Messages

46

Employment / Re: advice on interviewing

« on: Jul 10, 2007, 04:07 pm »

I was thinking about posting something along those lines, so I'm glad that you did!

The question I've been thinking about lately is "What is your best SM moment" and it's even tricksier counter-part "What is your worst SM moment" because I think that those are kind of standard questions - looking for strengths and weaknesses. On my first interview I managed to turn them both into strength answers by explaning what the worst moment was and then explaining how I rose above it...

47

Uploaded Forms / Production Calendar

« on: Jun 30, 2007, 01:38 am »

Production Calendar in Excel Format

This is very similar in style to the one PSMKay first posted:

Sample production calendar in word format.

But is in Excel format, which I prefer. It also has formulas in it to make it easier to begin a calendar on any particular day (simply delete the numbers prior to First  ACTUAL date of the month and that day will become "1")

There are three tabs to the file.
The first ("Monthly") is the template calendar (12 times so you can do a whole year at once).
The second ("Mini Months") is a sheet with all possible starting days to a month. These are mini calendars which can be inserted into one of the blocks of the larger calendar so you can quickly glance at the next/previous month.
The third (HELMET July 2007) is my sample calendar for the show I'm starting preproduction work on so you might see how it all comes together.

I did a lot of work on making a full template so that I don't have to waste time messing around with creating a calendar in the future.

48

College and Graduate Studies / Re: SM Colleges

« on: Jun 28, 2007, 03:20 pm »

I just graduated from UMass Amherst.

I adore the department. I was a transfer student from a very small college and was very nervous about transfering to such a large school. If you want the benefits of a small school experience (personal attention, gaining a lot of experience, etc), it is available at larger schools. You have to work for it a little more, though. You can't just expect people to invite you to do things. You have to meet people and let them know you're interested and hang out and find things to be a part of.

The first semester I was at UMass I was pretty miserable. I didn't know anyone, I wasn't taking any theater classes (Stupid General Education Requirements!) and I felt lost and alone. But after that semester, I started taking theater courses, meeting people, and working. I found that it didn't matter that there were 25,000 people around. I found my niche in the theater department.

If you go on tour at the school, you'll have to set up a separate department tour which I greatly reccommend. You'll meet real students who will tell you real things. We're not seasoned tour guides. We'll tell you that you should wear layers  when you have classes in 201 because the temperature is always either too hot or too cold. :-P

Julie Fife is the Production Stage Manager and is a wonderful resource. She has a wealth of information and is willing to give it away. The other mainstage stage managers I had the pleasure of working with are wonderful people who are totally competant at their jobs.

Each year the theater puts on 3-4 mainstage shows in two theaters. The Curtain theater is a blackbox theater seating less than 100 and the Rand theater is a proscenium theater seating 500. (The Rand has bright orange carpeting including on the walls which is both loved and hated). We've been working on getting a rennovation, and I think that will be coming pretty soon.

There are MFA Directing, Scenic Design, and Costume Design programs which allow undergrads to work with some great people. There isn't a BFA for Stage Management or Acting so there are a lot of opportinities from SMs and actors to actually work on mainstage shows.

Also there usually is a large amount of secondstage student produced shows that one can get involved in. My second semester I SMed two second stage shows. My third and fourth semesters I SMed a mainstage show each.

There is a SMoffice which is well loved although sometimes a little cramped (mostly during tech week when the place looks like a hurricane of paper!). It is decorated like a day/night sky and makes me smile every time I walk into it.

I really learned a lot from UMass and I'm so glad that I transferred. The general educaiton requirements were a pain, but taken over four years they wouldn't be quite as bad.

The show I'm SMing this summer for the NYCFringe is directed by one of the MFA Directing alumni I worked with this past year.

49

Tools of the Trade / Re: Stage Manager Books/Manuels

« on: Jun 27, 2007, 01:25 am »

I think that there are some threads on this previously. You might try searching.

But Lawrence Sterns' book "Stage Management" is a great resource, although greatly outdated. That's the book I started with and definitely go back and read from time to time (at least sections of it, although sometimes the whole book -- it gets me excited to stage manage).

Also "The Backstage Guide to Stage Management" (Thomas Kelly) is a staple in any stage management library.

Both those books kind of have the educational stage manager in mind.

The PSM at my alma mater really recommends "Stage Manager: The Professional Experience" by Larry Fazio. She said that it was the only stage management book really written for the professional world and that any of us (taking her SM class) looking to SM professionally should  read it. I've been meaning to, but haven't found it at my library yet.

Other reading she suggested was:
"The Art and Craft of Stage Management" by Dorris Schneider
"A Sense of Direction" by William Ball (this is geared towards directors, but knowing what's going on inside a director's head is really important to the SM. I haven't read all of this book, but enjoyed what I had read.)
"Stage Management Forms and Formats" by Barbara Dilker (but I wouldn't buy this. Not with all the free stuff in Uploaded Forms!)


You can't go wrong with "The Backstage Handbook." It's any techie's bible.

50

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: calling cues

« on: Jun 18, 2007, 06:11 pm »

Is this as in how you're actually calling it? Or what you're writing in your book?

I say "Lights 23" and Write "L23" (I don't say/write Q either. It takes up time that you may need.

I also say "Sound 54" (Although I prefer letters when possible) and write "S54" \

I think I actually say "Fly Q E" which is probably a waste of time but that was my first show with Flys and I didn't really know what I was doing. :-P I gave them letters (skipping Q) since I had numbers for both lights and sound. "Rail" makes a lot of sense though and I'd probably switch to that myself.

51

Employment / Re: Too Old

« on: Jun 13, 2007, 01:53 am »

[quote author=megf link=topic=2111.msg14543#msg14543 date=1181706316
That said, I agree wholeheartedly with those who have said that producers who get squeamish only *after* hearing about age aren't worth their salt. IMHO, it's petty and rude - hardly inspiring.

Meg
[/quote]

Not to mention ILLEGAL in most (if not all?) states to ask for age before hiring (except to find out if you're under 18 for school/work issues)

52

The Hardline / Re: performance reports

« on: Jun 11, 2007, 06:55 pm »

Well in a legal situation where someone gets hurt, you have documentation of the accident as well as any notes given about it. "The railing has been wobbling. Could someone look at it and see if it could be secured?" Haven passed that info along presumably someone else has l liabilty when that actor fell of the staircase. Or "Actor X has been moving between two pieces of set while they're in motion. Has been asked to wait until both are stopped before proceeding." No one's fault but the actor's when (s)he falls down and breaks a leg.

Without a performance report there would be no offical way of communicating the problem. I know that there's at least ONE director who reads every one when we had a consistantly faulty set piece which the SM wrote numerous notes about until it finally broke pretty good one day. The director (who was onto the next project) emailed and said she wanted it fixed or replaced with something equal. She was able to keep an artistic eye on things through the performance reports.

I know sometimes it feels like no one reads them and that they're a waste of time, but it's one of those reasons why I like to keep my kit with me because you never know when you just might need that doctor's rubber mallet you've been carrying around for the past 3.5 years.

53

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: set changes

« on: Jun 04, 2007, 09:14 pm »

I was always told that audiences lose attention after 10 seconds (and I definitely agree! 10 seconds is a long time), so I always strive for scene changes that take less than 10 seconds.

Of course I think it also depends on what the scene changes are. How grandious are they? If it's just a few chairs moving around then 30 seconds is a long time. If it's an entire house moving upstage except of the attic/roof which then touches the deck followed by the roof lifting off to reveal an attic bedroom... well I think the audience will be completely captivated for however long that takes. (I know I certianly was when I saw Mary Poppins!)
Is there music covering the change? What is the feeling of the change? One director I worked with liked to have actors help with the change to make it smooth and a part of the show. All kinds of things were added into the changes, including a backflip.

But I think that anything that shave seconds or milliseconds off of a scene change might be worth the time it takes to figure it out and rehearse it.

54

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Interesting request for performance reports...

« on: May 07, 2007, 12:49 am »

For the show I just finished working on, I made an Excel Spreadsheet because I did not want to do the math for the timing.

All I insert is the show start time and then the running time of Act I, Intermission, and Act II and it figures out what time all that stuff happened. I set it up so that it's exactly what I have in my Performance Report (which i stole from my PSM) and so I just copy and paste the cells into my report. Very easy. I'm better at hitting my stopwatch button than I am at looking at the clock, so I find this to be easy.

It can be modified to add times in a different way, though. The most important thing is figuring out how to format each cell. Some are formatted HH:MM:SS and some are formated HH:MM AM/PM. After you figure that out, then you just add things together like you would any another formula.

55

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: New Poll: Students and Stage Managing

« on: May 02, 2007, 07:45 pm »

I'm a full time student, stage managing a show with 24 cast members (which is ALMOST done. YAY!), work at least 20-25 hours / week (although I DID cut back because of tech and the show, heh: can't do BOTH the performances AND work!), and I'm married.

I feel like I never see my husband, I'm completely behind on all school work, I need to make more money, and I'd like to be able to spend more time working on my show. But that's life. You can only do so much.

But thank God I'm graduating in just a few weeks!!!!!!! Now if only I had a job lined up already. *eep*

56

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Keeping it Straight with BIG CASTS

« on: Mar 23, 2007, 01:47 pm »

Eep! Sounds very intimidating. Especially because I'm not great with names in general. The picture ideas sound like a great idea.

For The Caucasian Chalk Circle we have only (in comparison) 24 cast members, but they all pretty much play multiple roles including 7 of them being "Ironshirts." Brecht did not write a SM friendly show. Anyway, the dramaturg gave each actor letters before we did auditions in order to figure out the doubling. So I had all my actors wear name tags with their letter on them and used their letter when it came down to writing hte blocking in my script. Every day I give out the letters to the actors to help me remember who gets what. I think I've got everyone down by now, but it's been a week of spring break so we'll see what happens when we get back...

The point of that was just to give you an example of how I did blocking notes for a larger cast and it obviously wouldn't work for a cast the size of 80, but maybe it will help give you an idea for having to take blocking notation.