Messages

61

Stage Management: Other / Re: How to break into Music?

« on: Jan 08, 2009, 05:31 pm »

Greetings,

That's a hard question to answer, since there aren't a lot of stage managers in the concert industry, especially below the arena level.  I have a 2,500 seat road house that gets about 100 concerts a year, in what is considered a 'tertiary market', and I maybe see one or two actual 'stage managers' come through with the concerts.  Tertiary market means that I get the folks who are either up and coming but haven't gotten big enough for arenas yet, or folks on their way down who can't fill arenas anymore.  We had the Jonas Brothers as an opening act for someone else, for example - but now they're on their own arena tour so they won't be back here (this size theatre/market) for a while.  The theatrical shows will all have SMs, and there are a few concerts that do, but not many.  Since you're dealing with one star and their band, you're not in the same situation as a theatrical show dealing with actors.  Actors come and go and need wrangling,  singers are the tour and will have their own personal manager that takes care of them.

-Centaura

62

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Costuming the Crew

« on: Jan 02, 2009, 07:20 pm »

I was costumed once as running crew, and had a near-nasty accident because of the costume.  It was decided that since the costumes were for the crew, they didn't need to put any effort into them.  I ended up in a skirt that was literally four sizes too big for me and had to be wrapped around my waist and pinned.  I had to run backwards during one scene change and my shoe got caught up in the skirt fabric, I went down on my butt and thanks to our momentum, went 'skipping on my butt' across the stage.  While it was amusing to everyone else later, I was too busy at the time trying to stop the heavy table leg from dropping and crushing my neck.

Now, this might indicate that I am totally against crew in costume - which I'm not, but it would take a good reason why they need to be in costume to get my full support; as well as the costume taking the crew's needed movements into consideration.  I worked in a union house once where a hand was needed center stage to open up a set piece that rolled on, so they worked it out that one of the hands wore a costume and entered from inside the piece after it was wheeled on.  In that circumstance, it worked out.

BTW - he was also paid extra for wearing a costume, per the theatre's contract.

-Centaura

63

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Handling an emergency

« on: Dec 14, 2008, 03:38 pm »

It sounds like you handled the situation well.  I've been in a similar situation, I did handle it differently, but the scenario was different.  I was on tour, and the crew was local and didn't know the show at all.  I got a call from backstage that one of my actors was having problems, and the symptoms that were listed sounded like a stroke.  It was near the end of the show, so I took a chance.  I asked the hand with me in the booth if he could follow a prompt script, knowing that my sound tech knew the show well enough to run his own cues and that there were only a few light cues left in the show.  I left my script with the hand and went backstage to deal with the situation myself, since I was SM & CM, as well as first aid certified.  Backstage, I was able to organize the actors to get someone else onstage playing his part and then get him to where we could wait for an ambulance.  The local hand backstage, while handling the situation fine in regards to contacting me etc. had never seen the show before and the other actors didn't know what to do, so me showing up with directions for everyone was the best thing to do.

Its also why I always cleaned up my prompt script at the beginning of every tour.

-Centaura

64

The Green Room / Re: I can't believe I just had to do that...

« on: Dec 12, 2008, 12:41 pm »

I was in charge of petty cash on tour, and had to buy all the condoms that the sound guy used on the wireless mics.  But, being practical, I was doing all my week's prop shopping as well.  We were in a Walmart down south and in my shopping cart I had every box of unlubricated condoms that the store had, plus some cookies, whipped cream, shaving cream and a ladder.

As well, I was a young, white 20-something female shopping with my 40+ black male sound tech that trip.

That was one of my more memorable trips for condoms; though I generally raised eyebrows whenever I went and bought out their supply of unlubs.  It was interesting my first time - I think I was as red as the box that they came in, but after 6 years I could go through checkout and never even bat an eye, no matter what types of looks I was getting from the cashier.

-Centaura

65

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Newbie Band Show Manager need help : (

« on: Dec 12, 2008, 10:28 am »

There's two ways to approach the budget question -

Approach one:  Find out how much money the school is willing/able to give the production, and work with that.

Second - try to figure out what your money needs will be and make a proposal to the school saying you think you'll need x amount of money, and be prepared to give them the list of what you think you'll be spending on it.

Be prepared to have no budget - a school show for 150 audience would typically have no budget, and would be put together with whatever you can beg or borrow.

You technical questions are all about sound, and sound equipment.  FOH = front of house, an english abbreviation.  FOH technician is the person running the sound board.  FOH is a generic abbreviation that folks will use to mean anything relating to the lobby, a sound/light booth that's at the back of a house, sometimes the box office, etc. 

Most small band riders have specifications for what kind of sound equipment that they will need, as most road houses don't have much, if any, house equipment.  What you need to do is contact each band that is playing and make sure that they each have the equipment that they need to perform (which they probably do, since they are small bands), but you should also find out what sound equipment is available at your venue and make sure that that it will work with what your bands will need.

-Centaura

66

The Green Room / Re: I can't believe I just had to do that...

« on: Dec 08, 2008, 02:16 pm »

I was doing a touring show for really young kids, and one of the things that I had to instruct a local guy to do every show was to help the pink poodle with the big hat.  I told that to a guy at one venue, and he looked at me funny and said "Are you speaking in code?".  I told him no, that I really wasn't, and that he was going to see an actor in a full body pink poodle costume come to him and that she would need help putting on the 4' tall hat [showed him the prop box] and she needed someone to hold the hat while she did up the harness that held the hat in place. 

-Centaura

67

Stage Management: Other / Re: Your most interesting "Other" Project

« on: Dec 07, 2008, 02:11 pm »

When you mentioned the filming - I have done one thing that really turned my head upside down for a day.  We did a professional filming of an original play that we were putting on.  We had to spend the entire day dissecting the show down into scenes that made sense to run together from a filming point of view (i.e. each scene that happened on a particular set piece together in a group) - which was definitely not the normal running order of the show.  It really teaches you how much you know about the show - to be able to do scene after scene totally out of order.

-Centaura

68

Stage Management: Other / Re: The annual nutcracker 7th inning stretch....

« on: Dec 03, 2008, 01:49 pm »

I have the symphony's holiday concert this weekend, and then the local Nutcracker loads in on Monday for a week of rehearsals and a weekend of performances, followed immediately by two other touring concerts.  The show itself isn't bad, they do the same thing every year, but this year its sandwiched on both sides with other shows so its going to be a long two weeks!

-Centaura

69

Stage Management: Other / Re: How to break into Music?

« on: Nov 12, 2008, 04:29 pm »

Music is hard to break into, especially if you're referencing concert tours.  Most of the bands that come through my venue don't have stage managers, perse, the person who runs everything is the production manager.  If you can get yourself onto a few crews to help load-in and out, that's one of the better ways to make contacts with folks.  Another website is www.roadie.net - its been a while since I visited there, but I believe they had an employment section.

-Centaura

70

The Hardline / Re: MILWAUKEE SHAKESPEARE CLOSING ITS DOORS

« on: Nov 06, 2008, 05:39 pm »

I work for the only theatre in my town - I was recently recounting the economic woes of a friend of mine in a local major metropolis, and the person [to whom I was recounting the tale] asked me 'wasn't I glad that I lived in a small town'.  I said no - if for some reason my theatre went out of business, there would be absolutely no arts-related job that I could switch to.  We've had a drop in ticket sales this year, but we're going to make it through.

-Centaura

71

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Working with a Russian Director

« on: Oct 30, 2008, 10:18 am »

Oh, I would also make a note about having a Russian-English dictionary on hand, just in case you run into something that either the translator doesn't know, or maybe run into a moment when the translator is not there.

One thing I have done in the past, when I've had Russian ballets in my venue - I made signs in Russian and posted them up around - directions to the stage, the dressing rooms, etc.  I know absolutely no Russian, but found that there are Russian letters as one of the fonts in my word processing program and was able to copy and paste them into signs, putting the letters in the same order as I saw in the dictionary.  I got one or two things slightly wrong, but their main English speaker just chuckled and wrote out the correct version.  I think they appreciated the little touch of welcome to my venue.

-Centaura

72

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Communication Issues

« on: Oct 29, 2008, 12:48 pm »

I doubt its a case of them being new to the theatre, its a case of their minds not making the connection to how important communication is.  Some people will never make that connection, which ironically is why stage managers are so useful to begin with, but one of the reasons that they get driven nuts.  All I can say is do the best that you can do, you have done the documentable to give them the information that they need.

-Centaura

73

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Working with a Russian Director

« on: Oct 29, 2008, 12:42 pm »

Just check your assumptions in at the door and all will be well. Bon chance!

I have to second this piece of advice - it sounds like you're going to end up either being under-utilized, or asked to do things that would otherwise not be a stage manager's job.  I say go with the flow, try not to get upset over differences, and just do your best.  This is not the advice I'd give to someone in another situation, but in your case working once with a director who is not going to be resident at any theatre over here, there's no point getting worried over exact job descriptions.

-Centaura

74

The Hardline / Re: San Francisco Bay Area general membership meeting

« on: Oct 17, 2008, 09:02 pm »

Thank you for your thoughtful post.  I especially liked your comment:

"It's your union--fix it!"  Now that I have found myself in the position of complaining, I'm going to take my own advice;

So many folks just want to sit around and complain, when the only way to "fix" things is to get up and do something.  Good for you that you've been inspired to take a step in furthering your own knowledge, and sharing it here.

-Centaura

75

The Hardline / Re: IATSE

« on: Oct 17, 2008, 08:57 pm »

most important---be liked!

This is a good piece of advice.  I don't know how it is in other locals, but in the local that works at my building you apprentice, but then have to be voted in as a journeyman by the rest of the membership.  I've picked this up through conversations where they've talked about "never voting [that person] to journeyman level".  Not only do you have to know your stuff, you have to be work-able-with to get farther.

-Centaura