646
Self-Promotion / Re: Coriolanus-Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
« on: Aug 14, 2012, 07:16 pm »
Saw there were some weather issues over the weekend, how many performances did you manage to squeak out between the tornado warnings?
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14 Jan 2021: Happy 21st birthday, SMNetwork! I replaced the old broken mobile theme. -K
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647
Employment / Re: Websites
« on: Aug 13, 2012, 02:31 pm »
The site looks pretty good, especially for a first try! I'd bump up the line spacing, personally, but if it's a design choice then maybe darken the font instead. It's pretty but a little tough to read.
648
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Dear Abby: Seeking advice on teching with a difficult director...
« on: Aug 11, 2012, 06:35 pm »
Our members sometimes have questions that they wish to pose to the group anonymously. They have the option of submitting their questions to members of the staff, who in turn post the questions on their behalf. This is one such situation.
Quote from: Besieged in the Booth
Dear Abby,
I am in tech with a director who becomes wildly frustrated with the tiniest of cueing errors (example- my GO is a beat off because an actor reversed the order of the cue line, and I get dirty looks and disgusted noises directed at me & banging fists on the tech table). I am also having a bit of a learning curve with running the light board while calling silent sound cues to an op who's never run sound before and likes to jump my GO's, and a lighting designer who changed the cue numbers for about a third of the cues halfway through tech (and keeps adding/cutting cues without telling me). Suffice it to say that this is not an easy show to call, and I was actually pretty proud of how few cueing errors we had in our first preview. The director, on the other hand, was pretty upset. Disproportionately so, in my opinion, for how small/few the errors were. We're not talking about going to black in the middle of a scene here- more like the wind effect went out a fraction of a second later than desired. His reactions to other problems (like actors changing blocking or forgetting important props) are nowhere near as extreme.
How would you react to this? I'm trying to stay calm & rational, but his frustration is starting to get me really flustered, which makes it even more difficult to run the show. Any advice?
-- Besieged in the Booth
649
The Green Room / Re: I like my theatre like I like my men...
« on: Aug 10, 2012, 07:25 am »
I've tried to keep mine reasonably gender neutral (except for the condom one). To further confuse the peanut gallery, I submit:
I like my theatre like my partners...
... open to cross-casting
... lit like Christmas mass
... requiring multiple viewings
... avoidant of food props
... not a dry seat in the house
... always able to provide a spare cot
... help I'm trapped in a double entendre factory
... sometimes from up above, sometimes in side view - only the muggles stick with face-to-face
... with a nicely-proportioned loading dock
... with freshly laundered undies
... with a small landing strip, not a glow tape runway
... not a damned shade of grey for miles
... with enough spare time to rehearse the understudies
I like my theatre like my partners...
... open to cross-casting
... lit like Christmas mass
... requiring multiple viewings
... avoidant of food props
... not a dry seat in the house
... always able to provide a spare cot
... help I'm trapped in a double entendre factory
... sometimes from up above, sometimes in side view - only the muggles stick with face-to-face
... with a nicely-proportioned loading dock
... with freshly laundered undies
... with a small landing strip, not a glow tape runway
... not a damned shade of grey for miles
... with enough spare time to rehearse the understudies
650
Homework Help / Re: Portfolio
« on: Aug 09, 2012, 03:29 pm »
Locked for not using the template and failure to use the search function. Please read the Homework Help rules and use the search to find the many, many times we have already covered this topic.
651
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Blowing Chunks....Artistically
« on: Aug 08, 2012, 01:53 pm »
The comment exchange after is kinda funny. Audience vs propmaster flame war ending with looking to the SM's notes for validation.
652
The Green Room / Re: I like my theatre like I like my men...
« on: Aug 07, 2012, 10:17 pm »
... with a well stocked first aid kit. Ow.
653
Employment / Re: SM Typecasts
« on: Aug 07, 2012, 12:52 am »
I do think there's a difference between detrimental typecasting and doing a particular genre really well. I made some close friendships with directors who enjoyed certain types of scripts, and therefore I wound up working on those scripts consistently as those directors kept asking for me as they traveled around. It did not prevent me from getting other work. Rather, since those directors overlapped the Venn diagram of really "difficult" directors at the time, it meant that among PMs I got a rep for handling fussy directors well.
I think to a certain extent that the same annoying "stage managers are not creative" meme that needles us so much also works in our favor when it comes to typecasting. Designers and directors become known for their visual styles. We get known by the mental muscles we exercise more and our proverbial "rising sign" - dramaturg, director, musician, actor, dancer.
I think to a certain extent that the same annoying "stage managers are not creative" meme that needles us so much also works in our favor when it comes to typecasting. Designers and directors become known for their visual styles. We get known by the mental muscles we exercise more and our proverbial "rising sign" - dramaturg, director, musician, actor, dancer.
654
Employment / Re: SM Typecasts
« on: Aug 06, 2012, 03:51 pm »
This is somewhat awkward to describe in a sensitive manner.
I had wanted to do new musicals. Not just any musicals but new ones exclusively. I really enjoyed working on them and hitched my wagon to a company that did a relatively large number of them. However, they are rare critters and you have to pad the season out somehow. That company also did a lot of shows about black history & shows with color-blind casting. These were originally shotgun wedding shows that I took on so that I could do the musicals but I came to enjoy them. I think by the time I switched careers I was starting to get typecast as an SM for for-us-by-us shows about the black experience.
I had wanted to do new musicals. Not just any musicals but new ones exclusively. I really enjoyed working on them and hitched my wagon to a company that did a relatively large number of them. However, they are rare critters and you have to pad the season out somehow. That company also did a lot of shows about black history & shows with color-blind casting. These were originally shotgun wedding shows that I took on so that I could do the musicals but I came to enjoy them. I think by the time I switched careers I was starting to get typecast as an SM for for-us-by-us shows about the black experience.
655
Self-Promotion / Re: King Lear - Trinity Rep / Dallas Theater Center
« on: Aug 06, 2012, 03:30 pm »
Looks much better, Matthew! I think while everyone else is talking about your Lear I may be more excited that you're learning to scratch code!
656
The Green Room / Re: I like my theatre like I like my men...
« on: Jul 31, 2012, 01:53 am »
...recovering nicely from a strict religious upbringing.
...keeping me busy for 10 out of 12.
...covered in beeeees. (Oh wait, wrong forum.)
...bound up in something with 3 rings.
...outdoors, with plenty of condoms on hand.
...organic, adventurous and yet leery of Julie Taymor.
...keeping me busy for 10 out of 12.
...covered in beeeees. (Oh wait, wrong forum.)
...bound up in something with 3 rings.
...outdoors, with plenty of condoms on hand.
...organic, adventurous and yet leery of Julie Taymor.
657
Articles from the Old Site / Re: Stage Management History?
« on: Jul 24, 2012, 04:01 pm »
I wonder if we don't need to pay some attention to the role of Assistant Director in these investigations. After all, if you look at the role of AD in high opera it contains a lot of the tasks that are normally assigned to the SM in straight shows & musicals.
Y'know, Tom Kelly spoke a bit about the origins of the SMA in his chat with us a few years back. Let me see if there's anything worthwhile in the old transcript.
Y'know, Tom Kelly spoke a bit about the origins of the SMA in his chat with us a few years back. Let me see if there's anything worthwhile in the old transcript.
658
Articles from the Old Site / Re: Stage Management History?
« on: Jul 24, 2012, 03:18 am »
Good heavens are they still using Brockett after all this time? I'm amazed at how many of the texts I used in the mid-90's are still in use in college-level training.
Anyhow back on topic, yes, it would take a combination of tax returns and playbills, certainly, and newspapers from assorted eras, and possibly correspondence from assorted playwrights and directors. We know that there's mention of a prompter in G&S's era, there are prompt scripts so that part of the role had emerged already.
Brianna speaks of the Greeks and of non-western emergence of a stage manager. If you want a counter-thesis, very well. The stage manager may not have evolved but sidestepped into theatre from liturgy. After all, I was an acolyte in my church growing up, and I can attest that what I did during the service had a lot in common with a sort of stagehand/ASM position. There are altar boys, altar guilds - a whole bustle of "backstage" folk working to coordinate a church service. If one could see the stage manager anecdotally emerging from the role of the actor-manager, then one could just as likely see someone who performed a similar function in the church stepping in to coordinate a large production of, say, mystery plays.
Keeping a troupe of social outcasts together on the road is one thing, and requires a certain type of skill, but coordinating an entire town to perform something like the York Mystery Cycle year after year would mandate something more akin to what we do, I would think, and the skill set might already be in place from working in the church. An analogue could possibly be found in performative experiences from non-western cultures - shamanic rituals, eastern operas & spiritual shadow puppetry, etc - how is the backstage structured for these? (Of course, there's no guarantee that we evolved from a similar structure, but one could argue that history repeats itself and performers the world over still need organizing.)
But really, couldn't you see it as ... troupe pulls through a town where they do regular performances of their own. The fellow who puts together the annual shows takes one look at the merrie bande and says *tsk* "oh no, here, let me show you what I've learned from getting 500 people to show up for choir practice." The organizer, being of fine Christian mettle, will not run away to join the travellers so they appoint one of their own to serve the same role going forward. No? Maybe?
It's such a hodgepodge of a role that it certainly evolved based on tradition, but how did this particular hodgepodge of tasks become so very consistent from theatre to theatre? And while chasing that particular train of thought, how did the two very disparate roles of Stage Manager and ASM evolve into their current forms?
Prompters have been needed since the dawn of scripted drama, but the "boss of backstage" part required backstage tech to evolve to the point where a boss was needed. Somehow it did grow from small travelling troupes to the 200+ member companies that Brianna speaks of from the 18th c, but at what point did the manager emerge from the mess? (One would suppose early one, given performers' needs to boss others about and stand out from the crowd!)
And what about the whole "maintains the show after the director departs" bit? I'd think that requires mass media first - the contract with the audience, the promise that what you see tonight is pretty much the same as what your brother saw last night, rather than extemporaneous speech. Were they all separate roles at one point, consolidated into the stage manager position to save on cash? Were our stage managerly ancestors such go-getters that they simply stood up and said "well, sure, I'll do it!" every time a new backstage demand came along?
So yes, I'm seeking something bigger than just the term. I mean, finding the first use of the term is great, and will be an excellent piece of trivia, but it also serves as the transition point. My bet is that the more exciting parts of the development of the craft happened immediately before the emergence of the actual job title. The first "stage manager" of record serves only as a boundary around which is the territory for prime exploration. I guess I'm looking for a legitimate origin story.
BLee, the article you link to is lovely, it definitely shows that in Garrick's time the prompt-book was created by the actor-director and then handed off to the prompter, who therefore took a far more passive role than that of a modern SM. English stage management roles have developed quite differently from American ones - I can see in the Garrick books the beginnings of the English traditions, and certainly opera traditions, but American stage management seems further removed. I'm thinking the greater distances and different entertainment styles in the US (Variety shows, burlesque, magicians etc) may have nudged us in a different direction early on.
Brianna, I'd be interested to see what else you can dig up. I don't have access to much out here although in theory I have lifetime access to the Ivy Libraries if I needed it.
Anyhow back on topic, yes, it would take a combination of tax returns and playbills, certainly, and newspapers from assorted eras, and possibly correspondence from assorted playwrights and directors. We know that there's mention of a prompter in G&S's era, there are prompt scripts so that part of the role had emerged already.
Brianna speaks of the Greeks and of non-western emergence of a stage manager. If you want a counter-thesis, very well. The stage manager may not have evolved but sidestepped into theatre from liturgy. After all, I was an acolyte in my church growing up, and I can attest that what I did during the service had a lot in common with a sort of stagehand/ASM position. There are altar boys, altar guilds - a whole bustle of "backstage" folk working to coordinate a church service. If one could see the stage manager anecdotally emerging from the role of the actor-manager, then one could just as likely see someone who performed a similar function in the church stepping in to coordinate a large production of, say, mystery plays.
Keeping a troupe of social outcasts together on the road is one thing, and requires a certain type of skill, but coordinating an entire town to perform something like the York Mystery Cycle year after year would mandate something more akin to what we do, I would think, and the skill set might already be in place from working in the church. An analogue could possibly be found in performative experiences from non-western cultures - shamanic rituals, eastern operas & spiritual shadow puppetry, etc - how is the backstage structured for these? (Of course, there's no guarantee that we evolved from a similar structure, but one could argue that history repeats itself and performers the world over still need organizing.)
But really, couldn't you see it as ... troupe pulls through a town where they do regular performances of their own. The fellow who puts together the annual shows takes one look at the merrie bande and says *tsk* "oh no, here, let me show you what I've learned from getting 500 people to show up for choir practice." The organizer, being of fine Christian mettle, will not run away to join the travellers so they appoint one of their own to serve the same role going forward. No? Maybe?
It's such a hodgepodge of a role that it certainly evolved based on tradition, but how did this particular hodgepodge of tasks become so very consistent from theatre to theatre? And while chasing that particular train of thought, how did the two very disparate roles of Stage Manager and ASM evolve into their current forms?
Prompters have been needed since the dawn of scripted drama, but the "boss of backstage" part required backstage tech to evolve to the point where a boss was needed. Somehow it did grow from small travelling troupes to the 200+ member companies that Brianna speaks of from the 18th c, but at what point did the manager emerge from the mess? (One would suppose early one, given performers' needs to boss others about and stand out from the crowd!)
And what about the whole "maintains the show after the director departs" bit? I'd think that requires mass media first - the contract with the audience, the promise that what you see tonight is pretty much the same as what your brother saw last night, rather than extemporaneous speech. Were they all separate roles at one point, consolidated into the stage manager position to save on cash? Were our stage managerly ancestors such go-getters that they simply stood up and said "well, sure, I'll do it!" every time a new backstage demand came along?
So yes, I'm seeking something bigger than just the term. I mean, finding the first use of the term is great, and will be an excellent piece of trivia, but it also serves as the transition point. My bet is that the more exciting parts of the development of the craft happened immediately before the emergence of the actual job title. The first "stage manager" of record serves only as a boundary around which is the territory for prime exploration. I guess I'm looking for a legitimate origin story.
BLee, the article you link to is lovely, it definitely shows that in Garrick's time the prompt-book was created by the actor-director and then handed off to the prompter, who therefore took a far more passive role than that of a modern SM. English stage management roles have developed quite differently from American ones - I can see in the Garrick books the beginnings of the English traditions, and certainly opera traditions, but American stage management seems further removed. I'm thinking the greater distances and different entertainment styles in the US (Variety shows, burlesque, magicians etc) may have nudged us in a different direction early on.
Brianna, I'd be interested to see what else you can dig up. I don't have access to much out here although in theory I have lifetime access to the Ivy Libraries if I needed it.
659
Articles from the Old Site / Re: Stage Management History?
« on: Jul 23, 2012, 07:23 pm »
Right. Thanks, this is a great starting point. That's what I was told too, but it is entirely anecdotal. I believe that's the account in the Fazio textbook. My college classes didn't really speak much to the history of stage management, only the history of production as a business in general. The story that you relate is the logical one if you have any knowledge of how performance evolved, but without first hand sources I simply cannot believe it to be more than wishful thinking.
What I want are the first hand sources, names and dates, specific details. My personal belief is that yes, there probably was an evolution as you relate above. And yes, the progression you state makes sense. The story you give is what I was told as well, but only through tertiary sources at best. I have never seen proof, which leads me to believe that it's urban legend at best.
It would, of course, be difficult to track, but when you find the first person to fill the role and receive credit for stage managing, you'll find the liminal point in history to start seeking what came before. What I really want is a well-researched and heavily footnoted thesis. If I had stayed in the craft it probably would have been my own Ph.D thesis but the world had other plans for me.
What I want are the first hand sources, names and dates, specific details. My personal belief is that yes, there probably was an evolution as you relate above. And yes, the progression you state makes sense. The story you give is what I was told as well, but only through tertiary sources at best. I have never seen proof, which leads me to believe that it's urban legend at best.
It would, of course, be difficult to track, but when you find the first person to fill the role and receive credit for stage managing, you'll find the liminal point in history to start seeking what came before. What I really want is a well-researched and heavily footnoted thesis. If I had stayed in the craft it probably would have been my own Ph.D thesis but the world had other plans for me.
660
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!
« on: Jul 19, 2012, 03:04 am »
That same site has some original/historic archived prompt books for "Pirates of Penzance," probably some others too. It's a veritable G&S trove.