Messages

46

Stage Management: Other / Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...

« on: Feb 17, 2011, 01:20 pm »

While, yes, this is a big concern, I would usually handle this the way I would a straight play.  In performance, if the actors get lost or jump a huge section, it is usually up to them to get back together and as stage manager i have to figure out if they missed any technical cues and whether or not to jump those cues or speed through them.  In this case, the conductor is part of the group of performers (as are all the pit musicians) and it is his/her concern to keep the music together.  I'm a big advocate of not stopping during a performance unless it is a safety issue.

47

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROMPT BOOKS - using both script and libretto

« on: Feb 17, 2011, 01:07 pm »

Usually what you are going to find for musical theatre pieces are condensed scores.  If full scores are available, they usually cost extra to rent.  That's ok though, because a full score would be horrendous to call from (page turns every ten seconds).  I've done this before using the age old scissors and tape method and I've also scanned in the whole script and score and cut and paste as kiwitechgirl suggested.  Doing this all in the computer certainly took longer, but was a lot prettier, so I guess it depends on how nice you want the final product to look.  You may only need the major songs from the score depending on how cue heavy the piece is.  It is also possible that even if the designers are cuing based on the score that you can figure out a way to write those cues so they make sense in the script.  Good luck.  I personally find calling from the score a lot more fun and a lot easier, but I also have a degree in music, so it's certainly a fluent language to me.

48

College and Graduate Studies / Re: BA vs BS

« on: Aug 18, 2010, 12:33 pm »

Where I went to undergrad, the only difference between a BA and BS was in the general education requirements.  The requirements for the two degrees were exactly the same except for a BA you had to have 1 3rd level foreign language course and for a BS you had to have one additional science, math or technology course.  Since taking a 3rd lever foreign language course would have meant taking a 1st and 2nd level foreign language, I opted for the BS and spent part of my last semester of college learning all about human biology.

49

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS Archive June 09-Dec. 10

« on: Apr 21, 2010, 06:48 pm »

Any chance that anyone has a script for Picasso at the Lapin Agile   Ug, the Caveman Musical   or The Little Dog Laughed?  Designing all three this summer.
A private message or an email to  jdstewart83  @  yahoo  dot  com  would be great.

50

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Schools

« on: Apr 24, 2009, 11:05 pm »

I don't know much about Kalamazoo College's SM program, but I lived and worked in Kalamazoo for awhile.  It's a great town to live in.  Very artsy and there is plenty of theatre to do there outside of the university.

51

Employment / Re: Education Required to get a job?

« on: Sep 24, 2008, 11:54 am »

Are you too far along in your coursework to pick up a minor in theatre?  Is there enough flexibility in your schedule that you can take any theatre classes?  While you don't need the degree to get the job, having even a bit of an academic background in the field isn't going to hurt ya.

52

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: At A Cross Roads

« on: Aug 23, 2008, 03:57 pm »

Think about this as well.. 
If you major in theatre education, you can still get work stage managing.  If you major in stage management, you can't get work as a teacher (at least not in a public school setting).  I agree with above posts though.  You don't need to make a decision right now.  I would advise you start the education requirements right away though because I know education majors have a lot more requirements to get through.  If you start off as an education major and change out of it, it's not the end of the world.

53

Employment / Re: Leaving a job

« on: Aug 21, 2008, 01:24 pm »

Breaking a contract without adequate notice will almost always reflect negatively on you - but giving enough notice, offering to to train a replacement, and working on making your transition out the door easier . . . all will help.

Giving legit reasons to back out - like what you have written here - also helps.

The nice part is that technically I'm not breaking a contract.  I'm an at will employee with nothing more than a letter of agreement.  While I would like to leave right away, I do plan on putting mid to late October as my last day in my letter of resignation because I just started rehearsals recently for a produciton and would feel horrible leaving before the show closed.

I appreciate the feedback so far.  I'm pretty sure leaving this field is what I need to do for awhile, and I don't know if my sanity is worth sticking it out until June.

54

Employment / Leaving a job

« on: Aug 20, 2008, 06:11 pm »

Hi.  I've always valued the information I've optained on this forum, and I would like to get others opinions on my current situation.

I'm currently an intern (even though intern really isn't the best description for my job) at one of the largest community theatres in the nation.  I am just begining my second season with the company, and I am considering leaving.  I have alot of reasons for wanting to leave ranging from hating the upcoming season, not liking the area of the country the company is located in, to purely not wanting to be a stage manager anymore.  I basically don't think I am doing what is best for me at this time in my life.

I guess what I would like peoples opinions on is how detrimental will this be to my career.  I don't plan on stage managing again, at least not for awhile, but I do want to stay in theatre.  I'm hoping to work on my lighting and sound design portfolio the rest of the season and hopefully go to grad school for that.

I keep going back and forth on whether to stay or whether to leave and what the best decision would be, and would love some of everyones input.

55

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Is an AA degree enough?

« on: Aug 18, 2008, 06:26 pm »

While I agree with the above statements and think getting an education is very important, you might also want to consider working in the field for a year or two now that you have your A.A.  If you have the experience to get work as a stage manager, then you might want to give it a try and see if you actually want to do the job.  You might want to look into a few internships as well so you can get a feel for the job.  You can always go back to school to finish up your B.A. or B.F.A.  You might decide you don't want to stage manage for the rest of your life and decide to go back to school for another career, or you might decide that you do want to stage manage for the rest of your life and still decide to go back to school to become a more rounded theatre artist.

Just trying to present the other side of the arguement.  In the end, you need to do what you think is right for you at this point in your life.  No one can tell you what you should or shouldn't do.  It's all up to you.

56

Tools of the Trade / Black Light and Fog

« on: Aug 06, 2008, 04:24 pm »

Does anyone know if fog will react in black light?

57

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Your Prompt Book - Left or Right?

« on: May 24, 2008, 11:28 pm »

I like my blocking pages on the right because i'm right handed and my blocking is slightly more legible that way.  unfortunatly, i also like my cues to the to the right side of the script...  i don't want a seperate calling script from blocking script.  Im still trying to find the best way to do this.  I'm thinking...  retype the script and adjust the margin so that i have a large margin between the script and the binder ring.  so on the left hand page i would have the script to the left, cues to the right of that, and then on the right hand page i would have blocking and technical notes....  not sure how I'll like this, but I might try this on my next show.

58

Tools of the Trade / Re: [FAQ] Electronic Prompt Copies

« on: May 07, 2008, 10:09 pm »

For those of you who type up your scripts...  do you strictly stick to the original formating of the script or do you not care about the pagination.  It sure would be easier to just let it flow through the document, but I often need to tell actors what page we are on. 

In other news...  been experimenting more with electronic scripts.  Callouts in Word just seem to take too long.  OneNote seems promising (especially to take blocking on the fly), but I've only recently started messing with it

59

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Injured during tech?

« on: Dec 12, 2007, 12:59 pm »

I'm pretty appalled at reading how some of these injuries are occuring.  Some of this is the kind of neglagence that should be getting people fired.

60

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Budget?!

« on: Dec 10, 2007, 12:39 pm »

8 weeks is standard for a musical, and we're going to take it pretty slow, so i don't think 2 extra weeks is at all unheard of.

I suppose that depends on your definition of standard.  I've never rehearsed a musical more than 6 weeks...  and even that is usually overkill.