouse, killing off the floppy disk drive, as well as making the idea of CDs obsolete (which I think, while not completely obsolete, are on their way out, and you can't deny that iPods have already killed portable CD players).  They even talked about how many websites are already beginning to adapt to Jobs's hatred of Flash, noting how even the NPR website (among others) is stripping away Flash content to make sure it is compatible with iPhones and iPads.

I don't object to market leadership or getting rid of Flash or even Steve Jobs personally. What I object to is the idea that my hardware manufacturer gets total control over my access to software, and will charge me for the privilege. If they don't like a program, or a program doesn't meet their standards, or they don't like a developer, then they can not only refuse to offer the software, but delete the software from my unit if they decide to withdraw it from sale. That's just not on with me.

383

Tools of the Trade / Re: iPad: What do you think?

« on: May 03, 2010, 01:35 am »

I'm waiting for iProp, the brushed metal prop table with a glossy, editable surface and nead little icons for all the props.  Ideally with a trashbin that automatically resorts the table when stuff gets misplaced.

Of course I also want a party and a pony, but these are just as unlikely.

Hah! How about iPlaces, which sets all actors at appropriate entrances with correct props/costumes at a set time?

iWish, which allows the stage manager to fulfil the director's most esoteric whims ("...and could you fly the unicorn in over the audience from the balcony with a fireworks display? I saw it done in the West End back in the 80s, so surely we can handle it!") with nothing more than half a roll of gaff and the blood sacrifice of a chorus member.

More seriously, I do like the idea of a tablet device for use in stage work, but I have such a strong distaste for the App Store model of software distribution (and particularly how Apple treats their application developers) that I'm quite prepared to wait for a comparable Windows or Linux-based device before I dip my toe in. I should be allowed to install whatever software I like on my device without needing Steve Jobs' approval or paying him extra for the privilege.

384

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: sharing rehearsal room- and props??

« on: May 02, 2010, 01:35 pm »

Would I be correct in assuming that you're doing this show in an academic setting?

If so, the other companies might actually have the "right" to use your props, insofar as if the Properties Manager only has one set of suitable linens and two shows which need them, they might have told the other company to borrow them from you as required. Same goes for other props: I recently did a season where three companies had all decided that the same prefab bench was perfect for their production and there were scheduling traffic jams concerning the availability of that single prop.

They still should have asked you first, of course. (Certainly there are matters of propriety and hygiene, but I've met at least one or two actors who would definitely go "SOMEONE ELSE HAS BEEN ON THESE SHEETS? EW EW EW EW BURN THEM EW EW EW" and refused to work with them even if they were perfectly sanitary and clean.)

385

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: HEALTH: Injured actor

« on: Apr 30, 2010, 04:58 am »

I'm in agreement with nmno: if I was running this show, I'd much rather have an understudy or a local jobber do the heavy lifting than risk this actor collapsing on stage in front of half of a school.

a) do a line run in the car during the 3 hour drive tomorrow. I'm not looking to see whether or not he flubs his lines, but whether or not he becomes confused and frustrated.

Is the company in the practice of doing line runs while in transit? While it's true that it would show how able he is to concentrate and focus, it might piss off the rest of the cast, particularly if there was a pre-tour party and people were planning to rest on the bus.

386

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: Help, I'm being sabotaged!

« on: Apr 29, 2010, 02:13 pm »

With regards to Tynumber5, I'm not sure I agree with your methods.  Your actions, as you described them, resulted in your designer quitting the show, presumably within three days of tech.  I'd cringe to think of what must have happened to that poor choreographer's piece after their LD left the show.  Our job, as I've always had it explained to me, is to say "Sure, I'll take care of that," and to just figure it out and take care of it later no matter how ridiculous it is.  There are plenty of Designerzillas in the world, and I figure that if I'm going to continue to be employed by the same venue, I'm going to have to figure out how to work with them and not around them.  I've ticked off the wrong people too many times before not to.

What I would say, though, is that sometimes "bumping" someone off your show (for lack of a better word) is really the best outcome.

It's great when we can persevere and strike compromises and run interference and contain hotheads and placate designerzilla and serve the director's every whim and burn the candle at both ends and otherwise throw ourselves on the bomb to keep the show going--but I think we've all been in situations where someone leaving a show was (or would have been) the best all-around outcome.

In this case I honestly think that, as much as you're right that the choreographer got screwed, I'm not sure that having their show go up with a half-finished design by someone who sounds more or less incompetent would have been a substantially better outcome. (I hope this makes sense.)

To be clear, I still consider it to be the nuclear option, but if you've done all you practically can for someone and they still flirt with quitting, it isn't always the end of the show (let alone the world) if you let them push their luck and bring in someone more reasonable to handle things.

387

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: TD Unconcerned with Safety

« on: Apr 22, 2010, 09:09 pm »

What I would suggest you do is rally the troops. Don't make this about your concern: you don't want the story to be "I'm worried.", you want the story to be "The choreographer has been complaining about the dancing being thrown off by this hazard, the costumes people are concerned that someone might take a nasty trip and end up damaging their outfit, the dance captain reports that several dancers are so nervous about this part of the stage that they actively avoid transiting through it, which throws everyone else off, and the class rep has spoken to me about the same thing. This is a serious problem which is affecting many aspects of the show, and we need to deal with it."

The stage manager is ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone on the stage, but you'll probably get more oomph if you have some other people on your side. All you have to do is walk up to them and casually mention something like "hey, do you see that divot on the stage?", then make note of their response. ("Oh yeah! A chorus member took a nasty spill there last week, I've been meaning to talk to you about that...")

388

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Other Theatre Jobs

« on: Apr 13, 2010, 11:11 pm »

I would actually suggest taking a good look at the subjects you can pursue outside of theatre altogether. When I was getting my BA, I also pursued a certificate in Human Resources Management: I only had to do 4 elective courses, it gave me a skillset which has been extremely useful in my work (and which is surprisingly rare amongst theatre people), and the certificate is something valuable to put on my resume.

It wouldn't be advisable to take courses at random, but taking a class or two of economics/finance, marketing/communications/journalism, HR, psychology, law or history could be surprisingly useful in your career, depending on the direction you're hoping to take it. (If you want to be a designer, a grasp of history will be useful. If you want to go into arts administration, some background in finance will serve you well. And so on.)

389

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Edible prop food

« on: Apr 11, 2010, 10:36 am »

If I was expensing everything, what I might do is get one of those tins with an assortment of luxury cookies and spread them around a tier, then get some bagels (a variety of different kinds: some plain, some rye, some cinnamon, etc.) and make them into bagel chips. (Cut them into slices, toast until crispy.)

The actors who are sweet-adverse can cherry-pick the bagel chips out of the cookies, the audience won't be able to tell the difference, and all will be well in the world--assuming your actors don't mind eating crunchy, crispy food on stage.

I also strongly recommend cranberry relish as a sandwich topping. Even with the sugar, it's not particularly sweet: very tart, very tangy, very citrus, but that's all. You can spread it on bread like marmalades, and I've been able to freeze and defrost it without any trouble. (Although I use a different recipe.) It's also a little crumbly, though, and a pickier actor might object to that.

Speaking of marmalades, they'll add some colour to your sandwich tray without being too sweet. I'd also be tempted to try Cheez Wiz, but I wouldn't be surprised if actors objected to the junkiness.

390

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: NEW WORKS: when the show sucks....

« on: Apr 11, 2010, 12:02 am »

My fallback compliment is "I hope people like it!", which is perfectly neutral but sounds enthusiastic. (If they press you--"What do you mean, you hope?"--the correct response is "Well, you never know until the punters show up, do you?")