Messages

526

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: LX Plotting structure

« on: Jan 07, 2007, 02:47 pm »

It is certainly not ideal.

From an LD perspective, I always prefer to have the true cast present - I find I get much better results that way and I can plot a show in an hour or two, however it is unrealistic really to expect the show to be run in it's entirety, at a much reduced pace.

How an LD can do a decent plot without knowing how the show is being mounted, I will never know. There is no way you can plot from a script - because chances are the LD will interperet the show differently from the director (so all plotting until the LD understands the directors vision is basically just "ideas" and in no way able to predict the final lighting plot)

This long drawn out process will probably produce the better results for the LD, however I worry about the breaks in between sessions that you indicated may occur. What can end up happening is the entire feel of the show can change between sessions. Maybe see if it is possible to do a much shortened run through with cast doing rough, "concept" plots, then solidify with people who get paid to stand arround and do nothing (instead of acting).

527

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Merged Topics - "Left or Right" and "Your book Left or right"

« on: Jan 07, 2007, 03:36 am »

kiwitechgirl - Do you ever have problems tracing the cues across the binder spine?

I took on an SM straight out of uni (I was PM/supervising SM) for a small show about 8 months ago and she photocopied all her documentation from her course work. One of which was a page that sounds a lot like yours. I ended up helping her to redo her book after tech because she had problems with late calling or mixed up calling as she tried to match up cues in cue intensive situations as she crossed the gap between the two pages.

No offence intended, as your method may be different and better suited, or you may know how to use this layout effectively, but I found this recommended layout to be wasteful of space and rather disfunctional. I would be interested in a bit more info - like what you like about it, how you came up with the layout, and any short-commings you have found.

528

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

« on: Jan 06, 2007, 06:03 pm »

My gut response is no. If they want the laundary to be done by you, they should be paying you a laundry allowance to take all of the garments to a laundry to get done - ie you should not have to take them home to do it - as well as for your time, and it should be a separate agreement.

529

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Dressing For The Part?

« on: Jan 06, 2007, 06:00 pm »

I spend 90% of my time in black, but I usually wear black jeans, black work boots, plain black tshirt, black belt. HOWEVER: My jeans are in good condition - the creases ironed out etc. My black shirt is clean and not all crumpled, my black boots are polished. I suppose the issue is you have to be NEAT casual. So no ripped jeans, no scrunched up T-shirts with holes in them etc. I have long been a believer that you can still look dressed up in t-shirt and jeans, you don't have to look dagy. Occasionally, I break from the norm and wear a long sleeved t-shirt or something with an image on it, but that is fairly rare.

530

SMNetwork Archives / Re: word usage?

« on: Jan 06, 2007, 05:53 pm »

Have you/Could you/Would you please/Should/Shouldn't

A large percent is in tone of voice and method of delivery as opposed to phrasing. Yelling across the room as opposed to taking them asside, being short and sharp instead of taking time and doing it softly etc are often ways to get peoples backs up.

531

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Stop The Show!

« on: Jan 05, 2007, 03:41 pm »

It is a difficult situation really.

The "Should I have stayed to clean it up" situation I believe has two factors:

Was anyone else available - ie FOH staff or free actors? If so, could you have safely handed them the job of cleaning it up?

Could the area in question be issolated from cast/crew safely? (ie was there risk of electrical shorting due to water down there) - if so, would it have been possible to do a quick walk through and make sure everything is out of harms way, and just closed off the area? Would that have been feasable?

The "Should the Producer have the right to berate me" part:

No. OH&S is one of the most important parts of theatre, and water can do a surprising amount of damage - especially combined with electricity (Most theatres I have been to have had their main power distro as well as the dimmers/patch bay down stairs - so during flooding, electrical dangers are an extreme risk). My gut response would have been to tell him/her/it/them/... that you would have been well within your right to call a stop to the entire show, and if you feel that you need to halt a show for safety reasons, you will. The actors momentarily pausing and disrupting the show for a couple of minutes is not cause for major alarm, and I highly doubt there were any complaints.

Also - it makes one wonder about two things:

When the LX op, who I would assume had a decent view of the stage, noticed the actors did not enter, why did he/she not re-cue them?

And B:

Should the actors not know the show well enough to know that the amount of time they were standing there was not normal?

Wrote this last night, got distracted by a phone call and forgot to hit post, so I realise some points are answered now

532

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Printers

« on: Jan 03, 2007, 06:43 am »

I find I print 99% of my stuff in black and white - so at home I have a small B&W laser that cost me AU$200, it is a lexmark - model number escapes me, and also an Epsom C63 colour ink jet (a bit long in the tooth now), which tends to spend half it's life wedged under the front of the passenger seat in my car. It is not a "Portable" by any stretch of the imagination - 150mmx200mmx500mm being the approximate dimensions - but it is easy enough to carry if I need to "set up shop" in a venue (or clients house). I also have an old dot matrix printer (form feed and A4) which I picked up for a fiver at a garage sale - and it has one purpose - printing documents on Non-Carbon triplicate paper (ie medical forms)

533

Stage Management: Other / Re: Comparing rep, touring and opera

« on: Jan 02, 2007, 03:54 pm »

What may be a good idea, is for you to tell us what you do know, and then we can expand upon your thoughts, and point out avenues to investigate.

534

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Legal Pads

« on: Dec 31, 2006, 01:19 am »

I usually just buy a decent quality pad. The cheap ones suffer from one of two problems (sometime, they suffer from both) - pages not tearing out nicely, and pages just falling out. I am a recent convert to the Legal Pad, as I always used to use spiral bound notebooks - however they cost an arm and a leg. I usually use the ones from one of Australias larger stationers (OfficeWorks)

535

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Musicals Vs. Straight Plays

« on: Dec 30, 2006, 12:37 am »

Being in a high school setting, as professional and realistic as we are or try to be, its still interesting to be a 16 yr. old that at sometimes will be pushing the director (and theatre teacher of the school) out of the way. generall because he and the technical director have been in professional theatre settings they respect my position of authority and listen to what i say. Am i to be responsible for controlling the band, which at times seems worse than actors. They answer to the band director, who is also the band teacher normally, but since he answers to me in a sense, is it imporant for me to be taking their attendance during tech week, etc.

Ah - see the way I view it - the MD/Director/etc do not answer to the SM - you provide a service from them, and occasionally need to put in an "excuse me, Mister Director, Sir", but all in all, you defer to the director/md/td/ect.


As an aside - within a professional setting, the muso's are in their own little world.

536

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: I need everyones opinon...

« on: Dec 29, 2006, 08:09 am »

I disagree with that sentiment. I like the idea of being accessible to the cast whilst back stage, and can generally multi-task. I agree, that for most issues, via the ASM is the preferred method - after all, I am constantly using one ear to monitor cans, so why waste bandwidth on the other, listening to stuff that could be coming down the cans ear, however in emergencies, injuries etc, I always like first hand info, and I do not want to dissuade my cast from coming to me - provided they understand that making the show run smoothly is more important than Cassandra stealing your hair tie.

537

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: DSMs

« on: Dec 28, 2006, 05:17 pm »

Again, still not likely. I mean you could try researching the authors of some well known stage management books - Lawrence Stern for example wrote a good blurb about his career in his book, or you could run down to some of the larger companies around your area and conduct interviews, or you could try and conduct interviews with some online SM's.

538

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: DSMs

« on: Dec 27, 2006, 09:10 pm »

Famous - unlikely.
Infamous - maybe.
Renowned - much more likely.

DSMing is not exactly a role that brings fame and fortune. There are no Tony's for "Best theatrical stage manager" or "Best called 40plus cue sequence during an up-tempo dance number", and most of the Great Unwashed do not know what an SM is. Maybe a DSM shot his/her cast or something (hence, infamous) - but my mind is not turning up any names. However there are a number of renowned SM's floating about here, or other places on the net.

539

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: I need everyones opinon...

« on: Dec 27, 2006, 04:11 pm »

Traditionally, Prompt Corner (that small space back stage on the Stage Left side) is where you would call a show from, if you have the facilities.

Calling from the "booth" is a relatively new thing (compared to the age of the stage managers role), which has come about with a lot of theaters either being ex-cinemas, built to be able to act as a cinema or being built with multimedia capabilities (the booth being the projectionists room (bio-box)), and also from 'recent' explosion of black box theatres - at least that is my take on it - SM's moving from black-box and feeling more comfortable in the bio-box, or new SM's feeling more comfortable with the ops in a separate room.

If you plan on being an SM after school, then there is no question where you should call from - Prompt Corner - because chances are, if you ever get into anywhere remotely resembling the "Big time" you will be calling from PC. If you cannot trust your ops, then you may wish to be within hitting distance, so the back of the theatre is a good place, however if you cannot trust your ASM's, then PC once again.

540

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Musicals Vs. Straight Plays

« on: Dec 27, 2006, 02:47 am »

Since I just closed JC:SuperStar with a new SM (acting as PM/Trainer for SM) - more of an Easter show in my mind, but who cares - I thought I would add a few extra things I took note of:

1) My trainee SM did not know anything about music -  apart from who the lead guitarist is in Limp Bizkit. The first thing I did was to give a crash course in music and conducting. If you are planning on SMing anything with a lot of music, I think that is something you should learn - you should know what each instrument is, it's basic sound, where it tends to fit into the orchestra, how music is written on the page, what note lengths are, basic patterns used by conductors, beat subdivision etc. I saw an advert in the paper the other day, 2 day "crash course in music" - I don't know what they covered, but it is certainly something to look into if you are planning on entering the operatic world of theatre.

2) Sitzprobe is cool, I agree with the above poster (we use the term here in AU too). Try and get a feel for how the music really sounds. Rehearsal scores/arrangements rarely do any justice to the actual way it will sound when played by a full Orchestra. I found myself marking "landmarks" into my score (any points that stood out, like "trill played by clarinet section") - they are useful if you ever get lost, and also because they often form cue points in the LX plot.

3) Make sure that the MD gets the orchestra to sign in and be strict about punctuality- my pet peeve is that Musicians often do not believe they come under the SM's jurisdiction (which is sadly, often true) and by extension, the MD is then responsible for making sure everyone is there, and phoning up - which means things can go to hell in a handbasket pretty damn quickly (MD: "Oh, the drummer has not arrived" Me: "I told you we would be ready to open the house in 10, and to get the orchestra in the pit, why didn't you tell me then? Why wait until we are about to open the house to tell me?" MD: "He has been 5 minutes late a few times, something about the bus." Me: "Have you rung him to see where he is?" MD: "No, I thought we could wait a few more minutes." Me: "Please go and ring him." MD: "In a minute"......) Slightly frustrating.

4) If all else fails, give yourself timing marks through the scripts, and use a stop watch. Combining this with landmarks, will allow you to find your place relatively quickly in emergencies - ie your prompt copy is knocked off the table during a scene filled with dancing.

They are the main notes I have made from JC:S that apply to this thread. Hope it helps, even just a little.