Messages

61

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: NOTING A PERFORMANCE: How do you maintain a show?

« on: Oct 14, 2012, 09:07 pm »

I think the one item I'm working on improving is going out of my way to compliment actors' choices early in the process, when I can be specific and honest about the observation.  These kind of positive notes early really help actors believe that I'm involved in the process and supportive of their work, which really pays off late in the run when I need to get their cooperation in adjusting their performance.

62

The Hardline / Re: End of Day break

« on: Jul 25, 2012, 10:58 pm »

We aren't promised a certain number of breaks in a day, we're promised a ration of break times after a set period of rehearsal - no longer than 80 minutes.

63

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Surprise Load In

« on: Jun 20, 2012, 11:11 pm »

About the stipend - next time, don't start work on a show without a signed contract that states a specific fee.  When you get called to the first meeting about the show, ask if you'll be signing your contract at that meeting; when you talk to the producer about the first rehearsal, ask if contracts (for yourself and the actors) will be ready for signing before the rehearsal actually starts.

If you're getting paid for a show, you have the right to know exactly how much before you start working on it.

64

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Facebook Comments (How to deal with a very unpleasant pit orchestra?)

« on: Apr 25, 2012, 01:43 pm »

Simple rule:  Never type anything, in e-mail or online, that you would be ashamed to see printed on a ten-foot-tall banner across the front of your theatre.

65

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Invisible spikes

« on: Apr 25, 2012, 01:38 pm »

The theatre I'm working at now often drills small holes in the edges of platforms/steps and insets battery-powered red LED lights in the holes.  The hole acts as a top hat hiding the light from the audience but an actor walking right over it can easily see where the edge is.

66

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TECH: Paper Tech

« on: Mar 20, 2012, 04:42 pm »

It's also training for director and designers, at the university level.  The only reason paper techs aren't often done at the professional level is because the professionals know they need to do the work even if there isn't a set-aside time for it.  Sometimes university directors and designers haven't forced themselves to do the detailed planning that tech requires, and paper tech forces that to happen.

Almost always I do a version of a paper tech all by myself, collating the cue sheets from sound and lights and what I know of the shifts. 

When I've done paper techs with the creative team in the past, they have ranged from 2-3 hours per act, depending on the complexity of the show.  If possible, I've split the paper tech over two days.  I've only done them for complicated shows, not generally for Chekhov or Wilde.

67

Employment / Re: Is there such a thing as picking the wrong show?

« on: Mar 18, 2012, 03:44 pm »

I've never been in NYC, but I found out something about myself that I'd like to share in the context of this post.  Some regulars may have heard this story before, so I'll try to keep it short.

Right after I got my AEA card, I took a job on a low-tier contract that only had under 30 hours of rehearsal per week, and I (fresh out of grad school) decided that I would only work the hours I was getting paid for.  The result was the worst opening night of my life, and I spent about ten hours the next day re-writing my book and running sound cues with the operator until the second performance was back on the road to half-way decent. 

Now I know that I have to commit myself to the show, and do whatever I can in order to make it be as good as it can be, and what I get paid for that is irrelevant to the amount of work I put in.  Otherwise I go crazy.  And that means that I have to be comfortable with what I'm getting paid, so that my life can continue during and after the show, and my family can continue to have a home and to eat.  I'm glad I've graduated out of those low-tier contracts, but at this point in my life, if I were to fall back down into the low-tiers, I'd have to find a different line of work to support my family.

This is all a long way of saying, know your value and get paid what you need to do the work well.  That amount can be anything from $0 to infinity, you just need to know what it is for yourself.

68

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: No Director Present

« on: Mar 08, 2012, 06:14 pm »

I would say, don't rehearse until rehearsal starts.

Stage Managers are problem-solvers, by definition.  Bringing us into meetings with the actors before rehearsal starts means we start working on problems; but the solutions can't be found until rehearsals actually start, so it's like banging your head against a wall.

If you step back and just attend their meetings to capture information and make lists, great.  More information is always good.  But don't take responsibility for moving their meetings forward.

Just my two cents.

69

The Hardline / AEA Set Moves

« on: Mar 08, 2012, 06:09 pm »

LORT rule 59 (B) is:

(B) An Actor out of character may set or move scenery or props only in scenes in which the Actor enters or exits.

I've always taken this to mean the french scene - i.e., Puck enters with a three-legged stool, puts it on spike, and starts the scene with the First Fairy.  But could it mean the stage scene, i.e., Oberon sets the stool then exits and waits for his entrance a page later?

Thanks,

70

The Hardline / Re: Theatres That Have Closed--Can You Say "Emergency?"

« on: Mar 05, 2012, 10:51 am »

AEA news says that Surflight in NJ is reopening for their 2012 season, a full season of Dinner Theatre musicals.  There's some good news!

71

Employment / Re: Kinda at a crossroads

« on: Feb 25, 2012, 01:14 pm »

If your question was about what kind of day jobs is SM a plus for, the answer is basically everything. keep digging around on the forum.  I can't find it right now, but I remember a thread within the last couple of months that was about how stage management skills are extremely valuable in any job search.

72

Employment / Re: Networking in new city

« on: Feb 25, 2012, 01:05 pm »

Is there a theatre service organization in your new location, like Theatre Bay Area in San Francisco, or Theatre Puget Sound in Seattle?

Have you been reading American Theatre for articles related to the new region?

Get to know who the players are in the new pond, who is most active, and what they're up to.  While you're waiting to land a theatre job, go see as much theatre as you can.

Once you do get face-to-face time with a potential employer, it really helps to have specific references to the shows they've done lately and the challenges that they might have faced in getting them up, especially if those challenges could have been eased by the addition of your skill set.  But even in a less direct way, employers are more likely to hire you if they see you have an aesthetic interest in what their theatre is doing.

I moved from a deep and wide network in San Francisco to a one-theatre town in Ashland OR; but I'd been attending the OSF plays for seven years as an audience member and grabbing coffee with the PSM here on each of those seven trips.  I was able to move job-in-hand, like Matthew, because of that proven long-term interest in the theatre and the evident growth in my personal skills and resume during that time.

73

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Equal-Opportunity Program?

« on: Feb 01, 2012, 05:49 pm »

That's a good caveat, Matt, but still, we're talking about stage managers.  How many high schools out there know that SMs even exist, let alone how to train them?

I guess it really depends on how fierce the competition is for admission to the college.  Back in the early nineties, when I was an actor in a BFA program, we just used un-cast actors as the stage managers in any given semester.  I know SMs have come a long way in academia since then, but still, I stand by my statement that a wide range of theatrical experience is more helpful in college admissions than a long list of SM credits.

74

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Equal-Opportunity Program?

« on: Jan 31, 2012, 06:53 pm »

Agreed.  Undergrad is not the same as graduate school.  More important than specifically-SM credits are a proven commitment to theatre, in any contribution.  The purpose of undergrad is to teach the craft to you, not to hire the most qualified SM for their productions.

75

The Hardline / Re: Public reading during rehearsal process

« on: Jan 21, 2012, 03:14 pm »

It's a very good idea to call the AEA business rep about this.  It's so outside of my experience that's the first place I would go.