Messages

421

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: What's the Difference?

« on: May 03, 2013, 02:24 pm »

To clarify - this was something that I actually dealt with. A prior employer did a lot of experimental work, so their policy was to call the entire company for every single rehearsal. (42 hrs a week.) When they went from non-equity to their first starter AEA agreement they had some issues with the 20 hr/wk restriction on their 2 AEA leads, since they'd never had to do specific actor calls before. It's understandable to do a few days of "TBD - Full company" but not the entire 6 week rehearsal period as some companies are wont to do.

422

The Green Room / Re: Desk/Sleeping area...for those long days

« on: May 03, 2013, 02:19 pm »

It's like one of those Japanese capsule hotels. Cool!

423

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: What's the Difference?

« on: May 02, 2013, 08:14 pm »

I think it may need some more time to formulate a reply than an 8 hr work day. Give it a little time and we may see some answers.

The main one that comes to mind for me would be the break schedule. Non-union rehearsals break when there is a reasonable moment to do so, rather than going by absolute time limits. The hours worked and days on/days off would also be precisely restricted, as opposed to staggered calls 7 days a week whenever you can nab somebody.

However, if you were doing AEA style in a college setting, you'd probably rehearse straight through any school vacations.

Working AEA style you cannot call the entire company for every rehearsal and then figure out what you're going to do with them once they arrive. The schedule needs to be set well in advance and specific calls need to be provided.

You'd have to warn everyone in advance if cameras were going to be present at a rehearsal.

Any nudity would have to be handled very very differently.

During tech & dress, you'd have to provide storage for valuables if you're running AEA style.

If an actor has a conflict for a paying gig, you have to let them go if you're doing AEA style rehearsals. Otherwise you'd just drop them and permanently replace them with another willing actor.

Some of the AEA provisions are tough to carry over without, y'know, AEA. If you really wanted to you could have a mock AEA deputy election at first rehearsal but it wouldn't really be necessary. You can't really bring AEA down on an actor who comes to rehearsal drunk, and can't have a union rep step in if the director is overworking the actors. So, you'd be able to TRY and enforce union protocol but it would be an approximation at best.

424

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Can you earn a living? (2013 Research Data)

« on: May 02, 2013, 12:12 am »

There are plenty of part time jobs, Caroline. We've discussed options many times here - the search bar will help you find some other discussions. I know in Chicago theatre is mostly an evening and weekend thing until you get to the highest levels of AEA work. So a 9-5 job is not out of the question. It's exhausting to do both - that's one of the things that majorly contributed to me moving on to a new career. However, it is possible.

Options include:
Temping
Office work
Waiting tables
Real estate
Box office
Child care
Teaching/Tutoring
Personal assistant
Housekeeping
... and many more.

425

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Can you earn a living? (2013 Research Data)

« on: May 01, 2013, 11:43 pm »

You're right, Jessie. I've clarified the language somewhat. That number refers to a new hire in their first year of full-time employment.

... which makes the forecast even grimmer across the board.

Remember also that the top of the pay scale in NYC can get into the six figures. That $4249 number is the average. The folks in the "below average" pay ranges could be very very low indeed. Working in terms of absolutes, for every big shot Broadway SM earning $150k per year, there could be two earning $50 a week and the average would still come out to approximately $4249.

426

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Can you earn a living? (2013 Research Data)

« on: May 01, 2013, 11:18 pm »

It was somewhat random. I wanted somewhere that wasn't really known as a theatre city to serve as a control.

Thinking further I should also do Las Vegas.

Las Vegas
Average New hire: $2050. With college: $3208
Average Mid Career SM: $4145. With college: $7072.
Average resident income, all industries: $2594 new, $3977 established. Artists earn more than the average worker in Vegas. This is not surprising when you consider some of the artists who are working there. This macroindustry includes everyone from Cher and Siegfried & Roy down to the lowliest "showgirl" along with the stagehands, designers and techs.
Total professionals: 780.

Average monthly costs: $4562
With worst case student loans: $5454

Debt for a new stage manager: $2300 loss per month.
Debt for a career SM: $1300, although you stand to earn a profit if you finish college.

You must be one of the top 20 stage managers in Vegas to stand a chance of meeting these averages.

427

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Can you earn a living? (2013 Research Data)

« on: May 01, 2013, 10:55 pm »

The question of stage manager pay was raised in another thread, so I did a bunch of research and came up with some stats for you. This is going to be a large post, though, and I don't want it to get buried, so I am posting as a separate topic. This is unfortunately US-based as that's what I can readily access.

I surveyed four areas: New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and, for a less theatre-friendly option, West Virginia.

The most detailed data I could obtain was for all Independent Artists, Writers and Performers. In most cases the numbers are from the first quarter of 2012, so they're pretty recent.

When reviewing this info, remember that I'm talking about the average income and spending. In other words, if you are lucky enough to make this a career, about half of you will achieve the numbers that I'm using here. Also bear in mind that the stats do not include the self-employed, and people who earned less than $500 from individual employers over the course of the year. In stage management there's many of those. Many, many shows in each of the cities I surveyed do not pay their workers $500 over the course of a single gig, or the stage managers don't report their income for any number of reasons. To reflect this, I've included the number of people who actually attained enough success to even register on the scale. Compare these numbers to your knowledge of how many people actually "work" in the business.

National Data
The national unemployment rate for independent artists, writers and performers is 11.6%. It's higher for men than for women - 13.6 vs 9.4%. Either way, this means that if you manage to get to the level where you get paying gigs on a regular basis, 11.6% of you will still wind up being out of work long enough to collect unemployment.

The average member of this industry works 24.6 hours per week. It is NOT a full time job, even for those who are working.

Student loans
Further down I'm going to be quoting some monthly expenses. If you get financial aid loans that you have to pay back, your costs will be higher. Here's the average add-on for student loan payments:

4 year undergrad	Private	$373
4 year Undergrad	Public in-state	$279
2 year Undergrad	Any	$107
3 year Graduate	Private	$518
3 year Graduate	Public in-state	$318

New York
Only 3494 people are counted as professional artists, writers and performers in NYC. Everyone else is not earning enough to count. Figure that 5% of those people (174) could be stage managers.
If you manage to get on payroll in NYC, in your first year half of you will earn less than the average of $4249 per month. Have a degree? OK, you now have a 50% chance of getting at least $5382.
If you manage to keep that gig for a few years, that will increase to $6311 per month, or $8725 if you finish college.
This is all higher than the NYC average employee: $4097 for new hires and $7915 for established workers.

If you're living in New York City, your average monthly costs are going to be about $4848.
However, if you've done the entire run of college & grad school with loans, those monthly costs could be more like $5739.

This means that the average new hire in New York will be losing $400-600 per month, or cutting their costs accordingly.
The average established worker has a decent chance of earning a profit.

Chicago
Chicago counts 1208 professional artists, writers and performers who felt comfortable enough to say as much on their tax returns. Figure that 60 of them were stage managers.
As a new hire on a gig paying professional rats in Chicago, half of you will earn less than $2329 per month. If you've finished college, that goes up to $3189.
After a few years of residence that could increase to $3586 per month, or $4714 if you finish college.
This is all substantially lower than the average Chicago resident: $3189 for new hires and $5502 for established workers.

If you're living in Chicago, your average monthly costs are going to be about $4798.
Add in the worst case scenario financial aid payments and that number jumps to $5690.

This means that the average SM in Chicago will be losing around $2500 per month if they try to just work in the arts.
The average established career professional will still lose about $1100 per month or make up the difference with a part time job.

San Francisco
1758 people claim to be professional artists, writers or performers in San Francisco. Going by the same 5% estimate I used above, 87 of them are stage managers.
Newly hired pro SMs in San Francisco average $2210 per month. College grads, you get $3503.
Long-term residents pros get $3303 per month, or $4561 with a college degree.
The average San Francisco worker across all industries earns $4374 as a new hire, and $6838 once they've established themselves.

The average San Franciscan spends $5663 per month.
Add in student loans and that's more like $6554.

In your first year on a professional paying gig in San Francisco, your best case scenario sees a loss of $3250 per month if you don't pick up a second job.
Chop $1000 off the monthly debt once you've established yourself, but the forecast is still nasty.

Charleston, West Virginia
There are a total of 8 professional artists, writers and performers in Charleston, WV.
They earn an average of $913 per month when they've established themselves.
The average Charlestonian earns $4050 per month.

Monthly cost of living is $3808, or $4700 if you've got student loans to pay.
In Charleston this is not a question of "Nice work if you can get it." You pretty much can't get it.

Conclusion
If you try to make this a full time gig, the top 45% of you - that's maybe 75 people - have a chance of earning a living at it only in the New York, the top theatre city in the US. In other cities you'd really have to be in the top 10% of all career stage managers to have a shot of breaking even. That means 6 lucky Chicago stage managers and 9 San Francisco SMs can do this full time and still be able to save for retirement. I'm ballparking here, and probably being very optimistic with those numbers.

I know you love stage management. I know you want to make it your career full time. But you really must ask yourself:
1) Do I have a shot at being one of the top 400 or so stage managers in the entire metropolitan theatre community? Take a look at the membership numbers of SMNetwork and then ask yourself that question again.
2) Even if I am one of the best, can I stand to be working two jobs for my entire career?
3) Am I willing to go to the cheapest post high-school education I can get away with?
4) I can cut my losses by going on tour to minimize personal expense, but am I willing to tour for my whole life?
5) I can raise my chances of a higher income by working industrials and commercial, but am I willing to do this?

If your answer to those five is "No," then it's time to reconsider your career choice. You can still stage manage. Please do! But know the odds, and plan accordingly.

Sources:
Earnings: http://lehd.did.census.gov/applications/qwi_online/
Tuition & loans: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/index.asp
Financial aid payments: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml
Consumer spending: http://www.bls.gov/regions/consumerspending.htm

PS: Students, if I can do this kind of research and report in 3 hours, you can too.
EDIT: Clarified some language.

428

Announcements / New Hidden Board: Teaching Stage Management

« on: Apr 30, 2013, 04:01 pm »

For the first time in ages, there is a new board on SMNetwork. But there's a twist: it's hidden with very restricted access.

The board is "Teaching Stage Management" - it's for instructors, professors, and those who regularly work with interns.

You must request membership in the "Teachers and Trainers" group to gain access to the board. To do so:

1. Go to your Profile.
2. Go to Modify Profile -> Group membership
3. Find "Teachers and Trainers" at the bottom of the page
4. Click request membership and complete the form on the next page.

I will review your request and approve/deny by hand.

EDIT: Once you're approved, the Teaching board will appear beneath the Students & Novices board. See photo for where to find it.

429

Announcements / Rewarding Good Students - Call for Papers

« on: Apr 30, 2013, 03:29 pm »

It seems unfair to unleash strict penalties for poor scholarship without something nice to balance it out. As much as we'd like to discourage bad students from abusing our website, we also want to support the good students out there who are working to improve our collective knowledge as an industry.

Therefore, consider this an open, ongoing call for papers. We're starting our own scholarly journal. It will be an online publication available for PDF and ebook download published *probably* twice a year featuring up to 10 of the best papers on stage management.

We would like to be equal-opportunity here, so here's the breakdown. Ideally each issue will feature:

• 3 of the best essays from high school students
• 3 of the best essays from college undergrads
• 3 of the best essays from graduate students
• 1 doctoral thesis (if available)

We may have fewer articles per issue but will probably not have more than 10.

Rules:

• Rolling submission deadlines are January 31 and July 31 annually. This should give you time to polish up those end-of-semester projects for publication.
• Submissions must be properly sourced and footnoted.
• Submissions must use proper grammar and spelling. We reserve the right to edit the essays for grammar & spelling if needed.
• Essays that are more than 6 months old are fine as long as the information within is still pertinent.
• Written Non-fiction only. No scripts, poems, short stories, other works of fiction, and no multimedia.
• We do not pay out to authors and we do not charge for copies. The SMNetwork journal is merely to get your research exposed to readers who could actually benefit from it.
• If you use SMNetwork to do research for an essay, you must follow our rules or your essay will not be considered for inclusion.
• Preference will be given to essays with endorsement from a faculty member or advisor.
• If your essay is to be published/has been published in other journals you must still have copyright to it. The journal will be published using Creative Commons Attribution/No Derivs licensing. Please notify us in your cover email if it will be included in any other journals.

Submit your essays for review to journal@smnetwork.org. Acceptable formats are Word, OpenOffice and PDF.

Also - if you would like to be on the editorial board for the journal please let me know.

430

Announcements / Zero Tolerance for Poor Students

« on: Apr 30, 2013, 02:00 pm »

It has come to my understanding that a Boston University stage management student has abused the Personal Message and Email functions to spam professionals for help with their homework. I have gone into the database and hand-removed all of the PMs sent by the member in question, but I cannot undo the emails. (Note: I did a batch delete of all messages sent by the member in question in the past week. I did not read your PMs. I don't look at the content of PMs. I don't DO that.)

The account in question has been banned for six months and we are in the process of contacting the Boston University stage management faculty to ensure that their other students do not abuse the community again.

This is the second time that this has occurred in less than a month. The first time it was from a Florida Atlantic University student, who was also banned. Her professor was also notified. I understand that the prof contacted the head of the theatre department and has addressed the matter with the student in question.

It is our opinion that there are too many terrible stage management students. Those who plan poorly and do not spend time researching a venue's etiquette before jumping in should not be surviving the "final cut" to graduate into the business. We will not tolerate abuse of our professionals any further.

Therefore, I want to make it plain that any students who do not precisely follow our rules and procedures for stage management projects will be banned for a minimum six months immediately without warning. I will also personally reach out to the faculty at the school in question, as I have done previously, to ensure that the student is suitably penalized for abusing our site.

431

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Good Reads

« on: Apr 25, 2013, 12:26 am »

Monona Rossol has several books on Health & Safety in the performing arts that are great reads. Her first was "Stage Fright," which I own and love, and she has subsequently come out with two editions of "The Health & Safety Guide for Film, TV & Theater," which is apparently the updated version.

432

Stage Management: Other / Re: Dance competitions

« on: Apr 24, 2013, 10:30 pm »

For those who find this later: Rachel asked this question again and got some answers here. Locking this one for now.

433

Uploaded Forms / Re: !! - Request Forms Here - !!

« on: Apr 24, 2013, 02:06 am »

We've got some variants for blocking in both the "Blocking Notation" and "Slip Sheets" categories on this board. As for actual use, you might have a tougher time. The pros don't keep their books after a show closes, so we don't usually have finalized versions on hand. For obvious reasons we can't disclose the tech for a show that's still running. However, you might find this lengthy discussion from the archives to be useful.

434

Introductions / Re: Hello!

« on: Apr 24, 2013, 12:05 am »

Ok, I'll bite. How are you attending two colleges at once?

435

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SHOWS: RED canvas tips

« on: Apr 15, 2013, 01:24 am »

Perhaps you could talk to a local hotel or linen laundry service. Hotels regularly donate spent linens to worthy causes - I know of one program that collects them for use at pet shelters. A boatload of white hotel sheets could work nicely, I'd think.