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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!
« on: Jul 18, 2012, 11:34 pm »
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662
The Green Room / Re: Hell in a Handbag (A Game for Stage Managers)
« on: Jul 18, 2012, 11:31 pm »
8-bit games = video games made for early gaming systems that could only handle 8 bits of data for single command. Graphics are blocky and 2 dimensional, and colors are limited. Think Mario Bros, the original Legend of Zelda, or Oregon Trail.
663
The Green Room / Re: Hell in a Handbag (A Game for Stage Managers)
« on: Jul 18, 2012, 09:12 pm »
(I think that should be question #1?)
664
Homework Help / Re: Deadline June 2013: Safety and the Stage Manager
« on: Jul 16, 2012, 02:39 am »
Sleep deprivation is a major factor in non-union houses, and even in AEA houses when dealing with the interns and/or non-IA crew. I did numerous shifts of over 19 hours as an intern, and a few over 24 hours in length where I was required to drive, use power tools and chill on top of an A-Frame for hours and then expected to be chipper for first tech rehearsal as deck crew 6 hours later.
I spent six weeks at one particular theatre on this lovely schedule:
6am: Walk to work (too poor to afford the train except in bad weather.)
7am: call for rehearsal setup
9am-5pm: rehearsal (no lunch for interns most days)
6pm: performance at night
8pm: curtain
11pm: curtain down, 1 hr cleanup & laundry
Midnight: Walk home or if I'm lucky, get a ride from a crew member.
1am: Get home. Sleep until 5am. Repeat.
Repeat 6 days a week for six weeks, with some variety on Sat & Sun due to a 2 show day. Try to not get sick. Try to not kill anyone. Try to not fall asleep in the wings.
I knew of one high end AEA house without an IA contract that would run its load-in crew on 24 hour cycles with everyone taking overlapping 16 hour shifts.
SMs need to know if their crew will be subject to these conditions immediately before a rehearsal or performance. It is not safe, especially if the deck track involves any sort of pyro, rail, firearms or handling of fragile objects/people in the dark.
I spent six weeks at one particular theatre on this lovely schedule:
6am: Walk to work (too poor to afford the train except in bad weather.)
7am: call for rehearsal setup
9am-5pm: rehearsal (no lunch for interns most days)
6pm: performance at night
8pm: curtain
11pm: curtain down, 1 hr cleanup & laundry
Midnight: Walk home or if I'm lucky, get a ride from a crew member.
1am: Get home. Sleep until 5am. Repeat.
Repeat 6 days a week for six weeks, with some variety on Sat & Sun due to a 2 show day. Try to not get sick. Try to not kill anyone. Try to not fall asleep in the wings.
I knew of one high end AEA house without an IA contract that would run its load-in crew on 24 hour cycles with everyone taking overlapping 16 hour shifts.
SMs need to know if their crew will be subject to these conditions immediately before a rehearsal or performance. It is not safe, especially if the deck track involves any sort of pyro, rail, firearms or handling of fragile objects/people in the dark.
665
The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!
« on: Jul 10, 2012, 03:05 am »
Clip lights are either a) covered with blue gels that are custom cut to match their circumference or b) filled with blue lamps from the get-go.
Battens have hooks with velcro wraps positioned every three feet so that LX has no excuse to leave cables untied.
Here at URSTC we're testing out some new motion capture technology that combines GPS with CAD. It allows e-scripts to automatically plot actor positions in adjustable intervals, either every 5-20 seconds for straight plays or in counts of 8 for choreography.
Every actor has an understudy. Every stage manager has an understudy. Every crew member knows two tracks.
Although our workman's comp insurance premiums are up to date, our last workplace incident in the scene shop was over 6 years ago. Oh, and you can find all of the MSDS for our materials filed neatly in a binder in the tech office.
Next Tuesday we'll be having in a representative from the Red Cross to get everyone re-certified for First Aid, CPR and AED. On the house, natch.
We do not have an internship program, although we will hire PAs on large shows, and pay them. We make a point of hiring willing non-union ASMs each year and buying their equity card over the course of the year once they've passed a probationary training period.
Battens have hooks with velcro wraps positioned every three feet so that LX has no excuse to leave cables untied.
Here at URSTC we're testing out some new motion capture technology that combines GPS with CAD. It allows e-scripts to automatically plot actor positions in adjustable intervals, either every 5-20 seconds for straight plays or in counts of 8 for choreography.
Every actor has an understudy. Every stage manager has an understudy. Every crew member knows two tracks.
Although our workman's comp insurance premiums are up to date, our last workplace incident in the scene shop was over 6 years ago. Oh, and you can find all of the MSDS for our materials filed neatly in a binder in the tech office.
Next Tuesday we'll be having in a representative from the Red Cross to get everyone re-certified for First Aid, CPR and AED. On the house, natch.
We do not have an internship program, although we will hire PAs on large shows, and pay them. We make a point of hiring willing non-union ASMs each year and buying their equity card over the course of the year once they've passed a probationary training period.
666
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Sweeney Todd
« on: Jun 25, 2012, 05:06 pm »
BTDT shows about 10 members who've done Sweeney before and are willing to discuss it. We did ours completely a vista with a rotating central piece, so yes, it was very busy and everything had to be done meticulously.
It is long and it is nearly sung through so make sure you take very good care of your actors' voices (well, except for Sweeney himself) and remind them to take it easy outside of rehearsal & perfomance. For this one that music rehearsal is just as important as staging, so leave plenty of time for it in your schedule. Choreography is normally minimal, although it depends on the director. Not really a good show for dancing in general, though.
As Nick said, activity level will depend on concept. It will also definitely depend on the size of your chorus. 5 people changing into lunatic costumes is different than 20 of them.
It is long and it is nearly sung through so make sure you take very good care of your actors' voices (well, except for Sweeney himself) and remind them to take it easy outside of rehearsal & perfomance. For this one that music rehearsal is just as important as staging, so leave plenty of time for it in your schedule. Choreography is normally minimal, although it depends on the director. Not really a good show for dancing in general, though.
As Nick said, activity level will depend on concept. It will also definitely depend on the size of your chorus. 5 people changing into lunatic costumes is different than 20 of them.
667
The Green Room / Re: Gifts and thankyou cards
« on: Jun 17, 2012, 08:39 pm »
I once got a batch of little lapel buttons with silly phrases on them for a show with a cast of 15. I chose buttons that suited each character and laid them all out on the counter in the Green room for people to pick up as they came in. (Part of the fun was watching them read each others' buttons.)
668
The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!
« on: Jun 09, 2012, 09:00 pm »
Childcare is offered for audience members during performances, for a fee not to exceed the cost of a regular babysitter.
SMs shall be issued a spotlight for shaming audience members with visible cell phone screens.
Lobby concessions shall not be permitted to serve anything with a) plastic wrap b) garlic c) ice d) excessive crunchiness.
By means of a substantial endowment, top-performing local high school students are permitted backstage tours and free tickets. (Staff are, of course, paid for the tours.)
If your name appears in the program you get comps. End of story.
Stage managers and understudies shall be offered the opportunity to attend any and all realism training (e.g., specialized dance & fight training, straight razor shaving for Sweeney Todd, etc.) because they're just super cool.
Puppies & kittens will be available on demand in times of high stress.
Dimmers shall be kept in a reasonably accessible and well-ventilated room that is a) not the booth and b) cleaned more than once per decade.
SMs shall be issued a spotlight for shaming audience members with visible cell phone screens.
Lobby concessions shall not be permitted to serve anything with a) plastic wrap b) garlic c) ice d) excessive crunchiness.
By means of a substantial endowment, top-performing local high school students are permitted backstage tours and free tickets. (Staff are, of course, paid for the tours.)
If your name appears in the program you get comps. End of story.
Stage managers and understudies shall be offered the opportunity to attend any and all realism training (e.g., specialized dance & fight training, straight razor shaving for Sweeney Todd, etc.) because they're just super cool.
Puppies & kittens will be available on demand in times of high stress.
Dimmers shall be kept in a reasonably accessible and well-ventilated room that is a) not the booth and b) cleaned more than once per decade.
669
The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!
« on: Jun 09, 2012, 04:38 pm »
Prompt book binders shall have flat centers so it doesn't matter which hand you write with.
It never snows on opening night.
The ME shall always remember to write a bake cue.
All union breaks must sync up.
It never snows on opening night.
The ME shall always remember to write a bake cue.
All union breaks must sync up.
670
The Green Room / Re: Hell in a Handbag (A Game for Stage Managers)
« on: Jun 05, 2012, 09:56 pm »
Swedish yaks are pretty scarce on the ground but we can source to Colorado, will that suffice? Has Felix exceeded his budget for LSD yet? is Don OK? We've taken those pants in 3 times already. Will the belt fit his current waistband? Will we need to add belt loops or swap out the pants altogether? Will the belt need to be swapped to any other costume pieces? During a QC? Are you aware that this thread is now the #1 and only verbatim result on Google for "Swedish Yak fur"?
New Note: At the beginning of II, 1, Roberta is checking her email on a desktop computer. Director would like Roberta to receive emails periodically throughout the scene.
New Note: At the beginning of II, 1, Roberta is checking her email on a desktop computer. Director would like Roberta to receive emails periodically throughout the scene.
671
The Green Room / Re: WELCOME TO THE GREEN ROOM
« on: May 31, 2012, 10:46 pm »
Rebekah, we've discussed this several times recently. I recommend you try using the search for "creativity" and you should find a ton of debates on the matter. Thanks for joining us - feel free to point your students towards some of those threads for further discussion.
672
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!
« on: May 31, 2012, 10:43 pm »
As trading escripts is kind of illegal we cannot ever acknowledge whether or not scripts have been sent.
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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!
« on: May 31, 2012, 12:14 pm »
OK, new rule guys. Please do not make a script request as your very first post to SMNetwork. Members, please do not send escripts to people who do so. Look at the post count before you send your hard work to someone who will never come back to support the community.
We have no way of knowing who these people are. Escripts are a lot of work and expose a ton of liability on the part of the requester and the sender. Asking for an escript without contributing something to the community first is greedy and rude.
We have no way of knowing who these people are. Escripts are a lot of work and expose a ton of liability on the part of the requester and the sender. Asking for an escript without contributing something to the community first is greedy and rude.
674
Tools of the Trade / Re: Prop: Throwable Real Eggs
« on: May 28, 2012, 10:59 pm »
Rule 34 must have a corollary that if you can name it, someone's making a living from it online. There's apparently a shop that sells nothing but fake eggs at http://www.dummyeggs.com/
675
The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!
« on: May 24, 2012, 03:05 pm »
And while we're on the subject of fancy SM tech, actor prompts are handled by a souped up version of Apple's Siri, sign-ins are handled by Google Latitude, and glow-LEDs are proximity-aware and only light up when an actor w/RFID chip in his/her costume is nearby.