Messages

46

The Green Room / Re: SM Joke

« on: Jan 12, 2010, 07:45 pm »

A stage manager, a director and an actor are rehearsing when the actor rubs a prop lantern. It turns out to be a magic lantern, as a genie pops out and offers each of them a single wish.
The actor says, "I want to be on the French Riviera, famous and surround by my fans!"  The genie nods and... POP! He disappears.
The director says, "I want to be on a beach on Tahiti, with a drink in my hand, surrounded by beautiful women." The genie nods and... POP! He disappears.
The stage manager looks at her watch and says, "I want both of them back in ten minutes."

47

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Automation Advice

« on: Dec 07, 2009, 10:40 pm »

I've done two shows with automation. I have no idea if my process was "normal" and in both cases we were using a rental set that came with pre-programmed automation, but the directors wanted (of course) to do something different than what was provided.  In both cases, I provided the programmer with the desired changes to each cue (what pieces moved and the attributes of the move - this depends on the set piece and the programming, but is not unlike lighting design) and they did the programming ahead of time, but it was a rough cut. It was very helpful to then have a specific automation rehearsal where we stepped through the cues with the director present. Often what they thought they wanted was not what they really wanted, and allowing the designer to talk directly to the programmer really cut to the chase of what "look" was wanted. A lot of it boiled down to language. A director might say they want the set piece to get there "faster" but really they want it to move quickly into the scene and then slowly glide into final position. Those nuances are hard to convey in writing.

As far as timing to actors, it was less of an issue to us, because it was a musical. We had no cases where the moves didn't happen with music, and the actors simply adapted to the known musical timing.

Hope that helps. I feel like I'm being terribly vague.

48

The Green Room / Re: working with a significant other

« on: Dec 06, 2009, 10:50 pm »

My husband is a Master Electrician and is frequently head rail on my shows as well. We worked together before we were married as well. It has almost never been a problem for us, because we share a similar work ethic and views on PDA.  Our biggest issue is when it's a difficult show and we're both complaining all the time and both feeling bad because neither can fix it. Luckily, our realms are different enough that we just enjoy bitching to each other, and can be supportive.

49

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Are your shows safe from busses?

« on: Nov 11, 2009, 03:51 pm »

I try to bus-proof, but speaking honestly, I know my book would pose a challenge to a sudden replacement who was totally unfamiliar with the music/show. They'd get through it, and it wouldn't be bad, but it wouldn't be perfect. My main problem is that I mark the script, and not the score, for musicals. So when I write "music change" next to an electrics cue, I know what change I'm listening for, but a sub might not.

I was the sub in a bus situation once. The stage manager was in a car accident and hospitalized, totally out of contact. Lucky for me, I had one brush up rehearsal to learn to call the show, and then I only called the show two more times before she returned. She had an excellent system, and I was able to call the show pretty easily, with the exception of follow-spot cues. The spot ops were excellent and mostly knew their own cues anyway, so the show went on just fine. But I always think of that situation when I mark my book, and do my best to make it intelligible to anybody else.

50

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: First Aid: what do you do when the skin is gone?

« on: Oct 11, 2009, 10:02 pm »

http://www.onstagedancewear.com/PD-4056.aspx

51

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: First Aid: what do you do when the skin is gone?

« on: Oct 09, 2009, 07:37 pm »

Just thirding the newskin, which I also used in gymnastics. Ouch, though. It hurts no matter what.

52

The Hardline / Re: TDF Membership

« on: Sep 19, 2009, 08:02 pm »

I am assuming that you have to be a Union member to join?
Or was this mistakenly posted here on the Hardline?

From the TDF Web site:
To qualify for TDF membership, you must belong to one of the following groups: full-time students, full-time teachers, union members, retirees, civil service employees, staff members of not-for-profit organizations, performing arts professionals, members of the armed forces or clergy. When you join, you will be asked to supply TDF with proof of your eligibility.

53

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: FORM: Shoe/Clothing rental form for AEA GA contract

« on: Aug 30, 2009, 11:18 pm »

Matthew - you're saying it should be dealt with by the company, rather than the stage manager?  Just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.

VSM - I don't see that in the GA contract, but I believe you. I'm not supposed to contact AEA, per the producer office, which would jive with what Matt is saying.

54

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / FORM: Shoe/Clothing rental form for AEA GA contract

« on: Aug 26, 2009, 07:39 pm »

Per the AEA Guest Artist contract, actors may (at their discretion) rent items of their personal wardrobe to the producer for use in the show. Terms are negotiated on an individual basis, depending on the number of items, length of the run, etc.  Does anybody have a form they use for this that they'd be willing to share?

I've made various informal agreements for this over the years, but I'd love to be able to give the actor a starting point, with a form where they just have to fill out their proposed rental fee.

55

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Enforcing Punctuality in Community Theater

« on: Aug 24, 2009, 03:49 pm »

I do community theater, and punctuality is often an issue. These are the things I do to address it:

1) On the first night I ask everybody to put my number into their phones and to call me if they're going to be late. No matter what. Even if it's only a couple of minutes late. I explain that if we know you're late, it helps us decide how to handle the rehearsal. I then say, "and by the way, if you're late every day because of traffic, you need to leave for rehearsal earlier, because clearly the traffic is always going to be there."  This usually gets a laugh.

2) At call time I call everybody who isn't there. Even if it's only one minute after the call time. I use the language that ChaCha suggested, to not be confrontative... "Hey, just checking to see how close you are?" or "Just calling to make sure you knew your rehearsal call was 7pm today..."  Usually it only takes one of these calls for the person to start calling me when they're running late. (And if my director doesn't want me to do that, I won't. But I also won't apologize for rehearsals starting late for the duration of the show.)

3) Start on time, even if they aren't there. This is of course up to the staff to some extent, but you can usually do something that makes good use of the people who were on time.

4) I keep a sign-in sheet, and when somebody is late and calls, I note that. If they are late and they don't call, I note that too. If somebody is chronically late, I pull out my sheet and highlight their late days and show it to them, and say "hey, you seem to have an issue getting here on time. Is it traffic or what time you get off work, or what?"  Usually I already know that it's just their pattern, but a personal talk and visual proof of the problem helps the conversation be taken seriously.

5) I also note and announce local events that are likely to cause traffic problems. If there is a football or baseball game, or a bridge closure, or anything that is likely to make traffic or parking horrific, I give them warning and tell them to plan extra time to get to rehearsal

56

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: Conversations with actors

« on: Jul 24, 2009, 11:31 am »

Nope. I think I'd just blow off that particular incident as unwarranted and chalk it up to director stress.

I did have a director yell at me once because an actor missed his entrance due to talking with a crew member (just chit-chat) and not paying attention to where we were in the show. He put full blame on the crew member. In my world, actors are responsible for making their own entrances, so I thought it was utterly unreasonable. (Plus there was a monitor in the room, which was just offstage, it was only the 2nd run-thru so the crew member who was still unfamiliar with the show had no way to know that the guy was close to his entrance, etc.)  So I just gave a blanket reminder to the crew not to distract the actors, and gave the actor a reminder to not miss his entrances. It didn't happen again.

57

College and Graduate Studies / Re: Transitioning into community theatre

« on: Jul 19, 2009, 10:42 pm »

Frankly, there is a huge difference between various community theaters. I don't have a lot of advice, as I did more community theater than I did academic theater.   We're in the same area, geographically, and we've worked with some of the same people. The expectations will vary widely between companies. And those expectations don't correlate with pay, necessarily.

One thing that I find important to remember is that community theater actors are often not professionals and don't know what to expect, or how to behave. Informing people of expectations in advance becomes terribly important under these circumstances. Likewise, sometimes the producers' expectations are wildly out of proportion to what is appropriate to ask of a all-volunteer cast. I find it equally important to advocate for the cast and for the producer.

58

The Green Room / Re: Best reason from an actor for being late

« on: Jul 10, 2009, 04:38 pm »

"Sorry I'm so late. I was drinking tea in my car and a cop saw it and thought it was a gun and pulled me over. He took my phone and then spent 30 minutes searching my car for the gun."  I'm pretty sure that dude was a chronic liar. He told a lot of stories.

Before don't ask-don't tell went into effect, I had a guy in the air force who was in a show, and decided during the run to out himself to his commander. I got a call from him "I'm going to be late because they're detaining me for questioning on base. I should still be there in time for the show."  He was there, in the nick of time. We'd already restaged, because I had no idea if he'd be arrested or what.

59

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Friend as a Stage Manager Advice

« on: Jun 26, 2009, 02:28 pm »

It really depends on how far the situation has gone, and whether there are any hard feelings developing. I've been in the exact spot that you're in, but I had the fortune of an advance understanding between me, the SM, the director and the producer that I was on board as ASM to help train the SM. Furthermore the SM was very open and genuinely interested in doing the best possible job.

It's never fun to hear that you're not doing something right, or not doing enough, so it was still rocky and I had to tread carefully. We established "off-line" time to go over things, when we weren't in earshot of the cast or director, so that I could advise on how to handle things, and also point out some things that could have been done better.  Sometimes I felt like a puppet master, signaling her to do something that we'd discussed earlier.  We also cleared up that she was fine with me "taking charge" if I saw the need, as long as we maintained a consistent chain of command for the cast and director. So if the director came to me for something, it was on me to say, "sure we can do that, let's just go let Sarah know as well."  Or if I noticed that something wasn't being tracked, I'd say, "Sarah, do you want me to track the movement of that prop?"  As long as the two of you are open and respectful of one another, and you both have the best interests of the show in mind, you can improve the situation. And your friend will learn a lot too!

60

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Some Basic Questions

« on: Jun 20, 2009, 11:31 pm »

And I'm an intentional non-pros (offered my AEA card, decided to do a day job and stick to high end community theater instead)?