Messages

481

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Does it matter where I call?

« on: Mar 14, 2010, 10:14 am »

Do to the fact that you need some visual cues to call the show, I would recommend you use the booth. Plus, do you have an ASM? If so, they could be backstage while you're in the booth.

That might be his one hitch, I don't have an ASM. They never hired one!

482

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TECHNOLOGY: Anyone else using Google Sites?

« on: Mar 13, 2010, 07:38 pm »

Well, we're into tech week and I would have to say the experiment with Google Sites was a 50/50 success -

It turned out to be an invaluable resource for the production team. Everyone used the site at least once, either to upload documents or download them, and having the calendar and contact lists online turned out to be beneficial. The producer for the show said he has plans to make this a permanent fixture for future teams on several more complicated shows coming up, specifically Rent and Annie.

Unfortunately it wasn't as successful on the cast's end. For the first half of rehearsals I only did the online callboard, which after it was updated would send an email to cast members. But several of them, even after reminding them twice to subscribe to site changes, did not subscribe; and after one time when they didn't get the callboard updates, I switched to personally emailing the callboard. I didn't want to take a chance of another missed rehearsal when we had just a month to rehearse. Every rehearsal was precious! Another problem I had was syncing Google Calendar with Sites; even when I had given an actor permission to view the calendar, Sites would say they weren't authorized to view it. The only solution I found was to make the calendar public rather than private. From the feedback I received I believe if this problem hadn't occured so early on and for so long the actors would have used Sites more.

Overall I'm really glad I tried it, even if it wasn't 100% successful. Were this another show with more rehearsal time, or a musical that would require more people in more than one rehearsal space, it may have gone differently. I'm glad that the end result meant that a theatre will be using Google Sites for their production teams and that I was able to introduce the process to them. I will definately be trying this again as soon as I am able.

Since we've abandoned the actors version for now, I am able to send invites for those that would like to view the site. PM me if you would like to take a look at it and I will add your email address to view it.

483

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / CALLING: Does it matter where I call?

« on: Mar 13, 2010, 07:10 pm »

I'm going through tech week right now and my director and I have hit a snag with the resident technical director/set designer: since he is the go-to guy for the theatre, he is insisting that I call the play from a podium offstage, rather than in the booth with the board op. He says the other stage managers have done it this way and that he prefers it in case something goes wrong backstage. The problem is, there are very specific visual cues for lights and sound that would be made much easier from the booth rather than watching on a sketchy monitor above the podium. The director favors the booth and says that there have been other stage managers that have the called the show from the booth in this theatre before, so he's not exactly sure why it has to be the way the TD/SD says it has to be.

Should I bring up the change? Or should I suck it up and try it from offstage?

Edit added tag to subject line-Rebbe

484

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TECHNOLOGY: Anyone else using Google Sites?

« on: Mar 10, 2010, 08:40 pm »

I was just playing around, seeing how these google sites worked.  But can you only view the site if you have a google account? 

Not necessarily, you just have to 'register' with Google. I have my email address as the sign-in.

485

The Green Room / Re: Olympic-sized technical difficulties

« on: Feb 28, 2010, 10:40 pm »

I loved how the closing ceremony opened with a clown "fixing" and raising the missing fourth column and then having the athlete who had been scheduled to light that column at the opening finally get her chance to bring the flame back for the night. Wonderful sense of humor, eh!

Good for them! I missed it bec/ of rehearsal but I'm sure I'll catch it on YouTube.

486

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: What's the most controversial show you've ever worked on?

« on: Feb 26, 2010, 09:48 pm »

My first show in college-- Angels in America, Perestroika and Millenium Approaches. We were told from the get-go that several groups in Cincinnati were speaking openly of boycotting the production, especially after learning about the gay sex scene; come opening night however, there wasn't a single picket line to be seen and each night was sold out. One man actually paid for a preview night for a very large group of personal friends and colleagues. I'm sure it was a hefty price tag!

A rather surprising controversy happened during a run of Mr. Marmalade. Through the title character throwing around porn and dildos, snorting crack, smoking, and feeling up the 30-something actress playing a 5 year old, the controversy came when, in an effort to keep Mr. Marmalade from leaving her, the girl kills their baby, covered in it's blood. This all happens in her imagination, so it's quickly revealed that it's "just ketchup." But for some reason this moment really stuck in the audiences' mind. I heard several people say, "It was really, really good...until she killed the baby. Then it went too far." One of my friends who saw it said repeatedly, "It still haunts me!"

487

Tools of the Trade / Re: Bubble Machines

« on: Feb 24, 2010, 09:15 pm »

You can try white wine vinegar. It's acidic so it cleans well, the smell will go away once dry and you can get a gallon of it for about two bucks. It's also a safer and more agreeable solution than ammonia or other cleaner which might damage the floor.

As a last resort you could always try Coke. If it picks up hydraulic fluid off a stage floor I can imagine it would work with bubble solution.

488

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: When to take the blame

« on: Feb 23, 2010, 10:43 am »

Another point I think I need to make: when you decide to take the blame gracefully, rather than put the attention on a team member's mistake, you're showing your team that they can trust you. Being corrected in private is more tolerable than being thrown under the bus publically. If you're continually pointing out their mistakes and taking none of the responsibility yourself, you are telling them: you probably won't call yourself out when you do make a mistake, you may make an unfair conclusion that they were responsible for something when they weren't and they'll be less apt to go to you when a problem does occur, possibly making for a bigger mess to clean up later.

489

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: When to take the blame

« on: Feb 21, 2010, 10:45 pm »

You'll find that you will have to take the blame when things go wrong whether they were a direct result of something you did or not. Take it and apologize. Then after the dust has settled, get together with your ASM and crew and calmly and without jumping to conclusions, go over step by step what exactly happened. Nearly hitting several actors is very serious and steps should be taken that nothing like that happens again.
Your director probably knows that you didn't see the set issue but decided to go ahead with the cue anyway. But the hierarchy dictates that you are the head of your team, therefore, any problems occuring within your team is yours to fix. He isn't going to go to your ASM and talk to them, that's your job.

I find a good trait to learn in stage management is the ability to agree with blame from a director quickly without taking it personally. You can always discuss it later one-on-one.

490

The Green Room / Re: Olympic-sized technical difficulties

« on: Feb 14, 2010, 11:13 pm »

Mac - I love how he handled it. Nothing like humor to bring it down to earth 

491

The Green Room / Re: Olympic-sized technical difficulties

« on: Feb 13, 2010, 11:54 pm »

Not me personally, but I will never forget the first time I saw a catastrophic technical fubar onstage: I was a senior and we were attending "Beauty and the Beast" at the Schubert in L.A. When the scene change for the father's cottage to the interior of the castle came, something happened with the timing because the drop came in too soon and both set pieces collided, bringing a shower of wood down with it. I - and my group - were instantly mortified and ecstatic at the same time...when you're in high school you think the pros never mess up like you do and to see it happen was like having a front row seat to "...this is what you do when..." They continued since neither of those pieces were used again, but you could clearly hear people yelling obscenities from backstage. Afterwards everything seemed to be back on track until it came time for the villagers to storm the castle, the castle doors wouldn't open. So Gaston just yelled, "Come on everyone, we'll go through the back!"

It helps from time to time to know that even hundreds of thousands of dollars in technology, talent and manpower doesn't insure a flawless performance.

492

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TECHNOLOGY: Anyone else using Google Sites?

« on: Feb 13, 2010, 11:32 am »

Update: We chose our cast Feb. 2nd and everyone has been sent invites to the cast version of the callboard. I would say the biggest drawback to the invites is that you can't choose for someone that they receive email notifications of changes to the site; the actor has to sign on and choose 'subscribe to site changes.' I encouraged everyone to do just that, and so far there have been no problems...I must have a responsible group of actors I post to the callboard before 10pm the night of a rehearsal and it sends the notification of a site update to the actors. This has been the only callboard notification they've been receiving; I haven't been asked to send emails in addition to the notifications.

We had issues with Google Calendar working correctly when attached/inserted onto the Calendar tab of the Google Site. At first I made the calendar private, sent out invites, then attached to the site. I tried every variation I could see to make it work, but most times the actor got a message saying they weren't authorized to view it when trying to view it on the site. Currently I've made the calendar public and reattached it to the site, and so far this is working fine. I'm sure there's something I'm overlooking that will let me make the calendar private while still being able to view it on the site, but this will have to wait until the next production.

493

Tools of the Trade / Re: Prop: Drugs on stage

« on: Feb 04, 2010, 11:48 pm »

Sage is good for the pot, we did it for "Hair" and none of the actors had an issue with it. Or if they're smokers anyway you could use real tobacco.

Do NOT use powdered sugar for snorting. At his prompting I had an actor snort two thick lines in front of me while doing his lines and it jacked up his sinuses to the point where I thought he might have to go to the doctor. I would look for an alternative substance or trick snorting device (do they make dollar bills with a tiny vacuum on the other end?).

494

The Green Room / Scrapbook? Personal mementos?

« on: Feb 02, 2010, 04:36 pm »

Since I started doing regional productions back in 19** I've kept a scrapbook of sorts detailing who was in what show, any problems or challenges that took place, what I liked about the production and any general information, including photos. I find that I've had to reference it several times when I needed to know the name of an actor I've worked with, when I'm doing a production again or if I just want to reminisce(sp?) about good times.

Anyone else do this too?

495

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Professionalism: Pre-show drink

« on: Jan 31, 2010, 10:56 pm »

I would say no but I'd definately take him up on the offer afterwards